# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' thread -- July 2018 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 29, 2018, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999 "2018-06-29T15:53:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2018, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/21 "2018-07-04T17:48:34Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > [The Girl With All the Gifts](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17235026-the-girl-with-all-the-gifts), which I do not recommend. I like the book for about the first hundred pages: the main character is locked in a cell most of the time. The only times she’s let out is to get a shower in chemicals that burn her eyes, eat (but only once a week), or take classes while chained to a wheelchair. Her classmates (fellow prisoners) are occasionally taken away with a doctor and never return. Then about a hundred pages in, the book abruptly turns into apocalyptic fiction, with half a dozen characters wandering in the desert trying to survive and not really doing much of anything. This story idea would have made for a strong short story, but didn’t work for me as a full-length novel. (In the author’s defense, I didn’t finish the book, so it’s possible that the plot picked up again.) > [@Finagle](#): > > I wouldn’t go so far as to not recommend the book, because it is well written, but I do agree with you. The initial premise is very interesting and then it degenerates to bog standard genre fiction. Pretty disappointing. I read it, and the sequel [The Boy on the Bridge](https://www.amazon.com/Boy-Bridge-M-R-Carey-ebook/dp/B01LL8BX9Q/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1530726443&sr=1-3&keywords=the+girl+with+all+the+gifts) and very much liked them both. I thought the premise carried through just fine. For the record, they made a movie of The Girl With all the Gifts and that’s worth seeing as well. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/22 "2018-07-05T02:45:15Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > I read it, and the sequel [The Boy on the Bridge](https://www.amazon.com/Boy-Bridge-M-R-Carey-ebook/dp/B01LL8BX9Q/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1530726443&sr=1-3&keywords=the+girl+with+all+the+gifts) and very much liked them both. I thought the premise carried through just fine. For the record, they made a movie of The Girl With all the Gifts and that’s worth seeing as well. I liked The Girl With All the Gifts a lot, book and movie both. I didn’t know about the sequel - thanks, Athena! ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/23 "2018-07-05T10:36:46Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > And after it I need some sweets, so it’s off to read Brust’s [Good Guys](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35018915-good-guys). Don’t let me down, Brust! Brust didn’t let me down: the book wasn’t especially good, but it also wasn’t especially grim, so it fit the bill just right. And the moral quandary at its center was quietly subtler than I was expecting. I just started [Six Wakes](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28962996-six-wakes). It’s a Hugo/Nebula-nominated locked-room murder mystery, except (and this is all clear within the first few pages): -the locked room is an interstellar spaceship; -every main character is murdered before the book begins; and -the murders are being investigated by the clones of the victims. We’re talking some high-concept shenanigans here. It’s pretty fun so far. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/24 "2018-07-05T11:26:55Z")
I finished reading **Uncle Tom’s Cabin** by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The only things I knew about were what I picked up here and there, like the scene from “The King and I” where they put on a play. So I knew there was a cruel guy named Simon Legree and a woman running to safety across ice floes and a saintly slave named Uncle Tom. I kind of figured that it would be a sappy sentimental story about saintly slaves and cruel masters. There was certainly some of that, but I was a bit surprised that the book spent so much time bending over backwards to show that some slave owners are kind and generous, to the point where it almost seemed a defense of slavery. I was less surprised by the horrible, paternalistic, creepy racial stereotypes that were used (although I thought the digression on the hotness of quadroon women seemed a bit out of place). There seemed to be a lot of emphasis on how black the skin was on the “comedy relief” slaves and how light the skin was on the sympathetic slaves. Some parts I thought were actually quite good (like wry comments on the hypocrisy of humans) but mostly it was a mix of racist, corny and outdated views on slavery. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/25 "2018-07-05T12:54:27Z")
Started today on a nice quick read to finish up the week, [Dead People Suck: a guide for survivors of the newly departed](https://www.amazon.com/Dead-People-Suck-Survivors-Departed/dp/1635650003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1530795086&sr=8-1&keywords=dead+people+suck+laurie+kilmartin), by Laurie Kilmartin. Pretty funny, especially since I haven’t actually lost any loved ones lately. ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2018, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/26 "2018-07-06T01:40:50Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Started today on a nice quick read to finish up the week, [Dead People Suck: a guide for survivors of the newly departed](https://www.amazon.com/Dead-People-Suck-Survivors-Departed/dp/1635650003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1530795086&sr=8-1&keywords=dead+people+suck+laurie+kilmartin), by Laurie Kilmartin. Pretty funny, especially since I haven’t actually lost any loved ones lately. Sounds like a book for the characters in the book I just finished! I finished _Dangerous Spirits_ by Jordan L Hawk minutes ago… The book is a page turning ride from start to finish. The action swift and smooth, the characters nicely developed and the plot interesting. The past is examined from angles the characters hadn’t thought to look at before as Lizzie and Vincent come to terms with their loss while learning about the loss and anger of the spirit Rosanna. Hawk does a fabulous job of ramping up the characters suspicions or each other and of the haunting., making the reader feel as uncomfortable and uncertain of whom to trust as the lead characters. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/27 "2018-07-09T13:17:10Z")
Starting today on [Black Ajax](https://www.amazon.com/Black-Ajax-Perseus/dp/078670618X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1531141886&sr=1-1&keywords=black+ajax) by George MacDonald Fraser, author of the Flashman novels. This book is a fictionalized tale of a real person, boxer [Tom Molineaux](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Molineaux). ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/28 "2018-07-09T17:19:49Z")
I’m about halfway through Keegan’s _The Face of Battle_. He’s now discussing the Battle of Waterloo and the psychology of infantry standing up to (or not) direct musket fire, cannon barrages and charging cavalry. Pretty interesting, and with plenty of quotations from those who survived the battle. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/29 "2018-07-09T19:17:33Z")
**A Man With One of Those Faces,** Caimh McDonnell. A very funny mystery caper set in Dublin, part of a supposed trilogy that already has four books. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/30 "2018-07-09T20:46:41Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I’m about halfway through Keegan’s _The Face of Battle_. He’s now discussing the Battle of Waterloo and the psychology of infantry standing up to (or not) direct musket fire, cannon barrages and charging cavalry. Pretty interesting, and with plenty of quotations from those who survived the battle. You might like the book I am reading now, _The Thin Light Of Freedom: The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America_ by Edward Ayers. It focuses primarily on the latter portion of the Civil War during the Virginia Valley campaign and shows the swapping loyalties of border towns like Staunton, the burning of towns like Chambersburg, the plight of “freed” slaves and meticulous details about the military operations, supply problems, communication issues, etc. It’s well researched and annotated and has a lot of press quotations from both sides of the aisle, so to speak, especially as it pertains to the upcoming Presidential election in the fall of 1864. Man, the Democratic press was _harsh_ on Lincoln. I guess I knew that but I never realized how harsh, or just how adherent the Democrats were to basically capitulating to the Rebels in order to just restore the Union as it was before the war, after so many tens of thousands had been killed! It’s a good book. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/31 "2018-07-10T02:27:39Z")
Hadn’t heard of that one - thanks. If you want to learn more about the election of 1864, I highly recommend John C. Waugh’s _Reelecting Lincoln_ - a deep, fascinating dive into the politics of the day. And yes, the newspapers back then were _very_ partisan - really little more than propaganda organs for the political parties. Democratic ones rarely had anything good to say about Lincoln; Republican ones rarely anything bad. _The New York Times_’s publisher was even Lincoln’s reelection chair, something that would be unimaginable today. ---
**Author:** ![Rough\_Draft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@Rough\_Draft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rough_Draft)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/32 "2018-07-10T18:34:35Z")
I read Martin Kemp’s _Living with Leonardo_ over the weekend. Kemp, a retired Oxford professor, is one of the foremost experts on Leonardo da Vinci, and this book is kind of a catch-all volume where he recounts his experiences in studying, authenticating artworks, and organizing exhibitions related to Leonardo over the last 50 years. He touches on almost all of the artist’s work to one degree or another, so it’s a must-read for Leonardo fans. The parts about his recent involvement in authenticating _Salvatore Mundi_ and _La Bella Principessa_ are probably the most interesting reading (although I’m really not convinced that either is a genuine Leonardo). But towards the end where Kemp gives a blow-by-blow account of all the art exhibitions he’s curated, it gets a little tedious. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2018, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/33 "2018-07-11T21:01:45Z")
Just finished Harry Turtledove’s _A World of Difference_. It was okay, and had some interesting aliens. Just started\* Sourdough\* by Robin Sloan. ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/34 "2018-07-12T19:44:04Z")
I finished _The Getaway God_ by Richard Kadrey… why is the unkillable villian a thing outside of comic books? Is it lack of being able to create new characters? Laziness? Other than that I enjoyed the book a hella lot. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/35 "2018-07-12T20:15:48Z")
I’m taking a break from Keegan’s _The Face of Battle_ and am now reading Robert Parker’s 1976 Spenser novel, _Promised Land_. Spenser is hired by a Cape Cod businessman to find the man’s wife, who has disappeared - perhaps with a lover, perhaps not. I’m enjoying it. I have to say, the descriptions of mid-Seventies clothes (leisure suits! long collars! polyester!), worded in such a way as to make clear that whoever’s wearing it thinks they look great, always make me laugh. ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/36 "2018-07-13T01:02:00Z")
Second book finished today! _A Gentleman Never Keeps Score_ is the second book in Cat Sebastian’s _Seducing the Sedgwicks_ series. I really love the way this woman’s characters interact, it’s sweet without cloying, and tough and her characters occasionally fight but then they make up. This is the best portrayal of the issues a mixed race couple in early nineteenth century, above and beyond the homosexual issue, that I’ve read yet. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/37 "2018-07-15T07:25:54Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Next up is _Great Expectations_, by Charles Dickens. Still on Dickens’ _Great Expectations_ and enjoying it. But we’re going to be busy with friends coming in from Thailand for a couple weeks, and I don’t know if I can finish it before they arrive. We’ll be running around Oahu and going to another island, so I’ll probably be off board until early August. If I disappear in the next couple of weeks, that’s why, and it won’t be for long. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/38 "2018-07-15T19:09:13Z")
Finished _Sourdough_ by Robin Sloan. Outstanding, one of the best books I’ve read this year. Original, fascinating ideas. Highly recommended. Now I’m reading _The Russian Endgame_ by Allan Topol. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/39 "2018-07-15T22:25:56Z")
I’m halfway through “Grant Takes Command” by Bruce Catton. He examines Grant’s service and leadership from just after Vicksburg through the Civil War’s end. I’m still reading the Tomb of Dracula comic books by Marvel. Marv Wolfman did some brilliant work on this series. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2018, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999/40 "2018-07-16T01:12:09Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I just started [Six Wakes](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28962996-six-wakes). It’s a Hugo/Nebula-nominated locked-room murder mystery, except (and this is all clear within the first few pages): > -the locked room is an interstellar spaceship; > -every main character is murdered before the book begins; and > -the murders are being investigated by the clones of the victims. > > We’re talking some high-concept shenanigans here. It’s pretty fun so far. Finished it, and it stayed pretty fun, but never got much beyond that. Also read **Raven Stratagem** , the sequel to **Ninefox Gambit**. This one’s a lot stronger IMO, space opera with insane mathematical underpinnings. I enjoyed both of them a lot and am excited for the end of the trilogy. I started [The Census](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35068746-census) but didn’t get too far. It’s written by an author whose brother with Downs Syndrome died in his early 20s, and the book is about a father of a man with Downs Syndrome, and it just felt far too enlightening for my tastes or something. Now I’m reading the enormous [Robots of Gotham](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35721141-the-robots-of-gotham), the first post-singularity book I remember reading. The book opens with a battle royale between a sentient bipedal Venezuelan tank and an American-piloted battlemech in the streets of Chicago. The narrator has just been evacuated from his hotel and has a coffeemaker in his hands. The author has a keen sense of scale, juxtaposing strange little details like the coffeemaker with the rock-em-sock-em robots, and it makes the book feel airy and informal and not nearly as self-important and portentious as battling robot books tend to get. So far so good. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-july-2018-edition/816999.md?page=3)