# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' Thread - March 2015 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 27, 2015, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733 "2015-02-27T00:10:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/21 "2015-03-03T20:53:07Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > I just finished Something Comes Through by Paul McAuly, and can’t wrote it up better than **Meurglys** did. I’ll just add that I loved it, and am hoping for more books in this universe. I was pleased to find it’s available in the US in Kindle format for only $1.99. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/22 "2015-03-04T11:32:24Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > I just finished Something Comes Through by Paul McAuly, and can’t wrote it up better than **Meurglys** did. I’ll just add that I loved it, and am hoping for more books in this universe. Thanks! I’m told there were some previous short stories with the Jackeroo but I don’t think they’re collected anywhere. And I’m probably abandoning **Of Bone and Thunder** ; I’ve read the first 1/3rd and it’s not getting above ‘average’ so far… ---
**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:** [March 4, 2015, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/23 "2015-03-04T16:00:21Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > **Dung Beetle** and others that read Miss Peregrine, have you seen this? > > [Searching for Miss Peregrine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VM5ikr2rwY) That was so cool! I had to give up on _Your House is On Fire, Your Children All Gone_. I had a feeling I was going to wade through a lot of nastiness with no real destination, and once I’ve lost faith in the author for whatever reason, it’s over. I’m a fan of horror, but I don’t want to read pointless ugliness. If I did, I’d get the newspaper. _rim shot_ Currently I’m reading [A Dark Dividing](http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Dividing-Sarah-Rayne/dp/1934609803/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425484382&sr=1-6&keywords=sarah+rayne) by Sarah Rayne. This is the first thing I’ve read by her and I hope it pans out because her other books look interesting as well. ---
**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:** [March 4, 2015, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/24 "2015-03-04T16:26:23Z")
it was! Those old houses make me sad, the one with the blankets on the bed? Yeah, tears. I finished **The Rescuers** by Margery Sharp today. I’m going to save the other two books for later, something to read after a nasty murder;) The book was a bit weak on details for an adult reader but still engaging and exciting. I ould have prefered a less Deus ex Machina ending but mice helping people escape inpenetrable prisons is already high on the improbability scale so I can live with it. I started **And Another Thing** by Eoin Colfer. I’m only a few pages in but I can safely say Doug Adams he ain’t. ---
**Author:** ![Ivory\_Iris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ivory\_Iris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ivory_Iris)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/25 "2015-03-04T17:04:30Z")
Hello. I’m a new poster (been lurking for years). Anyway, I’m half way through Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig. It popped up in my Kindle “Recommended for you” list. Although I fear for the characters, I can’t put the book down. Someone upthread mentioned impending doom?..this book has it. ---
**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:** [March 4, 2015, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/26 "2015-03-04T17:25:20Z")
> [@Ivory\_Iris](#): > > Hello. I’m a new poster (been lurking for years). Anyway, I’m half way through Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig. It popped up in my Kindle “Recommended for you” list. Although I fear for the characters, I can’t put the book down. Someone upthread mentioned impending doom?..this book has it. Might have been me 😃 Welcome! Jump in and have fun! ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/27 "2015-03-04T19:08:18Z")
I’m reading The Handmaid’s Tale, which I’ve never read before. When I’m actually reading it, I find it interesting and engaging. However, I have no trouble putting it down and walking away. I think I’ll be happy to have read it after I finish, but at this rate that’s going to take a while! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/28 "2015-03-04T19:21:47Z")
> [@BetsQ](#): > > I’m reading The Handmaid’s Tale, which I’ve never read before. When I’m actually reading it, I find it interesting and engaging. However, I have no trouble putting it down and walking away. I think I’ll be happy to have read it after I finish, but at this rate that’s going to take a while! I “read” _the Handmaid’s Tale_ on audio (which might be the ideal way to read it, since it claims to be a transcription of an account dictated onto audiocassettes). It wasn’t until I was halfway through that I realized that the action takes place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and that I could identify many of the sites where the actions take place – Harvard Yard, Harvard Square, the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Memorial Drive. I looked up Atwood’s bio and learned that she did indeed live in Cambridge, possibly (I’m not sure) even when she was writing the book. It’s a sly bit of irony to have her place this ultra right-wing fantasy in the heart of the ultra-left People’s Republic of Cambridge. ---
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/29 "2015-03-04T20:02:45Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > I finished **The Rescuers** by Margery Sharp today. I’m going to save the other two books for later, something to read after a nasty murder;) > The book was a bit weak on details for an adult reader but still engaging and exciting. I would have prefered a less Deus ex Machina ending but mice helping people escape inpenetrable prisons is already high on the improbability scale so I can live with it. Yay! 🙂 Yeah - the Miss Bianca books are definitely middle grade reading level, but still fun - and just the thing after something weighty and/or depressing. I think I’m all caught up on Gail Carriger’s “steampunk urbane fantasy” books for now with _**[Waistcoats and Weaponry](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20980648-waistcoats-weaponry)**_, third in the Finishing School series. I devoured the e-text version before the local library got the audiobook - with Moira Quirk as narrator, I may have to revisit this novel sooner than later! Sophronia Temminnick is still attending Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality, where she pursues an education as a female intelligencer (steampunk version of spy/assassin). After her friend, Sidheag (aka Lady Kingair) receives some bad news regarding her werewolf pack family, Sophronia, with her classmate and dear friend Dimity, scheme to get Sidheag home to her native Scotland. They are joined on this adventure by Sophronia’s friend (perhaps not just “friend”?) from the boiler room, Soap, and Lord Felix Mersey, upon whom Sophronia has been testing her newly learned feminine wiles. The subsequent adventure brings them up against a former rival, and furthers the overall storyline of the series. I’m such a sucker for (well-written) steampunk, and adding in the supernatural element with more than a touch of droll humour… well, how can I resist? It seems Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series – which I got hooked on first – is wrapped up fairly neatly; and the Finishing School is a somewhat YA version of the same world, with the romance elements toned down appropriately (something I had issue with in the first PP installment). There’s a fourth book in the Finishing School series scheduled for November 2015, and Carriger is starting another series (The Custard Protocol), set a few decades on in the same world: _Prudence_ is due out later this month and I already have a hold on the audiobook version! ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/30 "2015-03-04T21:42:59Z")
> [@BetsQ](#): > > I’m reading The Handmaid’s Tale, which I’ve never read before. When I’m actually reading it, I find it interesting and engaging. However, I have no trouble putting it down and walking away. I think I’ll be happy to have read it after I finish, but at this rate that’s going to take a while! It’s one of the few books I finished in 2014. Like, I finished less than a dozen novels for sure, but that was one. Scariest book I’ve ever read. Maybe because I’m my husband’s second wife and we have a small daughter. It hit pretty close to home. ---
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/31 "2015-03-06T15:25:30Z")
I went into Daniel Handler’s latest novel _**[We Are Pirates](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22529221-we-are-pirates)**_ pretty much blind; I spotted it on the New Books shelf at the local library. I’ve enjoyed other books by Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) and the cover intrigued me, despite the lack of summary available. The novel focuses on a father (Phil Needle) and his daughter (Gwen Needle) as protagonists. Phil is on his way to becoming the Willy Loman of radio producers, living beyond his means in a condo in the Embarcadero district of San Francisco. Gwen is a slightly-spoiled, willful 14 year old on a synchronized swim team. Marina Needle, wife and mother, seems to function as neither, as her main interactions with Gwen result in shouting on both sides and she’s withdrawn from Phil to her private studio, where she paints. Both Phil and Gwen yearn for something more from their lives - adventure and rebellion. And they manage to find it - Phil by teaming up with his newly-hired assistant to meet with his mentor and hopefully seal a deal - and Gwen by making a new friend and discovering fellow adventure seekers in (of all places) a retirement home. Mayhem results in both cases; more overtly so on Gwen’s part than Phil’s. As with Handler’s other works, it’s as much how the story is told as the story itself that I find enjoyable. He doles out the narrative in not-quite sequential chunks; while you expect the story to alternate between Gwen and Phil, it doesn’t always do so in the way you expect. Gwen and Phil are well-drawn characters, if not particularly likable, and the supporting characters have just enough personality to contribute to their share of the plot. Handler also injects himself into the story as narrator - it’s his shtick (and may rub some readers a bit raw), but it’s kept to a minimum here. There’s a revelation near the end of the novel that I perhaps should have caught earlier; but it was just as fun not to know along the way. While not as whimsical as his Lemony Snicket novels, Handler manages to put his own twist on what starts off as a contemporary fiction-type novel and ends more like something from Carl Hiaasen or Tim Dorsey (except set in San Francisco). I enjoyed the read and will continue to check out Handler’s work, even if I don’t come back to this particular novel. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/32 "2015-03-06T15:40:38Z")
> [@BetsQ](#): > > I’m reading The Handmaid’s Tale, which I’ve never read before. When I’m actually reading it, I find it interesting and engaging. However, I have no trouble putting it down and walking away. I think I’ll be happy to have read it after I finish, but at this rate that’s going to take a while! I have that book, but have not cracked it open yet. I’m currently on _Slaughterhouse Five_ and I feel the same way. Enjoyable enough while reading, although there are certainly things I don’t like (so it goes), but it’s not hard for me to leave it alone for a couple days at a time. ---
**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:** [March 6, 2015, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/33 "2015-03-06T16:43:36Z")
I’ve attained roughly page 100 of **And Another Thing** Eoin Colfer’s _attempt_ to cash in on Douglas Adams Hitcher’s Guide Series. And while Colfer **is** quirky in his own right, he doesn’t have the grasp of sheer unadulterated chaos that Adams had. Which is particularly obvious in scenes where several things are happening at once and doom is IMPENDING and Zaphod’s being a git… yeah. Anyway, the copy of **Echo Park** by Michael Connelly that I’ve had on hold at the Library showed up yesterday, flashed it’s pages at me and batted it’s paragraphs and like the good bibliophile I followed it. The Universe will just have to wait, I have a mystery to solve. ---
**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:** [March 6, 2015, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/34 "2015-03-06T18:30:46Z")
Oh, those seductive new books and their wicked ways! We will ever succumb to their temptations. ---
**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:** [March 6, 2015, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/35 "2015-03-06T18:39:02Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Oh, those seductive new books and their wicked ways! We will ever succumb to their temptations. I can resist EVERYTHING… except temptation 😃 ---
**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:** [March 6, 2015, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/36 "2015-03-06T18:45:55Z")
Thank goodness! ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/37 "2015-03-06T18:54:16Z")
I see we have at least one Michael Connelly fan. You might be interested in the new Amazon Original TV series, **Bosch** , free to Amazon Prime members. I really enjoyed it. ---
**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:** [March 6, 2015, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/38 "2015-03-06T20:01:22Z")
> [@wonderlust](#): > > I see we have at least one Michael Connelly fan. You might be interested in the new Amazon Original TV series, **Bosch** , free to Amazon Prime members. I really enjoyed it. Watched the first ep, but it came off as basic police procedural. I need to give it another shot, as first eps are not often captivating. Anybody else read Erik Larson? I’m thinking that will be my next foray into non-fiction. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/39 "2015-03-07T07:45:45Z")
[QUOTE=Chefguy; Anybody else read Erik Larson? I’m thinking that will be my next foray into non-fiction.[/QUOTE] Yes, and I strongly recommend Isaac’s Storm, about the great Galveston Hurricane and weather predictions, and Devil in the White City. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733/40 "2015-03-07T11:18:59Z")
> [@movingfinger](#): > > Yes, and I strongly recommend Isaac’s Storm, about the great Galveston Hurricane and weather predictions, and Devil in the White City. _Thunderstruck_, too. That one tells the story of how radio helped capture one of the most disturbing murderers I’ve ever read about. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2015-edition/713733.md?page=3)