# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' thread -- March 2017 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 27, 2017, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974 "2017-02-27T19:55:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**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 20, 2017, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/61 "2017-03-20T22:33:28Z")
I started **The Gentleman** by Forrest Leo. I’m not _under_whelmed but certainly not wildly enthusiastic quite yet either. Our hero seems to be a bit of spoiled wretch… ---
**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:** [March 21, 2017, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/62 "2017-03-21T15:46:58Z")
Just finished Robert Harris’s novel _Conclave_. A very interesting, well-researched but occasionally farfetched look at the near-future election of a new Pope, with plenty of Vatican intrigue, secrets and political maneuvering. It also has a whopper of an ending. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/63 "2017-03-21T16:04:20Z")
_Miracles on Maple Hill_, by Virginia Sorensen. Part of my Newbery read. Sweet and charming. Nothing earthshaking whatsoever, but worth reading for me. _Murder on the Rocks_, by Karen MacInerney. Cozy mystery with one of the stupidest protagonists I’ve ever seen. I think the author developed a list of stupid ass things a murder suspect could do and then sprinkled them liberally over the text. STABBY. The writing was pretty good, though. _Warlock Holmes - A Study in Brimstone_, by GS Denning. Very funny send up of Sherlock Holmes reimagined in a world where he is a wizard and John Watson is the real detective. Best for people familiar with the original stories. I laughed out loud several times. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Pork-Chop\_Express](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@The\_Pork-Chop\_Express](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Pork-Chop_Express)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/64 "2017-03-21T16:13:52Z")
LA Confidential, James Ellroy. I can _smell_ 1950s LA. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/65 "2017-03-21T16:19:51Z")
I forgot to add what I’m reading now: _Inside Out_, by Maria V Snyder. A dystopia set inside a small, completely contained city with strict castes. Nothing really new so far, though it’s perfectly readable. _Rest You Merry_, by Charlotte MacLeod. An old-fashioned cozy, which is often the best kind! _Just One Damned Thing After Another_, by Jodi Taylor. History and time travel, I think. I’m not far into it, but I’ve gotten whiffs of Connie Willis. I like Connie Willis, mostly, though she has some really irritating habits that I hope Jodi Taylor will not emulate! _Vessel_, by Sarah Beth Durst. A young woman has been preparing all her life to die when the goddess of her people takes over her body. But they have the ritual and the goddess doesn’t show. ---
**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 21, 2017, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/66 "2017-03-21T16:29:46Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > _Rest You Merry_, by Charlotte MacLeod. An old-fashioned cozy, which is often the best kind! Charlotte MacLeod is my favorite cozy writer EVER! Her characters are quirky and hilarious, her settings homey and I just adore everything about them. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/67 "2017-03-21T16:31:42Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > Charlotte MacLeod is my favorite cozy writer EVER! Her characters are quirky and hilarious, her settings homey and I just adore everything about them. I should have called out that I picked it up because of you. I have read a few MacLeods at various times, but I had pretty much forgotten until you mentioned her a few months back. Thank you! 🙂 ---
**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 21, 2017, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/68 "2017-03-21T16:51:20Z")
You are very welcome! ---
**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:** [March 21, 2017, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/69 "2017-03-21T16:56:59Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I should have called out that I picked it up because of you. I have read a few MacLeods at various times, but I had pretty much forgotten until you mentioned her a few months back. Thank you! 🙂 My favorite MacLeods are The Luck Runs Out and Wrack and Rune, if you haven’t read those yet. Thorkjeld Svenson is a hilarious character, much more so than in Rest You Merry. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2017, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/70 "2017-03-21T21:31:00Z")
Am reading at present, a novel which I’ve lately been surprised to find new to me. By M.M. Kaye, “British child of the British Raj in India”, and long-respected author of works “bridging the gap” concerned – also of murder mysteries set in sundry parts of the world. I’d read and enjoyed various books by MMK – including the first two volumes of her autobiography re time spent in India from her birth in 1908, onward (department “it’s an ill wind…” – World War I, with its making sea travel dangerous, delayed for a few years her being sent [the almost universal routine for British children-of-the-Raj] in early childhood, to fostering / boarding-school in Britain; allowing her a valued additional lease of time living in India, which she loved from birth). Somehow – not intendedly on my part – I hadn’t read her generally-reckoned best-and-most-prominent novel, _The Far Pavilions_. Came upon it a few days ago in a charity shop, and expended the tiny sum for which it was selling. It’s immensely long –- almost a thousand pages in paperback – and I’m halfway through, and loving it. It’s set in India (British, and princely-state) in the mid / late 19th century. Can probably best describe it by the reviewers’ “blurbs” on the back cover: “A _Gone With The Wind_ of the North-West Frontier”; “Rip-roaring, heart-tugging, flag-flying, hair-raising, hoof-beating… the very presence of India”. It isn’t Proust or Tolstoy, and it doesn’t claim to be; but I’m finding it a wonderful story and compulsive reading. ---
**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 21, 2017, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/71 "2017-03-21T22:35:39Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I should have called out that I picked it up because of you. I have read a few MacLeods at various times, but I had pretty much forgotten until you mentioned her a few months back. Thank you! 🙂 Totally YOUR fault I decided tothrow out my schedule and pull “The Palace Guard” - thethird Sarah & Max book - off my shelf and read half of it this afternoon… 😃 ---
**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:** [March 22, 2017, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/72 "2017-03-22T03:36:43Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > …Somehow – not intendedly on my part – I hadn’t read her generally-reckoned best-and-most-prominent novel, _The Far Pavilions_. Came upon it a few days ago in a charity shop, and expended the tiny sum for which it was selling. It’s immensely long –- almost a thousand pages in paperback – and I’m halfway through, and loving it… You probably knew there was a 1984 movie based on it: [The Far Pavilions (TV Mini Series 1984) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086711/?ref_=nv_sr_1) ---
**Author:** ![lel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8797f3/32.png) [@lel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lel)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/73 "2017-03-22T04:47:50Z")
Today’s cozy read is Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman. I’m becoming fond of his quirky characters. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/74 "2017-03-22T08:10:22Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > You probably knew there was a 1984 movie based on it: [The Far Pavilions (TV Mini Series 1984) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086711/?ref_=nv_sr_1) I don’t really “do” films – my loss, I have no doubt – and am a total snob about any “film of the book”; knew about the film, but haven’t seen it, and don’t plan to. I recall that M.M. Kaye, then in her seventies – extensively consulted by the film’s makers – was very pleased at the opportunity this gave her, to lengthily revisit India. (She had a very long life – died aged 96.) ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/75 "2017-03-23T23:06:27Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > _Just One Damned Thing After Another_, by Jodi Taylor. History and time travel, I think. I’m not far into it, but I’ve gotten whiffs of Connie Willis. I like Connie Willis, mostly, though she has some really irritating habits that I hope Jodi Taylor will not emulate! Jodi Taylor does not pull some of the Connie Willis stuff. And it did remind me of Willis, but in good ways for me. This was really good. Highly recommended if you like the idea of a time travel memoir being narrated by someone really snarky. > [@DZedNConfused](#): > > Totally YOUR fault I decided tothrow out my schedule and pull “The Palace Guard” - thethird Sarah & Max book - off my shelf and read half of it this afternoon… 😃 Wait, aren’t you the person who recommended that series to me? I’M SO CONFUSED. ---
**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 23, 2017, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/76 "2017-03-23T23:24:02Z")
Nah, it’s coool, I’m just being silly. It was time I checked in with Sarah & Max again, it’s been a long time since I read those books. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/77 "2017-03-23T23:28:17Z")
I just finished “Slow Horses,” the first novel of the Slough House series by Mick Herron, and I highly recommend it. Slough House is where MI5 spies go when they have screwed up, but not so badly that they are fired or jailed. Maybe they messed up an op, or their substance abuse became a problem, or maybe everyone just dislikes them. They are supposed to be marking time until they decide to quit, or something else happens. In this book, something else happens at breathtaking speed, with smart twisty writing, interesting characters and a few insights into the reality of spy work (at least ostensibly). It’s sort of John le Carre meets the Goon Show. Sort of. Pro tip: read them in order, because the Slough House folks don’t all make it to the next book, and if you have already read the next book you’ll have an idea who might be going to die before this one ends. There are apparently only 4 novels and a novella at this point, but I think he is continuing to write them. He also has a couple of other series, one more crime oriented, and one apparently straightforward spy action stuff a la Jack Reacher. I haven’t read any of those. Yet. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/78 "2017-03-23T23:28:28Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > Nah, it’s coool, I’m just being silly. It was time I checked in with Sarah & Max again, it’s been a long time since I read those books. You had me questioning my sanity. Me: Hey, sanity? Sanity: Yeah? Me: Still with me and all that? Sanity: Who are you? ---
**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:** [March 24, 2017, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/79 "2017-03-24T01:23:29Z")
I finished reading “Soldiers Three”, another collection of Kipling short stories. On average they seemed even more racist than usual (and that’s saying something) – painful dialect, depictions of cunning/lazy/ignorant natives, etc. The stories were entertaining enough, I suppose. The one thing that I thought was noteworthy was one story about miners trapped in a coal mine. When I was reading it, I thought of Zola’s “Germinal”. And then at the end of the story, one of the characters says: > [@](#): > > ‘I say,’ said the Assistant to the Manager, a week later, ‘do you recollect Germinal?’ So I guess the resemblance was intentional! ---
**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 24, 2017, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/80 "2017-03-24T12:03:37Z")
Finished Edgar Rice Burroughs’ _The Eternal Savage/Lover_. Disappointing – the book meanders all over the place. Now I’m reading the anthology **Murder Ink**. On audio, I just finished listening to **Tunnel in the Sky**. It’s been a long time since I read the Heinlein juvenile, and I’d forgotten parts of it. The reading featured multiple actors (although it wasn’t rewritten as a dramatization), and they did a great job of acting, for the most part. They purportedly changed the picture on the cover to reflect Heinlein’s assertion that his hero Rod was black. I’m not saying that it isn’t possible – Johnny Rico in _Starship Troopers_ is clearly revealed to be Filipino at the end of that book, but the supporting evidence for Rod being black is virtually nonexistent. It feels like a “tacked-on” afterthought of a change, like J.K. Rowling’s assertion – after the books and movies were over – that Dumbledore was gay. Now I’m on to Elaine Pagels’ _Beyond Belief_ on audio. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974.md?page=5)