# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' thread -- May 2017 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 29, 2017, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538 "2017-04-29T23:29:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 5
**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:** [May 21, 2017, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538/81 "2017-05-21T01:34:14Z")
Finished _Cujo_, by Stephen King. It was okay. A little slow-paced. I knew the basic story but never saw the 1983 film version. One surprise for me was the dog being a Saint Bernard. I expected Cujo to be a Rottweiler or Doberman pinscher, some breed like that. Next up is _End of Watch_, also by Stephen King. The final installment in his Bill Hodges trilogy. ---
**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:** [May 21, 2017, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538/82 "2017-05-21T12:26:27Z")
Finished Naomi Novik’s **His Majesty’s Dragon** , which I enjoyed a lot. Started **Rejected Princesses: Tales of History’s Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics** by Jason Porath and also **Memoirs of Solar Pons** by August Derleth. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2017, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538/83 "2017-05-21T16:55:36Z")
This morning Amazon told me that David Baldacci will have a new book out in November, this time another entry in the Will Robie series (_[End Game](https://www.amazon.com/Game-Will-Robie-David-Baldacci/dp/1455586609/)_). I read the first Will Robie book three years ago, but even though I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads I don’t seem to have ever read any others…I might attempt to remedy that over the summer. > [@Blisters](#): > > I feel like (without giving spoilers) there were little nods to the Dark Tower series that I thought would get fleshed out in the novella but never were. The authors set up an intriguing premise that I was enjoying and then just…kind of stopped writing without coming to (in my mind) any conclusion. Why did these things happen? I feel like I only read half a story. Ahhh, ok. Gotcha. 🙂 > [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Well, I read it this morning and now I understand **Blisters** ’ review. It’s very much like a chapter of a longer story, only this is the chapter where nothing happens. King and Chizmar assembled all the ingredients, but they didn’t bake a cake. All we know is that they _could have_. Well, it was enjoyable to read anyway, and there is an odd encounter with \*\*R.F. \*\*My theory is that R.F. expected things to turn out differently, and we’re just being allowed to see that he doesn’t always get things to go his way. Hmmm. Well, since it’s not very long I’ll still plan to read it when I’m on vacation. Plus now I’m extra curious! > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Next up is _End of Watch_, also by Stephen King. The final installment in his Bill Hodges trilogy. I loved that book/series! ---
**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:** [May 22, 2017, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538/84 "2017-05-22T03:53:06Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > …Next up: _The Broom of the System_, the first novel by David Foster Wallace, which I’m not far into and have to say, so far, I’m not enjoying much. But I’ll give it my customary 50 pages, at least. Bzzzt. It failed. Implausible, frustrating, overwritten. Back to the library it goes. Just started the two-novella collection _Exiles/Passage to Ararat_ by Michael J. Arlen, whom Hemingway praised in _A Moveable Feast_. Arlen’s style reminds me a bit of J.D. Salinger’s, but I can’t say I’m wowed so far. I also just began _The Sherlock Holmes Book_, edited by David Stuart Davies and Barry Forshaw, part of DK’s “Big Ideas Simply Explained” series. It concisely describes, explains and puts into context all of Conan Doyle’s 56 Holmes short stories and 4 novels. Nicely illustrated, too. ---
**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:** [May 22, 2017, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538/85 "2017-05-22T12:10:56Z")
Read 86 pages of [Burntown](https://www.amazon.com/Burntown-Novel-Jennifer-McMahon/dp/0385541368/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495454795&sr=8-1&keywords=burntown+jennifer+mcmahon) by Jennifer McMahon this morning. Now I’m done. I’ve liked her other stuff but this one was just too weird and I wasn’t buying any of 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:** [May 22, 2017, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538/86 "2017-05-22T18:04:27Z")
I finished **Deadly Games** the third Emperor’s Edge book by Lindsay Buroker. Each book gets better and better and more fun to read. I don’t remember who recommended them, but the series is JUST what I needed right now. ---
**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:** [May 24, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538/87 "2017-05-24T14:42:19Z")
Read a good chunk of [The Gentleman](https://www.amazon.com/Gentleman-Novel-Forrest-Leo/dp/039956263X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1495636696&sr=1-1&keywords=forrest+leo) by Forrest Leo. Even after being warned by **DZedNConfused** , I gave it a shot. It was meant as humor, but wasn’t funny, and the footnotes were beyond tedious. Ditched. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2017, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538/88 "2017-05-24T17:16:27Z")
Recently found the first Robert Parker Spenser novel on a take one-leave one shelf and thought I’d re-read it. Went through the Spenser novels maybe 30 years ago until I got to the one where he and Hawk go on a bloody murdering rampage in an attempt to get Spenser’s girlfriend back, even though she wasn’t so much kidnapped as just got tired of Spenser’s shit and ran off with some bad dude. But I digress… So, “The Godwulf Manuscript” was a very by-the-numbers PI/noir start to the series. A tough and needlessly wisecracking and irreverent PI gets hired to investigate the case of a missing manuscript. Note that this is almost the last time we ever hear about the manuscript – it’s later returned and Spenser never even lays eyes on it. The manuscript is just a MacGuffin to get Spenser involved in a series of murders and felonies, many of which are committed by Spenser himself. During the course of the book, Spenser commits crimes ranging from breaking and entering, burglary, interfering with a police investigation, tampering with evidence, assault, discharge of a firearm, trespassing, numerous acts of drunk driving, and he double parks a lot. He also sleeps with a client’s wife _and_ daughter and shoots a few guys who mostly deserve it. What he doesn’t do is a ton of detecting. There’s really no time, what with all the quipping, drinking, and sexy times. Fortunately for Spenser, the perp is the most obvious guy in the room The book is often hilariously dated. Everyone smokes continuously and drinks bourbon by the glass. Spenser describes how people are dressed informally and I think we’re supposed to infer that they’re filthy hippies, except that everyone dresses that way now. Also, the police are ludicrously casual about Spenser’s many infractions of the law; I think in 2017, a PI who shoots a couple of guys doesn’t get a bottle of bourbon from a friendly cop and then allowed to check himself out of the hospital and head home. But within all the skeeziness and cut-and-paste noir, there are a few germs of a good series there. You get a few of Spenser’s trademark recipes. There’s a lot of local color – mentions of Boston and the North Shore that I appreciate more now that I live there. Apparently, even forty years ago, getting to Marblehead was a giant pain in the ass. ---
**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:** [May 24, 2017, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538/89 "2017-05-24T17:34:48Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > There’s a lot of local color – mentions of Boston and the North Shore that I appreciate more now that I live there. > Apparently, even forty years ago, getting to Marblehead was a giant pain in the ass. Based on Charlotte MacLeod’s books from the 80s & 90s, it appearsso. ---
**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:** [May 24, 2017, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538/90 "2017-05-24T23:59:52Z")
Finished Rejected Princesses: Tales of History’s Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics by Jason Porath. Some interesting stuff about women in history you don’t always hear about. The overly breezy tone could be off-putting, and the book itself (the ink, I suspect) had a bad aroma. Started Gone with the Woof, a cozy by Laurien Berenson. ---
**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:** [May 25, 2017, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538/91 "2017-05-25T12:19:06Z")
Started today on [Bloodchild and Other Stories](https://www.amazon.com/Bloodchild-Other-Stories-Octavia-Butler/dp/1583226982/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1495714619&sr=1-1&keywords=bloodchild+and+other+stories), a collection by Octavia Butler. I’ve read the title story before. ---
**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:** [May 25, 2017, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538/92 "2017-05-25T14:19:02Z")
I just finished Kim Robinson’s _New York: 2140_ and I must say I really enjoyed it. It’s science fiction but not with rocket ships and death lasers…it’s NYC in 2140 after massive climactic changes, the city is mostly underwater, people still live in the buildings, travel is mostly by boats and airships and it just really intrigued me. This is a decent summation of the book, although I find this critic to be a little heavy-handed: [Book Review: 'New York 2140,' By Kim Stanley Robinson : NPR](http://www.npr.org/2017/03/19/515439965/in-2140-new-york-may-be-underwater-but-its-still-home) If this is the kind of quality work Mr Robinson churns out on the regular, I may have a new author to explore as this was the first time I’d read him. ---
**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:** [May 25, 2017, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538/93 "2017-05-25T15:08:49Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Recently found the first Robert Parker Spenser novel … “The Godwulf Manuscript” was a very by-the-numbers PI/noir start to the series… I reread TGM a year or so ago, and agree with most of your criticisms. Hard to believe it first came out in 1973! Fortunately Parker learned from his mistakes, and some of the later Spenser books are quite good. He’s specifically described in TGM as a Korean War veteran, as I recall, but that would make him too old these days. Like James Bond, he became conveniently ageless. > [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Started today on [Bloodchild and Other Stories](https://www.amazon.com/Bloodchild-Other-Stories-Octavia-Butler/dp/1583226982/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1495714619&sr=1-1&keywords=bloodchild+and+other+stories), a collection by Octavia Butler. I’ve read the title story before. Me, too. “Bloodchild” is one of my favorite sf short stories - a fascinatingly creepy tale of a human-alien symbiosis. You probably know it won Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards. ---
**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:** [May 29, 2017, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538/94 "2017-05-29T18:19:49Z")
Finished _End of Watch_, by Stephen King. Very good, and a fitting end to the Bill Hodges trilogy. This installment I would say was better than the second one but not quite as good as the first. And I noted with some amusement the brief refernce to another of his works, _Cujo_. I read _Cujo_ and _End of Watch_ back to back – in the former the fictional Sharp Cereals plays a major role, while in the latter the cereal company rates a brief mention as a concert sponsor. Next up is _The Naked and the Dead_, by Norman Mailer. ---
**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:** [May 30, 2017, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538/95 "2017-05-30T16:55:10Z")
Over the long weekend I finished _Mindbridge_ by Joe Haldeman, a short 1976 novel about teleportation to distant star systems and first contact with an (initially) very hostile race of shapeshifting aliens. Good stuff. I’ve also started Haldeman’s latest novel, _Work Done For Hire_, which is about a struggling writer hired to write the novelization of an as-yet-unproduced horror movie. An large, unwelcome package left at his front door sends the story in a very different direction. I’ve also begun the audiobook of Michael Crichton’s 1996 novel _Airframe_, about the investigation of a lethal in-flight incident aboard a Chinese passenger jet flying into Denver. ---
**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:** [May 31, 2017, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538/96 "2017-05-31T17:40:49Z")
Spring flowers, summer temps and baby birds: [June Thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=827417) ---
**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:** [June 1, 2017, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538/97 "2017-06-01T01:45:39Z")
So I had a two and a half hour car repair today and thus made decent headway on the fourth Harry Hole book, **Nemesis**. ---
**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:** [June 1, 2017, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538/98 "2017-06-01T13:11:33Z")
Finished **Gone with the Woof**. Meh. Am currently reading **The Weird Wild West** , an anthology of fantasy/SF set in the 1800’s in what is now the western U.S. There are a couple of really good stories, especially the first, “Abishag Mary”, by Frances Rowat. Also, I’m reading **Off the Menu** , more Chick Lit by Stacey Ballis. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-may-2017-edition/785538.md?page=4)