# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' thread -- November 2017 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 29, 2017, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181 "2017-10-29T20:50:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [October 29, 2017, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/1 "2017-10-29T20:50:45Z")
November is upon us! So you’re either enjoying the lush colors of autumn or tuning up your AC for the dreaded upcoming summer. Americans are eying their turkey, not the one in the White House, and debating on stuffing or potatoes. (Both being the correct answer) National Novel Writing Month also starts on Wednesday… any readrs, other than me, participating this year? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Khadaji was one of the earlier members of the SDMB, and he was well-known as a kindly person who always had something encouraging to say, particularly in the self-improvement threads. He was also a voracious, omnivorous reader, and he started these monthly book threads. Sadly, he passed away in January 2013, and we decided to rename these monthly threads in his honor. ---
**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:** [October 29, 2017, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/2 "2017-10-29T20:53:27Z")
Last month’s thread:[Hasta la Vista October!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=837783) ---
**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:** [October 29, 2017, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/3 "2017-10-29T22:11:47Z")
Just over halfway through _East of Eden_, by John Steinbeck. ---
**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:** [October 30, 2017, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/4 "2017-10-30T00:31:27Z")
Just finished _Mission to Moulokin_ by Alan Dean Foster, a pretty good sf adventure story about three humans trying to help a near-feudal alien society on an iceworld put aside their differences and agree to a planetary government. This is the second book in a trilogy, preceded by _Icerigger_ and followed by _The Deluge Drivers_. Next up: _New York 2140_ by Kim Stanley Robinson, about how the Big Apple would be affected by climate change and rising oceans, and _Nor Crystal Tears_, a first-contact novel, also by Alan Dean Foster. ---
**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:** [October 30, 2017, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/5 "2017-10-30T11:45:05Z")
Just finished _She Stoops to Conquer_ by Oliver Goldsmith. It’s one of those classics that I never read. I found a used copy at a booksale at a restaurant (! The profits go to charity), so I picked it up. I’m now into Stephanie Schorow’s _Inside the Combat Zone: The Stripped-Down Story of Boston’s Most Notorious Neighborhood_. I had to pick it up – Stephanie’s in my writing group, and we’ve critiqued parts of her book. It’s not officially out until November, but they had a pre-release party at the Boston Book Fair on Saturday. They hired Burlesque Dancers to stand outside the booth and pose (they didn’t actually take anything off). It was a hoot when a little girl , dressed in her finest princess outfit, went up to the pretty women al dressed up in sparklies. They put a feather boa around her and posed for a picture. ---
**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:** [October 30, 2017, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/6 "2017-10-30T13:18:10Z")
Started this morning on [Haunted Nights](https://www.amazon.com/Haunted-Nights-Lisa-Morton/dp/1101973838/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509369407&sr=8-1&keywords=haunted+nights+datlow), a Halloween-themed short story collection edited by Lisa Morton and Ellen Datlow. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/7 "2017-10-30T13:26:11Z")
Tomorrow two copies of Mark Z Danielewski’s _The Familiar Vol 5_ arrive. Why two copies? I’m not sure. I thought I only ordered one. A couple years ago, I visited Barcelona. Last week, I went to Prague and picked up Dan Brown’s _Origin_ for light reading on the plane and at night. It was confusing as I started to blur the two cities when I was in the hotel room talking with my husband about where we should go the next day. (Yes, gulláš would be better than tapas.) The one nice thing about a Dan Brown book is that it requires such a short amount of attention span. Was it bad? Pretty much, but not bad enough where I stopped reading although there were moments… ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/8 "2017-10-30T15:47:43Z")
I just finished [Not In Your Lifetime: The Defining Book on the JFK Assassination](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17937723-not-in-your-lifetime) by Anthony Summers, and I was impressed. Summers interviews a whole bunch of people for this book … I think I remember reading that the total number of people he interviewed was somewhere in the 80s? But maybe I’m pulling the number out of my ass. Anyways, I was impressed at how thoroughly the author researched many different connections that Oswald allegedly had, including connections with the FBI, CIA, Mafia, Cuba, and the Soviet Union. I was fascinated by the book, even though all these events took place decades before I was born. I also read [There Goes My Social Life: From Clueless to Conservative](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24886573-there-goes-my-social-life) by Stacey Dash. It was good enough to finish, but not really good enough to recommend. Her life has been far less glamorous than I would have expected from a celebrity – raised by drug addicts, then as an adult, struggling with domestic abuse and plagued with money problems as she raises children in a single-parent household. It had the potential to be inspirational, but you really never see her fully pull herself up from her circumstances. To her credit, she was offered a book deal and a gig with Fox News right before the book came out, but she didn’t even get those herself, but they really didn’t seem to be her doing at all, but that of a man who approached her and helped her out tremendously. ---
**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:** [October 30, 2017, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/9 "2017-10-30T16:00:45Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Just finished _She Stoops to Conquer_ by Oliver Goldsmith. It’s one of those classics that I never read. I found a used copy at a booksale at a restaurant (! The profits go to charity), so I picked it up… I saw Tim Curry perform in that play on the London stage in late 1985, and he was a riot. We saw the same play in a local performance recently, and it was good, but Curry really made the difference between a good production and a great one. ---
**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:** [November 1, 2017, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/10 "2017-11-01T16:33:30Z")
I’m so far behind that I never even bookmarked October’s thread! :eek: Perhaps sadly, nothing much has changed: I’m still reading legal thrillers, and working my way through various series. Since August I’ve read two Will Robie books (by David Baldacci) and two Harry Bosch/Mickey Haller books (by Michael Connelley). I recently started John Grisham’s new one, _**[The Rooster Bar](https://www.amazon.com/Rooster-Bar-John-Grisham/dp/0385541171/)**_. The Amazon synopsis is good: "Mark, Todd, and Zola came to law school to change the world, to make it a better place. But now, as third-year students, these close friends realize they have been duped. They all borrowed heavily to attend a third-tier, for-profit law school so mediocre that its graduates rarely pass the bar exam, let alone get good jobs. And when they learn that their school is one of a chain owned by a shady New York hedge-fund operator who also happens to own a bank specializing in student loans, the three know they have been caught up in The Great Law School Scam. But maybe there’s a way out. Maybe there’s a way to escape their crushing debt, expose the bank and the scam, and make a few bucks in the process. But to do so, they would first have to quit school. And leaving law school a few short months before graduation would be completely crazy, right? Well, yes and no . . ." I’m a long-time Grisham fan, and so far this one isn’t letting me down. I’d say I’m about 30% of the way through it. ---
**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:** [November 3, 2017, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/11 "2017-11-03T12:45:10Z")
Just finished _How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World_, by Steven Johnson. I’ve read lots of science history this year, and so some of this information I’ve seen before, but a lot was new and interesting. For example, there’s a sign at the Great Pyramid saying “no flash photography”. And yet, one of the first flash photos was taken inside it. The photographer developed the technique to get pictures of a place that otherwise couldn’t be photographed. Started _The Science of Monsters: The Origins of the Creatures We Love to Fear,_ by Matt Kaplan. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/12 "2017-11-03T14:38:39Z")
I just finished **Shattered** , about the Hillary campaign. Now I’m moving onto **Captain’s Fury** , book 4 of the Codex Alera by Jim Butcher. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/13 "2017-11-03T17:17:14Z")
It’s tough plowing into a new book when you’ve just finished a glorious one ( **Paris in the Present Tense** ), but I’m soldiering through **Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk**. It isn’t bad and I think I would have liked it better if I hadn’t just read the former, but the main character seems to me more like a literary construct than a living breathing old lady. Sez the old lady. ---
**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:** [November 3, 2017, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/14 "2017-11-03T23:59:40Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Just finished _Mission to Moulokin_ by Alan Dean Foster, a pretty good sf adventure story about three humans trying to help a near-feudal alien society on an iceworld put aside their differences and agree to a planetary government. This is the second book in a trilogy, preceded by _Icerigger_ and followed by _The Deluge Drivers_. Next up: _New York 2140_ by Kim Stanley Robinson, about how the Big Apple would be affected by climate change and rising oceans, and _Nor Crystal Tears_, a first-contact novel, also by Alan Dean Foster. _New York 2140_ is an **excellent** book, I really enjoyed it. I am pretty sure I posted a review about it in one of the “Whatcha Readin’?” threads…yup, in May’s thread I wrote: \*"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: [http://www.npr.org/2017/03/19/515439...its-still-home](http://www.npr.org/2017/03/19/515439...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."\* I just completed _The Frozen Hours_ by Jeff Shaara and I thought it was a fantastic and historically accurate fictionalized account of the Korean War, and the Chosin Reservoir battle in particular. Shaara’s characters have great life and believable dialogue, and the horrors of war and extreme cold temperatures suffered by the US Marines in the book are extremely well developed. Highly recommend it. Reviews here: [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31868036-the-frozen-hours](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31868036-the-frozen-hours) I just started Sins of Empire by Brian McClellan and it’s also a very good read so far. Love the mixture of medieval, sorcery and gunpowder. So far so good. Review here: [Sins of Empire (Gods of Blood and Powder, #1) by Brian McClellan | Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28811016-sins-of-empire) ---
**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:** [November 5, 2017, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/15 "2017-11-05T21:18:12Z")
Finished _East of Eden_, by John Steinbeck. A modern-day – “modern day” being the late 19th and early 20th centuries – of the Cain and Abel story. The lives of the Trask and Hamilton families are interwoven in California’s Salinas Valley. Samuel Hamilton is based on the real-life person of the same name, Steinbeck’s maternal grandfather, and the author himself appears as a minor character as a small boy. Very good, almost as good as my favorite Steinbeck, _The Grapes of Wrath_. It was also made into a 1955 film, unseen by me and one of James Dean’s three. Reading about the film, it sounds like a lot of liberties were taken with the story. Next up is _The Whistler_, by John Grisham. ---
**Author:** ![RunSilent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e0b2c6/32.png) [@RunSilent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RunSilent)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2017, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/16 "2017-11-05T21:32:20Z")
I just finished Pnin, by Vladimir Nabokov… funny, a bit sad. ---
**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:** [November 6, 2017, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/17 "2017-11-06T13:30:13Z")
Started this morning on [What the Hell Did I Just Read: a novel of cosmic horror](https://www.amazon.com/What-Hell-Did-Just-Read/dp/1250040205/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509974155&sr=8-1&keywords=what+the+hell+did+i+just+read+a+novel+of+cosmic+horror&dpID=51MkqJ1JMDL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch) by David Wong. I didn’t think I was going to be in the mood for it, but I’m having fun so far. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2017, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/18 "2017-11-06T14:51:12Z")
Almost thru _Prester John_, by John Buchan (he wrote _The Thirty Nine Steps_). Enjoyable pulp, with hairsbreadth escapes, sinister villains, a flawed hero, and a noble dog. The author makes many references to “kaffirs”, which I think is a very offensive South African term, but the villain is not a stereotype, but a genuine leader. Another novel which is no better than it needs to be. Bubble gum for the mind. On paper, I am trying to plow my way thru _The Jewish War_ by Flavius Josephus. They lose. Regards, Shodan ---
**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:** [November 8, 2017, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/19 "2017-11-08T21:58:05Z")
Finished _The Science of Monsters: The Origins of the Creatures We Love to Fear_, by Matt Kaplan. Interesting. Some of the information I’d read before, but he still had some new ideas. Worth reading. Just started _Design for Dying_, by Renee Patrick. ---
**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:** [November 9, 2017, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181/20 "2017-11-09T17:28:32Z")
I finished _Nor Crystal Tears_, a sf first-contact novel by Alan Dean Foster. It’s pretty good. The mantid Thranx and the mammalian Humans find they have more in common, and more ways to help each other, than anyone could’ve guessed at first. An interesting subtext of the book is that the Thranx, who are peaceful and haven’t had any wars among themselves in centuries, consider Human society to literally be crazy - but redeemable. Now listening to an audiobook of David Ignatius’s _The Director_, a spy novel about a new reform-minded, post-Wikileaks CIA director and his many problems. It’s kind of meh so far, sometimes farfetched, but I’ll keep listening. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2017-edition/800181.md?page=2)