# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' thread -- November 2018 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 2, 2018, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2018-edition/823873 "2018-11-02T01:59:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**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:** [November 21, 2018, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2018-edition/823873/61 "2018-11-21T04:38:36Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Did you know it’s been adapted for TV? Pretty well, too: [Cranford (TV series) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranford_(TV_series)) Yes, I was aware that there were TV adaptations. I’m a bit skeptical about adaptations of works where a lot of the humour comes from parenthetical comments by the narrator, though. ---
**Author:** ![chaika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chaika/32/405_2.png) [@chaika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaika)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2018-edition/823873/62 "2018-11-22T15:06:12Z")
I recently read _The Skripal Files_ by Mark Urban. About the case of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, who were poisoned earlier this year in the UK by agents from Russian intelligence. Also includes background information about Skripal. A fascinating read, though unfortunately it was written before the revelations about the culprits surfaced. That would have improved the book, and Urban is probably kicking himself that he rushed into print before the end of the story was known. Also just finished _Crudo_ by Olivia Laing. A novel that has received a lot of attention, but I wasn’t overly impressed. The use of pastiche was passably interesting, and I appreciate the attempt to write a novel of the moment. But my reaction was essentially “meh.” Now I’m reading a new novel by Kate Morton, _The Clockmaker’s Daughter_. Too early to say what I think of it yet. Her earlier works were hit and miss for me. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2018-edition/823873/63 "2018-11-22T17:11:35Z")
I’m reading Lawrence Durrell’s _Alexandria quartet_ and have just finished _Balthazar_ the second of the four. Oh the decadence! And wow, the writing. ---
**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 23, 2018, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2018-edition/823873/64 "2018-11-23T04:05:16Z")
Just finished Amity Shlaes’s _Coolidge_, about the POTUS who followed Harding and preceded Hoover (thus avoiding being blamed for the stock market crash and Great Depression). Shlaes tries to humanize the Vermont-born Calvin Coolidge but he really was a pretty laconic, bland, sometimes snappish person. She’s a conservative historian and goes on at some length - often with a noticeable libertarian slant - about his tax-cutting and budgetary policies. I think I understand Coolidge better now, but I can’t say I like or respect him any better. I’m now about halfway through James Church’s _A Corpse in the Koryo_, about a North Korean police detective investigating the possible murder of a foreigner in a Pyongyang hotel. The detective wants to be a good cop and good man but finds it very hard to be either as he navigates the potentially-lethal NK police, security, military and intelligence bureaucracies. An interesting setting but only a so-so mystery thus far. Also on the homestretch of Robert Heinlein’s _Friday_. A bit too preachy at times, but a pretty good globe-trotting story. ---
**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 23, 2018, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2018-edition/823873/65 "2018-11-23T21:07:33Z")
Finished _High Hurdles_, by Janet Lambert. Not recommended. Also finished _Return of the Black Widowers_ by Isaac Asimov, plus a couple of stories written by other authors as tributes. A few of these stories (including one of the tributes) I really enjoyed, but the others were kind of meh. Next up: _Six Wakes_, by Mur Lafferty. ---
**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 24, 2018, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2018-edition/823873/66 "2018-11-24T06:23:46Z")
Finished _Leonardo da Vinci_, by Walter Isaacson. A biography of the Renaissance genius. Very good. He did get a couple of numbers wrong such as saying Leonardo turned 67 in 1518 when it was actually in 1519, but just a couple, and this was a very good accounting of his life. Recommended. Next up is _The Confessions of Nat Turner_, by William Styron. ---
**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:** [November 26, 2018, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2018-edition/823873/67 "2018-11-26T00:01:59Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I just started **Empire of Silence** this morning, and already am thinking I might abandon it. A bookish lad, son of the Galactic Emperor (or something), with a jockish and bullying younger brother, angsts about whether he’ll inherit the galaxy while he engages in energy-sword fights with his stern-but-wise tutor. I think I’ve read every single element of this written elsewhere, only better and less self-importantly. > [@DZedNConfused](#): > > Didn’t George Lucas write that back in 1977? Something with Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford? Yup, although this book was more like a low-rent Dune. Did not finish. Instead I read [Ball Lightning](https://www.npr.org/2018/08/19/636214212/once-ball-lightning-gets-rolling-this-sci-fi-mind-bender-shines), by Cixin Liu, author of **The Three-Body Problem**. Basically the author approached the unanswered question, “What exactly is ball lightning?” and came up with the most bonkers answer that he could imagine that could be considered hard science fiction. If a novel that consists of little more than military scientists investigating and discovering the secrets of ball lightning sounds dreadful to you, don’t read it. But if you can see yourself having fun with that scenario, this book won’t disappoint. The nature of ball lightning (according to this book) is balls-out-ridiculous, but also awesome. I enjoyed the hell out of it. ---
**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 27, 2018, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2018-edition/823873/68 "2018-11-27T04:34:14Z")
The Perfect Master speaks on ball lightning: [Does ball lightning really exist? - The Straight Dope](https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2562/does-ball-lightning-really-exist/) Lots of cool book-related swag here: [https://outofprint.com/](https://outofprint.com/) ---
**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 27, 2018, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2018-edition/823873/69 "2018-11-27T17:02:05Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Lots of cool book-related swag here: [https://outofprint.com/](https://outofprint.com/) Whoa, neato. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2018, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2018-edition/823873/70 "2018-11-27T17:54:24Z")
I am finishing up [Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman](https://www.amazon.com/Norse-Mythology-Neil-Gaiman-ebook/dp/B01HQA6EOC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543341244&sr=1-1&keywords=norse+mythology+neil+gaiman). I find it written like a child’s book. Those Norse gods were all assholes, every one of them. ---
**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 28, 2018, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2018-edition/823873/71 "2018-11-28T00:42:55Z")
Finished _Six Wakes_ by Mur Lafferty. I liked it. It sort of reminded me of an Agatha Christie mystery, if it were set in space. Now I’m reading _Robert B. Parker’s Blackjack_, by Robert Knott. It features Parker’s characters Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. ---
**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 28, 2018, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2018-edition/823873/72 "2018-11-28T03:26:40Z")
Just finished Robert Heinlein’s _Friday_, which had its moments but was far from his best. Also finished James Church’s _A Corpse in the Koryo_, a murder mystery set in contemporary North Korea. Great setting and atmosphere but not all that great a mystery, I’d say. The ending was kind of a muddle. Not sure if I’ll go on to others in the series. I’ve begun Philip Kerr’s _March Violets_, about a private eye in 1936 Berlin, investigating the death of a steel magnate’s hard-drinking daughter and her SS-officer husband. So far, so good. I’ve also started Susan Orlean’s _The Library Book_, about the 1986 fire which devastated the L.A. Public Library. I’ve never read an Orlean book before, and it’s great. It’s as a much a love letter to libraries as a true-crime tale of epic arson and its aftermath. ---
**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 29, 2018, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2018-edition/823873/73 "2018-11-29T19:46:41Z")
Currently reading the latest in the Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children series, [A Map of Days](https://www.amazon.com/Days-Miss-Peregrines-Peculiar-Children/dp/0735232148/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543520682&sr=1-1&keywords=a+map+of+days). ---
**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:** [November 30, 2018, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2018-edition/823873/74 "2018-11-30T22:01:12Z")
I will get the new thread for December up tomorrow, so don’t anyone panic. I have to finsh National Novel Writing Month and have a couple other things to do today. ---
**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:** [December 2, 2018, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2018-edition/823873/75 "2018-12-02T16:40:25Z")
[Last month of the year! Get your books in now!](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=21354361#post21354361) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-november-2018-edition/823873.md?page=3)