# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' Thread - October 2015 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 30, 2015, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052 "2015-09-30T16:27:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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 3, 2015, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/21 "2015-10-03T03:14:56Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Finished _The Burning Room_, by Michael Connelly. This was very good. I don’t feel any of his books were ghostwritten, and I’ve enjoyed all of them including _The Drop_, although I’ve liked some more than others. But I think this can definitely be considered one of his better efforts. With his new partner, Harry Bosch of the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit investigates two cases with his new partner. In one, the victim just died from complications of a shooting 10 years before, making it a case of homicide, but a politically fraught one. The other is a 21-year-old arson case that killed nine people, mostly children. FBI Agent Rachel Walling, the heroine in several of his books, makes a brief cameo. I meant to mention this before but plumb forgot. There was one very odd occurrence in the book. If you didn’t know the Bosch books, you’d never notice it. But once or twice in previous books, he flashes back to when he was about 11 years old, and a detective comes to the juvenile hall where he’s being held to tell him his mother has died. He’s in the juvenile hall because a court took him away from his mother, who was a prostitute. This especially comes to light in the book where Bosch sets out to track down his mother’s killer after all these years. He even obtains the case records of the detective who went to tell him that day. Maybe one other time he mentions it too. But in _The Burning Room_, suddenly it becomes a nun in his memory who comes to tell him. The nun was the resident house mother. This did not take away my enjoyment of the book. Not at all. But it’s very odd. The memory being a nun is a little pertinent to what is going on in this book, but only a little. Very little. It was not at all necessary for the memory to become a nun. I can’t believe Connelly would have just forgotten what he’d written before, but I don’t know what he’s up to in this regard. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2015, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/22 "2015-10-03T06:38:13Z")
Despite the hot weather here in LA, the leaves on the trees are starting to look like they are thinking about calling it quits, and I am thinking about Hallowe’en, and re-reading HP Lovecraft’s **The Dunwich Horror** , a real chiller. Now I have to find a copy of **The Case of Charles Dexter Ward** also by HPL, one of the creepiest stories I have ever read. ---
**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 3, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/23 "2015-10-03T19:00:31Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I wouldn’t call it a disappointment, but not nearly as good… Thanks, **Joey P**. My book club met to discuss GSAW and with one exception, we were all disappointed in the book to one degree or another. The exception was a guy who loved both TKAM and GSAW and saw them as complimentary. Echoing Uncle Jack, he also thought that Atticus needed knocking from his pedestal in his daughter’s eyes. Although Harper Lee (probably) won’t be the one to write it, I’d almost like to see a third book (making this a trilogy) about the elderly Jean Louise today, musing on how much the South has - and hasn’t changed - since her childhood. ---
**Author:** ![Graymalkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@Graymalkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Graymalkin)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2015, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/24 "2015-10-04T02:50:25Z")
Just finished Joseph Kanon’s Leaving Berlin. He’s quite good on espionage thrillers. The tension builds unrelentingly. ---
**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 5, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/25 "2015-10-05T19:21:10Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > Oh no! I’m excited about this one, so I’m bummed to hear that it’s not as good. Actually, it improved towards the end and effectively wrapped up the series. I will definitely be picking up whatever Ransom Riggs does next. I’m working on the second Sandman Slim novel right now. Not great, but sufficiently entertaining. 🙂 > [@koeeoaddi](#): > > Now I’m celebrating October as I do every year, with a reread of _The Haunting of Hill House_. One of the best ever! ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/26 "2015-10-05T21:01:20Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Thanks, **Joey P**. My book club met to discuss GSAW and with one exception, we were all disappointed in the book to one degree or another. The exception was a guy who loved both TKAM and GSAW and saw them as complimentary. Echoing Uncle Jack, he also thought that Atticus needed knocking from his pedestal in his daughter’s eyes. > > Although Harper Lee (probably) won’t be the one to write it, I’d almost like to see a third book (making this a trilogy) about the elderly Jean Louise today, musing on how much the South has - and hasn’t changed - since her childhood. No idea how true it is, but since this all started there’s been rumors that Lee wrote a third book (or second, I guess), so we may someday see another one. ---
**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:** [October 5, 2015, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/27 "2015-10-05T21:01:22Z")
Once again a mid-century white male American author has defeated me. I was trying to read [The Eighth Day](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/126630.The_Eighth_Day), but by the end of the second section I had to face the fact that I was bored senseless and didn’t care about the mystery of who killed Breckenridge Lansing and who helped John Ashley escape his death sentence. That’s a sign it’s time for me to give up on mid-century white male American authors. So I’m reading Jane Austen instead. I’m up to _Mansfield Park_ now. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/28 "2015-10-05T21:48:59Z")
> [@Catamount](#): > > Once again a mid-century white male American author has defeated me. I was trying to read [The Eighth Day](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/126630.The_Eighth_Day), but by the end of the second section I had to face the fact that I was bored senseless and didn’t care about the mystery of who killed Breckenridge Lansing and who helped John Ashley escape his death sentence. That’s a sign it’s time for me to give up on mid-century white male American authors. I haven’t thought of that book in decades. I read it for a class on Thornton Wilder where we read his plays, plays by his contemporaries, and a couple of his other works. I remember it being really long. Also a discussion over what types of stories are good books v. good plays v. good movies and how some stories couldn’t crossover and whether this story was any of the above. But I don’t remember a thing about the plot of the book itself. I’m back to trying to read Wolf Hall. I just can’t seem to get into it, even though I think it’s a book that I should enjoy. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/29 "2015-10-05T21:57:01Z")
Reading _Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar_ by Simon Montefiore. Very interesting, _I, Claudius_-like account of the inner workings of the Soviet system under its worst monster. Favorite anecdote: during the Great Terror, Soviet high officials anxiously noted who the accused were accused of wanting to assassinate (it was always Stalin, plus a list of other Soviet notables). The reason: being on the list of purported “victims” was an infallible guide to the otherwise-inscruitable workings of Stalinist favoritism. If there was a big show trial on, and you were not on ‘the list’, you were out of favour … and, often, soon to be in the dock yourself! The “balls of brass, brain of air” award goes to the 40 year old guy who attempted to seduce Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana, when she was 16 (when Stalin found out, he got 10 years slave labour … and was damn lucky!). ---
**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:** [October 5, 2015, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/30 "2015-10-05T21:59:41Z")
Just started **The Race for Timbuktu** : _In search of Africa’s city of gold_. This is the true story of Scotsman Gordon Laing’s trek across the Sahara to attempt to be the first white man to find Timbuktu and return to tell the story. He was also determined to satisfy Britain’s burning desire to know the location of the mouth of the Niger River. I love these books of exploration and survival, and particularly the ones that took place in Africa, which has rightly been referred to as “white man’s grave” for centuries. Britain’s history is full of larger than life characters, and England’s tendency to casually send them to their deaths in the name of Empire is staggering. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/31 "2015-10-05T21:59:53Z")
_ **Jesus, the Final Days, What Really Happened** _ by Craig A. Evans and N. T. Wright. From lectures, but while Evans is unusually informative on the first two sections (on the Crucifixion and the Burial), Wright (who is an otherwise fine scholar) veers from the Resurrection of Jesus to what the early church thought Resurrection meant. It’s an interesting subject but here, it’s a misfire. ---
**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 6, 2015, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/32 "2015-10-06T00:38:45Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Reading _Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar_ by Simon Montefiore. Very interesting, _I, Claudius_-like account of the inner workings of the Soviet system under its worst monster. > > Favorite anecdote: during the Great Terror, Soviet high officials anxiously noted who the accused were accused of wanting to assassinate (it was always Stalin, plus a list of other Soviet notables)… I took a course on Soviet history in college. Interesting factoid: Molotov was so scared of Stalin that, whenever he was called to a meeting with his boss, he had an aide bring along a suitcase with a change of clothes in case he (as he sometimes did) shat himself. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/33 "2015-10-06T01:44:49Z")
Just finished William Mann’s _Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood 1910-1969_, which was full of fascinating information (Gary Cooper was gay? Holy smoke!) but didn’t hang together too well as a narrative history. Started Stephen Spender’s roman a clef _The Temple_, which is excellent, better writing than I expected from Spender, but after 30 pages I’m thinking “too many gay history books in a row.” SO I’m setting it aside for a while and picking up the enormous _Grant Wood: A Life_ biography. Also dipping into _The Coldest March: Scott’s Fatal Antarctic Expedition_ by Susan Solomon. But I’ve already read WAY too many books on Robert Falcon S., and I’m getting the impression that Susie is trying to rehabilitate his image, which would make me sad. I love the blundering moron Scott I met 30 years ago in Roland Huntford’s _Scott and Amundsen_, which was the basis of the excellent PBS miniseries _The Last Place on Earth_. ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/34 "2015-10-06T12:05:16Z")
> [@Future\_Londonite](#): > > **The Southern Reach trilogy** - a bit too weird for my taste I’m about about halfway through this via audiobook, and I absolutely love it so far. It is exactly weird enough to hold my interest. IMO, when scifi reaches for biological inspiration for alien things, the results are usually unimpressive. So much of it boils down to “bugs are icky!” Even Lovecraft (to be entirely uncharitable) can often be reduced to “tentacles and brown people are so icky that you will go INSANE!” It’s even worse when many authors put in some kind of scientist character, who is somehow unable to put together the blindingly obvious clues the non-expert author gives to the non-expert reader. **The Southern Reach** (at least through the first book and halfway through the second) succeeds at portraying truly _alien_ phenomenon and the human attempts at understanding them. The result is a profound sense of epistemological terror. What if we are simply unable to understand part of the natural world, even with our best methods and approaches? What if we are actively opposed by the phenomenon in question? Given my own tiny attempts at understanding the unknown, some failed and some successful, all these ideas resonate rather profoundly with me. Especially since I’ve been trapped in a small dark room with a microscope for the past week, with nothing but a stack of my own slides of samples and these audiobooks… ---
**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 6, 2015, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/35 "2015-10-06T12:44:52Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Just started **The Race for Timbuktu** : _In search of Africa’s city of gold_. This is the true story of Scotsman Gordon Laing’s trek across the Sahara to attempt to be the first white man to find Timbuktu and return to tell the story. He was also determined to satisfy Britain’s burning desire to know the location of the mouth of the Niger River. I love these books of exploration and survival, and particularly the ones that took place in Africa, which has rightly been referred to as “white man’s grave” for centuries. Britain’s history is full of larger than life characters, and England’s tendency to casually send them to their deaths in the name of Empire is staggering. If you like African Exploration, have you read the classics? – **First Footsteps in East Africa** by Sir Richard Burton and **How I Found Livingstone** by Sir Henry Morton Stanley. ---
**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:** [October 6, 2015, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/36 "2015-10-06T14:24:58Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > If you like African Exploration, have you read the classics? – **First Footsteps in East Africa** by Sir Richard Burton and **How I Found Livingstone** by Sir Henry Morton Stanley. Incredibly, I have not. I’ve read **White Nile** and **Blue Nile** , however, which covered Stanley, Livingstone, Burton, et al. Fascinating books. ---
**Author:** ![RickG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rickg/32/5174_2.png) [@RickG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickG)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/37 "2015-10-06T15:14:04Z")
Just finished _Secondhand Souls_, Christoper Moore’s latest comic fantasy set in San Francisco. It’s the sequel to _A Dirty Job_, and isn’t quite as good, but is still pretty good. Note that I read almost exclusively through audiobooks, because I am mostly blind. Fisher Stevens is the narrator for this one, as he was for the earlier book (and _Lamb_) , and he does an excellent job of bringing the characters to life. Also just finished _Company_ by Max Barry (author of _Jennifer Government_). If you work in corporate America, you may find this satire hits a little close to home. Currently in the middle of _The Aeronaut’s Windlass_, the first book of Jim Butcher’s new series. It’s a little hacky, but not terrible. Not sure if I will end up sticking with the series when the next one comes out. Next in the queue, which I will probably start in the next week, is David McCullough’s new history, _The Wright Brothers_ (read by him on the audiobook). Very much looking forward to this one. ---
**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 6, 2015, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/38 "2015-10-06T15:18:22Z")
> [@RickG](#): > > Just finished _Secondhand Souls_, Christoper Moore’s latest comic fantasy set in San Francisco. It’s the sequel to _A Dirty Job_, and isn’t quite as good, but is still pretty good. Note that I read almost exclusively through audiobooks, because I am mostly blind. Fisher Stevens is the narrator for this one, as he was for the earlier book (and _Lamb_) , and he does an excellent job of bringing the characters to life. > > . I just read that on audiobook, too (see above), and agree on all counts. ---
**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 6, 2015, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/39 "2015-10-06T15:22:59Z")
> [@RickG](#): > > …Next in the queue, which I will probably start in the next week, is David McCullough’s new history, _The Wright Brothers_ (read by him on the audiobook). Very much looking forward to this one. The reviews were mixed. Much as I like and admire McCullough (he’s the most famous graduate of my prep school), I wonder if it’s time for him to hang it up? ---
**Author:** ![RickG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rickg/32/5174_2.png) [@RickG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickG)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052/40 "2015-10-06T16:19:09Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > The reviews were mixed. Much as I like and admire McCullough (he’s the most famous graduate of my prep school), I wonder if it’s time for him to hang it up? I tend to read reviews after I read the book, which I know is slightly backwards. For me, it’s still worth listening to the man’s voice for a few hours while I do chores around the house, walk to work, etc. I expect I’ll enjoy it, even if it has flaws. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-october-2015-edition/733052.md?page=3)