# Khadaji's Whatcha Reading Thread--August 2019 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 1, 2019, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036 "2019-08-01T23:59:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [August 20, 2019, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/41 "2019-08-20T15:24:19Z")
Finished _You’re Not Lost if You Can Still See the Truck: The Further Adventures of America’s Everyman Outdoorsman_, by Bill Heavey. It’s a collection of essays, mostly from _Field & Stream_ magazine. They’re in chronological order, and at first they were “meh” at best, but over the years, his writing really improved and I wound up enjoying the book. Now I’m reading _Conned Again, Watson: Cautionary Tales of Logic, Math, and Probability_, by Colin Bruce. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2019, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/42 "2019-08-21T13:08:10Z")
Started today on [The Singularity Trap](https://www.amazon.com/Singularity-Trap-Dennis-Taylor-ebook/dp/B07FBRRL2Z/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1566392207&sr=1-2) by Dennis E. Taylor. I loved his Bobiverse books, but this one’s not taking off as I’d hoped. I’ll persevere a bit further. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2019, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/43 "2019-08-21T13:59:06Z")
Having finished the above books, I’ve started reading **Treasure** by Clive Cussler (from back when he was writing all by himself, without a bevy of co-authors). On audio, I’m reading **The Lincoln Myth** by Steve Berry. I’d already read his stand-alone _The Amber Room_, but this is the first of his Cotton Malone\* novels I’ve read. I’m perturbed. Berry is supposed to be a historian, and he does indeed bring in a great deal of historical information, but he also spends a lot of time making the case that a.) Lincoln has been mythologized (which I agree with) b.) Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation didn’t free all the slaves, and he spoke about saving the Union as his highest priority (True, but a LOT of people have re-iterated this in recent years) c.) The Civil War wasn’t about slavery, but about cementing the Union and preventing secession. The Northerners , aside from abolitionists (maybe) didn’t even LIKE black people (I worry when a historian starts saying this. No northern sympathy for the slaves? Then why all the uproar about the Fugitive Slave Act? Who kept the Underground Railroad going? What about all those diaries quoted by Ken Burns and others about how they were fighting against slavery?) d.) Northern interests desperately needed to keep the tariffs and taxes on cotton going, because otherwise the federal income would dry up. (Really? With all that Northern manufacturing going? That didn’t contribute taxes to the government?) e.) Lincoln created the idea of an indissoluble Union, which prior to him didn’t exist (somebody shoulda told Daniel Webster, so he wouldn’t have made his “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable” speech. Or Andrew Jackson’s “Our Federal Union – It Must be Preserved” toast.) I realize that writers are allowed to put questionable arguments into the mouths of their characters, especially if this is what motivates them, but Perry appears to actually be buying into these. What surprised me even more is that most of this isn’t about Lincoln, but about something dating back to Washington, and even more about Mormon (LDS) church history, especially the latter. Didn’t see that coming. One thing I’ll give Perry is that, unlike a lot of thrillers and mysteries involving Utah and the Mormons, he gets most of his history and geography straight. out-of-state writers have been screwing up Utah geography ever since Arthur Conan Doyle’s _a Study in Scarlet_ (the first Sherlock Holmes novel) has the Saints approaching Salt Lake City by traveling across The Great Alkali Plain (the Salt Desert). The Salt Desert is to the _West_ of Salt Lake City – the Mormon pioneers came down Emigration Canyon on the _East_ of the city. I suspect Doyle just loved the imagery, but it’s completely wrong. I suspect this book, which makes officials in the LDS church out to be Bad Guys, isn’t very popular in Salt Lake. \*What is it with Thriller/mystery writers and the weird names they give their heroes and associates? This book gives us _Cotton Malone_ (who sounds like a cross between Cotton Mather and a Dashiell Hammett detective) and his girlfriend _Cassiopeia Vitt_. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child gave us Special Agent _Aloysius Xingu Lens Pendergast_ and his companion _Constance Greene_. His Evil Twin brother is \*Diogenes Dagrepont Bernoulli Pendergast \*. Do we owe this all to Doyle’s _Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes_? ---
**Author:** ![Rough\_Draft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@Rough\_Draft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rough_Draft)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/44 "2019-08-22T18:22:25Z")
I finally plowed my way through _The Monster of Florence_ by Douglas Preston (of Agent Pendergast fame). This book is nonfiction however, and its subject is the hunt for a serial killer that plagued Tuscany during the 1970s and 80s. In my opinion Preston wasted his time writing the book. Since it’s a true story, it’s very messy. No one knows exactly when the murders began or why they ended, the cast of characters is huge and confusing (there’s at least a dozen nominees for who the Monster was), the intricacy and corruption of the Italian legal system is outrageously over the top, and the story just slowly fizzles out towards the end. Upon finishing the book I felt very little other than frustration. Luckily there’s a new Preston/Child novel out there, and I have it on reserve at the library. I’m sure it will be much more entertaining than reality ever could be. ---
**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:** [August 22, 2019, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/45 "2019-08-22T18:28:17Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > …On audio, I’m reading **The Lincoln Myth** by Steve Berry… > > I’m perturbed. Berry is supposed to be a historian, and he does indeed bring in a great deal of historical information, but he also spends a lot of time making the case that… > > d.) Northern interests desperately needed to keep the tariffs and taxes on cotton going, because otherwise the federal income would dry up. (Really? With all that Northern manufacturing going? That didn’t contribute taxes to the government?)… You’re right to be skeptical of the book, for the reasons you state, but most Federal revenue in the early 1860s came from tariffs imposed on imported goods. Northern manufacturing, as such, didn’t put a penny into Uncle Sam’s pocket. ---
**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:** [August 23, 2019, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/46 "2019-08-23T00:39:55Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I suspect this book, which makes officials in the LDS church out to be Bad Guys, isn’t very popular in Salt Lake. Pfft, you might be surprised, I suspect they burn it regularly in Provo… ---
**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:** [August 23, 2019, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/47 "2019-08-23T13:22:49Z")
Finished _Conned Again, Watson: Cautionary Tales of Logic, Math, and Probability_, by Colin Bruce. Meh. Now I’m reading _Bunch of Amateurs: Insides America’s Hidden World of Inventors, Tinkerers, and Job Creators_, by Jack Hitt. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/48 "2019-08-23T21:52:53Z")
Finished _Aurora_ by Kim Stanley Robinson last night. Loved the first three quarters but found the ending a bit flat. Not a bad book though and I’ll give him another try next time I go to the library. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/49 "2019-08-23T22:17:32Z")
I am reading, appropriately enough, _The Guns of August_ by Barbara Tuchman. I picked up a copy last month when we were at the WWI museum in Kansas City, but had to finish up a couple of other books I was in the middle of first. ---
**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:** [August 27, 2019, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/50 "2019-08-27T20:19:43Z")
I’m reading history set a bit earlier, David McCullough’s latest book, _The Pioneers_. It’s about the establishment of Marietta and the early settlement of the Ohio Territory in the 1780s. Not his best, but worth a read. I agree with the critics who say that the Indians get short shrift. ---
**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:** [August 29, 2019, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/51 "2019-08-29T12:22:03Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Started today on [The Singularity Trap](https://www.amazon.com/Singularity-Trap-Dennis-Taylor-ebook/dp/B07FBRRL2Z/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1566392207&sr=1-2) by Dennis E. Taylor. I loved his Bobiverse books, but this one’s not taking off as I’d hoped. I’ll persevere a bit further. Well, _The Singularity Trap_ surprisingly did get better and really got its claws into me. I finished it this morning. The only problem I had with it is that it was harder sci-fi than I am accustomed to. The game theory talk and politics was losing me, but there was still enough plot to keep things rolling. Dennis E. Taylor remains firmly on the list of authors I will always pick up. ---
**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:** [August 29, 2019, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/52 "2019-08-29T20:36:18Z")
Finished _Bunch of Amateurs: Insides America’s Hidden World of Inventors, Tinkerers, and Job Creators_, by Jack Hitt, which I enjoyed. The subtitle’s somewhat misleading. It’s mostly about people challenging the established viewpoint or way of doing things. It’s about everything from (among other things) DIY telescopes to Kennewick Man to the 2005 “sightings” of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, which is the best chapter, in my opinion. Started _The Red-Hot Chili Cook-Off_, by Carolyn Brown. ---
**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:** [September 1, 2019, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/53 "2019-09-01T00:28:08Z")
Finished David McCullough’s _The Pioneers_, an account of the founding of Marietta and the early settlement of the Ohio Country, from the 1780s to the Civil War. He discussed the prohibition of slavery, Indian treaties and wars, the development of river travel, and the Burr Conspiracy, among other issues. Mostly interesting, but not his best book. Now I’m listening to an audiobook of _Rocket Ship Galileo_ by Robert A. Heinlein (1947), his first YA novel. A Nobel-finalist astrophysicist and three teenage engineering nerds cobble together a rocket to go to the Moon after the astrophysicist’s employer declines to put any money into the venture, citing the $1.5 million projected cost as too damn much. That was a bookkeeping rounding error for Project Apollo! Heinlein also has a character say (paraphrased here), “Government will never pay to go to the Moon; whoever proposed it would be laughed out of the halls of Congress.” Heinlein was not always perfectly prescient, it seems. ---
**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:** [September 1, 2019, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/54 "2019-09-01T13:11:33Z")
I will get the new thread up today. Yesterday was a busy day and when I got home, I just collapsed and fell asleep. ---
**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:** [September 1, 2019, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/55 "2019-09-01T13:43:51Z")
Finished _The Red-Hot Chili Cook-Off_, by Carolyn Brown, which I enjoyed. Now I’m reading _And It Was Good: Reflections on Beginnings_, by Madeleine L’Engle. ---
**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:** [September 1, 2019, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/56 "2019-09-01T16:27:35Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > I will get the new thread up today. Yesterday was a busy day and when I got home, I just collapsed and fell asleep. Done and done: [https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=881346](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=881346) ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2019, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/57 "2019-09-01T18:54:58Z")
I often find myself grabbing two books that appear to be unrelated, and yetthen finding they have something in common. This month the library did it for me, by virtue of a hold coming up. The theme was “a marsh girl” and the books are _The Marsh King’s Daughter_ by Karen Dionne, and _Where the Crawdads Sing_, by Delia Owens. Four stars to _Marsh King’s Daughter_, wich would have been five except for a plot hole. A woman has disguised her identity and nt even her husband knows that she’s the product of a man who kidnapped her teenaged mother and took her into the marsh and kept her captive for years. He was caught and imprisoned; now he’s broken free, and she knows he’s coming for her. But…he’s her father, he taught her everything she knows about the natural world, and she loves him. It may only be me who senses a plot hole here. The writing was very good and the story was engrossing. _Where the Crawdads Sing_ ought to have a trigger warning on it for excessive poetry. If I wanted bad poetry I would have checked out a poetry book, dammit! The marsh stuff is beautifully described, if you like a lot of description, and felt very authentic. The characters seemed like they had been lifted from various other books and they did not seem authentic. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that I get very annoyed when characters (note: as opposed to people) go around talking out loud to themselves, and even more so when they are quoting “one of her favorite Amanda Hamilton poems.” This one has been on the best-seller list for months so apparently people are quite hungry for cliches to read about. I mean, archetypes. Archetypes. _Marsh King’s Daughter_ is also somewhat thematically linked to another book I’ve just gotten, _Conviction_ by Denise Mina, where a woman has assumed a new identity to conceal things in her past. But that’s a September read for me. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2019, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/58 "2019-09-02T00:58:38Z")
[Stiletto](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25695756-stiletto), second novel in the Checquy[sup]\*[/sup] Files, which started nearly 7 years ago with [The Rook](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10836728-the-rook). I read **The Rook** not long after it came out, and only remember a little about it. He’s done a good job of filling in details you need for following the story and he follows different viewpoint characters, so you don’t need to have read the first one, but it helps a little for orientation and background. If you’ve read any of the [Laundry Files](https://www.goodreads.com/series/50764-laundry-files), you’ll probably like this. Stross writes with a more detailed SF-y feel, but with a similar blend of humor, bloodiness, and WTF-idness. About halfway through, and I’m really liking the fact that he’s making the “bad guys” sympathetic in a realistic way by contrasting their narratives about past conflicts with the “good guys”. I just started [Grit](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27213329-grit), which I picked up at the library due to a now years-old interview on [The Art of Manliness](https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/podcast-210-got-grit/) podcast and a few recommendations from different sources. I remember feeling like luck/privilege got downplayed too much in the interview, so I’m interested in seeing how a book, with presumably more research and depth possible, will handle it. I’d like to believe the message, but I’ll tell you that someone who grew up with scientist parents and was able to attend Harvard for her undergrad degree opining about perseverance as a prerequisite for success makes me a bit dubious.[sup]†[/sup] * * * [sup]\*[/sup]Pronounced /tʃɛki/; from heraldry: checked, chequered [pattern]. Even though I know [buttloads](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butt_(unit)) of archaic words I had to look that one up. [sup]†[/sup]Case in point: Me. It took me nearly 8 years to get just a BA because I had to work my way through school. My income was right at the poverty line that entire time. Spent several years being 1–2 paychecks away from being homeless or starving even while attending CC. Kind of hard to succeed even with both grit and brains when you don’t have enough economic resources to do much more than tread water. If I’d been able to attend Harvard, even with no other opportunities or support, I’m pretty damn sure I’d be making 3x more money and would have at least a Masters if not a PhD. ---
**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:** [September 2, 2019, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/59 "2019-09-02T03:01:32Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > _Where the Crawdads Sing_ ought to have a trigger warning on it for excessive poetry. If I wanted bad poetry I would have checked out a poetry book, dammit! The marsh stuff is beautifully described, if you like a lot of description, and felt very authentic. The characters seemed like they had been lifted from various other books and they did not seem authentic. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that I get very annoyed when characters (note: as opposed to people) go around talking out loud to themselves, and even more so when they are quoting “one of her favorite Amanda Hamilton poems.” This one has been on the best-seller list for months so apparently people are quite hungry for cliches to read about. I mean, archetypes. Archetypes. Oh God… that’s my book club’s choice for next month. Sounds like I’m going to be glad I got it as a freebie on Audible… ---
**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:** [September 2, 2019, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036/60 "2019-09-02T04:05:42Z")
Please note that the September thread is open here: [https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=881346](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=881346) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2019-edition/838036.md?page=2)