# Khadaji's Whatcha Reading Thread - December 2019 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 1, 2019, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217 "2019-12-01T00:03:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [December 10, 2019, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/21 "2019-12-10T15:01:06Z")
Yeah, I think _Thinner_ was one of the ones originally released under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. ---
**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:** [December 10, 2019, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/22 "2019-12-10T16:01:28Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Yeah, I think _Thinner_ was one of the ones originally released under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. It certainly was. It was published under the Backman name after King’s authorship of earlier Bachman books was revealed, though. As I’ve remarked several times on this Board, there’s a suspicious similarity between _Thinner_ and a Steve Ditko story in one of the Marvel comics from the early 1960s [https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=20580494](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=20580494) [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-316245.html](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-316245.html) > [@](#): > > When I read the novel (published under the Bachmann pseudonym) I immediately saw the similarity to an old story from a comic book. Back in **Journey into Mystery** #62 (pre-Thor), Steve Ditko drew a story based on a script by Stan Lee or Larry Lieber entitled “I Must Find Korumbu!” (It was reprinted in **Fear** #3 in 1971. I lost the first one, but I still have the second. [GCD :: Issue :: Fear #3](http://www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=24099) ) In it, a very fat and arrogant man forces gypsies off the land and endangers them. In response, a gypsy magician curses him so that he starts to lose weight, and finds that he keeps losing it at a disastrous rate. at the end, rail-thin despite constant eating, he searches for the Magician Korumbu (hence the title). The comic story ends with the search. The novel, of course, fills all this out and provides an ending (although not necessarily a satisfying one.) ---
**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:** [December 10, 2019, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/23 "2019-12-10T16:03:13Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Yeah, I think _Thinner_ was one of the ones originally released under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Right you are! ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/24 "2019-12-10T20:03:18Z")
“Never Caught- The Washington’s Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge” by Erica Armstrong Dunbar I just finished this fascinating account of the life of Ona Judge, a slave or “bondwoman”, owned by Martha Custis Washington. While very little is really known about Ona Judge this author, Erica Armstrong Dunbar, has managed to write a very interesting book about her life and her escape from George and Martha Washington. Ona Judge was an enslaved woman born after the marriage of Martha Custis Washington and George Washington. Each party brought approximately 150 slaves to the marriage union. Martha had inherited her slaves from her first husband, who had died. These “dower” slaves would legally remain her separate property even after her marriage to George. Ona Marie Judge was born to one of Martha Washington’s dowers, Betty, and a white Englishman, Andrew Judge, who arrived in the US under an indenture agreement. George Washington bought Andrew Judge’s indenture and Andrew Judge worked at Mount Vernon for a few years alongside Betty, a talented weaver and seamstress. Andrew Judge was a tailor and sewed George’s most well known blue uniform. Ona Marie Judge was unique in that she had both a middle and a last name which was not the norm for slaves and should make tracing her life easier. Being given the last name of “Judge” indicates that Andrew Judge was Ona’s father but since slaves were not generally given last names or taught to read or write, much slave history is handed down orally or by following clues such as those found in naming traditions. Ona Judge became Martha’s body or personal slave and Martha (and George) both took it as a personal affront that she would run away. They just couldn’t understand it. But, from the perspective of a personal or house slave, the work is 24/7, something the Washington’s were so accustomed to that they never seem to have given a thought about it. Slaves who didn’t work and live “in the house” at least had some time off. George and Martha were remarkably callous about the lives of even their most familiar and intimately known slaves, even as they claimed to consider them “a part” of their extended family. For example, George and Martha enjoyed a play and decided to give tickets to the show to a few of their favored slaves to enjoy. The play was a humorous one about two scalliwags who lost had their fortunes and so wanted to marry wealthy women and avoid working. That George and Martha thought their slaves, who could not marry or earn money, would enjoy the show is baffling. As another example, when Ona’s mother Betty died, George wrote “It is happy for old Betty, and her children and friends, that she is taken off life’s stage; her life must have been miserable to herself, and troublesome to all those around her.” Another interesting fact was that George also wanted Ona back so that he wouldn’t have to pay Martha’s estate for her loss. George seemed to always have cash-flow problems. This callousness on the part of the Washington’s to what their slaves might be thinking or feeling is likely what led Ona to escape. Because the law in Philadelphia required all slaves to be set free following 6 months of residency, the Washington’s were careful to take only their most trusted slaves with them there, were forced to take all of their slaves out of the area every 6 months to avoid being required to free them, and also had to hire both black and white staff locally to make up for the loss of help from the hundreds of slaves they already did own. The Washinton’s tried to keep the news of this 6 month legal requirement from their slaves but of course they would have found out from the local hires who often shared sleeping quarters in Philadelphia. Also, Martha Washington planned to give Ona Judge away to her grand daughter as a wedding gift. This granddaughter was “difficult” and was also marrying a man with two “half-breed” children from his time in India, putting Judge at risk of abuse from multiple fronts. (You may have known this already but I did not: female slaves were not allowed to refuse advances from white males. I was shocked at how many slave owners sired children with slaves, the children then becoming slaves themselves. Every new slave added to the slave owner’s wealth even it the child was your own offspring!) There is very very little about the escape itself. It seems it was planned and that Ona sent her things out ahead of time and then just walked away during the brief downtime she had during a Washington family meal (when other slaves were serving). One thing I found frustrating about this book was how often the author had to presume what Ona Judge did, thought, felt, or how she may have acted or reacted to situations in her life. Initially, I was a little suspicious that Dunbar may have taken quite a bit of liberty in telling Judge’s story, but after giving a careful review of the supporting notes, Bibliography, and the list of primary and secondary sources the author used, I think Dunbar has done a credible job of researching and representing Ona Judge if not through actual information but through inference via her research. On the other hand, something seems off to me about this book and I can’t quite put my finger on it. Too often sentences include disqualifiers such as “probably”, “it is unclear but”, “it is likely that”, or “Judge may have thought”, which highlight how little is really known. And I’m confused about some of the citations provided: some clearly state “murky source” or “missing records”, and the two abolitionist news interviews conducted with Ona Judge late in life seem to be attributed to three different authors, two of whom have remarkably similar names and the other two are sometimes identified as “Rev.” and sometimes not. Also the citations skip 14-17 which may just be an editing error (plus a few typos). But overall, this is a highly interesting read from the perspective about the life of one slave to one of America’s most well-known and revered families. Highly recommended! ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/25 "2019-12-11T00:35:14Z")
Bit late to the party (I tend to borrow books first, and if I enjoy them enough to reread them then I will buy them, unless they’re on my Automatic Author List) is [All the Light We Cannot See](https://www.amazon.com/All-Light-We-Cannot-See/dp/1501173219). I am enthralled with the lyrical prose. In one scene, a young girl is eating canned peaches for the first time, and the taste is described as “wet sunlight.” It gave me chills, it was so elegant. ---
**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 12, 2019, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/26 "2019-12-12T22:45:57Z")
Finally finished **The Twisted Ones** by T. Kingfisher… and I gotta say I didn’t really enjoy it. It was too much of nothing happening for my taste. I have read about four other books while I’ve been reading 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:** [December 12, 2019, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/27 "2019-12-12T23:35:05Z")
Finished _The Mammoth Book of Awesome Comic Fantasy_, edited by Mike Ashley. I only liked a few of the stories (some of which were SF, not fantasy), but the ones I did enjoy made plowing through the rest of them worth it. My favorite was probably “Broadway Barbarian”, by Cherith Baldry, which is basically Conan the Barbarian meets Damon Runyan. Now I’m reading _Latitude: How American Astronomers Solved the Mystery of Variation_, by Bill Carter and Merri Sue Carter. ---
**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:** [December 13, 2019, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/28 "2019-12-13T14:40:32Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > Finally finished **The Twisted Ones** by T. Kingfisher… and I gotta say I didn’t really enjoy it. It was too much of nothing happening for my taste. I have read about four other books while I’ve been reading it… Aw, rats! Sorry to hear that. 🙂 ---
**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 14, 2019, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/29 "2019-12-14T02:56:09Z")
Yeah. Well that’s how it goes hmm? Some things grab you and some don’t. 🙂 ---
**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:** [December 16, 2019, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/30 "2019-12-16T00:16:09Z")
Finished _Latitude: How American Astronomers Solved the Mystery of Variation_, by Bill Carter and Merri Sue Carter. Meh. Now I’m reading _The Family Under the Bridge_, by Natalie Savage Carlson. ---
**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:** [December 16, 2019, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/31 "2019-12-16T15:55:24Z")
Finally finished _Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts_. I liked the characters, liked the premise of a city-wide scavenger hunt for a dead man’s fortune, but in the end, I don’t think the author pulled this one off. There were too many coincidences, too many improbabilities. The game didn’t have any rules, and there was never any doubt about who would win anyway. There was one point in the story when a clue was an actual thing of value, and supposedly each player who discovered this clue took only their share and left the remainder…No. Not on my planet. :dubious: So anyway, it was just okay. I liked some of the pop culture references as well, notably a mention of William Sleator. I think this would have worked a lot better if the author had removed the small amount of bad language and sex, and marketed this as young adult. Now I’m about halfway through [Lock Every Door](https://www.amazon.com/Lock-Every-Door-Riley-Sager/dp/1524745146/ref=sr_1_1?crid=WHWA17NIZKUY&keywords=lock+every+door+riley+sager&qid=1576511454&sprefix=lock+every+%2Caps%2C150&sr=8-1) by Riley Sager, a novel about a girl who takes a suspiciously well-paying job house-sitting in a historic luxury apartment building. It’s entertaining enough to keep going, but the main character is a ninny and a blabbermouth and I’m rooting for her to get killed. Is that wrong? 😃 ---
**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:** [December 17, 2019, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/32 "2019-12-17T00:39:41Z")
Finished _The Family Under the Bridge_, by Natalie Savage Carlson. Turns out it was set at Christmas time, which I hadn’t realized. It was okay. Now I’m reading _Mythbusters: The Explosive Truth Behind 30 of the Most Perplexing Urban Legends of All Time_, by Keith and Kent Zimmerman, with Jamie Hyneman, Adam Savage, and Peter Rees. ---
**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:** [December 17, 2019, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/33 "2019-12-17T03:08:45Z")
Just finished [Blackfish City](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35068768-blackfish-city). It feels a bit like an updated **Neuromancer** : dystopian city corporate cyberpunk, updated with a climate-catastrophe background and non-cishet protagonists. Very solid science fiction, but not groundbreaking. Next up: [Magic for Liars](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34594037-magic-for-liars?from_search=true&qid=0MYRjXx6ds&rank=1). There’s a murder at Hogwarts/Brakebills, and Hermione’s muggle sister, a self-hating alcoholic PI, is hired to investigate. Names are approximate. So far it’s pretty fun, and made me realize that while I can’t stand a sad-sack protagonist, I’m totally fine if the protagonist is a fuckup. ---
**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:** [December 17, 2019, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/34 "2019-12-17T04:38:20Z")
Just started _Between the World and Me_ by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a memoir by a black intellectual, seething with anger and steeped in sorrow. I can only imagine what he must have gone through in order to write a book like this. ---
**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:** [December 17, 2019, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/35 "2019-12-17T14:33:33Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Just started _Between the World and Me_ by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a memoir by a black intellectual, seething with anger and steeped in sorrow. I can only imagine what he must have gone through in order to write a book like this. I read this book while married to a police officer who worked in Prince George’s County. As I was reading, I would bring up the incidents/horror stories mentioned in the book and see if he had a different perspective to offer. But all he did was confirm the accuracy of the incidents described in this book. The county has made deliberate efforts to improve public outreach and nurture healthier relationships between the officers and citizens, and it’s definitely better now than it was. But as I was reading, it was very difficult to reconcile the “family” I was a part of with the brutality I was reading about. ---
**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:** [December 17, 2019, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/36 "2019-12-17T14:38:36Z")
Yes, he just mentioned PG County, noting the irony of it having a substantial black middle-class population and many elected black officials, but a notoriously aggressive and violent police department. ---
**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:** [December 18, 2019, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/37 "2019-12-18T21:19:04Z")
Finished _Mythbusters: The Explosive Truth Behind 30 of the Most Perplexing Urban Legends of All Time_, by Keith and Kent Zimmerman, with Jamie Hyneman, Adam Savage, and Peter Rees, which I enjoyed. My favorite episode from the book was when they found out if it was possible to water ski while being pulled by an eight-man crew team. Yes. Now I’m reading _Dream Houses_, a science fiction novella by Genevieve Valentine. ---
**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:** [December 19, 2019, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/38 "2019-12-19T12:28:50Z")
Finished Poul Anderson’s **Trader to the Stars**. Now I’m starting Alan Steele’s **Tranquility Alternative** , an alternate history novel in which, it appears, the Germans did construct an Amerika Bomber, only it was a space plane, which the US countered with its own model, thus accelerating the space race, leading to military bases on the moon. Looks good so far. I’m over halfway through the second **Annotated Lovecraft** \* On audio, I’m almost done re-reading Cussler’s **Piranha** , and I still haven’t found another one to read. \*actually, this is either the fourth or the sixth book to be labeled “annotated Lovecraft”, depending on how you count them. This is the second Klinger annotated edition. ---
**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:** [December 19, 2019, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/39 "2019-12-19T19:28:07Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Finished Poul Anderson’s **Trader to the Stars**. Now I’m starting Alan Steele’s **Tranquility Alternative** , an alternate history novel in which, it appears, the Germans did construct an Amerika Bomber, only it was a space plane, which the US countered with its own model, thus accelerating the space race, leading to military bases on the moon. Looks good so far… I read that back in the late Nineties and enjoyed it. I remember he refers to Robert F. Kennedy as having been the President who authorized the U.S. military’s moonbase. Just finished _Between the World and Me_ by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Good Lord, what an angry, bitter memoir - but understandably, I guess, given his hard-knock life and his distrustful worldview. I’m now re-reading the dystopic sf novel _Logan’s Run_ by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson for the first time in decades. It hasn’t aged well, and the writing is bit amateurish at times, but it has some interesting bits. ---
**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:** [December 19, 2019, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217/40 "2019-12-19T22:54:07Z")
Finished _Dream Houses_ by Genevieve Valentine. Well written, very intense SF/Horror. Started _Smile_ by Raina Tegemeier. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-december-2019-edition/844217.md?page=3)