# Khadaji's Whatcha Reading Thread - February 2020 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 30, 2020, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2020-edition/847240 "2020-01-30T19:10:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **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:** [February 22, 2020, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2020-edition/847240/41 "2020-02-22T20:42:45Z")
Finished _The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms_, by N. K. Jemisin. It was excellent–the best novel I’ve read this year so far. Now I’m reading _Restless Creatures: The Story of Life in Ten Movements_, by Matt Wilkinson. ---
**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:** [February 23, 2020, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2020-edition/847240/42 "2020-02-23T05:44:15Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > …Try some Philip Kerr, Lawrence Block, Loren D. Estleman, or Ross Thomas’s _Briarpatch_ (Best novel Edgar Allan Poe award, 1986). > > Or relive the golden days with Hammett, Chandler, and Jonathan Latimer. Please recommend your favorite book by each, or a good book for a first-time reader of each to get started with. ---
**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:** [February 24, 2020, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2020-edition/847240/43 "2020-02-24T01:55:43Z")
Took me a couple of weeks, but I just finished [The Pursuit of William Abbey](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44286477-the-pursuit-of-william-abbey), Claire North’s latest. Damn, this book is grim. It’s set in a hospital next to the trenches during World War I, but if that’s not grim enough, it’s full of flashbacks to British colonial rule in Southern Africa, as well as a host of other horrific locations. Like most of North’s books, it posits one supernatural phenomenon and explores how folks react to, use, and despair of this power. The power, in case you’re curious (it’s revealed pretty quickly in the text, so this is just a spoiler for the first 50-70 pages): There’s a curse you can get, in which the ghost of someone walks toward you, never stopping, no matter how far away you are. When they’re close to you–within a hundred miles or so–you can see the truth in the hearts of everyone around you. When they’re very close, you can’t help but babble that truth constantly. When they reach you, they enter your body and emerge from the heart of the person you love most, killing them, and beginning their walk toward you again. She’s a very, very good writer, and just getting better. But we’re not talking uplifting books full of hope here. ---
**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:** [February 24, 2020, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2020-edition/847240/44 "2020-02-24T03:21:13Z")
I read your spoiler. Yeeesh, that’s spooky! ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2020-edition/847240/45 "2020-02-24T19:49:15Z")
Triggered by Donald Trump Jr. Good book. Also, The Unholy Trinity by Matt Walsh, also great! ---
**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:** [February 25, 2020, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2020-edition/847240/46 "2020-02-25T14:34:39Z")
Finished _Restless Creatures: The Story of Life in Ten Movements_, by Matt Wilkinson. Some of it was too technical for me to understand, but I still enjoyed it, and recommend it to anyone interested in science, particularly evolution. My favorite parts were about how and why plants and animals evolved to live on land. Now I’m reading _Each Tiny Spark_ by Pablo Cartaya. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2020, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2020-edition/847240/47 "2020-02-26T14:33:03Z")
Finished _Each Tiny Spark_ by Pablo Cartaya. Not recommended. Now I’m reading _Uncanny Valley: Adventures in the Narrative_, by Lawrence Weschler. (Note that this is not the book with a similar title, but by Anna Wiener, that was just published.) ---
**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:** [February 26, 2020, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2020-edition/847240/48 "2020-02-26T18:27:42Z")
Taking a break from _Van Gogh_ - what a pushy, annoying pest of a man he often was to family and friends! - to start _Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup_ by John Carreyrou. It’s about a company, Theranos, which tried to develop a cutting-edge medical gadget to test patients’ blood from very small samples and then share the results wirelessly with doctors. Not a bad idea, but the tech eluded them and the CEO, who ran the company almost as a personality cult, resorted to ever-more-elaborate lies to keep venture capitalist dollars flowing. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2020-edition/847240/49 "2020-02-26T22:36:24Z")
I am between books - Lincoln & Childs’ “The Cabinet of Curiosities” and “Still Life with Crows”, which I am waiting for at my library. This all started when I bought their “Book of the Dead” at a used bookstore, as a gamble, having never heard of them before. Anyway, what a freaking blast I’m having with this series. It’s a thriller, cop, mystery series that’s so over the top - sort of like Batman but without costumes. I highly recommend it. ---
**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:** [February 28, 2020, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2020-edition/847240/50 "2020-02-28T13:33:28Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I’m currently reading [The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction](https://www.amazon.com/Wesleyan-Anthology-Science-Fiction/dp/0819569550/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1X1R1FF4DE31R&keywords=wesleyan+anthology+of+science+fiction&qid=1580735750&s=books&sprefix=wesleyan%2Caps%2C152&sr=1-1). I’ll probably have to dip in and out of it, as it’s quite a doorstop and I’ve got other books that will be due back at the library. Whew! Three weeks later, finally finished! (I have very little reading time but still). Anyway, 52 science fiction classics arranged in chronological order, and with short introductions for each one. It was really good. Some I had already read, but they were so good I read them again (such as Bester’s “Fondly Fahrenheit” and Weinbaum’s “A Martian Odyssey”). I won’t try to pick a favorite, but just to mention one I really liked that I hadn’t read before: Sheckley’s “Specialist”. ---
**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:** [February 29, 2020, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2020-edition/847240/51 "2020-02-29T02:59:26Z")
I just finished\* The One\* by John \ **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:** [February 29, 2020, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2020-edition/847240/52 "2020-02-29T03:08:53Z") New Thread: [In like a lion…](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=22164477#post22164477) ---
**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:** [February 29, 2020, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2020-edition/847240/53 "2020-02-29T03:15:05Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > I just finished\* The One\* by John \ **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:** [February 29, 2020, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2020-edition/847240/54 "2020-02-29T15:21:06Z") Finished _Uncanny Valley: Adventures in the Narrative_, by Lawrence Weschler. Well-written essays on a variety of fascinating subjects. Now I’m reading _Naked Came the Florida Man_, by Tim Dorsey. It’s the latest Serge Storms mystery. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2020-edition/847240.md?page=2)