# Khadaji's Whatcha Reading Thread--July 2019 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 30, 2019, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312 "2019-06-30T22:00:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [July 17, 2019, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/41 "2019-07-17T04:03:40Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > For fiction, I’m making my way through Dickens’s _Bleak House_. Overly sentimental of course when viewed through a modern lens, and overly long–hey Charles, not everything has to be described in six paragraphs. But he is so good at characterization, and so good at dialogue, and so pointed in his satire… Exactly where the plot is going and which of the four hundred and fifty-eight characters he’s introduced will end up being important remains to be seen, but for now I’m enjoying the ride. And does my Lady Dedlock have a skeleton or two in her closet, and an unacknowledged daughter associated with the Jarndyce case? Well, we shall see… I remember seeing the PBS adaptation back in the 80s, I believe, it was in my parents place so before 86 and after Raiders came out because it had Deholm Elliot in it, which was the reason I watched it. I remember enjoying the satire and the end, which I won’t spoil and feeling a great deal of satisfaction for the happiness of a couple characters… everything else is blank 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/42 "2019-07-17T16:56:25Z")
Not familiar with that actor, but thanks for the recommendation (and for not spoiling:)). If I ever make it through the novel (I’m thinking it may take me longer to read it than it took CD to write it) I may look into it! Appreciate 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:** [July 18, 2019, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/43 "2019-07-18T18:27:11Z")
Finished _The Control of Nature_, by John McPhee. Fascinating stuff about how governments coped with Mississippi River floods, an eruption in Iceland, and landslides in California. One of the best books I’ve read this year. Now I’m reading _Good Enough to Eat_, a novel by Stacey Ballis. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/44 "2019-07-18T19:14:54Z")
I am reading **I Like to Watch** a collection of essays by TV writer Emily Nussbaum. I discovered her on Twitter and like her and her writing so I bought her book. It is mostly republished essays but they are new to me mostly at least so far. Even the ones about shows do not watch are interesting. Concurrently I am reading the Core Rule Book for Star Trek Adventures. I am a weirdo who reads RPG source books for games I will probably never play for fun (I have over a dozen GURPs rule books and have never once played it). It is not cheap but if you are a Star Trek fan it is a fun read. Lots of info about the setting. ---
**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:** [July 18, 2019, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/45 "2019-07-18T19:43:13Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > Finished _The Control of Nature_, by John McPhee. Fascinating stuff about how governments coped with Mississippi River floods, an eruption in Iceland, and landslides in California. One of the best books I’ve read this year. > > . I especially like the section where he goes into detail about how the earthquakes, forest fires, the characteristic California flora, and floods and mudslides are all connected in a web of causality that newcomers are completely unaware of. I’d always wondered why there always seemed to be such devastating wildfires in Southern California, and what those weird wide cement basins that the LA river and other watercourses were for (they show up in a lot of movies – **Grease** , **Buckaroo Banzai** , **Terminator 2** , etc.). It’s all the same cycle, which could arguably be much better managed than it is now. ---
**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:** [July 18, 2019, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/46 "2019-07-18T19:45:33Z")
I finished McCulloch’s **the Pioneers** , then read **Amusement Park Rides** by Martin Easdown. I’m now reading **Heinlein’s Children** , a commentary on and dissection of the Juvenile Novels of Robert Heinlein, written by Joseph T. Major. On audio, I’m re-listening to James Loewen’s **Lies my Teacher Told Me**. The section on how kids don’t learn from the examples of Nixon’s and Reagan’s reaches (Watergate, Iran/Contra), and how that might lead to greater abuses of power in the future seems particularly relevant now. ---
**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:** [July 18, 2019, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/47 "2019-07-18T23:33:23Z")
Found this article today, thought it might be interesting to some of you: The Tao of Sir Terry: Pratchett and Political Philosophy J.R.H. Lawless > **[The Tao of Sir Terry: Pratchett and Political Philosophy](https://www.tor.com/2019/07/15/the-tao-of-sir-terry-pratchett-and-political-philosophy/?utm_source=exacttarget&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_term=tordotcom-tordotcomnewsletter&utm_content=na-readblog-blogpost&utm_campaign=tordotcom&e=9cd88fe9510331942f0c5a130661a85f8c2ad8c61ebf5ccacf6fc45ec2cdf345)** > > “It wasn’t that the city was lawless. It had plenty of laws. It just didn’t offer many opportunities not to break them.” —Night Watch (2002) In the Discworld series, Ankh-Morpork is the Ur-city, of… ---
**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:** [July 22, 2019, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/48 "2019-07-22T12:29:37Z")
This week I’m reading [Lessons From Lucy: The Simple Joys of an Old Happy Dog](https://www.amazon.com/Lessons-Lucy-Simple-Joys-Happy/dp/1501161156/ref=sr_1_1?crid=37FS93PD720ZJ&keywords=lessons+from+lucy&qid=1563798285&s=books&sprefix=lessons%2Caps%2C140&sr=1-1), by Dave Barry. He can still surprise a laugh out of me. I enjoyed the chapter about the Rock Bottom Remainders; never knew that Warren Zevon had played with them! ---
**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:** [July 22, 2019, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/49 "2019-07-22T12:40:03Z")
Finished **Heinlein’s Children** over the weekend, now on to Stephen Silverman’s **The Amusement Park: 900 Years of Thrills and Spills**. I also have the copy of **Gilgamesh** I picked up several weeks ago as backup. On audio, I finished re-reading **Lies my Teacher Told Me** and am now listening to a collection of the works of **Mark Twain**. ---
**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:** [July 22, 2019, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/50 "2019-07-22T14:41:47Z")
I just finished [Westside](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/39937623), a weird noir urban fantasy set in early-20th-century New York. The prose owes a lot to Raymond Chandler, the setting to **The City and the City**. Overall I enjoyed it, but I don’t think it’s gonna revolutionize the genre or anything. Still, it’s nice to read urban fantasy that isn’t set in London. ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/51 "2019-07-22T14:42:46Z")
Just started **Licence Renewed** by John Gardner. It’s the first in the James Bond book series written by Gardner in the 80’s and 90’s. I’ve read all the original Fleming books, and **Colonel Sun** by “Robert Markham” (which was the only book in a planned series of ghostwritten Bond books after Fleming’s death), but never any of the Gardner books. ---
**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:** [July 22, 2019, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/52 "2019-07-22T14:53:49Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > …I’ve now started _Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship_ by Jon Meacham, a joint bio of the WWII leaders. A lot of familiar stuff here, but some that’s new to me. Just finished it. It starts out slow and clunky - for awhile I thought it would just be one quotation or diary excerpt after another, with hardly any original content by Meacham himself - but eventually he begins to actually tell the story, and it gets much better. I was surprised to learn that, in the last week or so before he died in April 1945, FDR, mindful of his ill health and waning skills, talked to friends about resigning in 1946 once the United Nations was up and running. It would’ve been the first presidential resignation, had it happened. The section on FDR’s death, and Churchill’s reaction, was quite touching. Next up: Robert Parker’s 1982 Spenser novel, _Ceremony_, in which the smartass Boston PI goes looking for a teenage runaway who may have turned to prostitution. ---
**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:** [July 22, 2019, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/53 "2019-07-22T14:56:38Z")
> [@Jet\_Jaguar](#): > > Just started **Licence Renewed** by John Gardner. It’s the first in the James Bond book series written by Gardner in the 80’s and 90’s. I’ve read all the original Fleming books, and **Colonel Sun** by “Robert Markham” (which was the only book in a planned series of ghostwritten Bond books after Fleming’s death), but never any of the Gardner books. License Renewed isn’t bad, but the next couple of books decline in quality, IMHO, with _Icebreaker_ being the worst Bond novel written by anyone (including Christopher Wood). He got better after that, with some of the next books being pretty good, before he drifted off into “phoning it in” territory. The Raymond Benson books revived the series at first, but then he got boring, too. For my money, the two recent effects by Sebastian Faulks (_Devil May Care_) and Anthony Horowitz (_Trigger Mortis_), being set at the time of the original novels, capture the spirit and form of the “Classic” Bond best. (I haven’t read Horowitz’ second Bond effort , _Forever and a Day_, yet.) ---
**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:** [July 22, 2019, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/54 "2019-07-22T15:03:56Z")
Finished _Good Enough to Eat_, a novel by Stacey Ballis. Meh. Now I’m reading _Best. State. Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland_, by Dave Barry. ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/55 "2019-07-22T17:10:26Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > License Renewed isn’t bad, but the next couple of books decline in quality, IMHO, with _Icebreaker_ being the worst Bond novel written by anyone (including Christopher Wood). He got better after that, with some of the next books being pretty good, before he drifted off into “phoning it in” territory. > > The Raymond Benson books revived the series at first, but then he got boring, too. > > For my money, the two recent effects by Sebastian Faulks (_Devil May Care_) and Anthony Horowitz (_Trigger Mortis_), being set at the time of the original novels, capture the spirit and form of the “Classic” Bond best. (I haven’t read Horowitz’ second Bond effort , _Forever and a Day_, yet.) How are the movie novelizations that Gardner wrote? I know he did a couple, are they worth reading? I don’t normally read novelizations, but may if they add something to the story. ---
**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:** [July 22, 2019, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/56 "2019-07-22T17:26:56Z")
> [@Jet\_Jaguar](#): > > How are the movie novelizations that Gardner wrote? I know he did a couple, are they worth reading? I don’t normally read novelizations, but may if they add something to the story. They’re OK. I’d heard that they were originally going to base the second Dalton movie – _License to Kill_ – on Gardner’s _License Renewed_, but that clearly didn’t happen. Nevertheless, Gardner did write a novelization of the film (the first Bond film novelization, AFAIK, since Christopher Wood’s _James Bond and Moonraker_) which did add to the material in the film (for instance, he observes that REAL Stinger missiles wouldn’t miss their targets once locked on – these ones the Bad Guys used must have been training missiles lacking target lock). Gardner also did a novelization for _Goldeneye_, but I can’t recall it at the moment. Raymond Benson then “novelized” _Tomorrow Never Dies_, _The World is Not Enough_, and _Die Another Day_, which was not only his last novelization, but the last one done for any Bond film to date. Benson adapted from the screenplays, and left in material that was cut from the movies, as well as filling in some background on his own. AFAIK, nobody did any novelizations for the Daniel Craig films. Penguin Books did issue a collection of Fleming’s Bond short stories at the time of the film’s release with “Quantum of Solace” in big letters at the top. (They could’ve done this with _For Your Eyes Only_ and had a pretty good tie-in, but I don’t think they did). ---
**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:** [July 23, 2019, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/57 "2019-07-23T05:16:28Z")
Finished _The Black Dahlia_, by James Ellroy. A fictional, noir account of the infamous Black Dahlia murder in Los Angeles in January 1947. Ellroy’s own mother would similarly be brutally murdered by an unknown killer in Los Angeles 11 years after the Dahlia, a fact that attracted him to the subject. The first installment in Ellroy’s LA Quintet. It did not take me long to remember that I had actually read _The Black Dahlia_ two or three decades ago. I had completely forgotten. But I did not remember how it turned out, so it still felt sort of fresh. Next up is _The Big Nowhere_, more LA noir from James Ellroy. The second of his LA Quartet. ---
**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:** [July 23, 2019, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/58 "2019-07-23T05:34:12Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Finished _The Black Dahlia_, by James Ellroy. A fictional, noir account of the infamous Black Dahlia murder in Los Angeles in January 1947. Ellroy’s own mother would similarly be brutally murdered by an unknown killer in Los Angeles 11 years after the Dahlia, a fact that attracted him to the subject. The first installment in Ellroy’s LA Quintet. It did not take me long to remember that I had actually read _The Black Dahlia_ two or three decades ago. I had completely forgotten. But I did not remember how it turned out, so it still felt sort of fresh. > > Next up is _The Big Nowhere_, more LA noir from James Ellroy. The second of his LA Quartet. To add: I am sure I have not ready any of the other LA Quintet installments. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/59 "2019-07-23T13:42:45Z")
I just did a reread of **Dune** and now I’m onto **A Hypnotist’s Love Story** by Liane Moriarty. She writes these suburban suspense stories ( **Big Little Lies** was adapted for HBO) and she is quite good at twists and turns and sucking you in. ---
**Author:** ![Panther\_Modern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac8455/32.png) [@Panther\_Modern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panther_Modern)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312/60 "2019-07-23T14:12:12Z")
I’m reading Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves as part of a break in my ongoing trek to read all the books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. I recently finished the A Clash of Kings, with A Storm of Swords on deck. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2019-edition/836312.md?page=4)