# Khadaji's Whatcha Reading Thread - March 2020 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 29, 2020, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690 "2020-02-29T03:07:51Z")\ **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:** [March 4, 2020, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/21 "2020-03-04T13:20:09Z")
I’m currently reading [Stories of Your Life and Others](https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang/dp/1101972122/ref=sr_1_1?crid=NOZI38XORJ31&keywords=ted+chiang+stories+of+your+life+and+others&qid=1583327726&sprefix=ted+chiang%2Caps%2C153&sr=8-1) by Ted Chiang. I think I need to find and read all this guy’s stuff. ---
**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:** [March 4, 2020, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/22 "2020-03-04T16:50:04Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I’m currently reading [Stories of Your Life and Others](https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang/dp/1101972122/ref=sr_1_1?crid=NOZI38XORJ31&keywords=ted+chiang+stories+of+your+life+and+others&qid=1583327726&sprefix=ted+chiang%2Caps%2C153&sr=8-1) by Ted Chiang. I think I need to find and read all this guy’s stuff. Yes, I read that collection too. Some very interesting stuff that stays with you for a long time. Have you seen the sf first-contact drama _Arrival_, based on the title story, yet? ---
**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:** [March 4, 2020, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/23 "2020-03-04T18:13:14Z")
Nope, but it looks like I’ve got a lot to look forward to. 🙂 ---
**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:** [March 4, 2020, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/24 "2020-03-04T18:36:50Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I’m currently reading [Stories of Your Life and Others](https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang/dp/1101972122/ref=sr_1_1?crid=NOZI38XORJ31&keywords=ted+chiang+stories+of+your+life+and+others&qid=1583327726&sprefix=ted+chiang%2Caps%2C153&sr=8-1) by Ted Chiang. I think I need to find and read all this guy’s stuff. I strongly recommend Ted Chiang’s “Seventy-two Letters”. Finished _Annihilation_ by Jeff VanderMeer, which was okay. Now I’m reading _Come Tumbling Down_ by Seanan McGuire. It’s the latest in her Wayward Children series. ---
**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:** [March 4, 2020, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/25 "2020-03-04T19:03:46Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Nope, but it looks like I’ve got a lot to look forward to. 🙂 Excellent movie, I thought, but quite different from the short story. Here’s the trailer (with at least one scene that didn’t make it into the final cut): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFMo3UJ4B4g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFMo3UJ4B4g) Here’s our earlier thread (spoilers ahoy!) contrasting the story with the movie: [https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=810262](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=810262) ---
**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:** [March 5, 2020, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/26 "2020-03-05T03:43:16Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I’m nearing the end of _Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup_ by John Carreyrou, about big money and even bigger scandal at Theranos. It’s pretty good; can’t wait to see the well-deserved collapse of the company… Just finished it; felt a bit rushed at the end. Overall, though, an interesting and worthwhile look at corporate fraud and the difference (mostly for the worst, in this case) a charismatic CEO can make. Next up: _Raylan_ by Elmore Leonard, crime novel about a laconic deputy U.S. marshal (the main character in the show _Justified_) investigating the marijuana trade in Appalachian Kentucky. ---
**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:** [March 5, 2020, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/27 "2020-03-05T23:59:04Z")
Finished _Come Tumbling Down_ by Seanan McGuire. It’s the best novel (well, novella) I’ve read so far this year, and the second best book overall. Now I’m reading \*Mountains Beyond Mountains \*by Tracy Kidder. It’s about Dr. Paul Farmer, who traveled the world providing health care to the poor. ---
**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:** [March 7, 2020, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/28 "2020-03-07T05:57:17Z")
Finished _Gettysburg_, by Stephen W. Sears. Robert E. Lee gets a serious ass-whoopin’ over three days in July 1863. Very good. Gettysburg is the only Civil War battle site the wife and I have toured, eight years ago. I found my direct ancestor’s name on a plaque up on I think it was Little Round Top that listed everyone in his New York outfit. I think the pictures from that trip are all stored in Bangkok, but I plan to do some more research on him. I read _The Killer Angels_, by Michael Shaara, a couple years ago, but this does feel like a good time for a re-read, so that one’s up next. ---
**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:** [March 7, 2020, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/29 "2020-03-07T20:34:43Z")
A fine plan! _Voices of the Civil War: Gettysburg_ (Time-Life Books, Henry Woodhead, ed.) is a good illustrated guide to the battle, too. Then you might want to check out _Gettysburg_, a loose film adaptation of _The Killer Angels_ (with Jeff Daniels as Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, in the role that should have won him an Oscar). ---
**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:** [March 8, 2020, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/30 "2020-03-08T06:13:08Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Then you might want to check out _Gettysburg_, a loose film adaptation of _The Killer Angels_ (with Jeff Daniels as Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, in the role that should have won him an Oscar). Is that the four-hour version from the mid-1990s? If so, we watched that on videotape in Bangkok back in he day. Martin Sheen as Robert E. Lee, yes? I recall the dialogue being rather stilted but the battle scenes excellent. And the Chamberlain scenes really good. I have an especial interest in Chamberlain. A fantastic individual. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/31 "2020-03-08T07:23:10Z")
Michael McDowell’s Blackwater. It’s excellent. ---
**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:** [March 8, 2020, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/32 "2020-03-08T21:35:39Z")
Finished _Mountains Beyond Mountains_ by Tracy Kidder. It’s one of the best books I’ve read this year. Now I’m reading _Briarpatch_, a mystery by Ross Thomas. ---
**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:** [March 8, 2020, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/33 "2020-03-08T21:56:09Z")
After a run of ubergrim books, I read [Turning Darkness Into Light](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41555968-turning-darkness-into-light?from_search=true&qid=NTaQ6v81jA&rank=1). At first I thought it was gonna be too twee, too British-Upper-Crust-Comedy-of-Manners, but it soon got into much more complicated territory and was a delight. I also read [Dragons in a Bag](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33098183-dragons-in-a-bag?from_search=true&qid=I3Zq3oSczF&rank=1) to my first-grader. Very solid middle-grade chapter book fantasy, in which all the humans are people of color living in New York. ---
**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:** [March 9, 2020, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/34 "2020-03-09T04:16:57Z")
I finished Elmore Leonard’s _Raylan_ today and enjoyed it a lot. A laconic, badass deputy U.S. marshal takes on mining bosses, bank robbers, pot dealers and organ-nappers in his home state of Kentucky. Good stuff. I just began Bill Bryson’s _Notes from a Small Island_, about an expatriate American’s thoughts on the U.K. It’s not very funny so far, but I’ll keep at it. > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Is [Gettysburg] the four-hour version from the mid-1990s? If so, we watched that on videotape in Bangkok back in he day. Martin Sheen as Robert E. Lee, yes? I recall the dialogue being rather stilted but the battle scenes excellent. And the Chamberlain scenes really good. I have an especial interest in Chamberlain. A fantastic individual. That’s the one. Sheen was miscast, I think; Robert Duvall makes a much better Lee in _Gods & Generals_ but, alas, that’s a _terrible_ movie. And yes, Chamberlain is a hero of mine - I have a framed photo of him in my office. A polymath citizen-soldier, educator, author and statesman. He’d have been a better President than most of those we had in the decades after the Civil War. ---
**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:** [March 10, 2020, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/35 "2020-03-10T13:04:16Z")
I finished the Brice Campbell autobio **If Chins could Kill: confessions of a B-Grade Actor** , a quick and interesting read by a guy who’s a B-grade actor from a blue-collar background and knows and loves it. It’s interesting to see that he admired _Rocky Horror Picture Show_ at the midnight showings, then ended up co-starring with Tim Curry in _Congo_. (“Yeah,” agreed Curry, “That movie kept a lot of theaters going.”) Now I’m reading Alan Dean Foster’s \*\* For Love of Mother-Not\*\*, the fifth Flinx novel he wrote (although the first, chronologically. I picked up a copy for free, and I’d been mildly curious for years, so I’m finally reading it. It’s an OK read, but on page 54 is a sentence that I think he thought was clever, but which doesn’t belong in a book that isn’t a comedy: > [@](#): > > Flinx stood there for what felt like an eternity, though surely it was not even half that long. I suspect it’s things like that which made James Cameron insist that someone else do the novelization of _The Abyss_. He hated what Foster came up with for _Aliens_.\* I’m almost through it. Next up is a copy of Rex Stout’s _Plot it Yourself_ On audio I finished Horowitz’ **Moriarty**. You could tell something else was going on, because things Didn’t Add Up. And, although Moriarty’s name was on the cover, he hadn’t shown up in flashbacks or something, and you got the feeling he was pulling strings off-camera. Horowitz finally drew back the curtain practically at the end, and I found it unsatisfying. Now I’m listening to **Oliver Twist**. Dickens is iffy. I loved _A Christmas Carol_, which I’ve re-read countless times. I read \* A Tale of Two Cities\* twice. But I loathed _Hard Times_. I read his other Christmas books, but disliked them all. And I couldn’t get into _The Pickwick Papers_ at all. So I was delighted to find that I really do enjoy _Oliver Twist_. It’s not just that I’m familiar with the story. In fact, I think that I like it _despite_ that familiarity, something I found with Stevenson’s _Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde_ – in both cases the writing transcends the dullness of the adaptations of the work. \*Flinx always reminded me of Luke Skywalker – essentially orphaned boy raised by others on a backwater planet in a star-spanning civilization who finds that he has psychic capabilities and has off-beat companions in a place where empires and powerful forces clash. I wasn’t surprised when I learned that Foster was said to have ghosted the novelization of _Star Wars_, and when he wrote the first Star Wars novel, _Splinter of the Mind’s Eye_. (And more recently wrote the novelization of _The Force Awakens_) ---
**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:** [March 10, 2020, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/36 "2020-03-10T17:45:42Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > …I wasn’t surprised when I learned that Foster was said to have ghosted the novelization of _Star Wars_, and when he wrote the first Star Wars novel, _Splinter of the Mind’s Eye_. (And more recently wrote the novelization of _The Force Awakens_) I read the first Flinx book and was underwhelmed, and haven’t read any of the others. I enjoyed his novelization of the original _Star Wars_ and thought \*Splinter \*was a very good sequel, too (although when I re-read it a few years ago I noticed that Luke and Leia were even more clearly on track to become lovers, before Lucas decided they’d be siblings instead). I read several of Foster’s movie novelizations back in the day, including _Dark Star, The Black Hole_ and _Outland_, and thought he did a good job. His novelizations of the _Star Trek_ animated series, several of which go well beyond what actually aired, are excellent - his book based on the episode “The Eye of the Beholder,” in particular (found in _Star Trek: Log Eight_), is one of the best _ST_ books I’ve ever read. His _Icerigger_ trilogy is also clever and a lot of fun. ---
**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:** [March 10, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/37 "2020-03-10T18:33:11Z")
My favorite works of Alan Dean Foster’s (and I’ve read most of the Flinx series and a bunch of his other stuff) are his Mad Amos Weird Western stories. I got the complete edition of them for Christmas and I’ll be reading it later this year. Finished _Briarpatch_, a mystery by Ross Thomas, which I enjoyed. Now I’m reading _The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels_, by Thomas Cahill. ---
**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:** [March 10, 2020, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/38 "2020-03-10T21:29:31Z")
I’ve set aside Bill Bryson’s _Notes from a Small Island_, which just wasn’t that funny and failed my 50-page rule, and have gone on to _Out of Sight_ by Elmore Leonard, a very entertaining crime novel about the unlikely, star-crossed romance between a cop and a fugitive. Now I want to see the George Clooney/J-Lo movie based on it again, too. ---
**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:** [March 11, 2020, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/39 "2020-03-11T12:37:50Z")
Starting today on [The Sun Down Motel](https://www.amazon.com/Sun-Down-Motel-Simone-James/dp/0440000173/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1PZWFUCQ9GMNT&keywords=the+sundown+motel+by+simone+st.+james&qid=1583930133&sprefix=the+sun+down+%2Caps%2C159&sr=8-1), by Simone St. James. She writes ghost stories very well. ---
**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:** [March 11, 2020, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/40 "2020-03-11T16:08:37Z")
I started [The Misbegotten](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16160831-the-misbegotten) by Katherine Webb, and was too disappointed to finish it. This book was as much of a “gimme” as there is – it’s in my favorite genre, and I’ve already read and enjoyed three other books by the author. But it never became more than words on a page to me, so I gave up on it. I just finished [What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21413662-what-if-serious-scientific-answers-to-absurd-hypothetical-questions) by Randall Munroe (of xkcd fame). I had this book on my to-read list for a solid 2.5 years, and kept not picking it up because it sounded like a bunch of short passages that had nothing to do with one another, and I wanted something cohesive. And I am so glad I waited, because the last few weeks have been outrageously busy, and if I ever found time to read, it was only for about 5 minutes at a time, so to have a book with short, disconnected passages that only took five minutes to read was a total godsend. The book was decent, but I would have liked to have seen more variety in terms of the questions posed than there was. I’m about 2/3 of the way done with Neil Gaiman’s [Fragile Things: Short Fiction and Wonders](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16788.Fragile_Things), and I’m impressed with how little filler there is. I’ve read one of his previous short story collections, _Smoke and Mirrors_, and I’ve also read short story collections by enough other authors to know that even with a talented author, collections of short stories tend to be rather like a music album: some hits, some filler. And of course some stories are still better than others, but even the weaker stories in this book are pretty good. Lastly, I started reading [Finding Gobi: The True Story of a Little Dog and an Incredible Journey](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34627187-finding-gobi?from_search=true&qid=vMCzP3mERg&rank=1) by Dion Leonard. I used to go trail running with a friend of mine, and I’d bring my dog along (who is a fabulous runner). My friend recommended this book to me; it’s the story of an ultra-marathoner who comes across a stray dog during a race he’s running and winds up adopting the dog (I think, I just started the book so I’m not sure). After reading the first bit, I find the narrator pretty hard to take: he takes every opportunity to tell you about how talented he is and how much he loves doing better than other people. But I get the impression from the synopsis that coming across the dog inspires some psychological changes in him, so I’m sticking with it in hopes that the narrator will become more bearable as the story goes on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690.md?page=3)