# 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:** 3
**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 11, 2020, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/41 "2020-03-11T18:36:27Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > …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 read that a few years ago and really enjoyed it, despite the occasional authorial smugness that seemed to come through. ---
**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 12, 2020, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/42 "2020-03-12T18:31:33Z")
Finished _The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels_, by Thomas Cahill, which I thought was interesting. Now I’m reading _The Intuitionist_, by Colson Whitehead. ---
**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 14, 2020, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/43 "2020-03-14T23:15:03Z")
Finished _The Intuitionist_, by Colson Whitehead. It was excellent. I’m going to recommend it to the SF book club I’m in. Now I’m reading _Ex Libris G. K. Chesterton_, compiled by Dale Ahlquist. ---
**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 14, 2020, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/44 "2020-03-14T23:16:06Z")
Finished _The Intuitionist_, by Colson Whitehead. It was excellent. I’m going to recommend it to the SF book club I’m in. Now I’m reading _Ex Libris G. K. Chesterton_, compiled by Dale Ahlquist. ---
**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 15, 2020, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/45 "2020-03-15T04:27:41Z")
Two of my favorite bio items about Chesterton. He traveled extensively, speaking to various audiences. From Wiki:_He had a tendency to forget where he was supposed to be going and miss the train that was supposed to take him there. It is reported that on several occasions he sent a telegram to his wife Frances from an incorrect location, writing such things as “Am in Market Harborough. Where ought I to be?” to which she would reply, “Home.”_ He became quite large later in life. _P. G. Wodehouse once described a very loud crash as “a sound like G. K. Chesterton falling onto a sheet of tin.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/46 "2020-03-15T14:46:49Z")
I finally went back and reengaged with “The Pioneers”, which is about the settling of Ohio (primarily Marietta) and the path to statehood. A good history, well researched, but it took me a bit to get into it. Next up is **The Children’s Blizzard** , by David Laskin. It’s the story of the devastating blizzard of 1888. It was the worst in U.S. history, killing 400 people, dumping huge amounts of snow and delivering record below zero temps in places that never get that cold. 200 people died in NYC alone, most of them buried in drifts and dying of exposure. ---
**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:** [March 16, 2020, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/47 "2020-03-16T00:04:01Z")
Different blizzards, though the same winter. The one that hit NYC (and other places along the NE seaboard) was in March. The Children’s Blizzard, which primarily hit the Dakotas, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa, was in January. That’s the one that’s the subject of the Laskin book, which is grim but quite good. ---
**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 16, 2020, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/48 "2020-03-16T12:58:45Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > 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. This is not going as well for me as I had hoped. The point-of-view switches between two characters each chapter. These two characters are working at the same job in the same place, dealing with a lot of the same people and issues, so I’m constantly getting confused. It’s okay though. Over the weekend, I read [Project 333: the minimalist fashion challenge that proves less really is so much more](https://www.amazon.com/Project-333-Minimalist-Fashion-Challenge/dp/0525541454/ref=sr_1_1?crid=N3A35CB3SXN4&keywords=project+333&qid=1584363297&s=books&sprefix=project+333%2Caps%2C149&sr=1-1) by Courtney Carver. She blogs about simplifying life in many ways, but this book focuses on wardrobe, and the challenge is to wear only 33 items of clothing for three months. I don’t know that I’m going along with her whole deal here, but reading the book did at least get me to purge some of my old clothes. I also picked out approximately 33 items to wear and put the rest away for now, so we’ll see how that goes. ---
**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 16, 2020, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/49 "2020-03-16T14:16:54Z")
Finished _Ex Libris G. K. Chesterton_, compiled by Dale Ahlquist. I’ve read all of the Father Brown mysteries, and I liked this collection of quotes from his other books and writings as a journalist. Now I’m reading _Record of a Spaceborn Few_, by Becky Chambers. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/50 "2020-03-17T00:46:46Z")
_ **Dark Towers; Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction** _ by David Enrich. I heard the author being interviewed on PBS and decided to pickup the book. It’s not bad, but doesn’t live up to it’s title, IMHO. Mostly it’s how Deutsche Bank got greedy, hired less than scrupulous traders and got caught. Part of my problem is that sometimes the story moves too fast, it’s hard understanding the complex economic hocus-pocus when after 10 pages or so we move on to a new story and a mostly new cast of characters. The author also decided to feature as a main character a young man who had a miserable childhood, is unable to commit to anything, uses drugs heavily, hacks his mom’s computers and uses her credit cards illegally (albeit the family is a mess). And the info he provides is not all that critical, IMHO. So…if you want an idea how a Mega-bank manages to screw up in this day and age, it’s OK. But if you’re looking to bust Trump or really understand how the mega-banks screw with us, maybe try something else. IMHO as always. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/51 "2020-03-17T05:23:49Z")
For entertainment, [Death’s Door: An Alastair Stone Novel](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52296380-death-s-door) by our very own **Infovore**. Less entertaining. The Windows Server 2019 MCSA study guide. ---
**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 19, 2020, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/52 "2020-03-19T18:56:06Z")
Finished _Record of a Spaceborn Few_, by Becky Chambers. It was very good. Now I’m reading _Child of the Dream: A Memoir of 1963_, by Sharon Robinson. (She’s the daughter of Jackie Robinson.) ---
**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 20, 2020, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/53 "2020-03-20T18:14:17Z")
Started today on [Qualityland](https://www.amazon.com/Qualityland-Marc-Uwe-Kling/dp/1538732963/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1584727221&sr=1-1) by Marc Uwe-Kling, a novel about a futuristic society in which everyone’s lives are determined by their assigned rank, and a poor schlub named Peter Jobless who decides to fight the system. Pretty good so far. ---
**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 20, 2020, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/54 "2020-03-20T22:44:31Z")
Finished _Child of the Dream: A Memoir of 1963_, by Sharon Robinson, which was okay. Now I’m reading _Goddess of the Green Room_, by Jean Plaidy, which is a fictionalized biography of Dorothy Jordan, an 18th century actress. ---
**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 21, 2020, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/55 "2020-03-21T21:40:54Z")
Finished _The Killer Angels_, by Michael Shaara. Excellent book. I definitely got more out of it this time around, reading it like I did right after Stephen Sears’ _Gettysburg_. Next up is _Company of Liars_, by Karen Maitland. A medieval mystery set at the advent of the Black Death in England in 1348. “Nine travelers. Nine secrets, One by one, their stories unfold. Who is the liar”? I’ve read a couple other of her medieval novels, and she’s pretty good. ---
**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 23, 2020, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/56 "2020-03-23T00:36:33Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I’ve …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… I finished it and really enjoyed it. In recent weeks I’ve re-read Asimov’s _Foundation_ and _Foundation and Empire_ for the first time in many years, and have now gone on to _Second Foundation_. Big ideas, fascinating worlds-building, terrific premise, but cardboard characters and less-than-convincing dialogue. Still worth it. I’m now about two-thirds of the way through the giant Van Gogh bio I mentioned earlier. Not a page-turner, by any means, but certainly a very detailed and well-researched look at his mostly-depressing life. ---
**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 23, 2020, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/57 "2020-03-23T19:45:09Z")
Finished _Goddess of the Green Room_, by Jean Plaidy. It was interesting, like all of her books in this series. Now I’m reading _Monster She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction_, by Lisa Kroger and Melanie R. Anderson ---
**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 23, 2020, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/58 "2020-03-23T19:46:39Z")
For the last few weeks, I’ve been listening to an audiobook in the car. It’s second in the Bloody Jack YA series, [The Curse of the Blue Tattoo](https://www.amazon.com/Curse-Blue-Tattoo-Bloody-Jack/dp/B001BSJHT0/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3ADOSSZKOPPYO&keywords=curse+of+the+blue+tattoo&qid=1584992456&s=books&sprefix=the+curse+of+the+blue+tattoo%2Caps%2C155&sr=1-1) by L.A. Meyer. The Mary Sue-ness (and idiocy) of the main character is getting on my nerves to the point where I am talking back to the book (totally normal, yes?) but at the same time, I need to find out what happens next. And Katherine Kellgren, who performs the audiobook, is beyond amazing. ---
**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 23, 2020, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/59 "2020-03-23T23:12:00Z")
Recently I read the following: **Plot it Yourself** by Rex Stout. A Nero Wolfe mystery. I think I may have read this one quite a while ago – it seems familiar – but if so I forgot the plot. Nero Wolfe is almost always a good read **A Matter for Men** by David Gerrold. I’d wanted to read this one for a long time. It’s the first volume of his _War Against the Chtorr_ series, all of which are thick bricks of books with alliterative titles – this one’s followed by _A Day for Damnation_, _A Rage for Revenge_, and _A Season for Slaughter_. He’s written but not released (even after over four years!) _A Nest for Nightmares_, and the last volume is supposed to be _A Method for Madness_. Hmmm. a series of really thick genre books with four-word alliterative titles and the last books never seem to come out. I wonder if this is where George R. R. Martin got the idea? In any event, I’m not in a hurry to read the others. Gerrold seemed to be trying to out-Heinlein Heinlein with his version of _Starship Troopers_, only his version is more depressingly real, with officers who aren’t perfect saints, mendacity, and officers who really ARE trying to kill some of their own men. At which point I realized that he’d actually taken the opposite point of view from Heinlein’s, but went too far the other way. I’ll take Joe Haldeman’s _Forever War_ over those two extremes. I just finished up Richard Snow’s **Disney’s Land** , a fascinating chronicle of the conception and construction of Disneyland through 1959. My wife got it for me because it’s sort of like my Wonderland book, but goes into much more detail about the people who built the park. I’d have loved to have done the same, but none of Wonderland’s builders wrote memoirs about the experience, so I had to cobble it together from secondhand sources. Snow is a Popular Historian, and his book looks at both the Park and its builders with historical perspective, which other books I’ve read about this don’t. An interesting book. Next up, I’ve got a whole stack to choose from. I pulled out an Ace Double, both halves of which are by Fritz Leiber – **Night Monsters** and **The Green Millennium**. The green cat head on the Green Millennium side at a quick glance looks like Baby Yoda – [http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/images/2/24/TGMNM1969.jpg](http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/images/2/24/TGMNM1969.jpg) On audio I’m getting close to the end of **Oliver Twist**. I’m still enjoying it. Had I been commuting in to work every day I’d have finished it by now. Not sure what’s up next – the libraries are closed, so I have to fall back on my collections. ---
**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 24, 2020, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690/60 "2020-03-24T04:25:07Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > …I’ll take Joe Haldeman’s _Forever War_ over those two extremes… You might also like John Scalzi’s _Old Man’s War_, another excellent military sf novel, although he doesn’t take himself as seriously as either Heinlein or Haldeman. Haldeman’s short story “A Separate War,” in the collection _A Separate War and Other Stories_, is also a very interesting take on _The Forever War_, told from the perspective of Marygay Potter. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2020-edition/848690.md?page=4)