# Khadaji's Whatcha Reading Thread - May 2020 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 1, 2020, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990 "2020-05-01T16:31:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [May 1, 2020, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/1 "2020-05-01T16:31:43Z")
May first! Here we are …reading in quarantine. For those of you who are essential workers, please continue to take care of yourselves and even though the government and your employers don’t appreciate you, those of us in need of groceries, medical help, a hamburger and so on, certainly DO appreciate you. I started to clear my Goodreads Currently Reading list last month… and then ended up adding to it instead 😃 At the moment, I am actively reading: **In the Garden of Beasts** by Erik Larson. I think, I would enjoy the book more if he hadn’t chosen to focus on Martha Dodd and her involvement with the men of the Nazi Party. She’s spoiled, selfish, shallow and not terribly interesting, but I will crack on and get through the whole book eventually. **Wraith Hunter** by Clara Coulson. Urban fantasy, snarky hero and all sorts of shenanigans, just what I need to distract me from adulthood at the moment. ```auto Khadaji was one of the earlier members of SDMB, and he was well-known as a kindly person who always had something encouraging to say, particularly in the self improvement threads. He was also a voracious, omnivorous reader, who started these threads way back in the Stone Age of the early 2000s. Consequently when he suddenly and quite unexpectedly passed away in 2013, we decided to rename this thread in his honor and to keep his memory, if not his ghost, alive. ``` ---
**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:** [May 1, 2020, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/2 "2020-05-01T16:37:28Z")
April thread:[I’m ready for flowers and sunshine thanks](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=22281152#post22281152) ---
**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:** [May 1, 2020, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/3 "2020-05-01T17:22:29Z")
Finished _The River Bank: A Sequel to The Wind in the Willows_, by Kij Johnson. It was okay. Now I’m reading _The Planets_, by Dava Sobel. ---
**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:** [May 1, 2020, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/4 "2020-05-01T17:46:19Z")
Well, I’m not doing a whole lot of reading at the moment. My library is still closed, Amazon hasn’t come through with my new Stephen King, and the contents of the nearby Little Free Library can be best summed up as “blech!” I’m on the verge of petulant whining and stamping my feet. In my very limited reading time, I’m trudging through David Hartwell’s The Dark Descent, which has a good mix of horror stories I’ve read a hundred times and stories I don’t remember reading at all. I say trudging, but it’s actually a very good collection. I’m just going slowly because when I get done I’ll be about ready to have a full-on spoiled temper tantrum. I’m going to look around this weekend and see if I can find some contributions to class up that Little Free box. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2020, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/5 "2020-05-01T19:07:27Z")
The Richest Man Who Ever Lived:The Life and Times of Jacob Fugger by Greg Steinmetz Jacob Fugger was a textile merchant in Augsburg Germany in the 16th century. Through trading and by lending to kings, especially the Holy Roman Emperors, he amassed an enormous fortune. Mildly interesting history. ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2020, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/6 "2020-05-01T19:17:09Z")
I stayed up entirely too late one night to finish Scalzi’s The Last Emperox. On the whole, I enjoyed it and was completely surprised by the ending. Not entirely sure what’s up next. I just got N.K. Jemisen’s The City We Became, but may borrow something fluffy from my kid first. ---
**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:** [May 1, 2020, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/7 "2020-05-01T19:41:55Z")
**The Pale-Faced Lie** - David Crow A truly horrifying autobiography by a Cherokee Native who grew up in the 60s in a dysfunctional home with a brutal father and a mother with mental issues. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2020, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/8 "2020-05-01T19:48:12Z")
I just started reading \*\*“If It Bleeds” \*\*which is a newly released collection of short stories by Stephen King. So far I’m enjoying it immensely. I also just purchased **“Why You Should Be A Socialist”** by Nathan J. Robinson which I will begin this weekend. (I often have more than one book going at a time.) ---
**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:** [May 2, 2020, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/9 "2020-05-02T02:32:49Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Well, I’m not doing a whole lot of reading at the moment. My library is still closed, Amazon hasn’t come through with my new Stephen King, and the contents of the nearby Little Free Library can be best summed up as “blech!” I’m on the verge of petulant whining and stamping my feet. > > In my very limited reading time, I’m trudging through David Hartwell’s The Dark Descent, which has a good mix of horror stories I’ve read a hundred times and stories I don’t remember reading at all. I say trudging, but it’s actually a very good collection. I’m just going slowly because when I get done I’ll be about ready to have a full-on spoiled temper tantrum. > > I’m going to look around this weekend and see if I can find some contributions to class up that Little Free box. If I were closer! If you like audiobooks, and have a library card, Libby is a good source for books. Of course older books are esier to get. I have Libby on my phone and listen when I walk the dog in the mornings. ---
**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:** [May 2, 2020, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/10 "2020-05-02T15:55:59Z")
Finished _The Planets_, by Dava Sobel. My favorite part was about the discoveries of Uranus and Neptune. Now I’m reading _City by the Bay: Stories of Novaya Rossiya_, by Walter H. Hunt. It’s an alternate history, in which Russia, not Spain, colonized California. It’s set in Saint Helena, which was built instead of what is now San Francisco. ---
**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:** [May 2, 2020, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/11 "2020-05-02T19:42:12Z")
I’m about a third of the way through _Riding the Rap_ by Elmore Leonard, a novel about a kidnapping in South Florida. Not bad. The three bad guys aren’t exactly rocket scientists and are starting to quarrel with each other; meanwhile, Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (the protagonist of _Justified_) is hot on their trail. Now and then I’ve been reading _JFK: A Vision for America_, a big, lavishly-illustrated coffeetable book. It’s edited by Stephen Kennedy Smith and Douglas Brinkley, with essays by, among others, Jonathan Alter, Jerry Brown, Jimmy Carter, the Dalai Lama, Maureen Dowd, Joseph Ellis, Vaclav Havel, Henry Kissinger, John Lewis, John McCain, David McCullough, Conan O’Brien, Robert Redford and Elizabeth Warren. I like it. During the pandemic lockdown, I’ve also been reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s _The Lord of the Rings_ aloud with my son. We just started _The Return of the King_; Gandalf and Pippin have just arrived at Minas Tirith. Really good stuff. > [@BetsQ](#): > > I stayed up entirely too late one night to finish Scalzi’s The Last Emperox. On the whole, I enjoyed it and was completely surprised by the ending… Glad to hear it! I’m expecting it from Amazon any day now. Scalzi was going to visit a local library here a few days back but it was cancelled, dammit, as you might expect. I was really looking forward to that. > [@DZedNConfused](#): > > If I were closer! If you like audiobooks, and have a library card, Libby is a good source for books. Of course older books are esier to get. I have Libby on my phone and listen when I walk the dog in the mornings. I use Libby for audiobooks, too, and (mostly) recommend it. ---
**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:** [May 2, 2020, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/12 "2020-05-02T22:00:56Z")
Close to finishing _Apropos of Nothing_, by Woody Allen, his autobiography. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/13 "2020-05-03T13:34:39Z")
I’m reading [The First Mrs. Rothschild](https://www.amazon.com/First-Mrs-Rothschild-Novel-ebook/dp/B07MMMVPRB/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3L6OM57303HOX&dchild=1&keywords=first+mrs.+rothchild&qid=1588512861&sprefix=first+mrs%2Caps%2C178&sr=8-1). ---
**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:** [May 3, 2020, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/14 "2020-05-03T14:44:47Z")
I just finished the audiobook of [Miles Morales: Spider-Man](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32793053-miles-morales), by Jason Reynolds. The reader was fantastic, and the book was a lot of fun: it’s the only story I’ve ever heard that explains the school-to-prison pipeline and institutional racism through the lens of supervillains. Good stuff! ---
**Author:** ![Stowed\_Bob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stowed_bob/32/3312_2.png) [@Stowed\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stowed_Bob)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/15 "2020-05-03T14:55:59Z")
Almost finished with Harry Harrison’s A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! It’s good when he doesn’t slip into heroic fantasizing, which happens more and more as the story progresses. Building a tunnel under the ocean is dramatic enough, and far more captivating than the hidden saboteurs sub-plot that has Gus Washington recruited and actively investigating for flimsy reasons. If I can get Gutenburg, or any other non-kindle e-books to work on my Fire tablet, I’ll then work through Lord Dunsany’s The King of Elfland’s Daughter. If not, I’ll be digging into either a short story collection of Frank Herbert or Gene Wolfe’s Fifth Head of Cerberus. ---
**Author:** ![Stowed\_Bob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stowed_bob/32/3312_2.png) [@Stowed\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stowed_Bob)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/16 "2020-05-03T15:04:47Z")
Sorry, got an error and thought the original post failed. ---
**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:** [May 4, 2020, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/17 "2020-05-04T02:04:04Z")
Finished _Apropos of Nothing_, Woody Allen’s recently released autobiography. Absolutely loved it, but then the wife and I are both huge fans, the wife being possibly his biggest Thai fan. Next it’s back to Robert Crais with _Voodoo River_. ---
**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:** [May 4, 2020, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/18 "2020-05-04T12:40:14Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > If I were closer! If you like audiobooks, and have a library card, Libby is a good source for books. Of course older books are esier to get. I have Libby on my phone and listen when I walk the dog in the mornings. Thanks for the kindness! I will be okay. If this is the worst effect the pandemic has on me, I’m one of the luckiest people in the world. ---
**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:** [May 4, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/19 "2020-05-04T14:54:26Z")
I just finished [The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37880094-the-lady-s-guide-to-petticoats-and-piracy). “I have just taken an overly large bite of iced bun when Callum slices his finger off.” This is going in the annals of great first sentences in literature. Another delightful historical fantasy from Mackenzi Lee, The Lady’s Guide follows the further adventures of Felicity Montague, a secondary character from Lee’s “The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue.” A ferociously intelligent teenager who finds her expected life’s course (marriage, children, estate-management) thoroughly unacceptable, she never gives up her quest to learn about the human body and to master medical science and art. Her quest takes some odd turns, and both petticoats and piracy are crucial to the plot. The author’s note somewhat defensively points out that women throughout history have refused to accept patriarchal confines, and that’s true. But my one real criticism of the book is the _language_ with which it happens. For a book so situated in the eighteenth century, it repeatedly uses phraseology that’s peculiar to twenty-first-century leftist politics. Felicity talks several times about her right to “take up space.” When a character shows her respect, she “feels seen.” These are important ideas to be sure, but they’re phrased in a way so thoroughly modern that it’s jarring. If Lee’s right, that people have always struggled for equality (and of course she’s right), it would be better for Felicity to voice this struggle in the language that eighteenth-century women would have used instead of in modern jargon. That said, this feels like a petty criticism. Overall, the book was tremendous fun. ---
**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:** [May 4, 2020, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990/20 "2020-05-04T14:57:40Z")
As for ordering books, in addition to heavy reliance on Libby (especially for audiobooks), we’ve been placing extra orders with our local bookshop, an anarchist collective just down the street. [Firestorm Books](https://www.firestorm.coop/) delivers anywhere in the US, and they’re really good folk. Their selection isn’t anywhere near Amazon’s size, but they’ve got a great nerd in charge of the science fiction and kids’ book sections, so we’ve been able to keep ourselves in books. If you want someone new to order from, you could do worse! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2020-edition/852990.md?page=2)