# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - April 2021 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [March 31, 2021, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109 "2021-03-31T19:39:54Z")\ **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:** [March 31, 2021, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/1 "2021-03-31T19:39:54Z")
Well 2021 is one quarter of the way gone. This month has just flown by! How’s the weather in your parts? The Rocky Mountains region, here in the US, has had it all… often on the same day. Northern Utah had frost and snow on the first day of Spring. Apparently, Mother Nature tripped over her cat and landed face down in the punch bowl, it’s all been chaos since! So Whatcha all Readin? My book club is reading City of Bohane by Kevin Barry. The blurb lead me to think it was going to be some kind of fantasy but so far it’s just street gangs and nearly incomprehensive accents… I am not likely to even get to Elendil’s 50 page mark before DNFing it… **The Gilded Cage** by K. J. Charles in my current Kindle read. Victorian mystery and jewel thief shenanigans **Error of the Moon** by Sara Woods is the third Anthony Maitland book. I won **The Sumage Solution** by G. L. Carriger on audiobook when the author had a giveaway on her newsletter. So for the mumblety mumbleth time I am reading that one as well 😃 _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 2005. Consequently, when he suddenly and quite unexpectedly passed away in January 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:** [March 31, 2021, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/2 "2021-03-31T19:42:44Z")
Last Month: [Is that snow? Rain? Oh wait it’s sunny… Nope rain](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/80) ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2021, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/3 "2021-03-31T19:51:20Z")
I’m continuing my YA kick and am reading _Catalyst_ by Laurie Halse Anderson. I recently read her books _Speak_ and _Twisted_ and will read _The Impossible Knife of Memory_ next. It’s been a long time since I’ve discovered a new author that I’ve enjoyed as much as I have enjoyed her works. ---
**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 31, 2021, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/4 "2021-03-31T20:27:10Z")
I recently finished [The Rosie Project](https://www.amazon.com/Rosie-Project-Novel-Graeme-Simsion/dp/1476729093/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+rosie+project&qid=1617222230&sr=8-1), as recommended by Elendil’s Heir. It was sweet and funny. Since then I’ve been picking up books and putting them down again. Hopefully I’ll have something more to contribute soon! ---
**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:** [March 31, 2021, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/5 "2021-03-31T23:43:02Z")
My copy of Jonathan Stroud’s new book has been shipped! I’m excited! ---
**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:** [April 1, 2021, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/6 "2021-04-01T01:14:34Z")
OMG, me too! Is it that Scarlett & Browne one? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2021, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/7 "2021-04-01T01:35:41Z")
I’m reading four at the moment: Doctrine and Covenants Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home Ender’s Game The Fold The first is because that’s what my wife and I are studying this year. The second because I enjoy the Rabbi Small series. The third is the novel the Year 9 students in the book club chose for this semester. And the final one is the book a friend gave me to read after he finished it. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2021, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/8 "2021-04-01T01:51:18Z")
Just finished: _Grantville Gazette IV_, edited by Eric Flint (reread) Now Reading: _1635: A Parcel of Rogues_, by Eric Flint and Adnrew Dennis (reread) Next up: _1635: The Tangled Web_, by Virginia DeMarce ---
**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:** [April 1, 2021, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/9 "2021-04-01T12:47:59Z")
I am starting off today in a state of disgruntlement. I found this book, [The Lion’s Paw](https://www.amazon.com/Lions-Paw-Robb-White/dp/0982093209), in the local Little Free Library. It’s a children’s book from 1946, and when I looked it up on Goodreads, it had all these reviews from people saying it was their beloved childhood book that they had been searching for, and it really held up on re-read. So that sounded pretty righteous, but this morning when I started on it, I found that my copy has pairs of unprinted pages scattered throughout. I think the universe just doesn’t want me to read anything this week. 😡 ---
**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:** [April 1, 2021, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/10 "2021-04-01T14:24:47Z")
YES it is! 😍 ---
**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:** [April 1, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/11 "2021-04-01T14:41:03Z")
While I’m still working through Clive Leatherdale’s heavily annotated **Dracula Unearthed** , my copy of Wiliam Seabrook’s **Doctor Wood: Modern Wizard of the Laboratory** just came through interlibrary loan, and I’ve got to go through it and get what I nee from it before it has to go back. If you’re not familiar with Wood, he was easily one of the most bizarre and idiosyncratic physicists the US has produced. A wizard in optics – he invented the gradient-index lens with his oddly-named _Wood Lens_, came up with a practical ultraviolet-transmitting filter (and applied it light sources, thereby becoming the true inventor of the Black Light), photographed sound waves, built the first liquid mirror and used it in an astronomical telescope, exposed pseudoscience on many occasions (most notably exposing “N-rays”), and literally wrote the book on Physical Optics (1905, and frequently reprinted to this day). He also wrote two books of humorous poetry, co-authored a science fiction novel, supposedly invented the “chinface” illusion (although I haven’t been able to verify this yet – [Chinface - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinface) ), and, on at least one occasion, ostentatiously spat into a puddle while surreptitiously dropping sodium into it, causing a minor explosion. Wood made Richard Feynmann look normal and restrained, by comparison. ---
**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:** [April 1, 2021, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/12 "2021-04-01T14:53:55Z")
@DZedNConfused : Funny, Amazon says the hardcover version isn’t out until October! I was planning to get my library to buy it but I don’t know they’d want a paperback. I’ll wait awhile until you tell me how wonderful it is and then I’ll probably just buy it for Kindle. 🙂 ---
**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:** [April 1, 2021, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/13 "2021-04-01T17:09:42Z")
Having really enjoyed the recent Netflix miniseries based on it, I’m still reading Walter Tevis’s novel _The Queen’s Gambit_, about a troubled Kentucky orphan girl and chess prodigy who rises to become an international sensation in the Sixties. I’m about three-quarters of the way through it, and it’s really good. I’m also reading John le Carre’s _The Spy Who Came in From the Cold_. It’s not wowing me, but it’s okay, and I’ll keep going. > [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I recently finished [The Rosie Project](https://www.amazon.com/Rosie-Project-Novel-Graeme-Simsion/dp/1476729093/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+rosie+project&qid=1617222230&sr=8-1), as recommended by Elendil’s Heir. It was sweet and funny… Glad you liked 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:** [April 1, 2021, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/14 "2021-04-01T19:01:05Z")
Finished _Binti_, by Nnedi Okorafor. Meh. Now I’m reading _Where the Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir_, by Amy Tan. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2021, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/15 "2021-04-01T22:57:03Z")
Thelmalou recommended a gentleman in Moscow in a thread. It is a delight. I’ve been dipping in and out of it. Also I’ve been on a John j nance binge. His aviation thrillers are sooo good. ---
**Author:** ![Boycott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boycott/32/6741_2.png) [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2021, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/16 "2021-04-01T23:02:27Z")
At the recommendation of another member I have picked up a copy of **Fatherland** by Robert Harris. An alternate history book in a timeline where the Nazis won the war. I have also started a travelling adventure book by a British author named Levison Wood. The book is called **Eastern Horizons: Hitchhiking the Silk Road** about his time as a 22 year old going on a journey from home in England to India through the plains of Russia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It’s very well written and I’m glad I picked this up. It’s one of the few occasions were the design cover drew me in because I don’t think I’ve ever read this kind of travel genre before. ---
**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:** [April 2, 2021, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/17 "2021-04-02T01:44:00Z")
I bought it from Book Depository, so I get it now due to the British release being March 30th. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/18 "2021-04-02T02:11:28Z")
Based on a recent _Throughline_ podcast, via the Libby app I checked out _Kindred_ by Octavia Butler. Just started it and I think I will enjoy it. Anybody else read this, or anything else by Butler? I’ll confess I wasn’t familiar with her until I heard the podcast. ---
**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:** [April 3, 2021, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/19 "2021-04-03T18:44:56Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Having really enjoyed the recent Netflix miniseries based on it, I’m still reading Walter Tevis’s novel _The Queen’s Gambit_, about a troubled Kentucky orphan girl and chess prodigy who rises to become an international sensation in the Sixties. I’m about three-quarters of the way through it, and it’s really good. > > I’m also reading John le Carre’s _The Spy Who Came in From the Cold_. It’s not wowing me, but it’s okay, and I’ll keep going… Finished the first; I recommend it (and you don’t have to be a chess junkie to enjoy it). The miniseries was largely true to it, but with some notable differences. On the homestretch of the le Carre. No change in my opinion. Next up: _The Nutmeg of Consolation_ by Patrick O’Brian, the next in his terrific series of Napoleonic naval adventures. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2021, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/20 "2021-04-04T05:19:47Z")
Finished _Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life_, by George Eliot. Excellent. An early-19th-century soap opera-ish tale set in the small English town of Middlemarch. Mostly late 1820s and early 1830s, but at the end it shows what eventually becomes of many of the main characters. I have a fondness for 19th-century novels. Probably I would have enjoyed living in that century but would not have lasted long, for sure dying of appendicitis or some other ailment that modern science cured me of early on in my 20th-century life. Next up is more 19th-century goodness: _Emma_, my first Jane Austen. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109.md?page=2)