# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - April 2021 edition
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109
**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:** 5
### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2021, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/81 "2021-04-25T22:49:26Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> I’m taking an involuntary break from Hemingway’s _For Whom the Bell Tolls_ after getting about a third of the way through it (my local library pulled back the audiobook because someone else put a hold on it, grrrr). It’s not Papa’s best, I’d say, but I intend to finish it.
Give it a chance. I remember liking it. Of course, I read it during a forced seclusion, trapped in my house in northern Thailand during a few days of torrential rains, so there was not much else to do.
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2021, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/82 "2021-04-26T01:53:19Z")
Just Finished: _1636: The Kremlin Games_ , by Eric Flint, Gorg Huff, and Paula Goodlett
Now reading: _Grantville Gazette VI_ , edited by Eric Flint (reread)
Next up: _1636: Commander Cantrell in the West Indies_, by Eric Flint and Charles E Gannon (reread)
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2021, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/83 "2021-04-26T14:12:55Z")
Started this morning on [The Drowning Kind](https://www.amazon.com/Drowning-Kind-Jennifer-McMahon/dp/198215392X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2D79EHUP12EHY&keywords=the+drowning+kind&qid=1619446183&s=books&sprefix=the+drowning+kind%2Caps%2C160&sr=1-1) by Jennifer McMahon.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2021, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/84 "2021-04-26T17:51:13Z")
Finished _Answers in the Form of Questions: A Definitive History and Insider’s Guide to Jeopardy!_ , by Claire McNear. This book is a lot of fun.
Now I’m reading _The Empress of Salt and Fortune_, by Nghi Vo.
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### Author:  [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2021, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/85 "2021-04-26T19:59:22Z")
I’m reading a Jennifer McMahon book right now, too – _The Invited_. I think I first heard about the book through Straight Dope, so if you’ve read other books by her and posted about it, then maybe it was you. It’s a really good book, which is a nice change of pace because I’ve read a string of books that have underwhelmed me lately.
The only other one I’ve read lately that I found impressive enough to merit a mention in this thread is David Eagleman’s _Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives_, which are forty pieces of short fiction describing what might happen after you die. Even if you don’t believe in spirits and afterlives (which I don’t, FTR), there were still some thought-provoking pieces exploring – not sure how to describe it. How humans fit into the grand scheme of the universe, I guess.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2021, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/86 "2021-04-26T20:09:37Z")
Yeah, it may have been me that mentioned Jennifer McMahon. She seems to do that supernatural/mild thriller sort of book dependably well.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2021, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/87 "2021-04-27T17:23:18Z")
Finished _The Empress of Salt and Fortune_ , by Nghi Vo, which was excellent. It’s nominated for the Hugo Award in the Novella category this year.
Now I’m reading _Whale Day and Other Poems_, by Billy Collins.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2021, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/88 "2021-04-28T19:22:41Z")
Finished _Whale Day and Other Poems_ , by Billy Collins. My favorite poem was “Architecture at 3:30 a.m.”, which is about Dagwood making a sandwich.
Now I’m reading _The Hidden People_, by Alison Littlewood. It’s a fantasy mystery.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2021, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/89 "2021-04-29T12:25:58Z")
Finished The Drowning Kind, by Jennifer McMahon, and gave it five stars at Goodreads. A ghost story that delivers [exactly what it says on the tin!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Does_exactly_what_it_says_on_the_tin)
Next up, one I’ve been looking forward to, Alix Harrow’s [The Once and Future Witches](https://www.amazon.com/Once-Future-Witches-Alix-Harrow/dp/0316422045/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1619698879&sr=8-1).
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### Author:  [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2021, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/90 "2021-04-29T14:48:24Z")
A Game of Birds and Wolves - The Ingenious Young Women Whose Secret Board Game Helped Win World War II - Simon Parkin
World War 2 history of how a disabled former naval officer and ten women from the Women’s Royal Naval Service created a room-sized board game, like a pumped up Battleship, to study U-boat tactics and devise ways to counter them.
Enjoyable and interesting book.
Hat tip to Dendarii Dame who mentioned it a few months ago.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2021, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/91 "2021-04-29T15:46:50Z")
That looks cool, **zimaane**. Thanks.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2021, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/92 "2021-04-30T20:35:23Z")
Just began rereading a favorite of mine, Joe Haldeman’s trippy 1990 sf novel _The Hemingway Hoax_. A Hemingway scholar and a Key West con artist decide to try to create and then sell, as authentic, the elusive, long-sought stories lost or stolen from a train at the Gare de Lyon in December 1922. Things get seriously weird by the end, but it’s a fascinating book and would be appreciated by just about any Hemingway fan, I’d say.
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### Author:  [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2021, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/93 "2021-04-30T22:27:41Z")
Finished The Wreck of the Titan. Short story that is interesting enough but not one I’ll find myself recommending as a must read.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2021, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/94 "2021-05-01T14:36:31Z")
You’re welcome!
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/95 "2021-05-01T14:41:39Z")
Finished _The Hidden People_ , by Alison Littlewood. It was interesting, if somewhat overlong. Oh, and I said it was a fantasy mystery. As it turns out, it’s a mystery, but not a fantasy!
Now I’m reading _A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America’s First All-Black High School Rowing Team_, by Arshay Cooper.
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### Author:  [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2021, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/96 "2021-05-02T17:19:43Z")
Don’t wish to step on @DZedNConfused’s toes. Hope all is well on his end. It is a new month though so maybe a mod could start off the May thread.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2021, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/97 "2021-05-02T20:43:48Z")
Finished _Emma_, by Jane Austen. A comedy of manners, it is considered her masterpiece. My first Austen, I enjoyed it. Apart from the stricter film portrayals, if you saw the movie _Clueless_, then you are familiar with _Emma_, as that was a modern adaptation.
Next up, it’s back to Robert Crais’ LA noir with his standalone _The Two Minute Rule_.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2021, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/98 "2021-05-02T23:22:11Z")
Sorry! I’ve been working a different shift this week and I totally forgot.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2021, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/99 "2021-05-02T23:25:34Z")
Priorities, woman! 😁
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2021, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2021-edition/939109/100 "2021-05-02T23:32:24Z")
New thread: [So that’s what sunrise looks like…](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2021-edition/941252)
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