# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - March 2021 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [March 1, 2021, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048 "2021-03-01T18:12:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**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, 2021, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/41 "2021-03-14T18:40:15Z")
Finished _The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science_, by Seb Falk, which was interesting. Now I’m reading two books, both very short: _Lobster is the Best Medicine: A Collection of Comics about Friendship_, by Liz Climo, and _The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary_, by Ken Liu, which is a science fiction novel. ---
**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 14, 2021, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/42 "2021-03-14T19:14:39Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I just started John Le Carre’s 1964 espionage novel _The Spy Who Came in from the Cold_ , which has long been on my reading list. It’s downbeat, grim but interesting so far. Oh, man. This is IMO Le Carre’s best and most rereadable (of the half-dozen or so that I’ve read). So so good! I’ve read four books this month so far: - [The Factory Witches of Lowell](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51835692-the-factory-witches-of-lowell): In a nineteenth (?) century weaving town in New England, the girls who work the mills go on strike, _with magic_! That’s pretty much the entire plot, other than a lesbian romance. It’s fine but nothing special; for my money, _The Once and Future Witches_ did it a little better. - [Shorefall](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45309582-shorefall): this sequel to _Foundryside_ continues the fantasy story about class struggle in a world where the technocrats control magic, only Elon Musk has come back from the dead and threatens to destroy the world. Okay, not exactly Elon Musk, but not exactly _not_ Elon Musk. Bennett writes excellent city fantasy, and if that’s your bag, this series comes recommended. - [Shadow and Bone](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10194157-shadow-and-bone): Coming next month to Netflix, this YA fantasy deals with a really nifty magic system in a nation based on Russian folklore. The romance element is pretty heavy, and I didn’t especially care for it (I think I’ve reached the point where having centuries-old sexydudes romancing teenaged girls is 0% sexy and 100% offputting), but that’s personal taste; others might be into that part. Overall I really enjoyed it. - [Siege and Storm](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14061955-siege-and-storm): The sequel to Shadow and Bone, and more of the same. ---
**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:** [March 14, 2021, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/43 "2021-03-14T19:57:18Z")
Just finished: _1633_, by David Weber and Eric Flint (reread) Now reading: _1634: The Baltic War_, by Eric Flint and David Weber (reread) Next up: _The Grantville Gazette II_, edited by Eric Flint (reread) ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/44 "2021-03-15T01:44:34Z")
> [@Lancia](#): > > I picked up a copy of _[The Brimstone Wedding](https://www.amazon.com/Brimstone-Wedding-Barbara-Vine/dp/0517703394)_ by Barbara Vine based on [this thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-supply-in-a-remote-house-in-rural-norfolk-england-in-the-early-1970s/919241) from last year (it took me a while to find it, but that’s the book referenced in the OP). I’m not one for smutty romance but I might give it a shot. Don’t know if this will raise or lower your interest in the book, but it’s not at all smutty. The author is way more interested in her character’s psyches than their bodies. ---
**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 15, 2021, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/45 "2021-03-15T04:45:10Z")
That’s good to know, and makes the book more appealing. ---
**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 15, 2021, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/46 "2021-03-15T14:24:42Z")
Finished _Lobster is the Best Medicine: A Collection of Comics about Friendship_ , by Liz Climo, and _The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary_ , by Ken Liu. The former is a collection of sweet cartoons, which I enjoyed. The latter is an outstanding SF novella focused on time travel to a time and place that I, at least, had never read about before, but definitely researched afterword. It’s brilliant. Note that it concerns Japanese war crimes, and is very intense. Now I’m reading _A Memory Called Empire_, by Arkady Martine. ---
**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:** [March 19, 2021, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/47 "2021-03-19T05:57:03Z")
Just finished: _Grantville Gazette II_ , edited by Eric Flint (reread) Now reading: _Ring of Fire_ , edited by Eric Flint Next up: _Grantville Gazette_ , edited by Eric Flint ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/48 "2021-03-19T06:09:57Z")
I enjoyed the series to a point, but of course the anthologies are very uneven. Too often everything, every technology and every plot seems to work perfectly. Each character understands what is going on. I am happy to report I am reading an historical novel. I probably only read three or four novels a year. I am enjoying _An Officer and a Spy_ by Robert Harris (I like a few of his other works) it is about the Dreyfus affair. I am learning a lot, and rather painlessly. ---
**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 19, 2021, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/49 "2021-03-19T11:32:32Z")
Finished [Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52454426-devolution), by Max “World War Z” Brooks last night. Meh. The basic idea–Mount Rainier blows up, an isolated community is attacked by sasquatches–is solid. But there are too many flat characters, too many places where the plot doesn’t make sense, too many characters acting as authorial mouthpieces for social criticism, for it to work well for me. The action is good, and I’ll never think about Bigfoot the same way again. But overall I was disappointed. ---
**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 19, 2021, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/50 "2021-03-19T16:55:28Z")
I recently finished _You Never Forget Your First_ by Alexis Coe, a snarky, semi-feminist, sometimes funny bio of George Washington. I learned some new stuff from it, but it’s nowhere near to being in the same league as Ron Chernow’s masterpiece on the subject (at which she takes a few shots). Having really enjoyed the recent Netflix miniseries based on it, I’m now 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. Good stuff. ---
**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, 2021, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/51 "2021-03-19T18:06:09Z")
Finished _A Memory Called Empire_ , by Arkady Martine, which was brilliant. I hope the author writes more in this setting. Now I’m reading _Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years_, by Julie Andrews with Emma Walton Hamilton. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/52 "2021-03-19T19:41:44Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > Finished _A Memory Called Empire_ , by Arkady Martine, which was brilliant. I hope the author writes more in this setting. he has! 🙂 > **[A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan, #2)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45154547-a-desolation-called-peace)** > > An alien armada lurks on the edges of Teixcalaanli spac… Personally I gave up 50 or so pages into “A memory…” but I’ll probably try again some time. ---
**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, 2021, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/53 "2021-03-20T23:13:25Z")
Finished _Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years_ , by Julie Andrews with Emma Walton Hamilton, which I enjoyed. Started _Nova_, by Samuel R. Delany. ---
**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 21, 2021, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/54 "2021-03-21T00:43:20Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > he has! Tiny nitpick (just cuz I looked it up to be sure): she. Thanks for letting me know about her new work–gonna reserve it now! ---
**Author:** ![Kepi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kepi/32/7251_2.png) [@Kepi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kepi)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2021, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/55 "2021-03-21T04:34:24Z")
I just finished the audiobook of _News of the World_ by Paulette Jiles. I wanted to “read” it before watching the film adaptation. Being a Texan, I enjoyed the story, especially when she describes their journey through many of the places in North Texas that I’m familiar with. But it felt like the climax of the story occurred early in the plot and the last third or so felt rushed and left me flat. Next up: either _God Save Texas_ by Lawrence Wright or _The Time It Never Rained_ by Elmer Kelton or _Horseman, Pass By_ by Larry McMurtry (My goal for 2021 is to read more Texas Literature.) ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2021, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/56 "2021-03-21T22:50:29Z")
Good to know, I assumed Arkady was a man’s name and didn’t check. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2021, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/57 "2021-03-21T22:51:23Z")
I just finished _The Knife of Never Letting Go_ by Patrick Ness, which is best described as a YA science fiction thriller. I don’t read a lot of YA but I saw the preview for a _Chaos Walking_ movie starring Tom Holland and felt I needed to read the book first. It was a solid read. It’s about a boy who lives in a settlement on New Earth with 150 other men who all have this disease that opens their thoughts to everyone else, just this constant overwhelming cacophony of thoughts they call The Noise, and all the women in the settlement were killed by the same disease. So this boy has never met a female. Until one day, he does. It’s a nice coming of age story with a strong voice. And it was a lot of fun to read, but the darned thing ended on a cliffhanger! I knew it was the first book in a series but I thought it would work as a standalone. Now I’ve gotta read the other two books. ---
**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 22, 2021, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/58 "2021-03-22T00:32:46Z")
That was a good series. I liked the first book best, but it was a good ride overall. I can’t figure out how they’ll ever make a movie of it though. ---
**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 22, 2021, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/59 "2021-03-22T13:11:41Z")
Finished The Woman in the Mirror. It turned out to be part ghost story, part Harlequin romance novel, but I did enjoy it. I had to knock off some points for a weak and extremely unlikely ending. Next up, [The Auctioneer](https://www.amazon.com/Auctioneer-Valancourt-20th-Century-Classics/dp/1948405687/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1616417025&sr=1-2), a horror novel from the seventies by Joan Samson, with a foreword by the great Grady Hendrix. This has a nice Harvest Home/Needful Things flavor. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2021, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048/60 "2021-03-22T14:27:22Z")
**Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World** Chris Wallace and Mitch Weiss A straightforward history of the final months leading up to the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, bringing an end to World War 2. Although the focus shifts about between bomb scientists, pilots, and top U.S. leaders; the emphasis seems to be on Truman’s decision to use the weapon. (There is also a bit from a Japanese survivor, but it seems almost an afterthought. There is very little about the Japanese leadership.) Not a bad book, but nothing really memorable here, either in terms of history or writing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-march-2021-edition/934048.md?page=4)