# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - April 2025 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [March 30, 2025, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359 "2025-03-30T20:38:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 4
**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:** [April 23, 2025, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359/61 "2025-04-23T15:27:14Z")
Finished [The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/207567816-the-scholar-and-the-last-faerie-door), yet another “British kid discovers magic and goes to magic school which is like old posh British schools, only magic” novel. The first two thirds were pretty good. Then the last third hit, and it got _really_ good. Without spoilers, it went in a direction that way more of these novels should go, but that I’ve never seen, with the possible exception of _The Golden Conclaves_ by Naomi Novik. If you like this sort of thing–sort of a cross between _The Secret History_ and _Jonathan Strange_–I definitely recommend this one. ---
**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 23, 2025, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359/62 "2025-04-23T15:36:01Z")
Okelie dokelie, neighborino! Hold placed. ---
**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 23, 2025, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359/63 "2025-04-23T16:16:26Z")
Yep… I’m such a sheep. 😆 ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359/64 "2025-04-24T14:39:26Z")
Two short enjoyable reads: **Seeing Voices: A Journey Into the World of the Deaf** Oliver Sacks The famed neurologist and author explores various aspects of deaf life, including the neurology of sign language and the history of deaf education (up to 1989 when the book was written). **Rose/House** Arkady Martine A famed architect dies and his will stipulates that only one person (a former student) is ever allowed to enter his house, which is infused with a powerful AI that guards it. Then the AI calls the local police to report that there is a dead body inside. A modern twist on the locked room mystery. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359/65 "2025-04-24T14:51:30Z")
Tom Wolfe: _The Right Stuff._ Haven’t read it in quite some time. Starts off quite moving. But then it just plain gets slow and repetitive. E.g., I’m in the part about Shepard’s flight. It has been just been dragged out so much it’s taking forever to get thru. I’ve finally reached the part when the candle actually gets lit. Wolfe just keeps repeating all the usual crap about single warriors, driving and drinking, our rockets blow up, etc. Of course I keep noticing the differences between the book and the movie. A movie I haven’t seen since it was on cable after it came out. ---
**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 25, 2025, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359/66 "2025-04-25T19:16:05Z")
Finished T. Kingfisher’s Paladin’s Strength. I really don’t care for romance novels, but these are also good adventure stories, and at times even make me laugh out loud. Yay, I have another one ready to go! I also have several things to pick up at the library. Somehow I’ve requested a bunch of self-help, short stories, and humor. And I do want to read that stuff, but it’s not as therapeutic as a good long fiction book. We’ll see how much of it I actually consume. ---
**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 25, 2025, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359/67 "2025-04-25T21:36:23Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Yay, I have another one ready to go! My favorite is #3 with Piper and Galen, ita hella adventure and a wise cracking gnole. ---
**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 25, 2025, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359/68 "2025-04-25T21:38:29Z")
Oh yes! I meant to mention the gnoles, and I’ve been looking forward to Galen’s story. 😁 ---
**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 26, 2025, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359/69 "2025-04-26T14:43:14Z")
Finished _Banking on Death_ by Emma Lathen, which I enjoyed, although not as much as later John Putnam Thatcher mysteries–this was the first, and they became funnier and more interesting as the authors (Emma Lathen is a pen name) became more experienced; and _The Monster’s Bones: The Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World_, by David K. Randall, which was interesting. Next up: _Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations_, by Alton Brown; and _Solar Flare: Solarpunk Stories_, edited by Patricia Bray and Joshua Palmatier. Still reading _Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club_, edited by Martin Edwards. ---
**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 27, 2025, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359/70 "2025-04-27T03:03:41Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > …For the moment, though, my next audiobook is _The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001_ by Garrett M. Graff, which includes actors reading the parts of people ranging from Laura Bush and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card to a NY/NJ Port Authority cop and a schoolteacher who lost her husband on one of the planes. The new FAA director, also interviewed, took office that morning, the poor bastard. There are actual audio excerpts of panicked phone calls made by those on the hijacked planes - deeply moving and heartbreaking. Finished. Very good, very powerful, and I learned a lot. Today I zipped through the kids’ book _George Washington’s Spectacular Spectacles: The Glasses That Saved America_, written by Selene Castrovilla, illustrated by Jenn Harney. It’s about Gen. Washington quashing a threatened military coup, near the end of the Revolution, by officers pissed off by the Continental Congress’s failure to pay them. Seems accurate, although light-hearted in the telling. My current audiobook is _The Final Solution_ by Michael Chabon, about an elderly Sherlock Holmes (although he hasn’t yet been mentioned by name) in retirement, beekeeping upon the Sussex Downs in July 1944 and drawn into a murder case which seems to have espionage and Holocaust implications. ---
**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:** [April 27, 2025, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359/71 "2025-04-27T16:17:55Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > **Rose/House** Arkady Martine > > A famed architect dies and his will stipulates that only one person (a former student) is ever allowed to enter his house, which is infused with a powerful AI that guards it. Then the AI calls the local police to report that there is a dead body inside. Hot damn–I love Arkady Martine and had no idea they had written something new. This sounds great. Thanks for the tip! ---
**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 28, 2025, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359/72 "2025-04-28T21:44:23Z")
Finished _Lethal Prey_ by John Sandford. Another well-written and entertaining Davenport/Flowers novel by a favorite author. But…with a wholly unsatisfying ending, the first that I can remember by Sandford. I suspect this is leading to a sequel, but that’s not very common for this author. ---
**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 28, 2025, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359/73 "2025-04-28T22:48:16Z")
New Month: [How is 2025 ONLY one quarter over?!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631) ---
**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 30, 2025, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359/74 "2025-04-30T23:18:51Z")
Finished _Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations_, by Alton Brown, which I enjoyed–there’s some funny stuff here, especially an essay about how dangerous cooking escargot can be; and _Solar Flare: Solarpunk Stories_, edited by Patricia Bray and Joshua Palmatier, of which the best story was “Umbrella Men” by Liam Hogan. Still reading _Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club_, edited by Martin Edwards. Next up: _The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World_, by Robin Wall Kimmerer; and _The Reinvented Detective: Tales of Futuristic Crimes & Mysteries Beyond Time_, edited by Cat Rambo and Jennifer Brozek. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2026, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359/75 "2026-02-08T18:36:01Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > [Alien Clay](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195443798-alien-clay), by Adrian Tchaikovsky. **Recommended**. I’ve mostly loved Tchaikovsky’s works, with the exception of Service Model which I hated. This one might be my favorite. It’s a “land on a hostile alien planet” science fiction novel, as told by Jeff Vandermeer and Franz Kafka. Very darkly funny, very mindblowing, excellent blend of politics, bonkers science, and wry humor. Not to mention a propulsive plot So FWIW LHOD your recommendations have been my go to list when browsing bookstores looking for next book, starting with _Exordia._ Including doubling back and finally reading _The Left Hand of Darkness_ itself. This one ended strong but the main character/narrator’s cultural references to items of current Earth in the first bits took me out for a while. Main reason though to comment here is to wonder if you, or anyone else who read it, get Pluribus prequel (if only the main characters weren’t explicitly of Earth) vibes from the ending? I liked the ideas of the book albeit the nature of our current times make The Mandate a bit too uncomfortably close to reality for me. Anyway I’m now deciding between starting _What Boys Learn_ by Andromeda Romani-Lax, a book my wife bought but hasn’t started yet, _The Buffalo Hunter Hunter,_ by Stephen Graham Jones, or, skipping because the bookstore didn’t have the second of the trilogy, to Tchaikovsky’s _Children of Memory_ (I did enjoy the first of the series). Decisions decisions. 🙂 ---
**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:** [February 8, 2026, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359/76 "2026-02-08T20:54:36Z")
Ummmm… this thread was a year ago. Don’t know how many people will see this post. Perhaps you clicked the wrong link? [FEbruary 2026 thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-february-2026-edition/1027219) ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2026, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359/77 "2026-02-08T21:01:13Z")
Put here because the book recommendation I had had followed was from here, so quoting it. Even though it was not the most recent thread. Guess I could have copied the quote and put it the most recent one. ---
**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:** [February 8, 2026, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359/78 "2026-02-08T21:08:32Z")
I realized that after I scrolled up a bit and read down. 😃 Carry on, good sir. ---
**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:** [February 9, 2026, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359/79 "2026-02-09T16:41:34Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > So FWIW LHOD your recommendations have been my go to list when browsing bookstores looking for next book, starting with _Exordia._ Including doubling back and finally reading _The Left Hand of Darkness_ itself. That makes me really happy–thank you! And your spoiler just blew my mind: I hadn’t thought of that before, but it totally makes sense. FWIW, _The Buffalo Hunter Hunter_ was my favorite book of 2025: it’s not an easy read, but it’s so freaking good. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-april-2025-edition/1016359.md?page=3)