# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - August 2025 edition
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** comic-books-manga, books-writing-myths
**Created:** [July 30, 2025, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495 "2025-07-30T03:48:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2025, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/41 "2025-08-18T02:41:11Z")
I finished _Knife_. A quick read, recommended for any Rushdie fan, and for anyone who cares about freedom of speech and the life of the mind.
Now I’m about halfway through _Mickey7_ by Edward Ashton, a sf satire (recently adapted into a movie starring Robert Pattinson) about a disposable crewman on a dangerous interstellar mission. It’s good enough to keep going, but hasn’t really grabbed me.
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### Author:  [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2025, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/42 "2025-08-18T12:15:35Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> Have started _The Big Empty_, Robert Crais’ latest. Almost halfway through.
How is it? I generally enjoy this series quite a bit.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2025, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/43 "2025-08-18T20:46:05Z")
Still reading _Man With a Bull-Tongue Plow_ by Jesse Stuart. Finished _Ruled Britannia_, by Harry Turtledove, which was okay.
Next up: _Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops_, by Tim Robey and _Flyaway_ by Kathleen Jennings.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/44 "2025-08-19T02:04:53Z")
Finished my third, at least, reread of _Artificial Condition_ the 3rd Murderbot book by Martha Wells. First time reading it in print, Goodness, I do love ART. Read _Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity , Communion, Empathy_ also by Martha Wells, it’s a short 34 page piece about ART and his crew, not really a short story but it gives you hints about what ART’s crew _really_ does and why it and SecUnit hit it off so well.
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### Author:  [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/45 "2025-08-19T15:41:30Z")
I saw a post on Martha Wells’ Bluesky account saying that the eighth Murderbot book is forthcoming. 😃
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### Author:  [@MacDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacDoc)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/46 "2025-08-19T19:28:03Z")
A sci-fi fairy tale on an astonishing scale - I binged it as well. ☺
> I’ve reviewed Rachel Bach’s three-book Paradox trilogy ([**Fortune’s Pawn**](https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/fortunes-pawn-by-rachel-bach/), **Honor’s Knight** , and **Heaven’s Queen** ) together here because, first, they are one complete story, and second, because I binged them so hard and fast I didn’t have time to review them one at a time. I think maybe three days elapsed between me starting the first book and finishing the third, and that includes work and sleep? That should let you know precisely how addictive this terrific sci-fi story with strong romantic elements is!
[https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/paradox-series-by-rachel-bach/#:~:text=I’ve%20reviewed%20Rachel%20Bach’s,clearly%20the%20galaxy’s%20worst%20trader](https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/paradox-series-by-rachel-bach/#:~:text=I've%20reviewed%20Rachel%20Bach's,clearly%20the%20galaxy's%20worst%20trader)?
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/47 "2025-08-19T19:45:59Z")
Four books so far this month:
[Children of Time](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25499718-children-of-time), by Adrian Tchaikovsky. This is for an online book club: it was my turn to choose, and I chose one of my favorite authors of the past decade, a book that many of his fans love best. Do I love it best? Well, no: _Alien Clay_ is my fave, due to its heavier politics and humor. But Children of Time is damned good. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that there’s an alien intelligence. This book projects “alien” better than almost any other book I can think of, only _Embassytown_ being in the same category for me. There was scarcely a paragraph in the alien chapters where I lost sight of their inhuman intelligence. Reading it after _Project Hail Mary_ really drives home that book’s faults.
_[Straight Man](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/414298.Straight_Man)_, by Richard Russo. I found myself on vacation without the stack of books I meant to bring, so I turned to the dreaded vacation house shelf. Among the Danielle Steele and Clive Cussler, I found this book that looked better. To its credit, it’s undoubtedly better: the characters are complicated, the plot is unpredictable, the writing is lovely. But the blurb on the back where the blurber talked about guffawing and side-splitting? No fuckin way. It’s set in a small-college English department where everyone hates everyone else, and the thing is, they’re right. Everyone in the book is intensely hateable and pathetic, and not in a fun way like Gollum, just in a way that people in the real world are hateable and pathetic. Excellent book, decidedly not for me.
[Blackheart Man](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199798012-blackheart-man), by Nalo Hopkinson. More or less set in a fantasy Haiti, that drove off enslavers some centuries ago but the enslavers are back and shittier than ever. The book’s written in strong dialect, with really interesting mythology. I enjoyed it a lot.
[The Lesser Dead](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20893407-the-lesser-dead), by Christopher Buehlman: Vampire Joey Peacock introduces you to the seedy Subway subculture on 1978 New York City. Sound fun? You’ll love it. Otherwise give it a pass. It’s not my favorite by Buehlman (for that, see the magnificent _Daughter’s War_), but the plot moves from action to bloody action without letting up, and there are some twists that I definitely did not see, and others that I kinda did.
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### Author:  [@MacDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacDoc)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/48 "2025-08-19T20:19:54Z")
**East of Eden**
[ ](https://cdn.kobo.com/book-images/73cb8378-6fbf-4013-98c9-69e5bc6579a5/353/569/90/False/east-of-eden-9.jpg)
Been a long while…the guy is an incredible wordsmith.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2025, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/49 "2025-08-20T01:34:58Z")
Yes! I pre-ordered it yesterday. Be out in May.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2025, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/50 "2025-08-20T21:51:14Z")
Finished _The Big Empty_, by Robert Crais. A young Internet influencer hires Elvis Cole to find her father, who vanished suddenly ten years earlier when she was 13. When the bodies start mounting, Cole realizes this is more than just your average missing-persons case. Joe Pike assists, as always. Crais delivers another solid story. Recommended.
Next up is _Snafu: The Definitive Guide to History’s Greatest Screwups_, by Ed Helms. Yes, that Ed Helms, from _The Hangover_ series and _The Office_. Apparently he has a popular podcast called _Snafu_, and this is a follow-up to that. I’ve never heard of the podcast, I’m not really a podcast fan, but this looks interesting. I don’t know when I’ll actually start it though, as our departure for our new home in Bangkok is rather imminent, and things are a bit chaotic at the moment.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2025, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/51 "2025-08-21T13:13:06Z")
I finished Service Model, by Adrian Tchaikovsky, as recommended by @MacDoc. I really enjoyed it, and will be looking for other standalone books by this author! (I don’t have the bandwidth to commit to a series right now).
I also started on [The Payback by Kashana Cauley | Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220160561). It’s about three mall workers planning a heist, while being pursued by the Debt Police. This Debt Police thing makes me wonder if the book is supposed to be set in the near future? It’s hard to tell. At any rate, I’m on page 63 and I’m going to stop there.
Next up, Class Clown: the memoirs of a professional wiseass: how I went 77 years without growing up, by Dave Barry.
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### Author:  [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2025, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/52 "2025-08-21T18:04:38Z")
I finished listening to _You Should Have Known_ by Rebecca Keller. It was okay, but nothing special.
Still looking for my next read.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2025, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/53 "2025-08-21T23:38:06Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#):
>
> (I don’t have the bandwidth to commit to a series right now).
I just got the new T. Kingfisher Tuesday. I need to read my book club book first but then headfirst into Ursula’s insanity I go!
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2025, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/54 "2025-08-21T23:44:40Z")
I still don’t have mine, but it’s on the way! In the meantime, I’ve got more books than time anyhow. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2025, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/55 "2025-08-22T01:35:25Z")
Still reading _Man With a Bull-Tongue Plow_ by Jesse Stuart. Finished _Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops_, by Tim Robey, which I enjoyed for its interesting and often funny anecdotes, and _Flyaway_ by Kathleen Jennings, a dark fantasy which is the best book I’ve this year.
Next up: _Small Wonder: Essays_, by Barbara Kingsolver with Steven Hopp, whose name isn’t on the title page but she acknowledges co-writing three of the essays with him originally; and _The Singularity Project_ by F. M. Busby, a science fiction novel.
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### Author:  [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2025, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/56 "2025-08-22T18:59:25Z")
**When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution’s Greatest Romance** Riley Black
The evolution of plants and the relationships among plants, animals, and climate. Told in a series of vignettes of prehistoric life, starting at 1 billion BC and going up to the last ice age.
Pretty good, but could have been better. More detail and background - how to we know these things? , who discovered the fossils and how ? - would have been worthwhile.
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### Author:  [@MacDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacDoc)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2025, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/57 "2025-08-23T22:16:35Z")
> **[Man-Eaters of Tsavo : Patterson, John: Amazon.com.au: Books](https://www.amazon.com.au/Man-Eaters-of-Tsavo/dp/1592281877)**
>
> Man-Eaters of Tsavo : Patterson, John: Amazon.com.au: Books
Scary shite …the movi **e Ghost and the Darknes** s was based on the true events.
Movie still haunts me… 👻
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### Author:  [@MacDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacDoc)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2025, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/58 "2025-08-24T03:18:54Z")
It’s very interesting to read a first hand account right on the edge of the railroad opening Africa often to tribes that had very little contact with the outside world. Of course the maneaters were horrendous but the other stories are also excellent and easy to imagine oneself back just before the turn of the 19th century before war and influenza ravaged the world. Britain at the height of it’s empire. Very satisfying read.
Would be a good companion read to some of the histories of Africa and empires like the Shaka Zulu …their leader a military and social organizational genius on a par with Napoleon…and who nearly defeated the British army. I might grab a few of the relevant books to re-read.
### [Shaka - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaka)
Shaka kaSenzangakhona (c. 1787 – c. 22 September 1828), also known as Shaka[2] Zulu (Zulu pronunciation: [ˈʃaːɠa]), was the most influential leader of the Zulu Kingdom. He is widely credited with uniting many of the Northern Nguni people, specifically the Mtetwa Paramountcy and the Ndwandwe into…
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### Author:  [@MacDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacDoc)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2025, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/59 "2025-08-24T03:24:51Z")
**Big Empty**
> How is it? I generally enjoy this series quite a bit.
Was not sure initially but like the style of writing and there is an appealing grittiness - I generally find true crime more appealing than fiction but Crais writes close enough to that boundary that it is satisfying. Lots more of his to chew on …any recco for a couple more? TIA
…
I still don’t have mine, but it’s on the wa **y! In the meantime, I’ve got more books than time anyhow.**
ain’t that the truth especially including audio books which are lined up. 🤪
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2025, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2025-edition/1021495/60 "2025-08-24T17:14:18Z")
> [@MacDoc](#):
>
> ain’t that the truth especially including audio books which are lined up. 🤪
AAAAAAA! Don’t remind me!
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