# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - August 2026 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-books-manga, books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [August 1, 2026, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066 "2026-08-01T00:09:04Z")\ **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:** [August 1, 2026, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/1 "2026-08-01T00:09:04Z")
Ooooooo got it in just under the wire – at least in my time zone! So are we all cooked enough? I hope no one here has been severely impacted by all the fires raging around the world! Might be time to start reading dytopian fiction and brushing up on our survival skills… Just sayin. So whatcha all readin? Print: _The Wonder Engine_ by T. Kingfisher Loving it just as much as I did when I read it 10 years ago! Audio: _The Gods of Guilt_ by Michael Connely. I really like Mickey a lot more than Bosch, I just hope Connelly doesn’t keep the sad sack persona on Mickey much longer. Kindle _Dog Bless You_ by Neil Plakcy. The 4th in his long running cozy series about a golden retreiver with a knack for finding bodies and the college professor/ex-felon who has to solve te mystery. Lots of fun and a nice New England small town vibe. _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:** [August 1, 2026, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/2 "2026-08-01T00:10:01Z")
Last month: [Ah July, sayonara until next year!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2026-edition/1031256) ---
**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:** [August 2, 2026, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/3 "2026-08-02T16:21:49Z")
Finished _Close Encounters with Humankind: A Paleoanthropologist Investigates Our Evolving Species_, by Sang-Hee Lee with Shin-Young Yoon. I’d already read almost all of the material it covered, which of course isn’t the author’s fault. It’s a good introduction to the subject. Also finished _Children of Promise: African-American Literature and Art for Young People_, edited by Charles Sullivan. The most powerful poem was Gwendolyn Brooks’ “To the Young Who Want to Die.” Next up: _The Cadaver Princess_, by Chuck Rothman; and _Arch of Bone_, by Jane Yolen. ---
**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:** [August 3, 2026, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/4 "2026-08-03T10:19:44Z")
I just finished [Everybody’s Perfect](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/779aff48-bec7-46ee-a2ba-82541f6b230c), by Jo Walton. It’s a good book that was a real slog for me. It takes place in a liminal city based on Venice and inhabited by beings from a variety of worlds, all of whom look like traditional Venetian Carnival masks (except the humans, who call themselves Venetians). Each chapter is told from a different perspective, all about the same day or two time period, with very little plot. The ideas are interesting, the prose is well-crafted, but the book lacked sharp edges in a way that made it difficult for me to stay focused. Some books you finish with regret, like you’re coming down from a high. Others you finish with relief. I can certainly imagine other folks adoring this book. It wasn’t really for me. ---
**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:** [August 4, 2026, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/5 "2026-08-04T13:12:04Z")
Still working my way through Emily Wilson’s translation of _The Odyssey_. She does seem to emphasize Athena more than other translators, and she uses other ways to get around the standard “Rosy-fingered Dawn”, but for the most part her translation does not stand out from others I’ve read. The thing that struck me the most were the times she abruptly uses a word or phrase that seems anachronistic. The Suitors, for instance, are described as spending time “playing checkers”, which is as jarring as Robert H. van Gulik saying that Judge Dee plated “chess”, when it was clearly _go_ that he was playing. You might want to make the game seem more familiar and homely, but saying they played checkers just yanks me out of the period, rather than appearing normal and expected. Another example is when Nausicaa ass her father King Alcinous for the use of the mule cart to go and do the laundry, and she addresses him as “Daddy,” which makes me cringe. Even worse, Alcinous agrees, and adds that “The slaves can fit the wagon with its cargo rack,”, a modernism that makes it sound as if she’s asking to borrow the royal pickup truck. ---
**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:** [August 5, 2026, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/6 "2026-08-05T23:56:30Z")
I finished my second reading of _The Wonder Engine_ by T. Kingfisher. SO much I had forgotten in the last 8 years since I first read it; enjoyed it even more this time. I really do adore her many paladins. Now I’m ready for _Daggerbound_’s release this month. ---
**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:** [August 7, 2026, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/7 "2026-08-07T11:56:09Z")
Finished _The Cadaver Princess_, by Chuck Rothman; and _Arch of Bone_, by Jane Yolen, both of which I enjoyed, especially for their settings. Next up: _A Summons to Memphis_, by Peter Taylor; and _A Phule and His Money_, by Robert Asprin with Peter J. Heck. ---
**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:** [August 7, 2026, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/8 "2026-08-07T19:02:46Z")
I have Swordheart on my Kindle, thinking I’d read it next time we go on a trip. However, it doesn’t seem like that trip is going to materialize! I need to just read it and get Daggerbound already. ---
**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:** [August 8, 2026, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/9 "2026-08-08T00:28:18Z")
_Swordheart_ is one of my favorites, so many great characters. I’m bouncing waiting for _Daggerbound_ to release. ---
**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:** [August 8, 2026, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/10 "2026-08-08T23:11:23Z")
I finished _Gods of Guilt_ by Michael Connelly today. I had not realized it had been TEN years since I’d read a Mickey Haller book. I enjoyed this one very much and was completely glued to the ending. ---
**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:** [August 9, 2026, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/11 "2026-08-09T02:48:52Z")
I was able to read a lot on vacation. Recently finished: _Who Killed Jane Stanford?: A Gilded Age Tale of Murder, Deceit, Spirits and the Birth of a University_ by Richard White. It’s about the 1905 poisoning of the imperious widow of robber baron and railroad tycoon Leland Stanford, and the (purposefully, it seems) abortive investigation which followed. The author has to speculate quite a bit, due to the passage of time and the loss or destruction of records, but it’s a well-researched and mostly interesting book. _Yorktown 1781_ by Brendan Morrissey, one of the excellent Osprey short military histories, about the last major campaign of the American Revolution. There’s more nitty-gritty about the organization and structure of the American, French and British armies than I’ve seen elsewhere. Good stuff. _Spock Must Die!_ by James Blish, a 1970 novel that’s much sillier and inconsistent with _Star Trek_ canon than it should be, considering that Blish was the guy who wrote the novelizations of all the original-series episodes. Among other annoyances, McCoy is referred to as “Doc” and not “Bones,” Scotty’s accent is _much_ thicker (and almost incomprehensible in print), and Kirk handles a shipboard crisis with incredible carelessness. Two thumbs down. I’m now reading: _We the People_ by Jill Lepore, a Pulitzer-winning history of the U.S. Constitution, focusing particularly on the process and examples of amending it. Lepore argues that the country would be better off, and the people better-served, if the Constitution were more frequently amended. She hasn’t quite convinced me yet, but I’m glad to let her try. _War at Sea in the Ironclad Age_ by Richard Hill, about the remarkable half-century of naval innovation from 1855-1905. Quite a bit about the American Civil War and the late Victorian era’s Royal Navy, as well as the rapid rise of Imperial Japan as a blue-water power. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2026, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/12 "2026-08-09T13:44:58Z")
I started on _Death of the Author_ by Nnedi Okorafor. It was okay, but it never really grabbed me. Still, I was willing to put up with it until an Elon Musk character showed up. A quick perusal of the reviews revealed that this guy was supposedly a hero and the story dropped off a cliff shortly after so into the return to library bag it went. The main character was starting to piss me off anyway and her family was a gang of idiots. Sadly, since it was a Nigerian novel, it made me hungry. I really need to find a recipe for jollof rice. Every single African novel (and the Rivers of London series) mentions it. They make it sound like the best thing ever. There is a Nigerian (?) restaurant that makes wonderful jollof rice that one of my friends recommended but it’s in Cary NC and I’m four hours west of there. The only time I’m in that part of the state is Thanksgiving and Christmas to visit my Oldest Sister and the restaurants are closed then. Sad face. But anyway. To take the bad taste of crap novel out of my mouth I turned to Lindsey Davis’ _The Graveyard of the Hesperides_ which is another wonderful Roman murder mystery capped off with a hilarious wedding scene when Uncle Baebius brings his own pig to the sacrifice. I literally lol’ed in the correct sense of the adverb. If I haven’t said so before, heartfelt thanks to whoever it was here who recommended Davis’ novels to me. They’re un-putdownable. ---
**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:** [August 9, 2026, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/13 "2026-08-09T18:36:04Z")
Finished listening to _No One Can Know_ by Kate Alice Marshall. A decent mystery about three estranged sisters who are re-united against their wishes 14 years after their parents were brutally murdered in a still-unsolved crime. A lot of plot twists that shifts the focus from one suspect to another. The story is told from the viewpoints of each of the sisters, revealing what each of them know and don’t know about their siblings and the deaths of their parents. ---
**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:** [August 9, 2026, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/14 "2026-08-09T18:51:56Z")
> [@Catamount](#): > > heartfelt thanks to whoever it was here who recommended Davis’ novels to me. I believe it was me, so YOU’RE WELCOME! ---
**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:** [August 10, 2026, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/15 "2026-08-10T23:31:53Z")
Finished _A Summons to Memphis_, by Peter Taylor. Not recommended. Also finished _A Phule and His Money_, by Robert Asprin with Peter J. Heck, which was okay. Next: _Bogeys and Bandits: The Making of a Fighter Pilot_, by Robert Gandt; and _Thurber on Crime_, by James Thurber, which is a collection of stories, articles, essays, and drawings. ---
**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:** [August 11, 2026, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/16 "2026-08-11T11:17:47Z")
[Titanium Noir](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/e82eea07-d05d-4339-9cf4-ec490f3533ab), by Nick Harkaway, is a gem. The protagonist is a detective who works on spec for the cops, investigating a very particular sort of crime: those involving Titans, those rare privileged few who’ve received one or more doses of a medication that rejuvenates their bodies and sends them through a second growth spurt that leads them to tower above the untreated masses. Harkaway writes in pitch-perfect noir detective prose–like, Chandler and Hammett would have no notes–except without all the cringy racism and misogyny. The SF metaphor is pretty on the nose, but Harkaway explores it in a nuanced, thoughtful fashion. The mystery at the heart of the book is well-handled. And it has a sequel, which I just learned while finding a link for the book! Recommended. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2026, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/17 "2026-08-11T12:16:32Z")
I’m in the middle of _Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell_ by Susanna Clarke, because I liked her other book _Piranesi_ so much. In particular I’m enjoying how she treats magic and the supernatural in this routine and matter-of-fact way that makes it feel that it’s supporting the main story (though there’s no real story without it). I like a writer who is able to quietly emanate their skill and mastery without overtly calling attention to it, Clarke is definitely that writer. Somehow her writing ability just radiates off the page without calling attention to itself, in fact she seems perfectly content to add a lot of subtle cleverness that’s likely to be overlooked if the reader is moving too fast (which I do at times, she’s definitely made me slow down). ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2026, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/18 "2026-08-11T15:21:18Z")
**The Last Astronaut** David Wellington A mysterious alien spaceship approaches Earth and a group of astronauts are sent to make First Contact. A remake of Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama, more or less. Pretty good book (but not as good as RwR) ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2026, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/19 "2026-08-11T15:21:57Z")
I enjoyed Titanium Noir also. Thanks for the heads up about a sequel! ---
**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:** [August 11, 2026, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066/20 "2026-08-11T15:57:01Z")
RwR? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-august-2026-edition/1032066.md?page=2)