# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - July 2025 edition
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** comic-books-manga, books-writing-myths
**Created:** [June 30, 2025, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278 "2025-06-30T00:38:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2025, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/61 "2025-07-12T22:00:38Z")
Yeah, I’ve read that one too, along with Eiger Dreams, Missoula, and Under the Banner of Heaven.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2025, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/62 "2025-07-13T01:01:09Z")
Jon Krakauer’s _Into Thin Air_ and _Into the Wild_ are both very good, as is _Under the Banner of Heaven_, about Mormon fundamentalism and a notorious Utah double homicide.
Three interesting earlier threads about _Into the Wild_: (1) [Biggest nincompoop: Timothy Treadwell, Chris McCandless, or Vitaly Nikolayenko?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-nincompoop-timothy-treadwell-chris-mccandless-or-vitaly-nikolayenko/538059) (2) [Your thoughts on INTO THE WILD by Jon Krakauer](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-into-the-wild-by-jon-krakauer/194728)
(3) [I just saw 'Into the Wild' and all I gotta say is...](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-saw-into-the-wild-and-all-i-gotta-say-is/430539)
I was underwhelmed by Thomas Perry’s _The Old Man_ when I read it two years ago, I have to admit.
I read _The Only Plane in the Sky_ a few months ago and agree, it’s quite powerful. The title comes from a realization by the command pilot of Air Force One late on 9/11 - as far as he knew, they really _were_ the only plane in the sky.
Now reading _The Two Popes: Francis, Benedict, and the Decision That Shook the World_ by Anthony McCarten. I’d enjoyed the movie with Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins, which was lightly fictionalized; this is nonfiction, and pretty good so far, although McCarten’s prose is a bit breathless sometimes. I knew very little of the future Pope Francis’s early life, and am learning a lot.
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### Author:  [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2025, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/63 "2025-07-13T22:40:38Z")
Just finished _Stone & Sky_, the latest Rivers of London book. It’s one of the better books in the series. Peter Grant and Beverley go to Aberdeen on holiday, accompanied by Nightingale, Abigail, Indigo the fox, and Dr. Walid. The last four are going because one of Dr. Walid’s former classmates from med school messaged him about a weird melanistic leopard tearing sheep apart in Scotland, which is famously far away from anywhere leopards live. From there we get mermaids, selkies, a stray wyvern, and an unfortunate walrus. Of course Peter’s holiday is anything but relaxing and not just because he has his two-year-old twins with him.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2025, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/64 "2025-07-14T01:30:00Z")
Woo hoo! I am so looking forward to reading it!
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2025, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/65 "2025-07-15T13:53:30Z")
I finished The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, by H.G. Parry. It was way better than I expected it to be. This author writes with great confidence and ability; I plan to follow up with her other books and whatever she writes in future.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2025, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/66 "2025-07-15T20:21:15Z")
My book club is reading “Real Americans” by Rachel Khong. It’s another of those ethnic woman hooks up with white upper crust kid tropes. So far it’s a solid Meh. 148 pages in and theres over a dozen characters and zero personality for any of them.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2025, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/67 "2025-07-16T05:23:15Z")
Finished _Nightshade_, by Michael Connelly. A woman’s body is found weighted down in the harbor on California’s Catalina Island. A new Connelly protagonist, Detective Sergeant Stilwell, who has been “exiled” to the rustic island due to department politics and whose first name we never learn, must investigate. It was okay but felt kind of like a throw-away. What I’m really waiting for is the next Mickey Haller book coming out later this year, _The Proving Ground_.
Next up is _Never Flinch_, the latest by by Stephen King.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2025, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/68 "2025-07-17T18:24:35Z")
Still reading _Man With a Bull-Tongue Plow_, poems by Jesse Stuart, which is 700+ pages long so it’s going to take awhile. Finished _The Misfit Soldier_, science fiction by Michael Mammay which was okay, and _enough is enuf: Our Failed Attempts to Make English Easier to Spell_, by Gabe Henry, which wuz OK 2. 😀
I also read _Intergalactic P.S. 3_ by Madeleine L’Engle, a book I had no idea existed. It was written three years before A Wind in the Door (the first sequel to A Wrinkle in Time), and reads more or less like the author was conceptualizing ideas for that novel.
Next up: _A House With Good Bones_ by T. Kingfisher, and _Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II_, by Lena Andrews.
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### Author:  [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2025, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/69 "2025-07-17T19:09:14Z")
The Ottomans: A Cultural Legacy Diane Darke
A survey of the culture of the Ottoman Empire, covering food, music, literature, etc.. Nicely illustrated with paintings and old photos.
The Killing of Polly Carter Robert Thorogood
An original story set in the Death In Paradise Universe (the Death in ParaVerse?) DI Richard Poole and his team investigate the mysterious death of a fashion model thrown off a cliff on Ste Marie. As usual there are a handful of suspects, but who is the real killer?
It’s like watching the show. Fun, but don’t think about it too much.
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### Author:  [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2025, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/70 "2025-07-17T21:08:47Z")
Finished _A Small Town_ by Scott Perry. It was an okay action novel with an almost believable premise, but it was about twice as long as it needed to be.
Next up: _King of Ashes_ by S.A.Cosby.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2025, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/71 "2025-07-17T22:40:22Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#):
>
> _A House With Good Bones_ by T. Kingfisher
This one was… wierd. I know, I know ALL of her books are wierd. I think I resonate better with her fantasy world building books… or maybe I just missed the White Rat.
> [@Railer13](#):
>
> Next up: _King of Ashes_ by S.A.Cosby.
Looking forward to what you think of it. It’s on my TBR.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2025, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/72 "2025-07-18T00:26:38Z")
A House With Good Bones wasn’t top drawer. 🤷♀️
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### Author:  [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2025, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/73 "2025-07-18T13:00:54Z")
Maybe so, but she perfectly captured the feel of a housing development in central NC. They’re all like that, including the turkey buzzards.
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### Author:  [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2025, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/74 "2025-07-18T18:31:30Z")
Because of a mention in another forum, I read all three of John Birmingham’s “Disappearance” series. One can always take issue with the premises of alternate history novels but I found these books to be fun, rollicking adventure tales.
Currently working on my first Ursula Le Guin novel, _The Left Hand of Darkness_, which I’ve learned is but one of a fairly lengthy series as well (Earthsea). I don’t know if I’ll read the other books but Ms.Le Guin may have the most unique style of any sci-fi book I’ve ever read.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2025, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/75 "2025-07-18T18:37:11Z")
Finished [I’ll Be Waiting](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/203578924-i-ll-be-waiting), by Kelley Armstrong. It was just okay. By the last couple of chapters, with the implausible twists and reveals and gore and the hoyvin and the glavin, it all seemed a bit silly. I appreciated that it remained a ghost story and didn’t turn into some Scooby Doo bullshit.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2025, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/76 "2025-07-18T21:26:17Z")
Oh yes the atmosphere was great. Ursula is an NC native, I believe, her and the hubby just recently moved to New Mexico.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2025, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/77 "2025-07-18T21:29:00Z")
Nah, it’s not an Earthsea Novel, it’s a Hainish Cycle novel.
[Hainish Cycle](https://www.goodreads.com/series/49359-hainish-cycle)
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2025, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/78 "2025-07-21T16:06:58Z")
Just started:
_Inferno’s Shadow_, the fourth Artillerymen book, by Taylor Anderson
_Tarzan and the Castaways_, Tarzan #24 (a trio of short stories), by Edgar Rice Burroughs
I’ve been reading the Event Group series by David Lynn Golemon – fourteen books, of which the library has nine. Interesting SF/thrillers about a super-secret government organisation headquartered in a complex beneath Nellis AFB, in Nevada, but very poorly edited. Misspellings, homonym problems (_breach_ for _breech_, _disbursed_ for _dispersed_, &c), errors (an Army 2LT is _not_ senior to a Navy LTJG!), and other problems.
I just finished the 12th book, _Beyond the Sea_, and Oh. My. Gawd. The idea this time is that the Philadelphia Experiment occurred in 1943 as claimed, but preceded by an unsuccessful German attempt in 1939 and followed by an overly successful Soviet try in 1944. (the Soviet ship never came back.) USS _Houston_ (SSN 713) plays a major role, and it’s obvious Golemon doesn’t know much about submarines. It’s been a good forty years since the US Navy had a submarine with a conning tower, and possibly a little longer since the last boat with an aft torpedo room. (He gives _Houston_ six torpedo tubes in a forward torpedo room, plus four in an aft room – plus two vertical launch tubes loaded with Harpoons!) They are under way with empty tubes (tube-loading a warshot is the first step in preparing to shoot). And they’re going to use ASROC against a surface target. The boat is at Periscope depth, but when it surfaces the bow comes up out of the water as if they’d just done an emergency blow from test depth. Whilst submerged, they transmit a message using ELF – can’t transmit radio under water, and for submarines ELF is receive-only. There are no boatswain’s mates on US submarines, and even if there were they certainly wouldn’t be carrying “CO eyes only” messages from Radio to the bridge. And how the heck is Sonar getting infrared and radiation signals from a target? All in all, if this had been the first Event Group book I’d read I wouldn’t have read any of the others.
@robby, @iiandyiiii, @TheTyrant, @kaylasdad99 – if you want a good laugh (or perhaps a good cry), you might consider reading this book. 😃
tl/dr: People who know nothing about a subject shouldn’t write books in which that subject plays a major role, unless they have a knowledgeable person to keep an eye on them (whilst holding a ruler for use if called for).
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/79 "2025-07-21T16:18:44Z")
> [@Red\_Wiggler](#):
>
> Currently working on my first Ursula Le Guin novel, _The Left Hand of Darkness_, which I’ve learned is but one of a fairly lengthy series as well (Earthsea).
As @dazednconfused mentioned, it’s not Earthsea: Earthsea is fantasy, and LHoD is science fiction. It may surprise you that I’m a fan of that book.
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### Author:  [@TheTyrant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheTyrant)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2025, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-july-2025-edition/1020278/80 "2025-07-21T16:44:28Z")
> [@SCAdian](#):
>
> @robby, @iiandyiiii, @TheTyrant, @kaylasdad99 – if you want a good laugh (or perhaps a good cry), you might consider reading this book. 😃
>
> tl/dr: People who know nothing about a subject shouldn’t write books in which that subject plays a major role, unless they have a knowledgeable person to keep an eye on them (whilst holding a ruler for use if called for).
If you want a laugh, I highly recommend H Jay Riker’s “Silent Service” series. There’s a whole series of them, each named after the class they take place on: “Los Angeles Class” “Virginia Class” “Ohio Class” “Seawolf Class” etc etc.
I was a plankowner on 774 so I was obviously curious about a book that takes place somewhere I literally lived for a while. Now, in fairness–it was published in 2004 so he obviously had to guess and make stuff up… but it was _so egregiously bad_ it was hilarious. (Also, given it took place in 2004 he **had** to stuff Al Qaeda in there… so somehow Al Qaeda got a hold of their own submarine.)
I read at least one other–the LA one I think–and it wasn’t any better.
Oh, minor spoiler. The bad guys in the Kilo shot down an airliner with a MANPAD from the sail (I dunno how they hit an aircraft at cruising altitude but hey whatever) and guess who one of the flight attendants was… the American captain’s girlfriend! The horror!
Seriously, they’re so bad they’re worth a read. (For free if possible.)
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