Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - July 2026 edition

Cafe Society
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I finally finished The Girl in the Picture by Denise Chong. My god, but Kim Phuc had a tough life. Far beyond the physical pain and suffering were the way she was treated by her handlers and the abject poverty her family lived in, made worse by the way everyone thought they were well-offf and kept stealing their things and confiscating any gifts given to her.

I’ve started reading Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey. I’ve also started re-listening to the Robert Fagles translation as read by Ian McKellen.

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Finished it. The book (over 37 hours on audio) covers two hundred years and four interrelated tales, any one of which could have been a novel in its own right. The last section is about a future America which has gotten increasingly repressive and dystopic due to recurring pandemics and global climate change. It builds to a conclusion which is both ambiguous and even, I would have to say, cruel, given all that came before. Not sure I can recommend it. PM me if you want to know more.

Still reading Luke Skywalker Can’t Read: And Other Geeky Truths by Ryan Britt, an affectionate, uber-geeky exploration of all kinds of fandom. The chapter on the links between Star Trek and Sherlock Holmes has been a highlight so far.

I’ve returned to Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte, a collection of short stories which David Sedaris recommended. So far, all the stories have some Internet connection or theme, most of them snarky enough to make you wonder if we should just shut it all down.

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Finished Hole in the Sky, by Daniel H. Wilson, which was very good, although the ending didn’t really work, in my opinion. Also finished Big Stick, by Michael A. Ventrella. Meh.

Next up: A Book of Americans, by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet; and Bones of the Earth, by Michael Swanwick.

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I have been reading An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green. I knew it was about sudden Internet fame but was surprised it was also sci fi (pleasantly so). Almost near the end and enjoying it

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Recommendation accepted!

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I had very mixed feelings about Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl, so I was happy to pick up another book by him–Operation Bounce House. It was clarifying.

I fucking hate his writing.

One small taste: in this novel set hundreds of years in the future, a character learns a minor plot point from an NPR article. I love me some NPR, but will be astonished if they’re around in 30 years. Thinking they’ll be an ongoing concern centuries from now is a sure way to show me you don’t understand how history works. Some of the worst world-building I’ve ever encountered. There are other examples (the protagonist’s sister has a porn account with AlsoFans or something which she streams from a home studio, people watch commercials on screens, kids use passwords to log onto video games where they have names like, this is a direct quote, X_SuBhuM@nSlæy3r_X., and so on), but just in general he is too lazy to imagine a future that’s different from 2026.

If the satire were subtle or sharp, if the characters were compelling, if the battles were original, if the humor landed, if the prose were beautiful, I’d forgive the lazy anachronisms. But none of that is true.

Obviously a lot of folks love this writing. I’m done with this author.

But! Two others:

The Unveiling, by Quan Barry. I almost put this book down in the first 20 pages: every character, including the protagonist, was annoying and awful. But then around page 30, something happens, and I was like, oh, Jeff Vandermeer has entered the chat. Which isn’t to say it’s a knockoff; rather, the book grows weird in a way that I found much more compelling. Ultimately I’m not sure it sticks the landing, but I’m not sure it doesn’t: it’s certainly stuck with me.

Shroud, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I’ve sung Tchaikovsky’s praised here before, and so there’s not much else to say about this Hugo nominee. Do you like first-contact SF stories where humans find themselves on alien planets confronting complex, well-considered ecosystems and alien intelligences that are really the whole point of the story? If you do, you’re gonna love Tchaikovsky, including this book. If not, give it a miss. It’s absolutely my jam.

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Finished A Book of Americans, by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet, of which “Nancy Hanks” was the best poem. Also finished Bones of the Earth, by Michael Swanwick. Enjoyed the theories about the dinosaurs, but not the human characters.

Next up: The Vixen War Bride, by Thomas J. Doscher, which is science fiction; and Tomboy Bride: One Woman’s Personal Account of Life in the Mining Camps of the West, by Harriet Fish Backus.

48

Okay, I just finished Shroud in a morning binge. Hot damn!

Shroud is possibly my favorite work by Tchaikovsky yet: in addition to the eco-psycho-anticapitalist trifecta, here he’s working with interesting human characters, something he’s not always managed. The final chapter almost brought me to tears. Recommended!

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I liked Shroud but I’m getting a bit tired of Tchaikovsky’s speciesism, every species is generally good or at least has redeeming characteristics, except humans, we are the worst of the worst.