# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - May 2025 edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-books-manga, books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [April 28, 2025, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631 "2025-04-28T22:46:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [May 20, 2025, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/41 "2025-05-20T17:28:15Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Just finished [Victorian Psycho](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213395480-victorian-psycho) by Virginia Feito. I was hoping for something a little more subtle or clever, but this was just full-on gore. Plenty of child and animal abuse, but so cartoonishly over-the-top it didn’t affect me. I still have this author’s Miss March in the TBR pile, and it got some good reviews, but I don’t know. This one wasn’t for me. I liked it, but I was in the mood for weird. Also I was getting sick of all the fox hunting chapters in my current Victorian novel (Phineas Redux) so the over-the-top gore was a nice change from the more horrifying reality of the real hunts. Poor foxes. What did they ever do? ---
**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:** [May 20, 2025, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/42 "2025-05-20T17:44:01Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I think Corey Is one of the best science fiction authors in the business. This stuff will go down as classic. (Shameless plug for their new series, The Captive’s War. _The Mercy of Gods_ is absolutely riveting.) Absolutely. _The Mercy of Gods_ started off with me being like, “Huh, academic politics, only in space. Cool cool cool.” My wife, who works in academia, nearly noped out at that point. Fortunately, we both stuck with it, because it’s flippin awesome. I’ve read two books (I think) since my last post: - [Last Exit](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57693437-last-exit), by Max Gladstone. At a slim 200 pages, it’s a taut thriller about the apocalypse and alternate realities. Unfortunately, I lied: it clocks in at nearly 400 pages, not 200 pages, because it’s completely bloated with characters’ internal monologues. If the monologues changed, it would be fine; but every character thinks basically the same thing every time they monologue, and it’s dreary as hell. An editor should’ve sliced a couple hundred pages from the book, and it would’ve been terrific: Max Gladstone writes excellent, evocative prose, and it’s a great idea for a book. Too bad the good two hundred pages are buried under the bloat. - [Nicked](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200555176-nicked), by MT Anderson. In 1087, the Italian city of Bari decided to increase tourism revenue by hiring adventurers to steal the corpse of St. Nicholas from a nearby town. _This is true_. The author fictionalizes the heist in a wry, comic tale, less Danny Ocean and more John Dortmunder. It wasn’t laugh-out-loud, but it was really well-written and tightly plotted. Recommended! ---
**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:** [May 20, 2025, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/43 "2025-05-20T17:54:08Z")
Yeah, well, I have to admit I didn’t put it down! Started a little while ago on [The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/207567816-the-scholar-and-the-last-faerie-door), by H.G. Parry, as recommended by @Left_Hand_of_Dorkness. Really good so far. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2025, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/44 "2025-05-20T20:42:25Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Absolutely. _The Mercy of Gods_ started off with me being like, “Huh, academic politics, only in space. Cool cool cool.” Yeah it’s funny, I was like, “whelp, I guess all that stuff doesn’t matter any mo-- Ooh.” I tell people to at least read to the 25% mark, when the “thing” happens. Trust me, you won’t have to guess what the “thing” is. My other thought was, “There’s no way they could adapt this to film.” Well apparently they found a way because it’s going to be a TV series. I’m interested to see how they do that. ---
**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:** [May 20, 2025, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/45 "2025-05-20T23:19:49Z")
Finished _Who Owns the Moon? And Other Conundrums of Exploring and Using Space_, by Cynthia Levinson and Jennifer Swanson. It’s YA and is a solid introduction to the topic. I learned quite a bit. Also finished _Quantum Leap: Search and Rescue_, by Melissa Crandall. Not recommended. Next up: _Ripley’s Believe It or Not!: Dare to Discover_, edited by Jordie R. Orlando, and Ron Goulart’s _A Talent for the Invisible_, a science fiction novel. ---
**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:** [May 22, 2025, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/46 "2025-05-22T18:38:25Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > …I’m enjoying Scott Turow’s 2010 sequel to _Presumed Innocent_, which has the unimaginative title of _Innocent_. Set 21 years after the first book, it’s fun to see what’s become of most of the characters and how their paths cross once again in another homicide investigation hitting much too close to home for former DA - now appellate judge and state supreme court candidate - Rusty Sabich, the main character of the first book… Finished it. A worthy sequel, despite the blah title. I thought I saw the plot heading towards one twist, or maybe, just maybe, another, but then Turow had yet another, very different one in store - nicely done. I recently zipped through _The President’s Brain is Missing_, a sf/political novella by John Scalzi, and a rare misfire for him. Meant to be funny, but wasn’t. _Orbital_ by Samantha Harvey, however, is excellent - a lyrical, engaging novel about astronauts on the International Space Station in the near future, and how they both can and cannot escape the beautiful, mesmerizing world just outside their bulletproof-glass windows. I’m about three-quarters done. ---
**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:** [May 22, 2025, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/47 "2025-05-22T20:16:47Z")
Idjits: > **[Chicago Sun-Times prints summer reading list full of fake books](https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/05/chicago-sun-times-prints-summer-reading-list-full-of-fake-books/)** > > Reading list in advertorial supplement contains 66% made up books with real author names. ---
**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:** [May 22, 2025, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/48 "2025-05-22T22:15:33Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I recently zipped through _The President’s Brain is Missing_, a sf/political novella by John Scalzi, and a rare misfire for him. Meant to be funny, but wasn’t. Yeah.. that one didn’t quite stick the landing. ---
**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:** [May 22, 2025, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/49 "2025-05-22T22:43:36Z")
Finished _Ripley’s Believe It or Not!: Dare to Discover_, edited by Jordie R. Orlando, which I enjoyed, and Ron Goulart’s _A Talent for the Invisible_, a science fiction novel, which _really_ didn’t age well, (it was written in 1973) although it had some humorous moments. Next up: _Call Me Joe_, by Poul Anderson and _Gunfight on Europa Station_, edited by David Boop. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2025, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/50 "2025-05-24T16:04:14Z")
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Simon Winchester The interesting story of the collaboration between the chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary James Murray and retired U.S. army surgeon William Minor who was a volunteer contributor to the dictionary. (In an idea ahead of its time, much of the dictionary was ‘crowd-sourced’, although that term was only coined in 2006). Dr. Minor suffered from schizophrenia, and was confined to an asylum for killing a random stranger when he worked on the dictionary. Well-written and well researched book. ---
**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:** [May 24, 2025, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/51 "2025-05-24T23:29:51Z")
I quite enjoyed the book as well! Very well written. ---
**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:** [May 27, 2025, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/52 "2025-05-27T12:10:03Z")
I finished James S.A. Corey’s **Leviathan Wakes** at last. It really is like “Game of Thrones” as a space opera, which makes sense for a lot of reasons. I then watched the first season of _The Expanse_ (which I had never finished before) and was disappointed that they didn’t finish the story. It was also interesting to see the changes the made, and how they brought in stuff from later in the series. After that I quickly read **Frontier Rangers of Colonial New England: From King Philip’s War t the American Revolution** by Anthony Philip Blasi. I bought the copy from the author after listen to a talk he gave two weeks ago at The Fort at Number 4 in Charlestown, N.H. Interesting book on an unjustly overlooked topic, although it got dry near the end. Now I’m working through a stack of books I picked up, starting with a re-read of **Tarzan the Invincible** by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I haven’t read most of the Tarzan novels since I first read them some – my God – 48 years ago! On audio I finished up Mark Twain’s **Autobiography** , Volume I. If any of the other volumes ever came out on audio, I haven’t seen them. I then went on to **Fire Strike** , an Oregon Files novel using characters created by Clive Cussler. Since he’s dead, Mike Maden wrote this one. But it’s solidly in the mold, and Scott Brick, who read the Cussler novels when the author was alive, read this one, too, so you might miss the fact that this is a zombie series. After that I read **Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party: How an Eccentric Group of Victorians Discovered Prehistoric Creatures and Accidentally Upended the World** by Edward Dolnick. I’ve been a dinosaur fan since I was a kid, so most of the story here was familiar to me. What made it stand out were the biographies of the people involved, which was an eye-opener. I knew that Mary Anning had discovered the first complete ichthyosaur skeleton (and the first plesiosaur, too) – my Big Golden Book of Dinosaurs had a painting depicting it. But I had no idea how seriously she pursued her research. What I’d read earlier could have suggested that she simply found the thing, and was a dogged fossil hunter. But she copied out complete scientific papers, complete with accurate drawings, in those pre-photocopier days, and sought out the relevant journals. No easy task for someone not connected with a university and not living in London. She struggled to support her family, and was routinely denied credit for her discoveries, which were definitely not by chance. I knew that Francis Buckland was an eccentric from James Burke’s series _Connections_, but he was even odder than I knew. And so was his family. I had no idea that Richard Owen and Gideon Mantell hated each other, or how heart-breakingly unlucky Mantell’s life had been (and that much of Owen’s work derived from Mantell’s fossil finds, and who got no credit from him). A work worth reading. Now I’m re-listening to some Nero Wolfe while I look for something else. ---
**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:** [May 27, 2025, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/53 "2025-05-27T14:41:20Z")
I just finished The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door this morning. I really enjoyed it! It soaked up my thoughts like a sponge, an experience I’m always hoping for when I read. I’ll be getting more books from this author. Tomorrow I will be starting on Stephen King’s newest, [Never Flinch](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221633230). That is, unless Amazon screws me over like they tend to do on deliveries I want very much. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/54 "2025-05-27T15:56:22Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I finished James S.A. Corey’s **Leviathan Wakes** at last. It really is like “Game of Thrones” as a space opera, which makes sense for a lot of reasons. This stuff is gonna be classic, I think. I haven’t read a Corey book yet that disappointed. ---
**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:** [May 27, 2025, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/55 "2025-05-27T16:03:28Z")
Just finished _Open Season_ by Jonathan Kellerman. Another good Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis thriller in which they find and catch the Bad Guy. Next up: _The Cold Dish_ by Craig Johnson. The first Longmire book, none of which I’ve read. Hope I like it, as there are about 20 more in the series. ---
**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:** [May 27, 2025, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/56 "2025-05-27T20:28:39Z")
Finished _Call Me Joe_, by Poul Anderson, which was excellent, and _Gunfight on Europa Station_, edited by David Boop, which had some very good stories, of which the best was Wil McCarthy’s “Doc Holliday 2.0”. Next up: _For Want of a Nail: If Burgoyne Had Won at Saratoga_, by Robert Sobel, an alternate history. ---
**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:** [May 29, 2025, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/57 "2025-05-29T02:34:33Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > …After that I read **Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party: How an Eccentric Group of Victorians Discovered Prehistoric Creatures and Accidentally Upended the World** by Edward Dolnick… I knew that Mary Anning had discovered the first complete ichthyosaur skeleton [but] I had no idea how seriously she pursued her research… Were you aware of this recent movie?: [Ammonite (2020) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7983894/) ---
**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:** [May 29, 2025, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/58 "2025-05-29T16:31:20Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I just finished The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door this morning. I really enjoyed it! It soaked up my thoughts like a sponge, an experience I’m always hoping for when I read. I’ll be getting more books from this author. Glad you enjoyed it! I’ve read a couple other things by the author. _A Declaration on the Rights of Magicians_ was fine, but didn’t do a ton for me. _The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep_, however, was some bonkers fun, good enough that it got me to read _David Copperfield_ soon afterward. I just finished reading _Celestial Monsters_, a YA novel that was the sequel to _The Sunbearer Trials_. My younger daughter loved it and couldn’t wait until I read it so we could talk about it. Which I did, enthusiastically, with her. I hated it. It’s derivative of much better works. Queer representation in it is so in-your-face that it feels like the author forgets the story sometimes. An interesting metaphor for dysphoria is conveniently disposed of and forgotten. A major character redemption arc happens off-screen because the author apparently couldn’t figure out how to portray it. The action scenes are muddy nonsense, full of sentences like “A spectacle of lights filled the arena” instead of anything specific. The mystical powers feel like knockoff Avengers, substituting energy blasts for anything that could be interesting. If the book was edited, I can’t tell: in one case, an entire sentence was repeated verbatim. It feels like a great premise squandered. And I’ll never breathe a word of that to my daughter. All she knows is that I was enthusiastic and excited about it when I talked with her. Anyway, it was great to talk with her about a book she loved! Currently reading _I’ll Be Waiting_, a twisty ghosty thriller. Pretty good so far, but I’ve not reached the conclusion, and this is definitely a book that’ll be made or broken on the conclusion. ---
**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:** [May 29, 2025, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/59 "2025-05-29T17:46:11Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep Good, I’ve got that one and A Far Better Thing on the way already. I may give I’ll Be Waiting a sniff as well! ---
**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:** [May 29, 2025, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631/60 "2025-05-29T22:33:00Z")
Heads up my fellow T. Kingfisher fans! We have a third book coming out from her this year! [Snake Eater by T. Kingfisher](https://www.amazon.com/Snake-Eater-T-Kingfisher/dp/1662525095/131-6377659-5553318?pd_rd_w=KGNSM&content-id=amzn1.sym.f5690a4d-f2bb-45d9-9d1b-736fee412437&pf_rd_p=f5690a4d-f2bb-45d9-9d1b-736fee412437&pf_rd_r=83XZG19ENF0SNRCG7397&pd_rd_wg=DzQCh&pd_rd_r=f395f4bb-4d9e-4b1e-82c9-f3602b963e86&pd_rd_i=1662525095&psc=1) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-may-2025-edition/1017631.md?page=4)