What to Read Next: June 27, 2025

Issue #382, featuring a page-turning literary Western

Happy Friday, readers!

While people across the U.S. sweltered under a record-breaking heat weave, Duluth was protected by Lake Superior’s natural air conditioning and has mostly stayed in the 50s and 60s. I’ll revel in it now, because come January and February it’ll be a different story. During this particularly rainy and gray week, I tore through Hernan Diaz’s In the Distance; I haven’t been that sucked into a book in a long time.

This week’s edition features:

• A case for why you should read In the Distance

• What to read on the 75th anniversary of the Korean War’s opening salvos

• 5 Things: Link and Opinions

---

In the Distance by Hernan Diaz

Hernan Diaz’s debut novel has been on my radar since it came out to rave reviews in 2017. I knew it was a literary Western but nothing beyond that, and boy was I blown away by the end.

The simplest definition of the concept of story is “a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to try to get it.” In the Distance leans on that simple premise to both devastating and enlightening effects. Hakan, or the Hawk, starts out as a young Swede who’s on his way to immigrate to New York City with his brother. The pair gets separated, Hakan ends up in San Fran, and begins a journey to reconnect with his sibling.

Instead, the Hawk ends up encountering every Western stereotype you can come up with — gold hunters, madams, land seekers, religious fanatics, corrupt lawmen, and more. He wanders in circles, largely on foot, throughout the West, growing in stature and legend, ultimately becoming an outlaw himself.

It’s gritty (and grisly at times), spare, and even puzzling, somewhat mirroring the maze of canyons that Hakan finds himself in — but the writing and story sucked me in and I flew through its 250 pages in just a few days. I was most reminded of The Revenant, but Diaz’s writing is on another level compared to that one. One newspaper reviewer summed it well, saying that In the Distance is “something like Huckleberry Finn written by Cormac McCarthy: an adventure story as well as a meditation on the meaning of home.”

It’s worth nothing that I also absolutely loved his second book, Trust, which won a 2023 Pulitzer. That book is so different, though, that I almost can’t believe it’s the same author. What a range. If you enjoy gritty historical fiction, In the Distance is a must-read.

---

In the News: Korean War’s 75th Anniversary

This section offers a book recommendation based on recent headlines, to help you make sense of the world with a bit more depth and context rather than just clickbait.

On Desperate Ground by Hampton Sides

I’ve read a couple handfuls of books about the Korean War, but Hampton Sides’ 2018 history of the Battle of Chosin Reservoir stands out. Sides captured every facet of the legendary engagement that was long (17 days!), cold, and brutal in every imaginable way. If you read one book about the war, make it this one.

On the fiction side, Robert Olmstead’s The Coldest Night is fantastic (and also about the Chosin Reservoir).

---

5 Things: Links and Opinions

1. Alex Warren — We’re still watching a music video or two every night and as of late my kids can’t get enough Alex Warren. His tunes are catchy but his videos are kind of lame — the kids don’t care though.

2. Two sea-going documentaries to pass along:

   1. Titanic: The Digital Resurrection — a look at how scientists created an ultra high-def rendering of the Titanic’s wreckage, allowing for further “exploration” of what exactly happened in April 1912. Watched it with Graham and we both enjoyed it.

   2. Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster — This one definitely shouldn’t be watched with kids. As much as anything, it’s another story of a tech founder gone rogue and thinking he can play fast and loose with the rules. In this case, people’s lives were lost because of Stockton Rush’s ego. Really well done doc.

3. “All the Little Data” — I’ll keep sharing Nicholas Carr articles as long as he keeps writing them. This piece explores what happens when we’re over-datafied in terms of notifications and emails we get from retailers, service providers, and various apps. Great, thought-provoking piece.

4. AI is hitting the sports world in a big way. I can’t resist articles about AI, mostly because of the disconnect between corporate executives who want to save money and predict everything and average people who aren’t all that interested in using AI for much of anything.

5. As mentioned above, it’s been cool here in Duluth, which has meant ample usage of the wood-stove sauna in our backyard. It’s amazing how quickly both Jane and I have become ardent fans of this 10,000-year-old practice. Lighting a fire, sweating for ~20 minutes, breathing in the refreshing cool air afterwards . . . it feels so grounding. Highly recommend sauna-ing on a regular basis.

---

Thanks so much for reading. Be good to each other.

-Jeremy