Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - January 2026 edition

Cafe Society
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Another year has passed, another 100+ books read, discuseed, maybe thrown across the room… I hope everyone who celebrated a holiday in December had a happy holiday, and that the rest of you who didn’t celebrate had some time off to relax and maybe read a book or three. Did anyone get books for their gift receiving holiday of choice? My hubby bought me a hard back copy of Swordheart by T. Kingfisher and I raided Barnes & Noble’s year end sale for The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow, Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas, and How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristin Perrin. I am looking forward to reading them in the coming months.

Currently I am reading:

Print: Swordheart by T. Kingfisher, I think I strained a few muscles laughing last night…

Kindle: The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown, I love it but….

Audio: Spooky Business by S.E. Harmon, reread and just as hard as the first time since it involves a serial killer and his victims.

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.

Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - December 2025 edition
What is the first sentence from the book you are currently reading?
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Last Month: SIXTY degrees fahrenheit.. on Christmas??! When did the Rocky Mountains become Australia?!

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Finished Softly As I Leave You
By Priscilla Presley.

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And what did you think?

Zipped through The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski, illustr. by P. J. Lynch, a heartwarming kids’ book about a gruff woodcarver in a Civil War-era small town who is won over by a widow and her little boy when they ask him to carve a Christmas creche set for them.

Also just finished All Systems Red by Martha Wells, the first Murderbot book, which was OK but not great, I’d say. I’ll probably go on to the next book in the series, though.

Now starting Democracy in One Book or Less by David Litt, a former Obama speechwriter, my book club’s next selection.

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They get better… at least in my opinion, I know some people here don’t like them. I like snarky heros tho :smiley:

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Thanks! I tend to like 'em, too, if they’re well-written (John Scalzi has a particular knack for 'em).

Hope you’ll all weigh in here: Your Top Ten Books of 2025

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So far I do like Scalzi’s heros too.

Oh I was thinking about that thread yesterday and waiting for it.

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Light Chaser, a science fiction novel by Peter F. Hamilton and Gareth L. Powell, and Swimming Pretty: The Untold Story of Women in the Water, by Vicki Valosik.

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I finished Childs and Preston’s Angel of Vengeance.

Now I’;m reading This Way Up: When Maps go Wrong by Mark Cooper-Jones and Jay Foreman. A book about interesting map stories, written by “THe Map Men”, a couple of Brits who have apparently been running a YouTube series for almost a decade. I haven’t heard of them, but our friends, who gave me the book, are big fans. The Map Men are based in Britain, so the book is British-centric, which means that occasionally jokes and side references go awry, missing my American knowledge and sensibilities, but the book is a hoot, and a great read. I’m already almost halfway through.

On audio, still doing The Day of the Jackal.

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I finished The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown. It was not what I was expecting in soooo many ways, Overall this is a feel good kinda sappy book… with some really dark and gruesome elements. Kudos to the author for writing a book involving magic and time travel that still relies on the wits and intelligence of the characters to get them out of bad situations. The characters, at least the good guys, were nicely drawn with imperfections and indecisions like real people. The two villains were a bit cartoonish in their nastinees and unkillableness but not so bad that I stopped reading. The plot is smooth and pulls you along and even when it pauses, it doesn’t do so long enough to bore the reader.

I also finished my reread of swordheart by T. Kingfisher, just as funny as the first time. I am bouncing now waiting for the book which due in August.

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Hold placed.
I’m starting off the year with T.Kingfisher’s Snake-Eater. I have Swordheart saved in my tablet for next time we travel, but @DZedNConfused has me really wanting to get into it now!

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I have Snake-eater waiting on my headboard… space out my Kingfisher this year :smiley:

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Ursula is good to us!

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Yes! Three books this year! (Well, one I think is a rerelease since I do appear to have it on my Kindle already)

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I’m embarrassed to say that my reading has fallen considerably now that I’m getting older. I don’t seem to have the ability to concentrate for very long. Also, computer use has eaten into the time I used to spend reading.

Having said that, I’m reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I know this book was discussed back in the 2025 reading thread, but I just started reading it a couple of weeks ago. Although I love hard science fiction, I haven’t read much of it beyond Larry Niven. I like the humor in this book, and am doing my best to digest the big chunks of physics which he introduces. He’s pretty good at explaining things as though to a middle-schooler, which is fortunate for me! But it’s tiring to absorb so much and I’m doing my best. The storyline itself is very interesting and what keeps me chugging through the techie stuff.

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Finished Light Chaser, a science fiction novel by Peter F. Hamilton and Gareth L. Powell, not recommended, and Swimming Pretty: The Untold Story of Women in the Water, by Vicki Valosik, which was interesting. Its focus is primarily on synchronized swimming.

Next up: The Cold Dish, a mystery by Craig Johnson and Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering, by Malcolm Gladwell.

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Just downloaded The End of the World As We Know It by Christopher Golden and Brian Keene. According to its publicity blurb, the book is 'An original short story anthology based on master storyteller Stephen King’s New York Times bestselling classic The Stand!" At 26 hours of listening, it’s going to be quite a journey. Looking forward to it.

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Finished W. Somerset Maugham’s Collected Short Stories: Volume 1. Absolutely fantastic, each and every one of them. I’m going to have to try to find his other volumes. Maugham was a novelist and playwright but is considered to have really excelled in the genre of the short story. If I could go back in time and live the life of a historical personage, Maugham would be a top choice. He lived into his 90s, was a member of the English upper crust with all that entailed on the continent and the Riviera, the drawing-room intrigue, traveled all through South and Southeast Asia and the South Seas. Was a spy for the allies during World War I thanks to his fluency in German and French. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel here in Bangkok, which routinely makes it onto the top-five lists of hotels in the world, has a suite named after him, he stayed there so often. (Legend has it Maugham was turned out by the French manager in 1923 when he came down with malaria after traveling overland from Mandalay in Burma, said manager supposedly concerned Maugham might end up hurting business by dying there.) His novel The Razor’s Edge is my favorite book. Reading it as a young man in my 20s in West Texas gave me the gumption to quit my dead-end graveyard shift at a convenience store, go to university and go out into the wide world. It was my sole catalyst.

Have started Act of Oblivion, by Robert Harris.

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Finished This Way Up, which I highly recommend. Now reading A Glitch in the Matrix: Tales of the Unexplainable Unreal by Jessica Castro. (Auntie Matrix). A collection of “weird but supposedly true” stories gathered from all over by TikToker Castro/Matrix. It reminds me of the writings of Frank Edwards – ghosts, demons, aliens, cryptids – if you love that kind of thing, you’ll like this book. It was gift from some friends, who must’ve received an advance reading copy.

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I’ve read a few since my last post:

Lone Women, by Victor LaValle: early 20th century Montana homesteader, a 30-something Black woman who’s starting a homestead by herself. Well, sort of by herself. Creepy horror story with excellent characters and exploring a fascinating bit of history, beautifully written; recommended.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe, by Emma Törzs. This is for a book club, and it’s a fine bit of modern fantasy, but I’m not sure it’ll lend itself to discussion. The book club is on Thursday, so we’ll see. I finished it over Christmas and don’t remember much about it, except that I enjoyed the read.

The Black Spectacles, by John Dickson Carr. I’m not much of a fan of Golden Age mysteries (or Golden Age any genre), but after the latest Knives Out movie, I wanted to read something by Carr. And it was…okay? He clearly started with the gimmick and worked backward to create a story to support the gimmick. None of the characters were especially interesting, and there was no emotional heft to the mystery at all. Nothing that I love about Knives Out, except for the clever puzzle bits, was there. Gimme a story that moves me any day, but I don’t expect I’ll read more by Carr.

Slow Horses, by Mick Herron. My brother-in-law gave me this for Christmas, and I really really liked it. All the MI5 agents who are outcasts from the main service are exiled to one ramshackle office in London, where they’re given miserable busywork until they resign. And that works just fine until it doesn’t. Beautiful writing, desert-dry humor, and a plot that takes a while to get going but once it ramps up it never slows down. Good stuff!

When We Were Real, by Daryl Gregory. Two middle-aged buddies take a cross-country bus tour to see all the new Impossibles–bizarre anamolies–that have appeared ever since we received irrefutable proof that we live in a simulation. It’s a bit madcap, and not all the humor landed with me, but I barreled through the book in two days. It’s an enjoyable bit of fluff with just enough on its mind to make it not totally mindless.