# Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - September 2025 edition
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** comic-books-manga, books-writing-myths
**Created:** [August 28, 2025, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554 "2025-08-28T18:38:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2025, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/21 "2025-09-04T23:40:39Z")
I mean it’d be a good start…
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2025, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/22 "2025-09-06T03:02:42Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> …Almost halfway through _The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America_ by Jeffrey Rosen, an interesting book about moral philosophy in a historic context. Rosen very engagingly shows how such ancient thinkers as Cicero, Pythagoras and Aristotle, as well as Enlightenment writers such as Montesquieu, Hume and Locke, influenced the American Framers. He argues that while the phrase “the pursuit of happiness” long predated the Declaration of Independence, “happiness” to Jefferson, Adams, Franklin et al. meant personal virtue - “as _being_ good, rather than _feeling_ good…”
Finished it. A bit dry at times, but recommended.
I’ve now begun _Nuclear War: A Scenario_ by Annie Jacobsen, about a single nuclear weapon being used against the Pentagon (not clear yet if it was a missile attack, or a smuggled-in bomb, or something else), and what comes next. Calm, detailed and very chilling.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2025, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/23 "2025-09-08T14:08:45Z")
I finished Hemlock and Silver and liked it a lot, but knocked off one star because I never really grasped the rules of the mirror-world.
Now I’m back to The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2025, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/24 "2025-09-08T19:57:47Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#):
>
> I finished Hemlock and Silver and liked it a lot, but knocked off one star because I never really grasped the rules of the mirror-world.
Yes, I’m having a hard time with the “awakening” parts. It feels like Kingfisher has contradicted herself at least once…
Other than that, I love this one, Anja is a wonderful character and Javier is just squeezably adorable. The book was so hard to put down last night! I just wanted to keep reading. I will be finished in about an hour!
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2025, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/25 "2025-09-08T22:47:44Z")
Finished _Hemlock & Silver_ by T. Kingfisher. I think this will be one of my favorites of hers, _Nettle & Bone_ is still my favorite, but this is a close second or third. HOWEVER, I, too, have a one eyed cat and a cat who scratches at the mirror in my closet door and I am wondering what those two get up to when I am not around….
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### Author:  [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2025, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/26 "2025-09-09T15:42:48Z")
I’m halfway through _[The Woman They Could Not Silence](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56132724-the-woman-they-could-not-silence)_ by Kate Moore, about Elizabeth Packard, a woman whose conservative preacher husband has her committed to an insane asylum in the 1860s because her ideas (about religion and a woman’s place in the world) begin do diverge from his. It’s very good, super interesting and SUPER infuriating, as you might expect.
Elizabeth is depicted as extremely intelligent and charismatic, and she also comes across sometimes as shockingly naive and blinded by (relative) privilege. It’s very well researched and the writing is compelling. Recommended (so far, at least).
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### Author:  [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2025, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/27 "2025-09-09T16:04:10Z")
**The Last Dynasty** Toby Wilkinson
A history of Egypt, from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra, which was mostly a series of rulers named Ptolemy who married their sisters, who were mostly named Cleopatra. (The famous Cleopatra was actually Cleopatra VII).
The book goes into a lot about the economy and culture of Egypt at the time, as well as the politics and battles.
Well researched and well written book
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2025, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/28 "2025-09-09T17:42:41Z")
Started today on [Too Old for This by Samantha Downing.](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221115923-too-old-for-this?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=Wjk31qDMsQ&rank=1)
It’ll be a quick read. It’s a touch implausible, but what can I say? I’m an old lady who likes to read about old ladies killing people. No reason!
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2025, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/29 "2025-09-09T18:05:10Z")
I’m still working my way through Stephen King’s Holly Gibney books. I’m reading _The Outsider_ now.
I also reread _MacArthur’s War_ by Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson, which I finished last night. It’s an WWII alternate history.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2025, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/30 "2025-09-09T20:07:54Z")
I finally finished _The Element of Fire_ by Martha Wells. I am very glad this book, her first, was not my intro to her. The book was good but it had too many characters and pacing issues up the wazoo. But her characters, which are my favorite parts of the Murderbot books, were good, decently fleshed out and interesting. Her rug pull was well done and nicely colored the tone of the rest of the book.
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### Author:  [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2025, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/31 "2025-09-10T15:24:58Z")
Finished _A Walk In The Woods_ by Bill Bryson. Enjoyed it…entertaining and informative. I now know a whole lot more about the Appalachian Trail that I knew before (which, admittedly, was precious little.)
Next up: _Transcription_ by Kate Atkinson
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### Author:  [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2025, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/32 "2025-09-10T20:45:42Z")
My Idaho selection for my Literary Tour of America is a bust. I chose Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. I was okay with it until I got to the first sentence of chapter 2: “When, after almost five years, my grandmother one winter morning **eschewed awakening** …”
And I just couldn’t anymore. I pulled a full [Dorothy Pehl](https://eclecticreviewer.wordpress.com/2023/06/23/dumb-dumb-dumb-my-mothers-book-reviews-mary-jo-pehl/): it made me so angry at the author I quit the book.
I did another search and selected a new Idaho book that hopefully won’t be so freakin’ pretentious.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2025, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/33 "2025-09-10T21:43:40Z")
Umm yeah, I’d have quit too…
I finished _Exit Strategy_ by Martha Wells, the fourth Murderbot book. It’s my first time physically reading it (prior time was audiobook). That was some nicely written action at the climax.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2025, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/34 "2025-09-11T20:57:10Z")
> [@Railer13](#):
>
> Finished _A Walk In The Woods_ by Bill Bryson. Enjoyed it…entertaining and informative. I now know a whole lot more about the Appalachian Trail that I knew before (which, admittedly, was precious little.)…
Perhaps you’d like some of the recent [postage stamps?](https://store.usps.com/store/product/the-appalachian-trail-stamps-S_486104)
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2025, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/35 "2025-09-12T14:35:58Z")
Finished _Trapped: The 2031 Journal of Otis Fitzmorgan_ by Bill Doyle, which was okay, and _The Masters of Medicine: Our Greatest Triumphs in the Race to Cure Humanity’s Deadliest Diseases_, by Andrew Lam, M.D., which was one of the best nonfiction books I’ve read this year. I would have enjoyed it even more if I hadn’t been familiar with quite a bit of the information from other sources.
Next up: _Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know_, by Malcolm Gladwell, and _Blood Music_, a science fiction novel by Greg Bear.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2025, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/36 "2025-09-14T18:42:15Z")
Finally finished The End of the World As We Know It: new tales of Stephen King’s The Stand. I can’t remember when I had such high expectations combined with such disappointing reality. Most of the stories were downright stinkers, and even the ones from my favorite authors were only tolerable. Not recommended.
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2025, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/37 "2025-09-15T14:50:17Z")
I think I’ve only read two books since my last post, with a bonus DNF:
- _Secret Life_, by Jeff Vandermeer. It’s a collection of short stories, and the first couple are very good, but they’re classic Vandermeer, which means they’re deeply creepy and weird and off-putting, and right now I just can’t even. Full respect, but set it down after the second story.
- [Children of Memory](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60850767-children-of-memory), by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It’s the third in a series, and I didn’t like it as well as the first two. There’s a strange mystery at the heart of the book, which I got impatient with: the middle three hundred pages felt like they could’ve been condensed to a hundred pages. When it was solved, I was initially let down by the solution; but then the solution was elaborated on, and that part has really stuck with me. Worth reading, but goddamn I wish this series had more scenes and dialogue, and less summary and exposition!
- _[When the Moon Hits Your Eye](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7916989574),_ by John Scalzi. Typical Scalzi silliness, for better or worse. The third act was surprisingly affecting, but I wasn’t happy with the ending. I ordered it on hold from my state’s library system, and it took several months for the hold to be filled, and when it finally was, they sent me a large-print version, which I’m hopefully at least a decade away from needing. At first I was like, they must really be pressed for copies if this is all they have that they can send me after many months. But then I realized that I’d probably accidentally requested the large print version, which is why it took so long for the hold to be filled.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2025, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/38 "2025-09-15T17:44:18Z")
Started today on [Departure 37 by Scott Carson](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214151502). This is going to be a good one. The novel begins on a day when hundreds of American commercial pilots refuse to fly their planes, at the request of their mothers.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2025, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/39 "2025-09-15T20:15:06Z")
Finished _Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know_, by Malcolm Gladwell, which is another very interesting, well-written book, and _Blood Music_, a science fiction novel by Greg Bear. It was expanded from a shorter work, and I think it’s too long. Otherwise, it’s fairly well done.
Next up: _Speaking in Tongues_, by J.M. Coetzee and Mariana Dimopulos, which is a book about linguistics; and _The Skies of Pern_ by Anne McCaffrey.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2025, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2025-edition/1022554/40 "2025-09-15T22:25:59Z")
I reread _Thornhedge_ by T. Kingfisher because some literati sqwaker on Goodreads was complaining that the author had recycled it’s ending for her new book _Hemlock & Silver_ and no, no she didn’t. They’re both fairy tale retellings so there’s going to be similar themes.
I am currently toddling along with _Peril at End House_ by Agatha Christie. It was one of the first of Christie’s novels that I read 40+ years ago. I suddenly had an OHHHHHH! I remember moment at about page 50, now to see if I am remembering it correctly.
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