Books I Read January 11th, 2026

Back on that grind. That sweet, sweet reading grind.

Rainbow's End by James M. Cain – D.B Cooper lands outside the shack of an upright hillbilly and his buxom, insane mother in this implausible thriller. Thinking on it, this is actually not the first James M. Cain novel I read in which the threat of incest plays a major role. Take that for what you want.

Proust by Samuel Beckett – An exegesis more convoluted than the text.

A Few Nights and Days – Multinational sixties hipsters miscegnate their way to self-destruction. Sort of a Parisian beat vibe. Lively

Cemetary of Mind by Dambudzo Marchera – Apocalyptic ruminations of love, pain and madness. I liked the ones I understood.

The Orchard of Lost Souls by Nadifa Mohamed – Three generations of woman, bound by an unknowable series of coincidences, navigate the dissolution of Somalia. I can think of a lot of other books that fall within this general literary subgenre, but few that I enjoyed as much. The characters are deftly written and the narrative keeps to a good clip.

The Works of Vermin Hiron Ennes – Revolutionary exterminators hunt hallucinogenic spewing dragons in a Belle Epoque herbaceous metropolis captivated by beauty and death. Shades of Mieville and Pratchett. It's actually enormously difficult to write a good high fantasy, I say that both as someone who has read many bad ones and written a few himself. There are innumerable considerations – in terms of world building, naming conventions, language itself – unknown to writers working in other genres. Ennes does an excellent job here of creating an engaging and original world without over-straining the narrative, which offers all the joys of the genre (sword fights! love affairs! vengeance and daring do!) offered in a style a good cut above most competitors. Fun stuff.

Eating Chiefs by Taban lo Liyong – Engaging re-tellings of east African myths.