Books I Read June 8th, 2026

Finally managed to get this done in sequential weeks, yay for me, yay for us.

PS. Every so often I like to sneak in here and say if you support Trump you’re a fuckwit and I hold you in abiding contempt.

Taiwan Travelogue – I read this book.

Great Granny Webster by Caroline Blackwood – A savagely funny, deeply sad, probably exaggerated exploration of the mental illnesses of her inconceivably wealthy, terribly broken family. Still excellent.

The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovits – Facing an empty nest, a good natured, distant professor has a midlife crisis, goes on a cross-country trip, considers his flaws as a father, husband, man, etc. Funny, sweetly written, this is the kind of book I honestly don't tend to like (smart middle-aged man feels things, things a lot about himself) but I really enjoyed this. It reminded me a bit of Etgar Keret in its funny, conversational take on masculinity and manhood and family. Very readable.

The Radiance of the King by Camara Laye – In Laye's brilliant rejoinder to colonial literature, a morally bankrupt cracker finds in Africa a reflection of his own laziness, greed, lust and violence.Not so much a book about Africa but a book about how foreigners experience it, a surreal, Kafkaesque, utterly unique take on the shallow idiocy of racism. Still utterly original several generations on, I can't think of another work in the African canon which so effectively explores the experience of white/foreigners relationship with the continent. Weird, unique, excellent.