Books I Read August 23rd 2026

Spent a lot of the last week cooking and looking at pretty things. It is possible I have an unconventional interpretation of what constitutes a beach read.

Ninth Building by Zou Jingzhi – Brief vignettes about being young during the Cultural Revolution, experiencing the explosion of vital energies at the same time as an induced madness was shaking the foundations of humanity's oldest continuous civilization. Excellent. Very good. Functions as a sharp though not pitiless social satire at the same time as a nostalgic paean for foibles and passions of youth. I'll definitely pick up another.

Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan – A woman recalls the dissolution of her family, society during the early days of the Sri Lankan civil war.

Sympathy Tower Tokyo by Rie Qudan – The construction of a housing project for criminals offers the opportunity for social criticism.

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang – Chiang specializes in a form of science-fiction in which character and narrative are sublimated towards the vigorous consideration of a specific impossible qualification – what if the comsogenic conception of the ancient Israelites was true, what if we could blind ourselves to the physical beauty of other people. This seems like it was a big trend in the genre some 50 or 60 years ago, but you tend not to get that much of it these days. Of course, those guys where mostly white men with a loose philosophical attachment to a sort of libertarian technocracy, and I tend to find Chiang's religiously flavored optimism more interesting, if at times a bit mawkish.

Idol, Burning by Rin Usami – A teenagers obsession with a pop star offers the opportunity for social criticism.

The Great Revolt of 1381 by Charles Oman – Wat Tyler and his conglomerate of riotous villeins and vengeful townsfolk hold much of south England hostage for ten days. I finally get what all the Shakespeare jokes are about!

Dubliners by James Joyce – The sorrows and occasional joys of a diverse band of Irish urbanites. Mostly I'm familiar with Joyce through Ulysses, so going back the last two weeks to his earlier works has been interesting. The language, though much simpler, remains excellent, as does his appreciation for the hidden vastness of the human heart.