Books I Read September 6th, 2026

Not the world's best week, but on the other hand I did make toffee for the first time. And I feel pretty good about that. Also read...

The Ipcress File by Len Deighton – Cold War MI6 shenanigans, set somewhere between Le Carre's staid drabness and James Bond's batshit idiocy.

Bereft by Chris Womersley – A WWI veteran returns to his home in rural Australia to avenge a terrible crime.

To Every Birth Its Blood by Mongane Walle Serote – A disparate menagerie of South Africans are drawn into the anti-Apartheid movement.

No Orchids for Ms. Blandish by James Hadley Chase – A socialite is kidnapped by a Kansas City mob, tormented, saved, sort of. Dark and fast paced and semi-coherent. Jim Thompson did it better.

Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East by Amanda H. Podany – A broad overview of the political and cultural developments of several thousand years of history in the cradle of civilization. Engaging. Podany does a good job of contextualizing the human interactions of a distant world.