Recent Reading - May 2026
I have been reading a lot lately owing to Long Commute + Audiobooks. I have been trying to get around to this post for a long time and the backlog keeps getting longer. So:
Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space, by Janna Levin. Short-ish nonfiction that's been on my shelf in print form for a long time, telling the story of the development of LIGO, an astronomical observing project that listens for the sound of gravitational waves. The book covers about 50 years, starting from "well we don't even have proof gravitational waves are real, but if they were, how would we notice them?" to "no one does messy breakups like middle-aged scientists firing each other for bad project management practices" to LIGO's first successful detection in 2015. Very approachable for laypeople, if you're curious about astronomy/astrophysics/Extremely Reputable Scientists Being Drama Llamas check it out.
Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke. Short novella about a man who lives alone in a labyrinthine house made of endless halls, filled with waves and statues. Picked this up upon seeing that LAIKA Studios is considering adapting it as a movie. I really liked it! Grabbed the ebook because the wait for the audiobook was super long, so this is one that I got through despite the commute instead of because of it. Gotta love a book with really unique narrative voice, and a book where the POV character has no frame of reference for the puzzle that is clearly unfolding around them.
Mob Psycho 100, volumes 1-3. Shonen manga about a teenager who's repressing his psychic powers in favor of getting swole. Found this on a list of "comic books we can check out infinitely" at my local library, picked it up because I like shonen OK and I was curious. It's pretty decent so far (I have checked out volume 4, so it's clearly doing something right) but it hasn't totally hooked me. I think Mob is so repressed and so good at ninja-dodging the plot that that he's eluding my grasp as a protagonist. (The only thing I knew about MP100 going in was that Reigen is a Tumblr sexyman, but... he's done sweet fuck-all so far, he's basically a non-entity. ...???)
Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws, by Adrienne Major. Nonfiction collection of essays from a historian who specializes in antiquity, myths, and archaeology. The first NF book I had finished in a long time. A collection of any kind will always be a mixed bag, but I would say the ratio was ~90% good, 3% boring or bad, and 7% standout hits. It felt very self indulgent of the author, but not in a bad way -- it's a collection of "I thought this was cool enough to write an essay about" topics, of course it's going to be self indulgent. It's fun to read stuff where the author is clearly having a great time. And she had a rich tapestry of topics! Mad honey, griffin claws from dinosaurs, Spartan tourist attractions, Ancient Roman foot fetishes, anti-weasel stereotypes and pro-weasel anecdotes... Made me think much more extensively about worldbuilding and creative ideas for my own stories. I have holds on her other essay collections already.
Fantastic 4, volume 1. Collection of all FF4 comics from the beginning to the present -- vol 1 covers the first ~8-10 issues, which were published in 1961-1962. This is another one from the "comic books we have infinite copies of" list. You cannot parody old comics: the F4 stop an alien invasion by impersonating the foot soldiers to meet with the brass, scaring off the general by pretending a horror/sci-fi movie is real footage of Earth, and then hypnotizing the stragglers into thinking they're cows forever. It's interesting to see how much time the team spends arguing with each other, and how much they'll have to evolve into the versions that I am passingly familiar with them. Sue Storm is... I have complex feelings about how Sue Storm is treated by the writers team. Oof. But everyone on the team grew on me except for Reed, who very rarely generates conflict or intrigue. Like MP100, it must be doing something right, because I did put vol 2 on my TBR. I would say it has good bones.
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