2026 reading list, part 1:
• Our Incredible Universe
Enjoyable! Appreciated the introductory chapter, which re-hashed all the bits of A-level physics that I’d forgotten. Very cool to hear about the upcoming telescope missions planned over the next few years. The Brian Cox chapter was the only bit that was disappointing - I don’t think he explained the concepts well.
Honestly, a little underwhelming. I love the film and I heard a really good radio adaptation as a teenager, so I was expecting to like it. The first 1/2 was tense, dramatic. The suspense was lost in the second half though, and the family quarantining themselves, listening to govt announcements etc - while presumably a comment on WWII - just reminded me uncomfortably of Covid in a very dull kind of way, and really killed the creepy atmosphere.
• Black and British (a short, essential history) - Olusoga
Yes I know it’s a book for schoolchildren. But it’s fantastic and well worth reading if you don’t have the time or historical literacy to read the full version from a standing start. I’ve been thinking a lot about what life in modern Britain means to me as a white-passing mixed person, and this was a really good place to start. Learned a lot, and felt equal parts ashamed and hopeful.
• The Impossible Fortune - Osman
Cute. WAAAYYYY less annoying and preachy than the last one (where he suddenly went on a hundred-page rant about how much he fucking loves euthanasia??) Passed a few hours quite pleasantly on a freezing cold, dark, wet week.
• Blackshirts and Reds - Parenti
BANGER!!!!! 10/10 no notes RIP Micky Parenti
• How to kill your family - Bella Mackie
Not very good. At best, a holiday read while you’re relaxing on a sun lounger. Boring plot, deeply unsympathetic (but clearly meant to be a Fleabag style Girlboss) main character, lots of sloppy mistakes in writing and editing. There is the occasional passage of genuine tension and atmosphere, but 99% of the book just pissed me off.
Really good. Should be recommended reading for all doctors in the UK. Depressing, though, to think how hard people fought for the NHS yet we’ve ruined it within 80 years.
• More Tales of the City - Maupin
Very sweet, very uplifting. Easier to get into than the first one - the writing is clearer, the chapters are shorter, and the long strains of dialogue have changed into shorter snippets. The trade-off is that some of the plot points are foreshadowed a little too loudly, but it’s still very enjoyable (and I didn’t forsee a couple of the twists in the last few pages)
• The Left Hand of Darkness - le Guin
I finished reading it about an hour ago and I’m having shrimp feelings. I need to sit and stare at a wall for the rest of the day. I actually struggled with the first few chapters because they’re quite dense and anthropological in style, but I’m glad I persisted because once the plot really took off I loved it. The journey across the ice is heartbreakingly beautiful. I went back and read some of the first few chapters again so I could put it all together more clearly in my mind - it all ties together so perfectly in the end. She simply does not miss.
• The Black Book - Ian Rankin
Grim, grimy and entertaining. On the one hand I don’t think Rankin is a particularly fantastic writer, but on the other hand I always enjoy a Rebus story (even though I tend to get confused halfway though by all the characters with overly similar names)
I wondered why it was so cheap. It’s because it’s a bit shit. Makes introverts all seem like a bunch of dweebs and wet blankets, and the tone is excruciatingly USAmerican faux-peppy. 1/10 would not recommend.
• The Communist Manifesto - Engels
It might be 180 years old but it still slaps.
• Our Man In Havana - Greene
A great story but OOF the period-accurate racist language was a jumpscare.
• The Man in the High Castle - Philip K Dick
All I can compare it to is that Twilight Zone meme where he’s like “Wouldn’t that be fucked up? Anyway I’m Rod Sterling”. Apparently PKD wrote the whole thing by asking the I Ching what he should write? I *think* I enjoyed it but it’s left me with the same distressed and disturbed sensation as Do Androids. I think I was expecting a Moral Lesson because at the surface level it’s an American book about the politics of WWII. I hate USian Moral Lessons in books, but it did feel odd for the ending to be like “and then she pissed everyone off and left. Bye.” Deeply weird book.