Reading

Books: on balance, I'm for them. These are most of the ones I've read since 2007 or so. The star ratings correspond more closely to "how worth my time this felt" than "how good this is."

[ years ]

authors

titles

2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007

Unlikely Stories, Mostly
Alasdair Gray

Canongate Books
isbn 9781838852733
worldcat | bookshop

finished 22 Dec 2023

Gray was a modern Scottish author who I somehow hadn’t heard of. I appreciated his very short stories in this collection even more than the longer ones, in particular for their combination of whimsy and unstable allegory. His writing draws on folks like Swift or even Aesop, but at the... more >>

Made me think about:

The Ant King and Other Stories

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
John Le Carré

Penguin
isbn 9780143124757
worldcat | bookshop

finished 16 Dec 2023

A fun read, but. It’s interesting to read about Le Carré’s reception as the deliverer of a more “realistic” spy than James Bond at the time of publication. His anti-hero in this book is edgier but basically just reads like a nihilistic, alcoholic misogynist in largely the same mold through... more >>

Beloved
Toni Morrison

Knopf
isbn 9781400033416
worldcat | bookshop

finished 19 Nov 2023

Beloved is every bit as heart-rending, beautiful, and erudite as I expected. It’s incredibly brilliant from a technical, writerly standpoint. I also appreciated its weaponization of the gothic novel genre for racial justice and black feminist purposes. In the gothic novel of the 18th/19th centuries, we often see captured women... more >>

Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene
Donna Haraway

Duke University Press
isbn 9780822362241
worldcat | bookshop

finished 06 Nov 2023

Haraway is someone I turn to to remind me what reality is like. In this book she continues her journey from feminist cyborg to Significant Otherness to compost-human ecologies, and it does not disappoint! more >>

Made me think about:

A History of Bangladesh
William van Schendel

Cambridge University Press
isbn 9781108473699
worldcat | bookshop

more info

finished 05 Nov 2023

I appreciated the thoughtful and de-colonizing approach the author took to Bangladesh’s complex cultural and geopolitical histories. more >>

The Issue At Hand: Essays On Buddhist Mindfulness Practice
Gil Fronsdal

Insight Meditation Center
isbn 9780615162867
worldcat | bookshop

finished 21 Oct 2023

A thoughtful and practical guide to American Buddhist mindfulness and meditation practices more >>

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir
Haruki Murakami

Vintage
isbn 9780307389831
worldcat | bookshop

finished 21 Oct 2023

I don’t often re-read books, but this was a good choice. Murakami’s “running novelist” memoir turns out to also be a meditation on aging. This is not something I picked up on when I first read it, even though it wasn’t all that long ago. Murakami discusses his simultaneous growth... more >>

Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way
Lao Tzu, Ursula K. Le Guin

Shambala
isbn 9781611807240
worldcat | bookshop

finished 12 Oct 2023

As a foundational text of human spirituality, philosophy, and politics, The Tao Te Ching is obviously worth reading on its own merits. Let alone that it’s beautiful and succinct. One thing I found especially interesting in reading this translation by noted badass Ursula K. Le Guin is that, as she... more >>

Made me think about: