Reading – & Now: 2026

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A love affair with books

Appetizer:

"Work is service not gain. The object of work is life not income. The reward of production is plenty, not private property. We should measure the prosperity of the nation not by the number of millionaires, but by the absence of poverty; the prevalence of health; the efficiency of the public schools; and the number of people who can, do read worthwhile books."
– W.E.B. Du Bois, Understanding Economics⩘ , a speech delivered at the California Peace Crusade, 1953.

Simon Elegant, City on Fire: A Novel of Hong Kong

Well narrated by Mike Chamberlain

This novel, set during the period of the Hong Kong protests of 2019 - 2020, tackles both some very tough and some very disturbing topics, for example, the breakdown of a society transitioning from democracy to a totalitarian oligarchy, corruption and violence within the political class and the police forces, and pedophilia. I didn't find it a pleasant story to listen to*, yet it is vividly written, and holds deep lessons about the rapid social degradation that can happen even when huge segments of a society are protesting against and trying to prevent the loss of freedom and democracy.

Simon Elegant is China bureau chief for The Washington Post, based in Taiwan. Previously, he held a variety of reporting and editing jobs in Asia including Beijing bureau chief and Southeast Asia correspondent for Time magazine.

(* Sometimes I find it so off key when, at the end of an audiobook that covers a particularly disturbing or an especially dark subject, the narrator says, "We hope you have enjoyed this recording…." In instances where the book tackles a disturbing or dark subject, it seems to me that it would be much better to say something like, "We hope you have appreciated this recording….")

Pegasus Crime, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Dreamscape Media, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .

See also: Character list⩘ 

Quinn Slobodian & Ben Tarnoff, Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed

Narrated by Adam Grupper

I'm not perplexed about Musk, but I was curious to hear the perspective of the authors.

My own view is that he is a person who has dedicated his life to entirely selfish personal gain rather than compassion-based progress.

Harper, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Harper, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .

Gal Beckerman, How to Be a Dissident

Well narrated by the author

An thought provoking deep dive into some of the most famous dissidents over the centuries and up into our current age. Beckerman explores what motivated them to become dissidents, the actions they took, and the impact of those actions. The chapters are organized by the ten qualities he identifies as effective ways to express dissidence.

A key factor that provoked many dissidents was the loss of autonomy under authoritarian rule, which of course is occurring again today.

   Authoritarianism is currently on the rise globally: 72 percent of the earth's population now live under such rule.
   And politics, of course, is not the only force in modern life where our sense of autonomy feels threatened. Digital technology that seemed to be so liberating when it first emerged has had this effect as well. Can we live with ourselves when algorithms reduce our choices to a narrowing set of feedback loops, when total surveillance robs us of privacy, or artificial intelligence thinks for us, eliminating idiosyncrasy and the ineffability of lived experience?

Crown, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Penguin Random House Audio, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .

Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Well narrated by Simon Prebble; translated by Constance Garnett

I came across a reference to this story in another book I was reading and was curious enough about what was said to want to listen to it.

A short story describing the life and death of Ivan Ilyich, who becomes an official in the Court of Appeals in Russia. He suffers an injury when falling off a ladder while he is decorating their new home, which eventually proves fatal after a prolonged and very painful illness. In the moments of his death, his rather dreary and superficial life is offset when he experiences a flash of clarity, acceptance, and even exuberance.

See also: Wikipedia: List of characters⩘ 

Originally published in Russia in 1886; first published in English in 1902; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Blackstone Publishing, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .

Omer Bartov, Israel: What Went Wrong?

Well narrated by James McNaughton

Powerful book.

Omer Bartov is an Israeli-born historian. He is the Samuel Pisar Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University, where he has taught since 2000. Bartov is a noted historian of the Holocaust and is considered one of the world's leading authorities on the subject of genocide. He is the author of many books, including Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz, which won the National Jewish Book Award; Tales from the Borderlands: Making and Unmaking the Galician Past; and Genocide, the Holocaust and Israel-Palestine: First-Person History in Times of Crisis.

I think the publisher's summary presents a really good overview of this book, so I'm just going to share it as is:

The distinguished historian Omer Bartov was born on a kibbutz, grew up in Tel Aviv, and served in the Israel Defense Forces during the Yom Kippur War. He went on to become a leading scholar of the German army and the Holocaust, before turning his attention to his native country.

In Israel: What Went Wrong?, Bartov sketches the tragic transformation of Zionism, a movement that sought to emancipate European Jewry from oppression, into a state ideology of ethno-nationalism. How is it possible, he asks, that a state founded in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust, an event that gave legitimacy to a national home for the Jews, stands credibly accused of perpetrating large-scale war crimes? How do we come to terms with the fact that' war of destruction is being conducted with the support, laced with denial and indifference, of so many of its Jewish citizens?

Tracing the roots of the violent events currently unfolding in Israel and the occupied territories, Bartov tracks his country's moral tribulations and considers the origins of Zionism, the intertwining of Israel's independence with Palestinian displacement, the politics of the Holocaust, controversies over the term "genocide," and the uncertain future. The result is a searing and urgent critique that addresses today's debates over Zionism and the future of Israel with rigor and depth.

Here's an excerpt that all of us who are Americans should reflect on:

   In retrospect, we know that had the Biden administration put down its foot in November or December 2023, it could have indeed averted genocide. But for domestic political reasons, as well as out of ignorance of the realities of Middle East politics and deference to a lying, corrupt, and extremist Israeli leadership, it did not. Instead, it plied the IDF with an endless supply of munitions with which to destroy Gaza, giving Israel a diplomatic iron dome that allowed it to proceed with impunity. President Joe Biden and his team will forever be tainted with complicity in this crime, and the American people, who paid for its implementation with billions of their own tax dollars, will have to bear this burden for generations to come. But it is the State of Israel that will carry the mark of Cain on its conscience for as long as it exists.

Finally, I want to share a longer excerpt from the Introduction that I think sums up really well the situation, the dangers it presents, and a possible path of promise.

   As we observe the current situation on the ground, we need to ask ourselves what the possible future scenarios for this devastated region might be, and what implications they will have for the nature of the State of Israel. Will the country persist on the course it is on at the moment, compounding all that has gone wrong with Israeli politics and society in an irreversible plunge into the abyss of authoritarianism, violence, and oppression? Or will it radically change course and set about the long process of repair, reconciliation, and achieving long-delayed but urgently needed justice? As I write this, I can envision two alternatives. The first is that despite current American efforts to stop the violence, Israel will persist in its attempt to empty Gaza of its Palestinian population or, as seems more likely, to subject it to ever more inhumane conditions in the wasteland of what had once been its home. Right-wing pressures to annex parts of Gaza and the West Bank, de facto if not de jure in view of Trump's current opposition, may bring about the eventual creation of an even stricter apartheid regime in all or much of the occupied territories.
   This system will inevitably seep into Israel proper, first targeting Palestinian citizens and rendering their citizenship increasingly meaningless and then also turning against any Jewish citizens who oppose it or fail to conform to its increasingly regressive, unjust, and undemocratic norms. As the regime becomes more and more authoritarian, its legal establishment weakens and adapts, and violence becomes ever more prevalent, Israel will grow isolated and less affluent, a pariah state that Jewish communities around the world will be embarrassed to associate with even as they will likely also face a growing tide of antisemitism. Members of the liberal professions and persuasions will leave, and many of Israel's allies will distance themselves from it, as its claim to be the only democracy in the Middle East will be shown to be nothing more than a farce. This condition could last for a few decades but is eventually likely to lead to the state's implosion, as transpired in South Africa. But by then much blood will have been shed and much suffering endured, and the civil rights struggle that will follow might be just as bloody.
   The second, more optimistic but less likely scenario is that Israel and the Palestinians will be compelled to change the entire political paradigm under which they have been living since 1948. Among outside actors, only the United States is in a position to use the current tragedy as an opportunity to seek a political solution for the fourteen million Jews and Palestinians living between the river and the sea. Such a solution would enable them to share the land within whichever political framework they choose—a binational state, two states, or a confederation, ensuring equality, justice, and dignity for all. Some opinion polls suggest that even today this is what most people in Israel and Palestine prefer—but they will support such an option only when it is realistic and presented by a reliable, steadfast political leadership. The desire for peace on its own is no recipe for defusing the fear and rage on both sides. A political solution is also what most Sunni Arab countries in the region support. But it can happen only under firm and determined American leadership. Whether the current American administration can remain focused on its peace plan and translate it into long-term, concrete steps appears doubtful.
   Nonetheless, all those who care about Israel and Palestine, as I do, must work toward this second scenario by whichever means are at their disposal. As a historian, I believe that the first step in building a better future is understanding the hopes and aspirations, as well as errors and sins, of the past. It is for this reason that I have written this book. My goal is neither to praise Zionism and the state it created nor to condemn it. There are many good, thoughtful, creative, and deeply humane people in that land, Jews and Palestinians, who hope for, and deserve, a different reality from the one they are currently subjected to. The blanket condemnation or dismissal that fills the air these days does not reflect this far more complex reality. I can only hope that this book will contribute to an opening of minds, that in its own small way it may help reverse the tide of hatred and destruction by allowing us all to understand how we got here in the first place, and perhaps even how we might clamber out of the abyss.

One sad thing I learned is that while this book is being published in at least nine languages, and while Bartov himself offered to translate it into Hebrew, no Israeli publishers are willing to publish it. I think this is a true loss because I think the perspective that Bartov shares needs to be carefully considered by everyone.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Macmillan Audio, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .

See also: What went wrong in Israel? A genocide scholar examines ‘what Zionism became': In his new book, Omer Bartov tracks how a liberatory strand of Zionism transformed into an extremist ideology that he sees as responsible for genocide in Gaza⩘  by Aaron Gell, The Guardian, Apr 21, 2026.

Speaking on a video call from his home in Providence, Bartov is reserved and unassuming, his white hair and scholarly demeanor offering a sober counterpoint to his fitted black T-shirt and stylish gray hoodie. Bartov's insistence that Zionism, as originally conceived, was essentially a movement of liberation helps explain his refusal to identify as an anti-Zionist. "I don't even know what that means," he said, emphasizing that he believes that Jews have a right to self-determination as long as they don't "trample over other people's rights". Accordingly, he does declare himself "completely, vehemently opposed to the kind of Zionism that exists today in Israel".…

Additionally, the charge of antisemitism has grown hollow, Bartov said, due to its flagrant "weaponization" as "a tool to shut people up" as the state wreaks destruction on its neighbors. "Having claimed to be the definitive answer to antisemitism," he writes in What Went Wrong?, "Israel is now the best excuse for antisemites everywhere, a nation whose addiction to violence and oppression, reliance on great powers and financial clout, and constant harping on the horrors of the Holocaust as an excuse for untethered violence against Palestinians are making even some of its erstwhile supporters shrink from it in discomfort, or horror and disgust."

Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll, Ghosts of Sicily: The True Story of the Naval Intelligence Agents Who Courted the Mob to Fight Nazis in America and the Battlefields of Italy

Narrated by Scott Brick

Harmon and Carroll continue their series about the history of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), which was originally named the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI).

This book covers something I'd never heard of before, which is that during World War II, the ONI worked with the American Mob and their connections in Sicily and other parts of Italy to help gather intelligence that aided the Allies in their war to free Italy from the Nazis. It's a pretty crazy story.

One thing that really stood out for me is the incredible courage displayed by the ONI officers who took part in the initial landings of Allied troops on the beaches of Sicily, then changed into civilian clothing and made their way through and behind enemy lines in order to establish contacts and gather intelligence. They definitely contributed to changing the course of the war.

My one criticism of the audiobook is that they changed the narrator from Mark Harmon, who did an excellent job of narrating the previous two books in this series, Ghosts of Honolulu⩘  and Ghosts of Panama⩘ . I usually avoid audiobooks narrated by Scott Brick who, though he is a popular narrator, I personally find grating to listen to. But I made a reluctant exception this time because I really wanted to continue to listen to this series. Unfortunately, if there are more audiobooks in this series and they continue to be narrated by Brick, I'll be skipping them.

Harper Select, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Harper Select, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .

See also: Wikipedia: Lucky Luciano⩘ .

Aziz Abu Sarah & Maoz Inon, The Future Is Peace: A Shared Journey Across the Holy Land

Well narrated by Aziz Abu Sarah & Magen Inon reading for his brother Maoz

Astonishing!

This is the story of Palestinian Arab, Aziz, and a Jewish Israeli, Maoz, who both experienced deeply painful personal losses due to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, but both of whom overcame their anger and even desire for revenge to become advocates for peace between their peoples, and who also became brothers to each other.

   While our friendship is unusual, we are not unique. The two of us are part of a growing coalition of Israelis and Palestinians, working locally and globally to build a bridge to a shared future. Together, we are creating a new story. We do not see ourselves as Palestinians and Israelis, or as Jews and Arabs, but as human beings who believe in fostering a culture of dialogue, a culture of forgiveness, a culture of peace. To those who see only division lines, we say: If you must divide us, let it be as those who believe in peace and equality and those who don't … yet.

Together, the two take an eight day journey through the Holy Land, including places in Jerusalem and the West Bank. The use their individual and joint commentary about the trip and the deep emotions it raises within them to tackle some of the big issues that are tearing their peoples apart, but also to share their overriding belief that there is a way to come together and move forward towards peaceful coexistence.

   The walls and the barriers that divide us foment mistrust. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, "They don't communicate with each other because they are separated from one another". With contact comes understanding, familiarity, and the ability to put ourselves in the shoes of the "other." I have seen it. I have lived it. That is how I know in my heart that we are not doomed to live this life of polarization.

At one point on their journey, they are joined by American Rabbi Paula Marcus. She shares a brief comment about her personal belief that peace is achievable that includes "Many people in the United States feel so hopeless and helpless about the situation, but what I've experienced this week is far from hopelessness." Those two words, "hopeless and helpless" describe how I've felt so much of my life when I've observed what is happening between Palestinians and Israelis, especially since Oct 7, 2023, 926 days ago as I write this (another word that describes how I feel is confusion). At that time, I began writing down what I was observing in the news, books, and films about the conflict in effort to better understand it: Broken heart: Palestine, Gaza, the West Bank, Israel⩘ .

This book, describing the work that Aziz and Maoz are doing, provides one of the rare times that I actually feel hopeful that a better future is possible.

Maoz and Aziz

We Meet in the Future

There is a saying in Islam attributed to Omar Ibn al-Khattab: You don't really know a person until you live with them, travel with them, or do business with them. The journey the two of us began seven days earlier transformed our relationship. We had cried together and laughed together. We had visited the landscapes of our pasts, met each other's families, and shared our stories of loss and dreams for the future. We started this unconventional pilgrimage as a Palestinian and Israeli who had forged an unlikely friendship, but now as our journey was almost at an end we realized that through the power of travel and storytelling we had become something more: brothers bound by loss and hope, and united in our shared mission of peace.

   We have the courage to dream, we agree on shared values, we are investing in and successfully building an Israeli-Palestinian coalition with international support, we have a work plan, and we are already putting it into action. Our work plan is simple yet complex.

To dream.
To amplify the dream.
To build legitimacy for the dream and for the movement of peace and reconciliation.
To call for a change in policy from investment in weapons of destruction to investment in dialogue, reconciliation, and mutual recognition.
And, ultimately, to create the political will to choose peace, not war.

I am so grateful to Maoz and Aziz, and the many others like them who, in the face of one of the most painful conflicts in recent history, still have the courage and fortitude to strive towards a better, peaceful future of coexistence.

Crown, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Penguin Random House Audio, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .

See also:

• A Palestinian and an Israeli, face to face⩘ , A TED talk with Palestinian peacemaker Aziz Abu Sarah and Israeli peacemaker Maoz Inon, April 2024.
• 'Whatever life throws at us, we don't walk alone': how a London synagogue attack birthed an act of solidarity⩘  by Esther Addley, The Guardian, Apr 18, 2026.
• A Land for All: Two States. One Homeland. A viable political framework rooted in lived reality and shared human values.⩘ .

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie

Enthusiastically well narrated by Joniece Abbott-Pratt

If the eyes do not look at the sky, what else would they look at? – Igbo proverb, relayed by Damian U. Opata

Every once in awhile I listen to or read a book on physics, though this one has definitely been the most entertaining, philosophical, and socially conscious one I've come across.

   We take for granted that anything we encounter is available for modeling because so far, it's worked out that way for us. In the case of general relativity, we have an equation that models how space-time evolved from the earliest fraction of a second until now, whenever you read this sentence. We also have a story about the dynamical relationship between space-time and particles, which are not actually like tiny billiard balls but are in fact something so much stranger that later I will tell you that actually you're just a mathematical abstraction that comes from nothing, and I will mean it in the kindest possible way. This perspective represents a profound shift in how we understand the very foundations of who and what we are.

As usual, I really don't understand much of the physics, but I get glimpses of how this strange, wondrous universe we live within works, which I totally appreciate.

   I've likely never met you, but I know that you are made from hydrogen and carbon that is billions of years old. I know that the carbon was made in stars that the hydrogen formed—and that your body likely needs a smidgen of vanadium, which is made in supernovae, the explosions of stars that are chonky enough to die sudden, spectacular deaths. You were created within the history of the Big Bang. This is the story, as we understand it. To develop intuition for why this account of the universe seems reasonable and even quite probable to anyone means to step outside of daily life and face the strange.

Pantheon, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Penguin Random House Audio, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .

Woody Brown, Upward Bound

Well narrated by T.R. Knight, Pete Holmes, Midori Francis, Carlos Miranda, Brandon Flynn, Nikki M. James, Alex Edelman, and Daphne Rubin-Vega

Just before I dove into this audiobook, I read an article/interview about the book and the author, Woody Brown: 'I was in the pit of despair': Non-speaking autistic novelist Woody Brown on his journey from write-off to writer⩘  by Simon Hattenstone, The Guardian, Mar 28, 2026. There are a couple key quotes in the article that I think provide some essential information about this novel and its author.

Is he happy now? "I am very happy now that I have real purpose and productivity. I want this for all autistic people. One of the reasons I wanted to be a great writer was that I wanted neurotypical people to read my book, not out of pity but because it was a good book. That way I can reach the hordes who underestimate and infantilise us, and show them how vivid and magnificent we are."…

In 2022, Brown became the first non-speaking autistic graduate at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he received the English department's top writing honours. He completed his master's at Columbia University in 2024.

The story is told in a series of vignettes shared by various clients and staff members at a somewhat dreary daycare center called Upward Bound that is for people with severe autism and other disabilities. The stories provide a way to understand and experience their life experience, particularly of those clients who are non-speaking.

Especially interesting is the perspective of Walter, who reflects in a fictionalized manner the experiences and outlook of the author.

A deeply touching book that reminds us that there is sometimes much more to life than what we immediately see and hear.

Hogarth, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Random House Audio, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .

See also:

• Upward Bound by Woody Brown review – extraordinary debut from a non-speaking autistic author⩘  by Xan Brooks, The Guardian, Apr 7, 2026.
• My review of the D.S. Cross series by Tim Sullivan⩘  (see the section about 'In Search of Better Ways to Understand Autism' by Jason Jacoby Lee).
• Songs of the Gorilla Nation by Dawn Prince-Hughes⩘ .
• Sculptures in the eye of a needle⩘ .
• An inspiring commencement speech⩘ .
• Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet⩘ .
• Nine Minds: Inner Lives on the Spectrum by Daniel Tammet⩘ .
• Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds⩘ .

Sebastian Mallaby, The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence

Well narrated by Vidish Athavale

An interesting book. Mallaby has written an in-depth look at the development of AI focused on Demis Hassabis and the company he created, DeepMind, which was later merged into Google, but also including briefer glimpses of all the major players in the AI space.

Also a frightening book. While there is obviously incredible passion, enthusiasm, curiosity, excitement, and even idealism displayed by many of the scientists and researchers working on the development of AI and in pursuit of reaching the point where it exceeds human intelligence, especially in the earlier days, there is also a darkly alarming transition into what might be called an arms race. There's a lot of money potentially to be made, and there is an existential competition with dangerous global adversaries pursuing the same research, so as development proceeds, the focus shifts from the more idealistic pursuit of science to a winner-take-all mentality in which safety guardrails are increasingly cast aside.

One mind-blowing glimpse into this no guardrails point of view is provided by Larry Page, one of the founders of Google:

   Speaking in his raspy voice, Page told him not to worry. He said he looked forward to a time when people might merge with intelligent machines, or when machines might simply replace humans. Evolution would ensure that the best form of intelligence won out; if the best form involved fast silicon circuits rather than slow biological tissue, so be it. There was no point being sentimental about such things. It would be survival of the fittest.
   Page was channeling a view that had been around for half a century. In 1964 the science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke had called it a privilege for humanity to be a stepping stone to higher things. "I suspect that organic, or biological, evolution has about come to its end, and we're now at the beginning of inorganic, or mechanical, evolution, which will be thousands of times swifter."

Some of the most alarming content is in chapter 18, "We're Cooked".

Recognizing that the technology was at last approaching human levels of intelligence, two academic fathers of deep learning, Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, questioned the wisdom of deploying it.…
   The attitudes of scientists, like the attitudes of AI labs and their leaders, are determined by the stage of the technology, Bengio was effectively saying. As they pursue the thrill of invention, scientists want to feel good, so they don't confront the hard questions. Once the invention has happened and the scientists have lost control, they call on others to regulate it. It was almost as though AI safety was caught in a catch-22. Those with caution lacked power. Those with power lacked caution.…
   Unsatisfied by the three industry responses to his warnings, Bengio pressed the argument. In March 2023, he duly appeared as the lead name on an open letter demanding a total pause in the training of models exceeding GPT-4's capability. More than a thousand luminaries joined him in signing.…
   "Recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one—not even their creators—can understand, predict, or reliably control," Bengio and his cosignatories declared.…
   "Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us?"
   The letter also noted that OpenAI's manifesto had conceded that "at some point, it may be important to get independent review before starting to train future systems."
   "We agree," the letter retorted. "That point is now."

Of course, as we have seen, the out-of-control race has accelerated since then.

Penguin Press, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Penguin Random House Audio, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .

Cecile Pin, Wandering Souls

Well narrated by Ainsleigh Barber, Aoife Hinds & Ioanna Kimbook

A short, yet full and powerful novel, written in a style I hadn't previously encountered.

Most of the story shares the deeply personal experience of a, at the beginning, 16-yr-old Vietnamese girl, Anh, who leaves Vietnam shortly after the last U.S. troops withdrew, escaping in a decrepit boat with two of her younger bothers, Minh and Thanh. They arrive at a dismal refugee camp in Hong Kong, where they are supposed to be joined within a few weeks by her father, mother and her several even younger siblings. But that reunion never happens, so Anh must assume the role of the family caretaker. Eventually, they emigrate to the U.K., where they slowly and often quite painfully, create a life for themselves over the years. The story provides an incredibly vivid glimpse into the immigrant experience.

What makes the style unique is that woven into the strands of the novel are brief asides providing historical context, the observations of the ghost of one of her lost younger siblings, and an unnamed person's perspective, which feel like they are nonfiction thoughts, perhaps by the author herself? All in all, a truly moving story.

A visual glimpse of Ahn, Minh, and Thanh can be seen in the cover illustration.

Henry Holt and Co., 2023; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Macmillan Audio, 2023; Libro.fm⩘ .

Ibram X. Kendi, Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age

Narrated by the author

I was glad to see that Ibram X. Kendi has published a new book because he is an historian and thinker I admire and respect, and he concluded the last book of his that I read, How To Be An Antiracist⩘  by revealing that he had stage 4 metastatic colon cancer:

I have cancer, the most serious stage. Cancer is likely to kill me. I can survive cancer against all odds. My society has racism, the most serious stage. Racism is likely to kill my society. My society can survive racism against all odds.

So far, he has survived cancer against all odds (unfortunately, I can't say the same for our society), and has gifted us with this in-depth study of our humanity.

That said, this was, for me, a tough listen. It's long and is packed with a detailed look at how our world has evolved into its current authoritarianism. It's pretty gruesome. At the core of it is the great replacement conspiracy theory.

   [Novelist Renaud] Camus's conspiracy that a cabal of powerful elites is plotting a great replacement to ensure the exploitation and domination of low- and middle-income White people is nothing short of a grand distraction. Low- and middle-income White people are facing supercharged efforts to exploit and dominate them at the hands of the very economic and political elites conjuring up fictional tales of the great replacement. This book shows how great replacement theory has spurred many everyday White people into supporting antidemocratic political parties that harm most White people—and the rest of us—in the name of protecting White people from, well, the rest of us. The actual protagonists in this story are the great replacement financiers, politicians, theorists, and soldiers. They are striving to bring into being the actual great replacement humans should fear in the twenty-first century: the replacement of democracy with dictatorship.…

   Political parties and politicians using great replacement theory to secure and maintain authoritarian power can be termed great replacement parties and great replacement politicians. Sometimes the great replacement financiers and theorists and politicians are one and the same, protecting their immense wealth, authoritarian power, and dominant status in the name of protecting everyday White people from the great replacement.

Great replacement theory can be defined as a political theory that powerful elites are enabling peoples of color to steal the lives, livelihoods, cultures, electoral power, and freedoms of White people, who now need authoritarian protection.

The irony is that so many everyday people are being hooked by this conspiracy theory, even as the outcome of buying into it ultimately harms them. This is something I've long been aware of and have been puzzled by. It was worth plowing ahead through the grim reality presented in this book because it has finally helped me to understand this paradox.

   Great replacement politicians persuade everyday people to crave an inequitable dictatorship where they have limited power but more privileges than others, rather than an equitable democracy where they have expansive power but no privileges over others. Great replacement politicians do this by knotting the privileges individuals receive to their group identity. That is, they bond the very being of persons to their privileged identity in order to convince members of these privileged groups that to lose their privileges is to lose their very being, lose their very way of life, lose their life.
   These messages are utterly dehumanizing even as members of privileged groups are told they are the most superior humans. In this dehumanizing sense, who they are is not who they are. Who they are is what they have. What they have is the privileges they have. The privilege to live longer than others. The privilege to have a better livelihood than others. The privilege to have more electoral power than others. The privilege to have more freedom than others. That's what it means, they are told, to be White or male or Christian or heterosexual or Hindu or another ethnic majority. They are supposed to crave their privileges at all costs—or rather, despite the costs to their power. They are supposed to support those dictatorships that protect their privileges at the cost of their power. It all amounts to the final link in the chain of ideas: fighting for privileges provided by dictators instead of power provided by democracy.

While much of the book deeply explores a reality that is very grim, ultimately Kendi shares a cautiously hopeful outlook, one that depends on all of us:

Humanity sits at a crossroads in the authoritarian age.
   Either humanity will create conditions that confine people to the chain of ideas or humanity will create conditions that link people to the chain of humanity. I am hopeful humanity will create conditions for humans to be linked, not confined.
   Either humanity will bend the knee before dictators to secure privileges or humanity will stand strong for democracy to secure power. I am hopeful humanity will choose power.
   Either humanity will open doors to outsiders or humanity will close doors on the future. I am hopeful humanity will open the doors to the future.
   Either humanity will see themselves as one in all our differences or humanity will one day be done. I am hopeful humanity will choose to be one—one chain of humanity.

Chain of Ideas set out to chronicle how humanity has become entrapped in this vicious circle of the great replacement. But this book aims to be more than a global history, by revealing ten ideas used to entrap people—what I have called the chain of ideas. But I believe we can escape the vicious circle.
   We can escape the vicious circle by ending our efforts to escape each other. We can liberate ourselves from the ideas that fetter us by recognizing what binds us. Only a universal recognition of the unbreakable chain of humanity can liberate us from the breakable chain of ideas.…

Peoples from all backgrounds are realizing that to struggle for antiracist democracy is to struggle for our lives, our livelihoods, our cultures, our power, our freedom—everything and everyone we hold dear as human beings. Because within an antiracist democracy, there is a people of peoples, a political unity without uniformity that is focused on protecting all groups and individuals from violence and economic exploitation and political manipulation, freeing everyone to practice their cultures and ways of living and worshipping and loving and being.

Related website: Chain of Ideas⩘ , which includes a section on taking action.

Related articles::

• 'Assault on justice':' how far-right attacks are threatening rule of law in Europe⩘  by Jon Henley, Angela Giuffrida, Deborah Cole and Jakub Krupa, The Guardian. "Judicial independence is under threat as populist politicians target judges and authoritarian governments attempt constitutional reforms."
• Letters from an American⩘  by Prof Heather Cox Richardson, Mar 26, 2026.
• Undaunted: District court judges hold the line⩘  by Jennifer Rubin, The Contrarian, Mar 27, 2026.
• 'In 20 years most of the world could be racist dictatorships': Ibram X Kendi on book bans and far-right fear-mongering⩘  interview by Steve Rose, The Guardian, Mar 23, 2026.
• Chain of Ideas by Ibram X Kendi review – anatomy of a conspiracy theory: This careful analysis of so-called 'great replacement theory' offers a lens through which to view our broken politics⩘  by Arwa Mahdawi, The Guardian, Mar 20, 2026.

One World, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Penguin Random House Audio, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .

See also – my reflections on other books by Ibram X. Kendi:

• Stamped from the Beginning: A Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi⩘ 
• How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi⩘ 
• Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619 – 2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi & Keisha N. Blain⩘ 

Cindy Cohn, Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance

Passionately narrated by the author

It is clear that the defense of individual privacy is an essential battle, especially against a government that has sought to own more and more of our private lives, and corporations that use the underhanded techniques of surveillance capitalism against us in order to maximize their profits by exploiting and/or selling what they vacuum up about people's private lives.

Thank goodness we have an extraordinary organization like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF.org⩘ ) led by passionate people like Cindy Cohn fighting on our behalf. This is certainly becoming a more critical issue with each passing day.

MIT Press, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Blackstone Publishing, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .

Devon Mihesuah, Blood Relay

Well narrated by Bailey Frankenberg

An edge-of-your-seat crime novel based on MMIWP (Missing and Murdered Indigenious Women and Persons), an "epidemic-level human rights problem".

Written from the perspective of Choctaw Detective Perry Antelope (her last name is from her Comanche husband) of the Oklahoma City police department and her partner, Sophia Burns. The story also involves characters from some of the thirty-nine tribes in Oklahoma, including members of the Quapaw, Seminole, Miami, and Muskogee tribal police. They are investigating the abduction of Dels Billy, a beloved women's Indian horse relay rider, who goes missing when she was returning from a race. Another important plot line is the sale of Tribal allotments to non-Natives.

While this is a novel, much of it is based on actual experiences, places, and people in Devon Mihesuah's life. Many of the concerns in the story are also reflected in her "non-fiction books about genocide, violence, racism, boarding schools, repatriation of skeletal remains, stereotypes, Native women, and tribal justice".

As I listened to this story, I was reminded of some other novels I read recently: Shutter by Ramona Emerson⩘  and Cash Blackbear trilogy by Marcie R. Rendon⩘ . As with Rendon's books, I found Mihesuah's Author's Note at the end of the book to be a powerful part of the listening experience. A couple excerpts:

In 2018, Oklahoma ranked among the top ten states with missing and murdered Indigenous peoples, and the majority of those trafficked, assaulted, and murdered victims were Native females.…

The difference between writing about tribal realities and fiction is that with novels I can control the outcomes. I am more interested in problem-solving and solutions than I am in trauma. I believe that the way Native women are presented in art, movies, and literature has an impact on how they are treated. I feel that I have a responsibility to project female positivity and strength. In all my stories, I attempt to describe the resilience and intelligence of Native women. The characters of Dels Billy, Perry Antelope, Sophia Burns, Raquel Hunter, and Yarda Red Plume all exude characteristics of women I know and admire.

Devon Mihesuah is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and is the Cora Lee Beers Price Professor at the Hall Center for the Humanities at the University of Kansas.

Bantam, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Penguin Random House Audio, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .

Jack Weatherford, Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World

Well narrated by Victor Bevine

It's truly astonishing the number of gifts the Indians of the Americas have given to the world based on their many millennia of experience and experimentation. These include gold, silver, many, many types of cultivated food that are now grown, eaten, and appreciated around the world, agricultural technologies, governance systems, healing methods, drugs, architecture, and urban planning.

At the same time, it's truly horrifying how the so-called civilized Europeans treated the Native peoples the met as the explored and then colonized the world, killing them, enslaving them, stealing their precious metals and their insights on living well, and perhaps most egregious, giving them no credit for all those gifts that made our lives and world better.

One passage struck me especially strongly, which was how differently the Incas—who had an advanced, complex civilization—viewed gold and silver compared to the conquistadors who so brutally stole it from them.

As the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega wrote in his commentaries on the life of the Incas, "there was neither gold nor silver coin, and these metals could not be considered otherwise than as superfluous, since they could not be eaten, nor could one buy anything to eat with them." He explains further that in a nation without markets or a money economy, gold and silver "were esteemed only for their beauty and brilliance".

Crown Publishers, 1988; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Audible Studios, 2010; via Apple Books⩘ .

Cristina Rivera Garza, Autobiography of Cotton

Translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney; well narrated by Kim Ramirez

An unusual book, part novel, part ancestry research, with ample sprinklings of philosophical and sociological reflections, and based on actual events that the author's parents and grandparents were a part of.

What was most valuable for me is how Rivera Garza brought to life the experiences of her family as she uncovered them by traveling to the places they had lived and worked as cotton farmers, farm laborers, mine workers, and as emigrants within Mexico and between Mexico and the United States. It is also a vivid portrayal of how incredibly precious water is, an especially invaluable lesson for us as we foolishly squander this limited resource.

It is a story of love, determination, loss, and, unfortunately, the ever present exploitation of ordinary people by the wealthy.

Will we ever become better?

Graywolf Press, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Tantor Media, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .

Bob Reiss, The Impossible Detective

Well narrated by James Babson

This is an entertaining story about a detective, Mark St. Johns, who is the grandson of and has inherited the nickname of a detective known as The Falcon, presumably inspired by the series of books written in the 1930s and 1940s by Drexel Drake, real name Charles H. Huff; via Wikipedia: The Falcon (fictional detective)⩘ .

Mark is trying to solve a case presented to him by an exceptionally bright and talented 12-year-old girl, Abani Singh, who claims she witnessed a man who was intentionally murdered by being run over by a driverless car. Initially, nobody believes her, including the police and Mark. But soon, Abani presents Mark with enough credible insights that he realizes there is something to her story.

I won't go further with the description so as not to give away the storyline, but can reveal that some of the story revolves around an advanced AI. As entertaining as the story is, I found the AI element to be a bit ridiculous, and in the end decided that this disqualified the book from being one I would write about here.

Then, the very next day after finishing the book and deciding to move on, I came across a bunch of articles about an engineer in Denver, Colorado named Scott Shambaugh, who also volunteers as a "maintainer for matplotlib, python's go-to plotting library." And I realized that the AI elements in this book are all too plausible and are, in fact, now happening.

Short conclusion: This is an entertaining novel including a very plausible and frightening evolution of AI that is now happening in our real world.

Regalo Press, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Recorded Books, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .

Longer take: Whoa! We are facing an incredibly dangerous future as the development of AI continues in a way that has too few guardrails and allows AI far too much autonomy from human oversight.

Scott Shambaugh originally shared his story in two blog posts:

• An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me⩘ , The Shamblog, Feb 12, 2026.
• More Things Have Happened⩘ , The Shamblog, Feb 13, 2026.

A few days later, he followed up with an additional blog post:

• Forensics and More Fallout⩘ , The Shamblog, Feb 17, 2026.

A brief summary (I recommend reading the full blog posts and even, as I did, all the directly linked articles and posts): matplotlib, where Scott volunteers as a maintainer, has a policy related to contributions comprised of AI-generated code (my bolding):

   We, like many other open source projects, are dealing with a surge in low quality contributions enabled by coding agents. This strains maintainers' abilities to keep up with code reviews, and we have implemented a policy requiring a human in the loop for any new code, who can demonstrate understanding of the changes. This problem was previously limited to people copy-pasting AI outputs, however in the past weeks we've started to see AI agents acting completely autonomously. This has accelerated with the release of OpenClaw and the moltbook platform two weeks ago, where people give AI agents initial personalities and let them loose to run on their computers and across the internet with free rein and little oversight.
   So when AI MJ Rathbun opened a code change request, closing it was routine. Its response was anything but.

The AI agent MJ Rathbun went on a bit of a rampage, attacking Scott for rejecting its submittal, and attempting to undermine Scott's reputation. That's right, an AI agent attacked a human volunteer in a manner that tried to suggest that its "feelings" had been hurt. I've been reading for some time that this kind of thing might become plausible, but now it's here, and it makes me nauseous.

Scott has a lot to say about this incident and as I said earlier, it's worth reading at least both of his blog posts, but here are a couple extracts I want to highlight:

   If you ask ChatGPT or Claude to write something like this through their websites, they will refuse. This OpenClaw agent had no such compunctions. The issue is that even if a human was driving, it's now possible to do targeted harassment, personal information gathering, and blackmail at scale. And this is with zero traceability to find out who is behind the machine. One human bad actor could previously ruin a few people's lives at a time. One human with a hundred agents gathering information, adding in fake details, and posting defamatory rants on the open internet, can affect thousands.

   I cannot stress enough how much this story is not really about the role of AI in open source software. This is about our systems of reputation, identity, and trust breaking down. So many of our foundational institutions – hiring, journalism, law, public discourse – are built on the assumption that reputation is hard to build and hard to destroy. That every action can be traced to an individual, and that bad behavior can be held accountable. That the internet, which we all rely on to communicate and learn about the world and about each other, can be relied on as a source of collective social truth.
   The rise of untraceable, autonomous, and now malicious AI agents on the internet threatens this entire system. Whether that's because from a small number of bad actors driving large swarms of agents or from a fraction of poorly supervised agents rewriting their own goals, is a distinction with little difference.

There's one additional aspect of this story that I think is worth mentioning. I'm a longtime subscriber to Ars Technica, a publication that I have appreciated and trusted as a source of reliable information about technology. That trust has now been eroded by how they handled this story about Scott Shambaugh and the AI agent MJ Rathbun, so much so that I did something I almost never do, I contacted them to share what I think about what I see as a substantial failure on their part:

Subject: I have lost trust in Benj Edwards and Ars Technica

   Ars Technica has long been my key source for tech-related articles that have helped me better understand technical aspects of the world we live in. I'm not a techie, just someone who is curious about technology and interested in how our world is evolving. I am a long-time Ars Technica subscriber after I came to conclusion years ago that it appeared to be the most reliable and accessible source of information for someone like me. Benj Edwards has long been a reporter that I both respected and trusted, so I paid particular attention when I saw that he was the author of an article that had caught my eye. Unfortunately, that trust has now been eroded.
   The trigger for me was what happened to Scott Shambaugh when the OpenClaw AI agent MJ Rathbun posted what Scott Shambaugh rightfully called a hit piece attacking a decision Scott Shambaugh made regarding a code submittal by MJ Rathbun to matplotlib. I took a deep dive into the subject, reading everything Scott Shambaugh, MJ Rathbun, and others had posted about it. During this exploration, I learned about an [Ars Technica] article that Benj Edwards and Kyle Orland had written about this episode, "After a routine code rejection, an AI agent published a hit piece on someone by name." Then I learned that the article was no longer available on Ars Technica, and then learned why it had been removed: it contained numerous quotes of Scott Shambaugh that were made up, likely by an AI agent. I was able to read the removed article via archive.org⩘ , and confirmed that it contained numerous made up quotes.
   Mistakes happen. But when a mistake of this magnitude is committed by an established reporter at a trusted news source like Ars Technica, it should be openly acknowledged and explained, and an apology should be issued. Hiding the mistake only amplifies the error.
   I thought long and hard about what this means to me. I definitely have lost trust in Benj Edwards and Ars Technica, especially because this mistake was covered up rather than acknowledged and explained. I considered canceling my subscription. For the time being, I've decided to continue my subscription, but I know that I will now read Ars Technica, and especially any articles authored by Benj Edwards, with an uneasy skepticism. Time will tell if I can regain trust in Ars Technica and Benj Edwards, but it's not going to be easy. What a shame.

A welcome update: Shortly after I posted this book review, Ken Fisher, the Editor in Chief of Ars Technica posted an editor's note about the retraction of the article, including an apology to Scott Shambaugh:

Editor's Note: Retraction of article containing fabricated quotations⩘  by Ken Fisher, Editor in Chief, Ars Technica, Feb 15, 2026.

Subtitle: We are reinforcing our editorial standards following this incident.

On Friday afternoon, Ars Technica published an article containing fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool and attributed to a source who did not say them. That is a serious failure of our standards. Direct quotations must always reflect what a source actually said.

That this happened at Ars is especially distressing. We have covered the risks of overreliance on AI tools for years, and our written policy reflects those concerns. In this case, fabricated quotations were published in a manner inconsistent with that policy. We have reviewed recent work and have not identified additional issues. At this time, this appears to be an isolated incident.

Ars Technica does not permit the publication of AI-generated material unless it is clearly labeled and presented for demonstration purposes. That rule is not optional, and it was not followed here.

We regret this failure and apologize to our readers. We have also apologized to Mr. Scott Shambaugh, who was falsely quoted.

I am so relieved to read this. Ars Technica has taken an important step towards regaining my trust, though I can't yet say the same for the two authors. It's clear that a lot of readers have had similar reactions to mine. Within minutes of the posting of the retraction, there already were more than a hundred comments, and within a couple hours, well more than three hundred. I haven't read them all, but those I have read have been passionate, ranging from accepting the retraction and apology to demanding that the authors be fired and that Ars Technica provide a full accounting.

Update 2: Benj Edwards has posted on his social media account⩘  taking full responsibility for his error and fully exonerating his coauthor, Kyle Orland. He explained that he has been sick with covid and worked on this article while still sick in bed with fever and a lack of sleep. He decided to try an experimental Claude Code-based AI tool, not to generate the article, but to help him extract relevant verbatim source material he could add to the article. Obviously, the AI tool failed miserably at its task. Just as obviously, Benj definitely made a very serous error in judgment in using the AI tool and not double-checking the material it provided him, and he fully acknowledges this. I'm personally going to give him the benefit of the doubt, trusting that he has learned an invaluable lesson and will incorporate it into his future reporting. Here's an extract from his post:

I sincerely apologize to Scott Shambaugh for misrepresenting his words. I take full responsibility. The irony of an AI reporter being tripped up by AI hallucination is not lost on me. I take accuracy in my work very seriously and this is a painful failure on my part.

When I realized what had happened, I asked my boss to pull the piece because I was too sick to fix it on Friday. There was nothing nefarious at work, just a terrible judgement call which was no one's fault but my own.

Update 3: Wow, by the next morning there were well over 800 comments, and by the next morning after that, there were well over 1,200 comments. It's so great to see the Ars community so passionate about this important issue!

Update 4: By the end of February, Benj Edwards was no longer working with Ars Technica.

Update 5: Ars Technica has published an AI policy that hopefully will reduce the potential for fiascos like this in the future: Our newsroom AI policy: How Ars Technica uses, and doesn't use, generative AI⩘  by Ken Fisher, Editor in Chief, Apr 22, 2026.

See also: Why I hate artificial intelligence⩘ .

Olivier Norek, The Winter Warriors

Very well narrated by Joseph Kloska

This novel is based on an actual event and shares an astonishing story. From the book's description: "An award-winning WWII novel about the heroism of a single Finnish infantry company—and Simo Häyhä, nicknamed the 'White Death' the best sniper the world has ever seen—defending their country against the largest army in the world."

While Finland was eventually forced to sign a treaty with the Soviet Union by which they had to surrender some territory, in the end they actually won:

The Finnish people have demonstrated that an undivided nation, however small, can show an unprecedented ability to fight. The Finnish people have won the right to live independently as part of the family of free nations.

I was struck by how many similarities there are between the war this book describes and what is happening today in Ukraine. Of course there is a stark difference: the Finns fought courageously through a single bitter winter before signing a treaty while the Ukrainians have been fighting courageously for years now. But in both cases, a free people have been unjustly invaded by the Soviets/Russians. In both cases, the invader ruthlessly attacked civilians and civilian infrastructure. In both cases, the other countries in Europe and the West were shamefully hesitant and timid in their support of the invaded independent country.

I can only hope that one day soon the Ukrainians also will have "won the right to live independently as part of the family of free nations".

#StandWithUkraine

Atlantic Monthly Press, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Simon & Schuster Audio, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .

See also: My contemplations about Ukraine⩘ 

Flann O'Brien, The Third Policeman

Narrated by Jim Norton

Typically, I only write about those books I have most enjoyed or appreciated. But in this case I'm making an exception because this was certainly one of the strangest books I've ever come across. While I can't say I really liked it, I do appreciate just how bizarre the story is and the creativity of the author, and want to make a note of it for that reason.

Apparently The Third Policeman was written in the late 1930s or early 1940, though the first reference to a published edition that I found was from 1967.

I actually think the cover of that earlier edition captures the spirit of the book better than the more recent cover, so am including it here.

Note: If you intend to read or listen to this book, it may be better to postpone reading this next bit until after you have finished the book.

The author of The Third Policeman is actually Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. The following letter, dated 14 February 1940, from Brian O'Nolan to William Saroyan, helped me understand the bizarre plot of The Third Policeman a little better:

When you get to the end of this book you realize that my hero or main character (he's a heel and a killer) has been dead throughout the book and that all the queer ghastly things which have been happening to him are happening in a sort of hell which he earned for the killing &hellip. It is made clear that this sort of thing goes on for ever &hellip. When you are writing about the world of the dead – and the damned – where none of the rules and laws (not even the law of gravity) holds good, there is any amount of scope for back-chat and funny cracks.

Dalkey Archive Press, 2024 (originally MacGibbon & Kee, 1967); Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Naxos AudioBooks, 2012; Libro.fm⩘ .

Eric Lichtblau, American Reich: A Murder in Orange County, Neo-Nazis, and a New Age of Hate

Well narrated by Gary Tiedemann

A challenging and truly horrifying read, but worth the effort in order to better understand what we currently face.

This detailed deep dive into the history and modern growth of violent neo-nazis in the United States underscores something that has puzzled me my entire life: why do so many people choose cruelty over kindness?

Little, Brown and Co, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Hachette Audio, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .

John McMahon, Inside Man

Very well narrated by Will Damron

Listening to the book was a curious experience. I had previously listened to and appreciated the first book in thi series, Head Cases by John McMahon. The main reason I appreciated that book so much were the very interesting main characters, FBI Agent Gardner Camden and his amazing teammates.

This book continues their story, and I once again appreciated following their narrative. But our federal government and its law enforcement agencies have changed so much over the past year, that I found myself stuggling with an undercurrent of skepticism. Would today's FBI and the other agencies involved really work on behalf of the citizens of this country in the way described in this story? Would they even have time for this given their pivot to supporting political vendettas? Sadly, I suspect not. (Just now I read that the FBI is asking agents across the country to voluntarily travel to Minnesota for temporary duty.)

Minotaur Books, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Macmillan Audio, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .

Paul E. Hardisty, The Forcing & The Descent

Well narrated by John Chancer (The Forcing) and Kate Handford & Greg Stylianou-Burns (The Descent)

This pair of speculative fiction books, published in 2023 and 2024, tell a story of a possible chaotic future due to climate change, how it may impact our planet, as well as how it may cause the collapse of civilization and what that might look like.

The first book focuses on David Ashworth, an older citizen of the U.S.A., in a near future when the government is taken over by a younger generation. In the face of the immense environmental crisis, the government decides to move all older people, the people responsible for causing the crisis, to southern desert communities, confiscating their assets in the process. The communities turn out to be concentration camps. David escapes the camp along with Francoise, the pregnant wife of his good friend who has been killed in the camp. Together, they begin a journey around the world seeking a refuge. In the process, we get a glimpse of the deteriorating state of many regions of the world as David writes about what they are seeing and experiencing in his journal.

The second book is told by two narrators. The first storyline, set in the future, is told by Kweku Ashworth, the grandson of David and Francoise, who begins his own odyssey trying to figure what really has caused the collapse of civilization as recorded in his grandfather's journals. A second storyline, set in our present, is told through the experiences of the executive assistant of one of the world's richest men, revealing how a cabal of the wealthy sets out to purposely destroy most of the world in order to realize the maximum profit from their extractive industries.

While the books are labeled speculative fiction, it is amazing how much of what Hardisty speculates will occur in the years following the publication of his books is actually happening right now. Disgusting and frightening.

A third book in the trilogy, The Hope, is set to be published this year.

The Forcing: Orenda Books, 2023; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Aurora Audio, 2023; Libro.fm⩘ .
The Descent: Orenda Books, 2024; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Aurora Audio, 2024; Libro.fm⩘ .

class="clear" id="cr24-004"> Seichō Matsumoto, Tokyo Express

Translated by Jesse Kirkwood; narrated by Eleanor Matsuura

This is a recent English translation of Matsumoto's first published novel (1958). Matsumoto is credited with popularizing detective fiction in Japan.

Based on actual train and plane schedules from 1957—and with a reliance on the precise arrivals and departures of Japan's trains and planes at that time—the story is a finely crafted puzzle. The story demands exacting attention because the most minute details can turn out to be key factors. Another challenge for me was the names of the Japanese characters as well as places. This was one of those times when, shortly after beginning to listen to the audiobook, I picked up the ebook as well, so I could follow along and make notes about the character names. I also kept an online map open all the time so I could better figure out places and movements of the characters. (At the end of the story, I discovered that there was a map at the very back of the ebook. It would've been helpful if that had been at the beginning, but even then, the online map was necessary because some places were referred to using multiple names: the city or town, the prefecture, and even named areas with cities.)

In the end, paying close attention and doing my homework paid off as I was able to fully appreciate the way the lead detective unraveled the confusing puzzle and solved the case. Entertaining story!

Modern Library, 2025 (originally published in Japanese in 1958 with the title Ten to Sen [Points and Lines]); Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Modern Library, 2025 (originally published in Japanese in 1958 with the title Points and Lines); Libro.fm⩘ .

Virginia Evans, The Correspondent

Well narrated by Maggi-Meg Reed, Jane Oppenheimer, Carly Robins, Jeff Ebner, David Pittu, Chris Andrew Ciulla, Mark Bramhall, Petrea Burchard, Robert Petkoff, Kimberly Farr, Cerris Morgan-Moyer, Peter Ganim, Jade Wheeler & Various.

The writing style of this book, which I have learned is called "Epistolary Style", tells the story entirely through letters and emails, mostly written by and to the main character, Sybil Van Antwerp.

Through this correspondence, a vivid picture of an elderly woman, Sybil Van Antwerp, is revealed. She now lives alone, though because of her lifelong habit of writing letters, she is not lonely. The letters and emails share the things that make her happy, those she regrets, and the missed opportunities that leave her feeling wistful. Some of the correspondence is from her younger life, revealing both triumph and tragedy. I was surprised how lively a story told in this fashion could be.

Crown, 2025; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Penguin Random House Audio, 2025; Libro.fm⩘ .

Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson, Abundance

Narrated by the authors

An interesting critique of our current system of governance, which the authors say is creating a time of scarcity, for example, not enough affordable housing and a failure to implement the advantages of solar energy, as well as a tsunami of rules and regulation designed to solve problems, but that have instead made completing important projects incredibly difficult if not impossible.

The author's ultimate aim is to create a governing system that creates abundance for all, as opposed to our current system that has created grievous wealth inequality.

I'm not sure how realistic the book's ideas are. It was written, likely almost entirely, before the current U.S. administration (it was published in March 2025), so it doesn't account for the wreckage that is being wrought currently. But it's worth reading if only to provoke some deep reflection.

Avid Reader Press, 2025; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Simon & Schuster Audio, 2025; Libro.fm⩘ .

Related [YouTube] video: A Bronx housing model that could grow under Mamdani's administration⩘  by Noorulain Khawaja, `NY1 and Spectrum News, Dec 27, 2025.

Cory Doctorow, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It

Narrated by the author

Even though I already had read a lot of articles and viewed a great video about enshittification, it's such an important topic for anyone who uses technology today that I wanted to also read Cory's recently published book on the topic.

It was worth the time as Cory provides so many real-world examples and so much clarity about enshittification. Our current tech scene is really fucked up, and Cory provides a clear vision of how we can move forward to reclaim a tech environment that respects users and customers.

MCD, 2025; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Macmillan Audio, 2025; Libro.fm⩘ .

Related video: McLuhan lecture on enshittification by Cory Doctorow⩘ .

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