Bragan Keeps on Reading in 2026, Pt. 2

Well, we seem to have reached the second quarter of the year, so it's time for a new thread from me (continued from here).

I'm feeling pretty good about this year's reading so far, overall, except for the fact that, as always, it feels like an ice cube chipped off of a glacier when compared with the number of books I haven't read. Although, unlike the glaciers, my TBR just keeps growing.

Anyway. I'll hopefully have April's first book done soon, but in the meantime, here's what the year thus far looks like for me:

January

1. The Professor's House by Willa Cather
2. Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green
3. The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H. G. Parry
4. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
5. Dance for Two: Essay by Alan Lightman
6. The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis
7. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023 edited by R. F. Kuang
8. Doctor Who: Warriors' Gate and Beyond by Stephen Gallagher
9. If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares

February

10. Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts
11. Twelve Months by Jim Butcher
12. The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins and the Fight for Women in Science by Kate Zernike
13. Mule Boy by Andrew Krivak
14. Monstress Volume 10: Hollow Gods by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda
15. Space Posters & Paintings: Art About NASA by Bill Schwartz

March

16. Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis
17. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
18. The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
19. One Bad Night & Other Stories edited by the Aardvark Book Club
20. Paranormal Borderlands of Science: Best of Skeptical Inquirer Vol. 1 edited by by Kendrick Frazier
21. Doctor Who: Touched by an Angel by Jonathan Morris
22. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

And here we go! Starting April's reading with a volume that I thought was rather timely.

Book #23:

Book #24:

Hi. When i see Artemis stuff, i think about you and all the space exploration books you read. But i think i’ll pass on the Kennedy Space Center book. The Night Ship sounds interesting.

>4 dchaikin: I am strangely flattered by that, thank you. :)

Book #25:

>6 bragan: Huh. Although I read several of King's horror books growing up, and the Dark Tower series, I've never really thought of him as an author I like. Yet this novel appeals too.

>7 labfs39: I almost always seem to have deeply mixed feelings about King, but I do seem to keep coming back to him, regardless. I definitely got on with this one better than with the Dark Tower series, which I am struggling to get through.

Book #26:

>9 bragan: he is missed.

Book #27:

Book #28:

Book #29:

>13 bragan: I have to admit that I haven't read Gould, although I've owned Eight Little Piggies forever. Are his theories still relevant today? Where would you recommend beginning with him?

>14 labfs39: Some of his essays are definitely dated, but I think most of his general points still stand quite well. I think, except maybe for the very earliest, any of his collections of Natural History essays is a good enough place to start. It's been ages since I've read Eight Little Piggies, so I couldn't comment on anything in it specifically, but it's probably as good as any of them.

>14 labfs39: >15 bragan: I read The Panda’s Thumb ages ago and loved it. I keep meaning to get back to him.

>16 FlorenceArt: That's one I have and keep not getting around to reading. Anyway, if you like any of his stuff at all, I think it's worth reading more of it.

Book #30:

>18 bragan: How lovely for you that the suck fairy stayed away.

>19 rhian_of_oz: Yes, she's no fun at all, and should stay away from all my childhood books!

Book #31:

Book #32:

Book #33:

>23 bragan: I bought this today on the way home from work and resisted the temptation to start it immediately. Glad/relieved to hear you enjoyed it.

>24 rhian_of_oz: It's kind of hard to imagine not enjoying a Murderbot book, even if this one took a bit longer than usual for me to really engage with. Hope you enjoy it, too!

Book #34:

I somehow missed starring your thread at the beginning of the year, so I'm playing major catch up. From the previous quarter I'm making note of The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep and The Exceptions. And here The Zero Stone does sound like an interesting one!

Even from The Thursday Murder Club I feel like Osman had such a complete sense of the characters. It makes them so delightful to read since they feel like full people, even the minor characters. His non-Thursday book We Solve Murders was also really fun.

>27 mabith: Hello, and glad you're finding items of interest! :)

And, yeah, the characters in that series really do just instantly jump off the page and come to life, don't they? It's impressive and delightful. I do have We Solve Murders already, but I'm thinking maybe I should finish the Thursday Murder Club books before I go on to that one.

Book #35:

>29 bragan: Well, that sounds interesting. I find it shocking how many people there are nationwide who buy into the whole "prepping" idea.

>30 labfs39: So do I, although having read this thing, I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't actually be that shocked. Even putting aside the question of whether it's practically useful, it's a fairly understandable psychological response to the state of the world and the feelings of uncertainty and lack of control so many of us have.

Book #36:

Bunker: Building for the end times An interesting review I was wondering if there were any figures as to what percentage of the population were building bunkers. Recently our government (French) has given advice for emergency precautions for all citizens, which amounts to being able to survive for a week or so if there was some sort of national/local disaster - not quite Bunker building but a sign of the times.

>33 baswood: I don't remember if the author offered any figures on that. (And it might be hard to know, of course, because many of them try to do it in secret.) I do remember him giving a figure for the percentage of people in the US doing at least some kind of prepping, but I don't remember it off the top of my head, and couldn't find it on a quick look through the book, but I believe it was in the tens of millions. Although that might include a lot of Mormons, for whom it's expected by their church.

Having a week's worth of food and water on hand is probably a good idea in general, for anybody. I know it was recommended here during covid to have something like a ten days' supply of food in case one had to quarantine and couldn't get out to buy more (not that people in most places couldn't have it delivered). I do think Americans are much less likely to need to be told they should do that than folks in Europe, though, as I believe the culture here is to shop much less often and to stock up more on staples, so it's less of a concern than it might be for those who buy fresh food every day.

Book #37:

Book #38:

>36 bragan: I agree - if your llfe is less interesting than jellyfish facts then you shouldn't be writing about it.

>37 baswood: ha! Bazinga!

>37 baswood: LOL!

Book #39:

Book #40:

Book #41:

>41 bragan: I read several of the Happy Prince stories when I was a child and I remember finding them desperately sad. The Happy Prince story itself, and is there one about a bird sacrificing itself by bleeding to death on a thorn? I remember crying a lot.

I also remember enjoying the Canterville Ghost, which I think was in an anthology so read at a different time. I don't know if I've read Lord Arthur Savile's Crime but have found it on Project Gutenberg so have that treat to come!

>43 wandering_star: There is, yes. Very sad for the bird, and the story is definitely saying some sad things about the nature of the world and people. Really, these may be fairy tales, but I don't think they're ones best read by children.

Hope you enjoy Arthur Savile as much as I did!

Book #42:

Major book bullet for me and Bunker: Building for the End Times. I think at least 50% of the show Abandoned Engineering is bunker-based.

>46 mabith: I haven't seen that one, but just from the title alone, I can believe it. There have got to be a lot of old abandoned bunkers out there.

Book #43:

Book #44:

>49 bragan: This book sounds very interesting, so I've added it to my library wish list.

>49 bragan: In your case, I imagine the medical stuff will probably be telling you things you already know, but it might well be worth a look if you find the etymology part interesting.

Finally catching up on some threads and lots of interesting reviews here!

>23 bragan: Good to have a reminder of the new Murderbot book. Always something to look forward to.

>26 bragan: Those Osman books really do feel like returning to old friends every time.

>41 bragan: I haven't read Lord Arthur Saville's Crime, but a few years ago I did see a stage play adaptation which was really fun. I need to get around to reading Wilde.

>52 valkyrdeath: Those Osman books really do feel like returning to old friends every time.

They really do! I've just ordered the next book in the series, and am looking forward to another visit with my dear old crime buddies. :)

And a stage play version of that story sounds like it would be incredibly fun! Wilde remains very worth reading, I think.

Book #45:

>54 bragan: I’ve had Camp Damascus on my "maybe read some day?" list for a while. Your review is intriguing but I’m still not sure I would enjoy Tingle.

I’m with you on the say synonyms. In French it’s much worse, because I don’t think there really is an equivalent to say in the written language. Of course there is the verb dire, but it would feel strange to use it in writing, at least not when directly quoting someone. So journalists have to come up with substitutes, and it can be really annoying.

Something that puzzles me is how often people in books "murmur", and apparently can be heard perfectly.

>55 FlorenceArt: I haven't read Camp Damascus, but I have Lucky Day still on my TBR, and that looks interesting. I'm afraid Tingle is one of those authors I think you just have to read in order to find out if you'll like him, because trying to explain his writing and why it somehow works better than it should is kind of useless, no matter how hard I just tried it. But, of course, I can easily imagine a lot of people just bouncing off of it, and I couldn't remotely blame them.

And maybe it's just as well I can't read French, because that would drive me crazy! It really is a giant pet peeve for me in English, and once I notice it in any piece of writing, it becomes impossible for me to stop noticing it, which makes it much harder to just enjoy the story. Tingle is at least less bad than some of them in one regard, since most of his dialog tags do fit the way the characters are actually talking. There's nothing like reading a conversation, and in my head they're all alternately muttering, whispering, shouting, and sobbing. It's like, why are your characters all suddenly really terrible amateur actors who are misdelivering every line? Why would you do that to your story?!

>54 bragan: I've had this book on my list for some time and I was looking at it just a couple of days ago, so good to see your review of it. I'm considering getting to it soon.

>57 valkyrdeath: Hope you enjoy it if you do!

>54 bragan: "When I'm king of the publishing industry, I'm going to make a rule that writers get one free use of a verb other than "said" or "asked" as a dialog tag every, I dunno, 5,000 words or so, and after that they have to pay a $10 fine per use, like a sort of literary swear jar. Having your characters "mutter" and "state" and "protest" and "assert" everything is distracting and stupid and it needs to stop."

Amen!

>59 rocketjk: I will also require that if a book is the first in a series and ends on a cliffhanger, or is otherwise not in itself a complete story, it must be clearly labeled as such on the cover. But that's another matter. :)

Book #46: