scribbled thoughts and messy writing
December 31, 2025
Categories:
books
"[T]o all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading."
âPride and Prejudice
This line from Mr. Darcy feels like an encapsulation of the British society that Jane Austen lived inâthe snobbishness, class consciousness, and artifice of pursuing hobbies, for the sake of personal improvement, and in turn, naturally, for the sole purpose of winning a husband. Itâs kind of funny how studiously they seemed to avoid stumbling upon empathy, broadened perspectives, or even, seemingly, actual enjoyment.1 Perhaps they are not so different from modern tech bros, whose life purpose seems to be relentlessly trying to optimize every facet of their daily existence, to somewhat unclear ends. To me, reading has always felt like I was reaching my hand out across space and time and grasping the hand of someone Iâll never meet, but nevertheless finding a moment of human connection through our shared thoughts. When Iâm feeling at my most misanthropic and pessimistic, itâs often through reading that Iâm able to find my way back to compassion and hope.
This year, Iâve read a lot of books that were meaningful and left a lasting impression on me. I didnât want to forget them, so Iâve tried to review any notes I made and come up with some brief thoughts on each. Next year, Iâm hoping to tackle some classics, especially the ones that I already own but havenât read yet. Every year I also compile a list of books to draw inspiration from when Iâm looking for something to read, although I usually end up reading a lot of library books instead. Hereâs my 2026 list.
The Privatization of Everything â Donald Cohen & Allen Mikaelian
This book contains detailed accounts of many case studies involving corporate greed, fraud, deception, and corruption that results in governments outsourcing core parts of their duty of taking care of people (or at least it should be) to corporate entities who are only financially motivated. I think itâs easy to feel overwhelmed by the news and think that of course all the bad people are constantly doing evil things that harm others and enrich themselves, and feel cynical and nihilistic about it, but I think it was beneficial to me to read about specific cases and how things specifically happened and which people were specifically involved. Thereâs the Steve Jobs quote about how the world was built by people no smarter than you2 âWhen you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and youâre life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money.
Thatâs a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.â
I donât like to be unironically quoting Steve Jobs but this has stuck in my mind over the years.â itâs truly not inevitable that things will happen a certain way, especially at the municipal government level, where grassroots activism can really work.
The Phoenix Crown â Kate Quinn & Janie Chang
I read this for a book club. This was enjoyable enough to read, but ultimately kind of forgettable. I did like learning about the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and the depiction of Chinatown. Iâm not convinced that having two authors worked well and some of the plot contrivances felt far-fetched (in addition to some underdeveloped characters) in order to hit emotional notes.
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Stories of Your Life and Others â Ted Chiang
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Exhalation â Ted Chiang
I knew about (and disliked) the movie Arrival but hadnât read Ted Chiang before. These are both collections of short stories/novellas, and Chiang sets up some really creative and imaginative scenarios. I think if you could try to draw a common thread between his stories, it would be the exploration of predestination and free will. My favourites were: Tower of Babylon, Liking What You See: A Documentary, The Merchant and the Alchemistâs Gate, and The Lifecycle of Software Objects. (The written Arrival was, pleasantly, a lot more grounded than the movie, and is more of an open-ended philosophical discussion about language and time.)
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The Vanishing Half â Brit Bennett
This is a multigenerational story of two Black twin sisters who are light-skinned, and how their paths diverge when one of them pretends to be white and manages to integrate into white society, maintaining this secret from her husband and daughter. There was a lot of interesting discussion about colourism, and the impact and consequences of the white-passing characterâs choiceâshe finds herself in situations where she perpetuates racism to maintain her standing in society, and is anxious about befriending a Black neighbour who she thinks might âdetectâ her false identity and âexposeâ her.
Peacocks of Instagram â Deepa Rajagopalan
This was a charming series of vignettes about several Indian women in a Canadian community, each trying to make the best of their circumstances. The plot was forgettable, but the charactersâ stories were written with heart and introspection.
Escaping the Build Trap â Melissa Perri
I read this for work and thought it presented a lot of repetitive and obvious ideas. The fictional conversations were especially grating, to the point where it felt like they were verging on parody. (âOh no, I have a problem!â âHow about [obvious solution]?â âWow!! What a great idea!!â)
One Flew Over the Cuckooâs Nest â Ken Kesey
I think this was a worthwhile and provocative book, and worthy of discussion in the context of its time, but its flaws donât age well and I think there are a lot more nuanced discussions of mental illness since this bookâs publication.
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The Female Man â Joanna Russ
This is a funny and thought-provoking (and parts of it are still relatable to modern times) story about four women from different societies and times who accidentally time travel and meet and learn about gender and feminism. The interspersed narrative of this book is complicated and sometimes confusing. I think Iâll need to reread it to get more out of it. Also, did you know that Joanna Russ had beef with Ursula K. Le Guin, who called her work âJohn Wayneâs wet dreams with the sexes reversedâ?
Friend of My Youth â Alice Munro
This is the first Munro Iâve read, and because of that, I donât know if Iâm unable to extract the experience of her work from the knowledge about the abuse she perpetrated. I think she is good at capturing detailed descriptions of people and relationships (as sheâs known and acclaimed for), but it does feel like all her characters are tinged with apathy, bitterness, and hate.
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Prairie Edge â Conor Kerr
I read this for a book club and it left a lasting impression on meâit was hopeful, funny, sad, and vulnerable. Itâs about two young MĂ©tis friends and their struggles with activism and the urge to do something, resulting in them going on a bison heist, capturing bison from parks and releasing them in central Edmonton.3 The librarian recommended visiting the Glenbow Museum in Calgary to learn more about bison and one day I will hopefully take the train there. The ending of him ultimately dying in a bad situation, combined with the final ending of a dream? imagined? scenario where their Indigenous communities are living freely with the bison really moved me, because as an initial reaction it feels like this is âunrealisticâ, but it reminds me of the concept of âcolonization of the mindâ, where one has lost even the freedom to imagine a different future.
The Sapling Cage â Margaret Killjoy
I appreciated this as a gender and trans identity story, and I admire Margaret Killjoy as a person, but I just really donât like the YA prose style (repetitive and kind of cringeworthy dialogue, hammering you over the head with its points, etc).
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Orwellâs Roses â Rebecca Solnit
One of my favourite books of the year, and I saved many quotes/passages from it. I feel like any commentary I try to write about this would be inane, but I learned that Orwell was an avid gardener and also considered that inseparable from his political practice.4 âIs it wicked to take a pleasure in Spring and other seasonal changes? To put it more precisely, is it politically reprehensible, while we are all groaning, or at any rate ought to be groaning, under the shackles of the capitalist system, to point out that life is frequently more worth living because of a blackbirdâs song, a yellow elm tree in October, or some other natural phenomenon which does not cost money and does not have what the editors of left-wing newspapers call a class angle?â I also like the idea that gardening is inherently political (and manâs relationship to nature has always been political), but at its core, planting a seed means believing a future is possible.
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We Do Not Part â Han Kang
I love Han Kangâs prose (at least through the inevitably distorted lens of translation that I can only experience it in) and the dreamlike way she writes about emotions, memories, and trauma. This book is about the 1948-1949 Jeju massacre and the lasting pain and trauma of the survivors and their families.
Careless People â Sarah Wynn-Williams
This is the Facebook whistleblower book, and it contains a lot of interesting information (especially about Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg) from her time working there as its global public policy director that are worth revealing to the public. As a narrator though, Wynn-Williams doesnât seem to (or doesnât seem to want to) reckon with her own role in Facebookâs actions, as she worked there in an executive role for six years, at a level where she was regularly flying on private planes with Zuckerberg and Sandberg. The final insult is delivered when she didnât even leave of her own volition but was fired as retaliation for reporting sexual harassment.5 In the epilogue she, without a trace of irony, mentions that sheâs working in a governance role at an AI company now and I- um, yeah, greatâŠ..
Patterns of the Heart and Other Stories â Châoe MyĆngik
This is a collection of short stories from before the Korean War, opening a window into a world and society that doesnât exist anymore (and possibly feels unrelatable to both North and South Koreans today). His tone of writing is bleak and dreary and sometimes he cuts in with an unexpectedly funny character sketch (e.g. a Japanese man on a train who misses the ticket inspectorâs rounds because he was experiencing constipation, which he compares to âa tiny woman pushing out her first babyâ).
Along the E&N â Glen A. Mofford
I read this while on vacation on Vancouver Island, which was pleasantly immersive. This book follows the journey of the now defunct Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway as it was built (after the âcolony of Vancouver Islandâ joined BC), along with the hotels built at/near the stations.6 Many (it feels like most) of the hotels burned down at one point or another, some multiple timesâŠ
Detective Aunty â Uzma Jalaluddin
I read this for a book club, didnât really enjoy it, and unfortunately the others in the book club also didnât have much to say about it. I liked the description of the setting in a gentrifying Toronto/Scarbourough neighbourhood and Desi culture and family relationships, but I didnât feel invested in the plot or the mystery/reveal.
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The Girls Who Grew Big â Leila Mottley
This is a book about teen moms in a poor community in the panhandle of Florida, who form a sort of outlaw community to take care of each other and their children. Very beautiful prose and vivid character sketches. I canât believe Leila Mottley is only 23âŠ
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Season of Migration to the North â Tayeb Salih
This is an iconic book in the postcolonial literature canon that explores the dynamics between a Sudanese man who studies in England and enters into relationships with white women, and later returns to his village in Sudan. It references and is in some ways a response or reversal to Heart of Darkness. The prose is beautifully written (at least my translated experience of it) and I think Iâll need to reread this, as well as some of the academic writing about it.7 I was actually looking for a post-colonial literature online course to take, and hopefully I will do that one day, but at the moment it feels like I wouldnât be able to commit to the reading schedule.
The Tiger and the Cosmonaut â Eddy Boudel Tan
A PNW story about twins and Chinese immigrant identity. Unfortunately, I feel like Tan introduced the topic of various themes (regarding race, identity, and performance) that he didnât end up discussing to any meaningful degree, and that, in addition to some of the plot holes, resulted in this being too frustrating for me to not have reservations about.
The City & the City â China MiĂ©ville
Read this for a book club. I think MiĂ©ville is great at world building, and I even enjoy the thesaurus-y experience of reading his books, but it felt like after spending a few hundred pages lovingly crafting a detailed world and society, he decided to also chuck some puppets (we didnât even get to learn or understand much about the narratorâs inner life or thoughts) and a story in there.
Nightcrawling â Leila Mottley
Mottley wrote this book after the news reports of the Oakland Police Departmentâs sexual exploitation of young women. This was beautifully written and a high-quality work, like The Girls Who Grew Big, but extremely painful and unpleasant to read due to its subject matterâthe characters are Black children who have to largely fend for themselves in the streets of Oakland. I found myself dreading the progression of the story as each chapter unrelentingly introduced new horrors.
At the Bottom of the River â Jamaica Kincaid
This is a short story collection of interwoven stories exploring the relationship of girls and their mothers, as well as life on a post-colonial Caribbean island. I love Jamaica Kincaidâs dream-like writing, especially the stream of consciousness sections.
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Anne of Green Gables â L.M. Montgomery
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Anne of Avonlea â L.M. Montgomery
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Anne of the Island â L.M. Montgomery
I realized Iâd never read past the first Anne of Green Gables book before, so this year I spent some time listening through the audiobooks of the series. L.M. Montgomery writes with a lot of charm and has witty observations about people and society, and Anne feels relatable and not saccharine even as a modern reader. Anne of the Island was especially enjoyable as a cozy escapist storyâshe goes to college and rents a house with friends, and goes to parties and on dates.
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Any Girl â Mia Döring
(Note: contains graphic depictions of sexual assault) This is a heavy read, about an Irish woman who was raped as a child and gradually becomes groomed into sex work, and ultimately becomes a therapist and activist. As a first hand account, I was able to learn a lot about the bleak, logistical aspects to being a sex worker, down to exact prices, the websites they would post on, and her driving to various customersâ houses (in addition to a broader political analysis of the sex trade, pornography, and male sexual entitlement).
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A Mouth Full of Salt â Reem Gaafar
This was a library book club read, and probably my favourite from the year. This is an interwoven story about several women in Sudan, including a woman from the south who marries an Arab man and is rejected by his family, and a young girl who grows up in a village and longs for a different future for herself. Itâs meticulously researched (Gaafar is a medical doctor and said that at one point she had a draft filled with citations) and intricately planned.
The Serviceberry â Robin Wall Kimmerer
This is a short book about gift economies, and was fine, but not nearly as in-depth as Braiding Sweetgrass.
Anne of Windy Poplars â L.M. Montgomery
Anneâs House of Dreams â L.M. Montgomery
Anne of Ingleside â L.M. Montgomery
By now Anne has married Gilbert, is befriending the neighbours, and is starting to have kids. These are still enjoyable, but I think books 1-3 are the peak Anne experience.
A Deadly Education â Naomi Novik
I read this for a book club. Crabby girl goes to a magic school in a world filled with deadly creatures that want to eat you. There were some interesting worldbuilding themes and mechanics of the school (e.g. exercising or doing crochet or some form of labour in order to build up mana, or taking some from a bank that other people built up, or stealing it from someone or some creatureâs life force), but the political message of the book felt kind of simple (privilege, class, and social hierarchy). The way the actual education part of the school is supposed to work was also weird or confusing to meâthere are no teachers, and they essentially learn by audiobook or brute force, but because the consequences are so dire they just⊠manage to brute force it? Galadriel manages to learn several languages this way, just by translating/decoding text (??) And you also canât make mistakes because any mistake could kill you in this dangerous worldâŠ
American Bulk â Emily Mester
I read most of this lying in bed while I was sick, and I think my delirious haze complemented this book well. I thought this was going to be a collection of essays about consumerism, but itâs more of a memoir of her life, growing up in American suburbia with a hoarder father and grandmother, and American staples like Costco, processed foods, chain restaurants, âfat campâ, and finally, confronting the house her grandmother abandoned in retirement, full of her lifeâs collected objects.
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Mansfield Park â Jane Austen
Apparently this is Jane Austenâs most controversial work, and in particular people have mixed opinions about Fanny Price.8 The Wikipedia article just has a heading titled âPriggish?â which I found funny I sympathized with Fanny a lot and found her remarkably sensibleâshe was put into a difficult situation without parental guidance, but she has such sharp judgment and ability for reflection, as well as the integrity (stubbornness?) to make her own decisions about whatâs ârightâ (or at least prudent in her situation) without giving to peer pressure. Mary and Henry Crawford were also interesting âvillainsâ, or at least foils for Fanny9 I listened to the audiobook this time, and therefore was unable to skim and had to endure the full length of Henryâs annoying attempts to try to coerce Fanny to accept his proposal and it honestly felt kind of⊠rape-y? It was pretty unbearable. Lastly, this is the only Jane Austen book that explicitly references slavery and the truth of how these idle rich people obtained their wealth.
Julie Chan Is Dead â Liann Zhang
I read this for a book club that I ended up not being able to attend,10 The librarian actually said that they were expanding their book club selection to include criteria like âbooks that were popular on social mediaâ. which left this on a disappointing note because I did not like this book. This is a satire about influencers, which I think could have a lot of potential, but this book didnât contain much analysis. I think the author is quite young and the book was objectively successful, so I feel like I shouldnât criticize this too harshly, but this felt more like a market-researched consumer product than a work of artâŠ
Good Morning, Midnight â Jean Rhys
This is a modernist novel about a disaffected, middle-aged English woman who goes back to Paris after being abandoned by her ex-husband and decides to spend the rest of her money by drinking herself to death. I didnât know that this was actually the fourth book in a quartet, but I think it does stand alone without needing prior context. I like her bleak and experimental stream of consciousness style, and I think this book could be analyzed in an academic context, but I donât have the academic knowledge to do that.
Rainbow Valley â L.M. Montgomery
This book is written from the perspectives of Anneâs children and other children in the neighbourhood, so in a way it feels like weâre circling back to the original Anne of Green Gables, but the stakes are much lower now that Anne is an adult who can provide a safe and healthy environment for her children, which she didnât always have.
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Jane Eyre â Charlotte BrontĂ«
Jane Eyre is one of my favourite books and Iâve reread it a few times. What particularly stood out to me this time was Janeâs incandescent anger (especially as a child), as well as how insufferable all of the male characters in this book are. As an older reader, I also now have a more nuanced appreciation of the construction of Bertha/Antoinetta Mason and Mr. Rochesterâs participation in slavery, though this isnât really explicitly discussed in the text and I kept wondering more about what BrontĂ« thought of BerthaâI definitely love Wide Sargasso Sea for its exploration of this missing piece, and think of it and Jane Eyre as companions. And lastly, I appreciate the concept of âmadwoman in the atticâ that was introduced into literary canon and discussion.
Medicine Walk â Richard Wagamese
For a modern book, I feel like the narrative about someone who has a tragic life (contributed to by circumstances, structural oppression/racism, addiction, and trauma) and ultimately doesnât find redemption kind of overdone by this point. I didnât dislike reading this story but Iâm just not sure I came away with any particularly new insights. (For example, I think Prairie Edge by Conor Kerr was far more emotionally impactful as well as having more interesting analysis.) Iâll probably still read Wagameseâs Indian Horse at some point though.
Little Women â Louisa May Alcott
Something recently reminded me of the Greta Gerwig adaptation, so I listened to the audiobook to remind myself of the book before watching it. I was surprised by how little of the book I remembered, and I found them both disappointing (the source material is probably more at fault than Gerwig though)âI donât think the moralizing in the book aged well. I donât mean to judge Alcott by modern standards, because if you read Jane Austen or the BrontĂ«s or even L.M. Montgomeryâs childrenâs books, there is still social commentary, criticism, and snarking that the characters do, even if they ultimately end up making choices that âcomplyâ with what theyâre supposed to do in society and are âhappyâ enough and accept their position.
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Tales of NevĂšrĂżon â Samuel R. Delany
Iâd heard a lot of good things about Delany as a âserious personâ and was excited to finally get to this. This is a collection of six short stories, as well as a prologue and appendix that are part of the meta-narrative of the NevĂšrĂżon series. I enjoyed the folktale-feeling of the stories (at times I forgot that I wasnât reading Le Guin) and the way the different charactersâ storylines were woven together in a very satisfying way. Delany discusses themes including the introduction of money to a society (comparing âbarbariansâ who use barter for trade to the âcivilizingâ force of currency), slavery, gender roles, racial dynamics, and sexuality, and the dangers of over-extrapolating assumptions or ideas to make broad conclusions about society (there was an interesting discussion about âmirrorsâ and âreflectionsâ). And all of this is told through fun stories about kingdoms, dragons, pirates, etc.
The Blue Castle â L.M. Montgomery
In addition to Montgomeryâs usual charms, itâs interesting to think of this book as an proto-feminist work as well as an early implementation of a romcom plot. The first section, describing Valancyâs misery at home as a 29-year old âold maidâ with her oppressive family (who are in turn terrified of gossip and perceived impropriety in their conservative Victorian society) drags on a bit too long, but it picks up nicely once Valancy becomes determined to live her life as she chooses. You can really feel their (Montgomery through Valancy) wonder and enjoyment just existing in nature, in stark contrast to her barely tolerated existence in the beginning. The ending was unfortunately a bit disappointing, as her family finally accepts her because she managed to accidentally marry someone who turned out to luckily be both rich and not dishonourable⊠I think itâs kind of implied that she makes peace with them despite their lack of meaningful apology for their prejudices, but maybe as a woman one had to make certain concessions to exist peacefully in society.