Matt's Books and Music

Here are some of the highlights, and one notable low-light, from the past month of my reading life.

Nine Raves

Whistler, by Ann Patchett (2026)

Premise: After over forty years, a woman is reunited with an ex-stepfather with whom she shared both a natural affinity and a life-changing trauma-bond.

Review: Ann Patchett has this way of telling a story about the imperfect lives of bruised people so tenderly that it feels like she’s holding up all of humanity as a precious object to gaze at in wonder. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this (like many readers, I was thrown off by the horse on the cover), but for me it was note-perfect.

Bookish Pair: This feels like a cross between Patchett’s Tom Lake (2024) and Elizabeth Strout’s Oh William! (2021)

John of John, by Douglas Stuart (2026)

Premise: In the waning years of the 20th C, a young gay man is summoned back to his isolated community in the Outer Hebrides and the graceless household and faith in which he was raised.

Review: Having not enjoyed Stuart’s earlier work and reading the synopsis, I expected more of the same suffucating poverty and hopelessnes here. But this has a refreshing grace that breathed needed life into what would otherwise have been another stifling setting and story. The characters are all complex and pitiable even when they aren’t sympathetic. It’s as good as everyone has said it is, and that’s saying a lot.

Bookish Pair: The Shipping News, by Annie Proulx (1993)

The Tent, by Margaret Atwood (2006 🇨🇦)

Premise: A collection of short fiction by our misanthropic national treasure

Review: This is for me the perfect kind of Atwood; you get all her brilliant, incisive prose and off-kilter, discomforting perspective, but aren’t in any one world long enough to bogged down in her misanthropy. Standouts for me were “Our Cat Enters Heaven,” “The Animals Reject Their Names,” and “Encouraging the Young.”

Bookish Pair: For an earlier similar collection, Atwood’s Wilderness Tips (1993)

Transcription, by Ben Lerner (2026)

Premise: Three interconnected stories about meaning, memory, and understanding revolving around an eccentric German professor, his son, and a former protégé.

Review: This is an exceptionally intellectual piece of literary fiction, with topics ranging from quantum physics to eating disorders to smartphone addiction. It’s very well done, fascinating, and I really appreciated how the third story looped back into the first.

Bookish Pair: Misinterpretation, by Ledia Xhoga (2025)

The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook (Dungeon Crawler Carl 3), by Matt Dinniman (2021)

Premise: On a new level, Carl, Donut and their growing assortment of allies and enemies find themselves in a chaotic world based on a complex rail network.

Review: This series is exceptionally fun and this third installment is no exception. I did think though that this one may have gotten away from the author a bit. The world building was too complex and hard to follow, with twists upon twists that felt egregious by the end. I still enjoyed it, and I liked where the ending set up a shift in the series moving forward, but the cracks may be showing a bit.

Take Me with You, by Steven Rowley (2026)

Premise: A man’s life is thrown into chaos when his husband leaves him alone after being taken aboard—voluntarily, not abducted by—an alien vessel.

Review: Steven Rowley was once an auto-buy author for me, but I’ve diminishing returns of late. I was pleasantly surprised when this proved to be a genuine return to form. He uses the wild premise to explore real issues about middle age, longterm relationships, and new beginnings. What do we do when we feel left behind by those we love? I really loved it.

Astronaut!, by Oana Aristide (2026)

Premise: In the months before the fall of the Iron Curtain, a precocious Romanian girl is drawn into a plot against Nicolae Ceaușescu; meanwhile, a cop tries to solve a series of murders the authorities blame on bear attacks.

Review: This new release is absolutely deserving of the hype! It’s wonderfully-written, with lovable characters and a propulsive plot. The way it portrayed the plight of parents trying to raise a too-curious girl in a culture of secrecy moved me. But this brutally honest portrayal of late Communist Romania is lightened by a deft and subtle humour. This will absolutely be among my favourite books of the year.

Bookish Pair: n/a, but for a film pairing, Goodbye Lenin (2003, dir. Wolfgang Becker).

Black Bag, by Luke Kennard (2026)

Premise: A down-on-his-luck millennial actor takes a job as part of a university experiment in which he must wear an oversized black bag, and finds himself oddly attached to the role.

Review:I admit this was not on my radar at all until the Booker longlist was announced this week. But I was floored by the absurd premise and had to pick it up ASAP, and it more than delivered. This manages to be very funny while also being an incredibly poignant reflection on identity, masculinity, and value in our fraught social and political moment.

Bookish Pair: This reminded me as if the main character of David Nicholl’s Sweet Sorrow (2019) had grown up to be an out-of-work actor

All Them Dogs, by Djamel White (2026)

Premise: After years laying low abroad, a low level Dublin gangster returns home under the protection of a local boss, but the hard world he inhabits won’t let him start over.

Review: Gang-related books really don’t work for me, so this was always going to be an uphill battle for me. I think what I can say is that it did an excellent job of doing what it set out to do. Tony remains sympathetic even if he’s impossible to root for. We see almost on every page how tied he is to the violent underworld and its hyper-toxically-masculine values. He never had a chance, and that turns even his attempted romance into a violent game of cat-and-mouse. So this was exceptionally well done, even if it wasn’t remotely for me.

Bookish Pair: This was similar in theme and tone to Colin Barrett’s Wild Houses (2024)

 

And One Disappointment

About to Fall Apart, by Ashley Hickson-Lovence (2026)

Premise: Fresh off a potentially career-ending altercation at work, a mixed-race Irish man races to finish a short story in time to submit to a content, while trying to keep his relationship with his children alive and contact his birth mother.

Review: This novel in verse is well-written but it didn’t quite sit right with me. The whole text is charged with an urgency that didn’t seem to fit the story. And despite its spare poetic style and short length, it felt bloated. I’d have loved a more focused and reflective version of the story. One thing it does have going for it is a strong sense of place. It’s set along the Irish border and presents a vivid picture of this part of the world. But, while I’m not going to say this was bad, it definitely wasn’t for me.

 

Notable Non-Fiction

Question 7, by Richard Flanagan (2023)

Premise: In this genre-defying book, the author explores themes of memory, fate, and culpability in interconnected narratives unspooling from the singular fact that the bombing of Hiroshima saved his father’s life.

Review: This book is so strange that it was nominated for major awards for both fiction and nonfiction. It’s remarkable in that he connects the dark history of white settlement in Tasmania, HG Wells’ sex life, the bombing of Hiroshima, and a near-fatal kayaking accident in a way that feels fresh, exciting, and meaningful. Truly a book for anyone who loves the idea of the butterfly effect and the interconnectedness of all things.