Books Read in May 2026

 

I read nine books in May, more than I expected to, but it is a good thing, because with only 3 days left in June, I have only read three books. Plus I thought all of the books read in May were very good reads.

Graphic novel, Nonfiction

My Cat is Such a Weirdo, Vol. 1 (2023) by Tamako Tamagoyama (Writer and Artist)

This is the first in a manga series about cats. In this case the stories are true, based on the author's blog, and the emphasis on the weird behavior of the author's cats. We thought our latest cat was pretty crazy, in comparison to previous cats we had owned, but really some of his weirdness could be due to his age, about 4 years old, acting much like a teenager. One chapter in the manga was about the cats her parents had, and that one was especially good.

Fiction

Dept. of Speculation (2014) by Jenny Offill

This is the story of a marriage in vignettes. It is novella length, in 46 short chapters. The man and woman are not young when they marry and they suffer through some trials and tribulations. They have a child; the wife is not prepared for how much she loves their daughter. The wife tells the story, and when she talks about herself, she calls herself "the wife." The descriptions of her daughter as she grows up are lovely. I had some problems with the style; too fragmented I think. But I look back and think about how much it affected me, and that I liked it very much.

Nosy Neighbors (2024) by Freya Sampson

This was the first book I read in May, and I could not remember why I had purchased it. I like books with elderly protagonists and it is a mystery of sorts. In the end, I liked it very much, so it is good that I did read it. Nine residents live in a beautiful old Victorian apartment building that has not been kept up. There are young tenants, elderly tenants, and others in between. They soon learn that they will be evicted and their home will be torn down. Many of the tenants do not get along, but when faced with eviction they band together to fight against it. That is a very pared down version of the story and there is much more depth to it. 

Science Fiction

The City in the Middle of the Night (2019) by Charlie Jane Anders

The focus of this book was climate fiction; the setting is a colonized planet, where half of the planet is perpetually cold and in the dark, and the other half is always in the light and hot. It wasn't perfect but I found a lot to like. My review is here.

Crime Fiction

The Ivy Tree (1961) by Mary Stewart

Mary Stewart was an author well-known for her romantic mystery novels and her Merlin series. The Ivy Tree is an impersonation novel, and doesn't have much romance in it. A beautiful young woman who is visiting England from Canada is convinced by a man she meets while traveling to pose as a missing heiress in a scheme to get the inheritance. I liked it very much. See my review here.

Three for the Chair (1957) by Rex Stout

This is one of the Nero Wolfe books that consists of three novellas. Back in 2025, I read and reviewed "Immune to Murder," the second story in this book. In May of this year, I read and reviewed the other two novellas in Three for the Chair. They were all excellent stories.

An Ordinary Decent Criminal (2005) by Michael Van Rooy

I will say first that I enjoyed reading this book and could hardly put it down. But, in some ways it was the most shocking, violent mystery I have read in a long time. The protagonist is an ex-con who has turned his life around and has a wife and a young son. But many people will not give him a chance to prove that he has changed. The first two chapters were so violent I nearly quit reading it. I am glad I stuck it out to the end. Bill Selnes at Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan wrote a very good review of this book.

People Who Walk in Darkness (2008) by Stuart Kaminsky

This was the 15th book in the Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov mystery series and every bit as good as all the prior ones in the series. Rostnikov is the head of a team of investigators in the Office of Special Investigations in Moscow. His boss is Igor Yakovev, formerly of the KGB. In this book the Inspector is sent to Siberia to investigate the death of a Canadian man, who was killed while inspecting a diamond mine. Others on his team are sent to Kiev related to the same case. It was wonderful to get back to all the characters I had loved in previous books in the series. Sadly, the next book in the series was the last book, and after that one, I will have no more of them to read. On the other hand, Kaminsky wrote three other series and I can read more books in those series.

The Man Who Died Seven Times (1998) by Yasuhiko Nishizawa

This is a cross-genre novel. I see it primarily as in the mystery genre because the main theme is solving a murder, but the protagonist is stuck in a time loop so that firmly places it in the time travel genre. There are many versions of time loop novels, and this one is different than any of the ones I have read. It is far from perfect, but I liked it so well that I would read others by him if they were translated to English.

About The Photos

At the top of the post is our wonderful cat, London. The photo was taken at the end of May; London had been with us about ten months then and he is close to four years old. His personality is very different from either of our two previous cats and he is huge; I can barely pick him up.

The other two photos were taken at the Rose Garden across from the Santa Barbara Mission. One was taken in June 2020 when most places were still closed down due to Covid. The other was taken in June 2021 when places were beginning to reopen after Covid. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

The City in the Middle of the Night: Charlie Jane Anders

My son read this book first. He liked it, with reservations. (More about that later.) The subject interested me, so I decided to read it also. It is science fiction, about life on a colonized planet, where half of the planet is perpetually cold and in the dark, and the other half is always in the light and hot. 

This summary is from the back of the edition I read:

Humanity clings to life on January–a colonized planet divided between permanently frozen darkness on one side, and blazing endless sunshine on the other.

Two cities, built long ago in the meager temperate zone, serve as the last bastions of civilization–but life inside them is just as dangerous as the uninhabitable wastelands outside.

Sophie, a young student from the wrong side of Xiosphant city, is exiled into the dark after being part of a failed revolution. But she survives–with the help of a mysterious savior from beneath the ice.

The story takes place thousands of years in the future. The planet of January was populated by humans from earth and many nations worked together to create the ship that carried the people to January. The cooperation between the nations was not entirely successful (not surprising) and resulted in problems in setting up the cities for the settlers. There are two point of view characters: Sophie and Mouth. Sophie's sections are told in 1st person narrative; Mouth's sections are in third person. 

Sophie is the primary character in the book. She and Bianca are students in a school in Xiosphant city, but Sophie is lower class and won her place at the school with her intelligence. Bianca is from a rich family and is spoiled and manipulative; they are close friends, and Sophie has a strong attachment to Bianca.

Mouth is the last surviving member of a nomadic group called the Citizens, and was traumatized by losing her community at such a very young age. She feels like it is her duty to preserve their heritage. These things drive a lot of her behavior and decisions. When the story opens, Mouth is traveling with another nomadic group named the Resourceful Couriers, who carry contraband between the two major cities.

My thoughts:

• Overall, this was a good read. The pace was good, the story was good. It took me a good while to warm up to Mouth. Many of the characters were flawed, which is to be expected, but Sophie had a good heart to the end, so I hung on to find out how she weathered the vicissitudes she suffered. She and Mouth sort of balanced each other out.
• There were so many characters (besides the three I have mentioned), and most of them were interesting, with their own agendas and flaws, but it was hard to keep track of all of them. And I could have used a map.
• I think the book was too long although it was hard to say what could have been left out. The book was only 360 pages but I would have liked it to be closer to 300. But, this book has stuck in my mind since I finished it a month ago, and most books don't do that.
• The story goes in a weird direction in the last 80 pages. Very weird, and it would be too much of a spoiler to talk about it here. There are hints of this ending as the story progresses, but still I was very surprised. I liked the turn of events and I liked the way it was handled.

I asked my son what his one sentence review of The City in the Middle of the Night would be. He said it was "a well written book that doesn't quite know what it wants to be." He also thought it was longer than it should be.