cellar door. we might as well be a symphony.: Favourite Books I've Read This Year (in progress)

Fiction:

Han Kang: Human Acts

Ellis Avery: The Teahouse Fire

I started this year reading Han Kang's work for the first time: The Vegetarian, Human Acts, and We Do Not Part in succession. I went into them knowing very little about what to expect and with an embarrassing lack of knowledge about Korean history. Human Acts is set during the May 1980 Gwangju democratisation uprising, when the military brutally suppressed student protests against the military coup of Chun Doo-hwan. It is told from different point of views of people who died during the uprising and those who are confronting the grief of losing loved ones and are finding ways to remember them.

Ellis Avery's The Teahouse Fire is set in Japan during a time of radical change, when the country has been forcefully opened to Westerners for the first time. Its main character is Aurelia, a French-American girl who arrives in Kyoto with her uncle, a pastor, after the death of her mother, but runs away from him after a fire. She ends up becoming part of a Japanese household - the most beautiful parts of the book are about how she learns language and the richly described culture (which is shifting due to outside influence) as she tries to fit in - and her complicated relationship (filled with much queer yearning) with Yukako, the woman who leads the household.

Politico: Trump’s Attack on Venezuela Could Change the World. Here’s How, January 4, 2026.

The Guardian: US attack on Greenland would mean end of Nato, says Danish PM, January 6, 2026.

Ars Technica: Trump withdraws US from world’s most important climate treaty, January 9, 2026.

The New Yorker: What Makes the Iranian Protests Different This Time, January 10, 2026.

Xtra*: Renee Nicole Good’s queerness isn’t an aside—it’s a key part of her story, January 13, 2026.

Liberal Currents: So, How’s the Occupation Going for You?, January 14, 2026.

Newsweek: Germany, Other NATO Allies Sending Troops to Greenland Amid Trump Threats, January 14, 2026.

Rick Morton: The Great Silencing, January 15, 2026.

Compass: An ‘almost revolutionary’ moment for Iran, January 16, 2026.

World Economic Forum: Davos 2026: Special address by Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, January 20, 2026.

Al Jazeera: Public opinion shifts on ICE as advocates warn of US ‘inflection point’, January 21, 2026.

Vanity Fair: “The Homeland” Is War on America: The Blood-and-Soil Nationalism That Killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, January 26, 2026.