Things I enjoyed in 2026 (Part 5)

Novels Casual by Koji A. Dae (2025): The horrors of this book are understated and pedestrian: poverty; limited opportunities for work and travel; enduring environmental damage; mental health struggles; repressed memories of childhood trauma; a bad relationship; the physicality of pregnancy; legal constraints. It’s a small story of an imperfect woman, Valya, struggling to do her best. Pregnancy brings underlying issues to a head and she is beset by efforts to control her and her unborn child. This isn’t a book about dramatic successes or revolutionary change, but instead one of negotiated compromises. In Valya’s life, there are no straightforwardly “correct” answers, just decisions that seem the best given the information at hand. Dear Stupid Penpal by Rascal Hartley (2025): An epistolary tale between a linguist on a spacecraft and his assigned penpal. It quickly becomes clear to the reader that this is a multi-genre story (though the linguist may be forgiven for not being quite so…