Greetings from Glen Allen!
Looking ahead to next year, I’m struck by how many friends have new books coming out. Three off the top of my head:
Virginia Pye’s novel Marriage & Other Monuments (February 2026)
Patricia Henley’s story collection, Apple & Palm (March 2026)
Heather Bell Adams’s novella, Starring Marilyn Monroe as Herself (Fall 2026)
At least two more friends have novels slated for 2027. That’s one of the (few) nice things about getting older — you know more people, and you can structure your reading life around your friends rather than the marketing machine.
I’m probably going to post less next year, but keep an eye out for more information about books in my orbit. And if you have a new book on the horizon, send me an email to let me know.
For this month, I’ve linked to a series of new posts on point of view, as well as a short update on what I’m reading.
Until next month!
From The Speakeasy: Jon’s Point of View Essays
Here are half a dozen craft essays I recently published about POV:
Who Narrates? On the Third-Person Perspective – analyzing the authorial mask of Henry Fielding and Ian McEwan
Narrative Registers in the Third-Person Perspective – the series continues with a look at Jane Austen and Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Subjective/Objective Point of View – stream of consciousness versus Hemingway’s objectivity versus some contemporary approaches
Master of Masks: Philip Roth’s The Ghost Writer – structuring consciousness through narration
Philip Roth’s Mediating Consciousness – a look American Pastoral filtered through his alter ego Nathan Zuckerman
Cormac McCarthy’s Philosophical Gambit – the point of view series culminates with some weirdness in Child of God
Physics Books: The Theoretical Minimum
Over on X, Aaron Gwyn recently posted about James Joyce’s reading habits:
When he was a teenager, James Joyce taught himself Norwegian so he could read Ibsen in the original.
I mean—that’s some level of devotion. I love Cormac, but I wouldn’t learn Viking just to read him.
I wouldn’t learn a new language to read McCarthy, but his final two novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris, are steeped in quantum physics. I only have a freshman physics overview of that field, so I have been trying to teach myself quantum mechanics to better understand what he’s talking about in those books.
To that end, the physicist Leonard Susskind has an excellent series, The Theoretical Minimum. The math is a little overwhelming, but I’d recommend them as a step deeper than general narrative overviews of the field.
Susskind on the Origins Podcast
I didn’t know this when I picked these books up, but “Lenny” Susskind is a minor legend in the world of quantum theory, being one of the early proponents of string theory. He’s had a fascinating life as the son of a plumber in the Bronx, which you can learn about in this Origins podcast.
Until Next Month!
Learn more about these exciting novels and order your signed copy here.