Top of the Desk: What I’m Reading on March 1, 2026

Of the six books I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, half of them are still on top of my desk as I type this. That’s not to say that I haven’t read in and out of most of them, just that my wandering eye was caught by some new ones along the way. I did manage to finish The Best Revenge by Gerald Seymour and Dirtbag, Massachusetts by Isaac Fitzgerald and write short reviews of both. One hit and one miss out of those two. 

But three new ones joined the fun:

As hard as I try sometimes, I can’t totally avoid politics. Every so often, a politician catches my eye/ear for positive reasons. Louisiana’s Senator John Kennedy is one of those people. He seems to be a hardworking, dedicated politician, he’s smart as a whip, and he makes me laugh a lot with his quips. He’s kind of like what I imagine Mark Twain would have been like if he’d been elected to the U.S. Senate back in the day. I picked up How to Test Negative for Stupid on a whim, and finished it in three days (it’s short). More later.

The cover of C. William Langsfeld’s debut novel, Salvation, is what drew my attention to it at all. I probably would never have picked it up otherwise. The novel is set in a small Colorado town where one man ends up killing someone who has been his best friend since they were children. It’s not a question of who did it in this one, more a question of how things could have possible gone so wrong for these two. I’m almost done with it, but unless the ending of this one blows me away, it's going to end up just a three-star book.

I was looking for a misplaced book a few days ago - never did find it - but found this Alice Munro short story collection from 2012 instead. I admire good short story writers even more, I think, than good novelists. It takes a special skill. Dear Life was Munro’s last collection, and she was awarded the Nobel Prize the next year for her “life achievement.”  I’ve only read a few of the stories so far, but they all seem to be set in Munro’s Canada during different periods of Canadian history. I’m really pleased that this one finally turned up again. 

In that same search, I also rediscovered A Passion for Books, a book I’d forgotten all about. I think I first read this 1999 compilation sometime in 2002, but I don’t remember many of the individual pieces. I’ve now re-read about a third of the book, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. It’s a combination of essays, fiction, cartoons, lists, etc. that covers every aspect of reading, books, libraries, book collecting, etc. The pieces are usually pretty short and easily read in a few minutes of spare time.

I’ve neglected a couple of the books on my last list in favor of these four new ones, but I am making steady progress in the C.S. Lewis book, Mere Christianity and The Writer’s Library by Nancy Pearl & Jeff Schwager. I just watched a biopic on C.W. Lewis last night on Prime Video, and I’m really curious now to know more about the man and what made him who he turned out to be. I’m looking for a good biography on Lewis if anyone has any suggestions or a favorite. The Mark Twain biography hasn’t gotten much attention in the last few days, but I plan to get back to it soon.

So that’s where I’m beginning this new week. Where I’ll end it could look entirely different - and probably will.