Book report for September 2026

Dr Essai has had the focus of an ADHD hamster lately. This is reflected in various aspects of his life, including his reading. Which is to say, his progress this month through belle lettres has been intermittent. These things happen.

Completed

• Grendel, John Gardner. Strange, unruly retelling of part of the Beowulf legend from the standpoint of Grendel. The destroyer of meadhalls is sardonic, gentle with but weary of his grotesque mother, bemused by the ways of men, trapped by the words of a story he didn’t write, and sheepish in his final defeat.

• Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry, Jane Hirshfield. Superb volume of essays for anyone with a substantial interest in poetry and what writers can do with language. Wide-ranging and intelligent throughout.

In progress

• These Truths, Jill Lepore.
• The Best American Essays 2007, David Foster Wallace (ed.).
• Wool, Hugh Howey.
• Our Game, John le Carré.

Purchased

• Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry, Ted Kooser and Jim Harrison.
• Art Work: On the Creative Life, Sally Mann.
• The Rouse, China Miéville.