What We've Been Reading: April 2026

Welcome to our monthly reading-round-up for April 2026! This is the place where we gather highlights from what the Lighthouse team have been reading each month.

Prepare for a packed edition as the Lighthouse crew have been even busier in their reading than usual. We have a spread of fiction (eco-fiction, thrillers, queer classics...) as well as non-fiction with special emphasis on solidarity. We welcome you to dive in!

You can check out round-ups from previous months and years amongst our book lists.

Zozan

I keep reading about hope and solidarity this month, not just in these books but also in some academic articles.

Kurdish Women's Movement by Dilar Dirik - It is about the political struggle, understanding of freedom, and social transformation of the Kurdish women's movement. This was our Reimagining Colonised Landscapes’ April read.

The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity by Sarah Schulman - Why is solidarity difficult but necessary through relationships and social struggles?

Philosophy and Social Hope by Richard Rorty - It focuses on the role of philosophy in imagining a better society and generating hope

Jim

Valis by Philip K Dick - A heartbreaking and surprisingly funny novel about mental illness, grief, self-destruction and - possibly - the ultimate secrets of the universe.

Christina

Overnight by Dan Richards

Is a River Alive by Robert Macfarlane

Middlemarch again!

Beautiful Distance by Nao-Cola Yamazaki

The Inn at the Foot of Mount Vengeance by Chiara Bullen

Nic

Contingency, Irony & Solidarity by Richard Rorty

It is hard to put into words the impact this book, and philosopher, has had on me but I’ll give it a shot! Across the board, some of us think in terms of big ‘T’ truth, in that Truth is something that is discovered and believe this in virtue of some kind of absolutism or notion about how our thinking and language connect to a world outside of us. This notion is part of the traditional Enlightenment vocabulary we have inherited, and it's implied in many of our distinctions – such as ‘object-subject’, ‘morality-prudentially’,‘rational-irrational’, ‘universalism-relativism’, etc. Alternatively, some of us think in terms of little ‘t’ truth as something that is created by us, and will likely find the idea that human thought and language correspond with something outside of ourselves incredulous. The stakes of which camp you fall within rest upon everything, and I really mean everything! Rorty argues from the latter camp: human thought is ultimately something that reflects our own contingent practical concerns, needs and interests. These are all things that are determined and regulated by the norms we live by and how we understand those norms. This is (roughly) Rorty’s neo-pragmatism. Irregardless of which of the two notions of truth you endorse, this book will change how you think about the relations between ‘T’/’t’ruth, morality, politics, cultural discourse, education, philosophy, psychology, literature and human solidarity forever. (I wasn’t kidding when I said everything!). It was very hard to stop myself here but hopefully less is more in this instance, and I’ve built up enough intrigue for others to investigate this further!

I have been reading this as part of the Edinburgh Existential Philosophy Bookclub, and it is such a lovely group of humans! So small plug for Lachlan and co.! If you are interested, you can sign up here!!

Freedom Is A Constant Struggle by Angela Y. Davis

In 1969, activist, scholar and icon Angela Y. Davis “just wanted to teach philosophy” at UCLA. However, after the department and local governor Ronald Regan caught wind that she was a member of The Communist Party, Davis was fired from her position as assistant philosophy professor and declared wanted by the FBI as a terrorist. After gaining bail from a near death sentence, her path as an already established activist was re-ignited. This short and highly accessible compilation of Davis’ speeches and interviews showcases that trajectory, capturing her life's work as a public intellectual and figurehead of solidarity movements worldwide. From international liberation movements of the past to the present (e.g. American Civil War, Civil Rights Movement, South African apartheid, Palestinian Liberation Movement, and countless instantiations of systemic police violence against African American, Native American and Latin American communities), as well as her work on calls for the abolition of the prison-industrial complex, its relation to the privatization of security and violence in companies such as G4S, how this further relates to the Israeli occupation and genocide of Palestine and the U.S. Fergeson protests of 2014, alongside her intersectional post-colonial and feminist theory in practice. Davis’ critique here has not aged a day despite this collection being over a decade old now. I was struck by the parallels between the role of the private security company GS4 and the role of Palantir in the genocide of Gaza today, and its increasing role within the military and prison industrial complexes of the West. It also strikes me as utterly absurd that Davis and the ‘Black Radical Tradition’ of Social Philosophy is so under-served in British university departments and schools. This tradition of thought is so alive and prescient, sharing a deep connection to critical theory and pedagogy that is often overly limited to exclusively European traditions (such as the Frankfurt School and French Post-Structuralists). More attention must be drawn in this direction if we are to bridge the gap between theory and praxis and cultivate genuine international solidarity, as Davis puts it,by making the necessary structural connections to inspire collective action. I haven’t even scratched the surface of Davis’ ideas in this collection alone, never mind the rest of her work! This was read within the Lighthouse Philosophy & Social Hope Bookclub, which I also host! I’ll leave the link here to our next read for June here if you’re interested!

Pao

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte Mcoconaghy - Climate fiction AND a thriller, all in one book? What a treat! Really enjoyed this even though the ending was an unexpected shock.

The Names by Florence Knapp - What a beautiful stunner of a book.

Minority Rule by Ash Sarkar - 10/10, Highly recommend to anyone looking to change their mind about something!

Mairi

I've devoured Jan Carson's fiction for years - The Raptures is an all-time favourite - and couldn't wait to get into her latest Few And Far Between - reader, IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT! It's sharp and witty, a gloriously incisive look at human foibles against a backdrop of an isolated cultish community, Ireland's distinctive religious context, rising seas and crumbling patriarchy. It's delicious prose and a compelling story, loved it and can't wait for her event in a few weeks!

Juno Dawson's The Survival Show was such a fun, brutal YA, Hunger Games meets X Factor but as queer, anti-capitalist eco-fiction, fitting post election reading...

Susan Choi's Flashlight was a brilliant generational family novel, full of mystery and pathos, if you're a Jennifer Egan or Louise Erdrich fan this one's for you!

Teddy

Lote by Shola von Reinhold - a gorgeous book exploring hidden and buried black queer archives, through a perspective of luxury, decadence and obsession. Absolutely propulsive, unforgettable.

Wave of Blood by Ariana Reines - writing as a Jewish American poet, Ariana Reines compulsively examines the experience of watching the genocide in Gaza, and feeling powerless to stop it, even as you protest and donate and fundraise and argue with those around you. A documentation of watching the most live-streamed, photographed and videoed genocide in history, while governments refuse to acknowledge it is happening.

The Milkman's on His Way by David Rees - first published in 1982, this is a coming-of-age novel about growing up gay in Cornwall in the 80s. One of the first of its kind, this constantly affirms that queerness is okay, that queer people could be happy, long before this was an accepted belief.

The Rose by Ariana Reines - a queer and feminist collection about the power that comes with being a woman in love. Drawing on mythology and medieval stories, Reines reflects on her body, her mother, her passion.

The Leather Boys by Gillian Freeman - to working-class London boys, clad in leather and a little in love with their motorcycles, find love with each other. A lost queer classic, recently resurrected by Dead Ink.

The Future of the Novel by Simon Okotie - reflecting on his own process as a novelist, Okotie examines the history and development of the novel (which is often written about as a dying form), to write compellingly about the forms future.

Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges - Borges creates entire worlds in short stories only numbering several pages. Obscure, original, Borges takes every idea to its extreme but logical end.

As if by Isabel Waidner - the newest novel by avant-garde and fantastic Waidner, As If follows two men who look almost identical, as they slowly overtake one another's lives. Full of possibility, poised with hope for transformation - Waidner never misses.

Weeding by Jess McKinney - inspired by gardens, queer literature, the cinema of Derek Jarman, McKinney writes beautiful queer poetry about stillness, reflection.