What I've Been Reading: January 2026

 Books about indigenous literature, anti-empire liturgies, southern cuisine, and food

Bad Indians Book Club: Reading at the Edge of a Thousand Worlds by Patty Krawec

Excerpt of a summary from BroadLeafBooks.com: "In Bad Indians Book Club, [Krawec examines] works about history, science, and gender as well as fiction, all written from the perspective of 'Bad Indians'— marginalized writers whose refusal to comply with dominant narratives opens up new worlds. Interlacing chapters with short stories about Deer Woman, who is on her own journey to decide who she is, Krawec leads us into a place of wisdom and medicine where the stories of marginalized writers help us imagine other ways of seeing the world."

This was an excellent book to bring me into the new year (I started it in December and finished in January), because not only is it brimming with book recommendations that made my library list even longer than before, but it full of defiant hopeful and hospitality, inviting the readers to consider a range of perspectives that are so necessary to understanding and living with integrity in the present moment. As Krawec points out, Indigenous people have been through the end of the world before, and we need to pay attention to how they survived anyway. The chapters about sci-fi and horror were my favorite, although the science chapter was a close runner-up. Definitely recommend!

Liturgies for Resisting Empire: Seeking Community, Belonging, and Peace in a Dehumanizing World by Kat Armas

Excerpt of a summary from BakerBookHouse.com: "…Cuban American theologian and writer Kat Armas provides a roadmap for Christians seeking a countercultural way of living that prioritizes community and humanity over dominance and power. Armas combines spiritual practices and biblical theology to help us create authentic belonging to God, ourselves, each other, and creation. She begins by examining how empire affects us daily through its pervasive ideologies and systems of control. Drawing from decolonial and postcolonial biblical interpretation, she explores how the New Testament church resisted Roman imperial power while building communities centered on God's kingdom values rather than worldly dominance."

I really appreciated Armas's previous paradigm-shifting book, Abuelita Faith, and this new one comes at a very timely moment, to say the least. Each chapter begins with a short liturgical reading and prayer, then goes into her thoughts about the dominant views and principals of empires and the countercultural ways that we resist (ideology vs. wisdom, hierarchy vs. kingship, dualism vs. paradox, etc.). "Empire" is defined broadly, ranging from the historical empires that Christianity was born into and then spearheaded, to the modern evangelical church's empire, drawing connections between systems of domination in all their forms. Although some of the chapters didn't delve into the ideas as much as I was hoping, this was still well worth the read, especially for any U.S. Christian struggling to figure out how to live in the shadow of our current empire. 

The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty

Excerpt of a summary from thecookinggene.com: "A renowned culinary historian offers a fresh perspective on our most divisive cultural issue, race, in this illuminating memoir of Southern cuisine and food culture that traces his ancestry—both black and white—through food, from Africa to America and slavery to freedom." 

My paternal grandfather's side of the family is southern, and I was intrigued when I learned a few years ago that the family tradition of prepping a whole pig for the family reunion— digging a hole, roasting the whole animal over it, then shredding the meat, chopping it up with the fat and gristle, returning it to the pig's body, and eating it with vinegar and hot pepper— comes from the culinary heritage of enslaved people. I was never a fan of southern food, wrinkling my nose through the vinegary mashed potatoes and mashed liver of the family reunions deep in tobacco-field backcountry of eastern North Carolina, but it's part of who I am, and so I was interested to learn more. 

Twitty's book is sensuous and heartbreaking, as he traces his various family lines through the south, making connections of how enslavement, cultural mixing, family separation, physical climate, and the choice of crops worked together to create this unique style of food. His descriptions of the various locations and their foods made me want to visit everywhere he described (especially New Orleans!), and it was fascinating to learn about his career as a historical food educator, which often involves reenacting (he works at Colonial Williamsburg, and often hosts demonstrations at plantations. He even recounts a very awkward situation where he was hired to play an enslaved cook for a Confederate Civil War reenactment). Food is completely entwined with history, culture, and politics, and this story weaves together all these topics and more, full of grief and hope and a determination to continue the story that these foods are telling. I'll never look at southern cuisine the same way again!

Artichoke to Zucchini: An alphabet of delicious things from around the world by Alice Oehr

This is currently my kid's favorite book; she loves to look at the bright illustrations. It's a fun way to introduce both the alphabet and an adventuresome palate! I'm hoping to check it out again when she's older and see how many of the different foods in it we can try.

(Previous What I've Been Reading posts)

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