TLP Weekend Edition (January 24-25, 2026)

What we're reading and checking out.

The seaside city of Kamakura, south of Yokohama, plays an important role in this week’s recommended detective fiction, Tokyo Express, by Seichō Matsumoto. (Author photo)

📊 Is the Trump coalition completely falling apart? Or merely being trimmed by thermostatic dynamics? Take a look at these two articles and form your own opinion. First up, Nate Cohn on the latest New York Times poll. He covers what the survey tells us about Republican support now compared to 2024.

The major demographic shifts of the last election have snapped back. In today’s poll, Mr. Trump’s approval rating by demographic group looks almost exactly as it did in Times/Siena polling in the run-up to his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. If anything, young and nonwhite voters are even likelier to disapprove of Mr. Trump than they were then, while he retains most of his support among older and white voters.

Similarly, Democrats have regained their usual advantage among young, nonwhite and low-turnout voters in the race for control of Congress. Overall, Democrats lead by five percentage points among registered voters nationwide—a tally that would easily be enough for the party to take back the House of Representatives. It’s the largest lead for the Democrats in a Times/Siena national poll since 2020, and it’s similar to Joe Biden’s eventual 4.5-point popular vote victory that year.

On the other hand, also read this piece from Patrick Ruffini’s invaluable Substack, The Intersection:

In 2016 and 2020, Trump realigned a lot of voters—white and nonwhite—who were better aligned with a populist and traditionalist vision of America but who previously voted Democratic. Those gains appear to be durable….

We can break down the realignment in two phases—an ideological realignment that hardened America into new MAGA / anti-MAGA battle lines in 2016 and 2020, and a further surge to Trump among unaligned and disaffected voters in 2024 that looks to be less durable. Time will tell if these are garden-variety midterm dynamics (the more likely explanation, imo) or some more durable change in sentiment (we’ll only know in 2028).

You be the judge.

🌌 Revelation Space, by Alastair Reynolds. Tired of all the mishigas on Planet Earth? Forget about our puny planet and roam vast vistas of space and time with premier space opera author Alastair Reynolds:

Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just as it was on the verge of discovering space flight. Now one scientist, Dan Sylveste, will stop at nothing to solve the Amarantin riddle before ancient history repeats itself. With no other resources at his disposal, Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the cyborg crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity. But as he closes in on the secret, a killer closes in on him. Because the Amarantin were destroyed for a reason, and if that reason is uncovered, the universe and reality itself could be irrevocably altered.

Bonus: This novel also solves the Fermi Paradox. Brilliant!

🚉 Tokyo Express, by Seichō Matsumoto. In the age of modern travel and digital communications, it’s a total blast to unwind with detective fiction written before Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon. This book by Japan’s most acclaimed mystery writer involves deceit, government corruption, and lots of train timetables, handwritten notes, and murky memories. It’s a quick and engaging police procedural—perfect for a snowy weekend at home.

In a rocky cove at Hakata Bay, the bodies of a young and beautiful couple are discovered. Standing on the cold beach, the police see nothing to investigate: The flush of the couple’s cheeks and the empty juice bottle speak clearly of cyanide, of a lovers’ suicide. But in the eyes of two men, senior detective Torigai Jutaro and Kiichi Mihara, a young gun from Tokyo, something is not quite right. Together, they begin to pick at the knot of a unique and calculated crime.

Now widely available in English for the first time, Tokyo Express is celebrated around the world as Seichō Matsumoto’s masterpiece.

🚴🏻 The Great American Rail Trail. A bucket list item for many a cyclist is to one day bike from coast to coast in these United States. Enter: Rails to Trails, an organization that advocates for bike-friendly communities and helps convert defunct rail lines into bikable trails. In May 2019, R2T decided to take up the task of making this dream a reality by launching the Great American Rail Trail project.

They began by identifying a viable route with pre-existing trails, including gaps that need to be filled, and determined that the best course would take cyclists more than 3,700 miles from Washington State to Washington, DC, trekking the northern half of the U.S. along iconic paths like the Olympic Discovery Trail in Washington, the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes in Idaho, the Ohio to Erie Trail in Ohio, and the Great Allegheny Passageway in Pennsylvania and Maryland.

The project is a little more than halfway done, and R2T continues to work with states and municipalities to fulfill its vision of connecting the country by bike from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Several states are more than 70 percent of the way there, including Washington, Idaho, Illinois, Ohio, Maryland, and DC, while others have a ways to go still, like Montana and Wyoming. Once complete, there may not be a better way to see this vast, great country of ours. Be sure to check out the project overview and planned route.

🎸 Ghosted III, by Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, and Andreas Werliin. This is the third record of mesmerizing instrumentals from this trio—highly recommended for weekend whisky sipping through a winter whiteout.

Ambarchi, Berthling, and Werliin are back, a little looser and wilder than before. Their ability to lock in and focus on the smallest of details is enhanced here by a sense of increased immediacy. Great news for fans of stimulating variations of tone and mood within a potentially infinite universe of rhythm and sound! The more you listen to Ghosted III, the better your hearing becomes. Or maybe it’s just that you hear more every time you play it.

Here’s a chill track, “Chahar,” to give you a feel for the entire album. Stay safe out there!