Bullshit jobs by David Graeber. It fundamentally makes you question how senseless human existence is due to our 9 to 5, bullshit-driven, Western corporate jobs (although work life in China and Japan is probably even worse, so the part of Western is just my perspective).
It's a great book to not take work so seriously, and start making the best of being able to "work" from home.
It's also very interesting to see how a usual work day has changed through out history and how work obsessed modern society has become in comparison to past societies.
I just started "The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity" [1] by Graeber and David Wengrow. I'm only through a few dozen pages, but it's definitely a compelling read in terms of how it's written. Graeber's last book, sadly.
"Burn: The Misunderstood Science of Metabolism" by Herman Pontzer
"Humankind" by Rutger Bregman
"The Dawn of Everything" by David Graeber and David Wengrow
"Work: A history of how we spend our time" by James Suzman
I sort of want to include "The Ministry of the Future" by Kim Stanley Robinson because it feels almost as much like political treatise as it does a work of fiction.
The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III
Revisiting a major historical figure, whose reputation may be completely un warranted. Was he a Tyrant or a Patriot King? Did he suffer from a genetic in-breed disease or was he Bi-polar?
Hadn't spent much time learning about this part of history as an adult. Was somewhat surprised to learn that aside from the Pre-Amble, The Declaration of Independence was just a bunch of baseless ad=hominem attacks on the king and that "Common Sense" was a rabble rousing populist piece that blamed monarchy on the jews...
To be sure, the Declaration of Independence has a litany of wrongs committed by the English king, but that is hardly what it is remembered for, and "blamed monarchy on the Jews" seems an unfair summary of Common Sense.
> "blamed monarchy on the Jews" seems an unfair summary of Common Sense.
"for the quiet and rural lives of the first Patriarchs have a snappy something in them, which vanishes when we come to the history of Jewish royalty" [1]
"Government by kings was first introduced into the world by the Heathens, from whom the children of Israel copied the custom. It was the most prosperous invention the Devil ever set on foot for the promotion of idolatry." [1]
Those are just the first I found, take a look yourself.
Common Sense was "the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era."[2]. This is a nice way of saying he was a propagandist. The work is reminiscent of "Yellow Journalism" or modern day political conspiracy theories. Another theory of his, that really got the crowd going, was that the King was a secret catholic.
> the Declaration of Independence has a litany of wrongs committed by the English king, but that is hardly what it is remembered for
It is remembered for the PreAmble, which is why I thought it was worth mentioning. The historian makes the claim that most of the charges/grievances in the body of the document were knowingly false/without merit in order to 'pad the brief'.
Well, read on a little. The text quoted clearly blames monarchy on the Heathens. Paine then recounts the history of monarchy in the Old Testament, with an example of god Himself speaking against it as a form of idolatry, his point being not that the Jews are the source of monarchy but that scripture is plainly opposed to it. Concluding that section, Paine writes "And a man hath good reason to believe that there is as much of kingcraft as priestcraft in withholding the scripture from the public in popish countries. For monarchy in every instance is the popery of government." As a good 18th-century Protestant, Paine was of course against "popery", yet the historian doesn't claim Paine blamed monarchy on the Catholics.
The book itself was well-reviewed, but the takeaways are a bit disturbing.
> The text quoted clearly blames monarchy on the Heathens. Paine then recounts the history of monarchy in the Old Testament
"Monarchy is ranked in scripture as one of the sins of the Jews, for which a curse in reserve is denounced against them. The history of that transaction is worth attending to."
I've now linked several flagrantly anti-semitic passages of Common Sense. If those quotes didn't convince you, nothing will and I really don't really want to discuss further.
> Paine blamed monarchy on the Catholics
It's more that he claims the King of England is a secret catholic/papist.
There is some irony, in that him not being a tyrant ham-strung efforts both to placate the colonies before the war (He couldn't act unilaterally and over rule parliament) and in fighting the colonies because scorched earth tactics were off the table.
And yeah privately he had pretty liberal views but he didn't always prioritize them politically.
In his private writings & views, especially before he was King, he was very anti-slavery. His ultimate record is a bit more mixed because he prioritized other issues and never exercised much political power to stop it.
the english were the first big abolitionists at that time (after Adam S.) and even considered bad influence in other colonies like in the caribbean. They knew they dont needed slavery to have slaves, so to speak..
Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image, and the Capacity for Relationship — By Laurence Heller and Aline Lapierre
The Courage to be Disliked — By Fumitake Koga and Ichiro Kishimi
Le monde sans fin, miracle énergétique et dérive climatique — An eye opening French comic book on energy and climate change, by Jean-Marc Jancovici and Christophe Blain
Would you recommend Healing Developmental Trauma to non-therapists? I am interested in the topic of trauma and how to heal it but have zero training on the subject.
Svetlana Aleksijevitsj - Tsjernobylskaja molitva (Voices of Chernobyl).
Aleksijevitsj won the Nobel prize for literature in 2015. At the time of the Chernobyl disaster (1986) Aleksijevitsj lived in Minsk and interviewed over 500 witnesses of Chernobyl. Tsjernobylskaja molitva is a selection of these interviews. Best book I read in 2021. Not a light read.
Dave is fantastic, I'm looking to grab his book after Christmas if I don't receive it. His YouTube channel "Dave's Garage" is amazing for anyone that isn't familiar, it's about programming.
"How to Avoid a Climate Disaster" by Bill Gates. It's a pragmatic nerd's comprehensive view of ways to tackle climate change, and you know the author is deeply involved in some of the initiatives.
I also found "Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind" by Judson Brewer eye opening (once you see through its self-help tone). The author claims (and backs it up by research he has conducted) that anxiety and worrying are addictive, and similar regimes for smoke cessation, weight loss, and drug rehab can be used to mitigate them.
David Stuckler & Sanjay Basu - The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills - Recessions, Budget Battles, and The Politics of Life and Death
In it they look at the results that austerity measures had on societies around the western world following the aftermath of the 2007/2008 financial crisis, as well as comparing those results with those had in nations where social systems where protected instead.
Effectively it was one big natural experiment, and I can not wait to see what they write up about the ongoing crisis in a few years time.
True Tales of American Life - it's a collection of mostly autobiographical true stories, submitted by everyday Americans as part of NPR's National Story Project and edited by Paul Auster.
