Great Reads for August
I’ll be in Poland and Berlin for most of August if you’d like to meet up. Let’s hang!
Housekeeping: I’ll be in Poland and Berlin for most of August if you’d like to meet up. Let’s hang! I also need people for my Keep Going podcast. If you’d like me to interview you, drop me a line.
The Yard Sign
I bought a Harris-Walz yard sign. It’s the first yard sign I’ve ever bought. I was never super outwardly political - sure I’ll share a meme like a good digital soldier but I’m not going to wear a t-shirt - but this year I did it. Why?
Excitement, I guess. We’ve been watching so called progressive thought become demonized everywhere even as the vast majority of us are for single-payer healthcare, abortion rights, school lunch programs, and legalized weed. We’ve been watching the Democratic agenda, which amounts to “Hey, dude, stop bothering them,” considered Communism, Socialism, or whatever else. We’ve been watching the weirdest people in the world do weird stuff on TV in order to court the Juggalo vote. We’ve been laughed at by Europeans, seen as demons by South Americans, and we’re Canada’s awful, drunk cousin.
It’s kind of sucks.
I never write about politics in here because it doesn’t help anyone. I’m just a dude in Brooklyn with my own peccadilloes and problems and I think that everyone deserves a fair shake. As a white cis guy I have no dogs in any fight. I just want my kids to live in a better, more equitable world where maybe we all fly around in spaceships and never have to work. The folks who will bring us there aren’t Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. Someone will have to outfit the spaceships, someone will have to clean the toilets, someone will have to knit the warm hats we’ll wear on spacewalks. I want to be in good with those folks, not the guy who raised $2 trillion to make the AI that eventually shoots us all into the sun.
Things are changing rapidly. We, as a species, are going to have to face some terrible situations very soon.
We went to Paris when I was 15. My whole family was in the Gare du Nord train station. My Mom took my sister to the bathroom and they both came back crying because the police had teargassed some protesters in the station. I was panicked as was my mother. My Dad sat back in his chair and intoned “The key to life is to stay sane while everyone around you is going insane.”
I took that to heart. That’s why I’m buying a yard sign.
Best,
JB
The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family
Jesselyn Cook
I’ve been reading a lot of these post-QAnon books recently. It’s the conspiracy theory that led to the Comet Ping Pong shooting, many smaller shooters throughout the US, and the January 6/Stop the Steal junk. It is probably the worst thing we’re dealing with in the mental health space right now because millions of people believe that satanic pedophiles are drinking baby blood to stay young and Tom Hanks was executed for crimes against humanity. This book explores the stories of four QAnon supporters and the aftermath of their fall down the the rabbit hole. It’s a slog but it’s worth trying to understand these people.
Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China
Fuchsia Dunlop
Another slog but it’s a lovely look at Chinese cookery and the ways it’s completely different than Western cuisine and, more importantly, the food we’re calling Chinese in the States. Dunlop isn’t a great writer but she talks about what it takes to make really good Chinese food and I’m excited to try her tips.
The Anthropologists
Aysegül Savas
This book reads like a memoir of small things. Written from the perspective of a Millennial woman, the story, if it can be called that, explores the disconnected life we’re all leading as we try to lay down roots. It’s a lovely and relaxed meditation on life and would make for a great end-of-summer read.