Top reads: July and August

Non-fiction

• We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families (Gourevitch): The Rwanda Genocide was the first time since WWII that Western countries could show how much they care about genocide. Which turns out to be “not at all”. If you’re wondering where the line “how many genocidal acts make a genocide” came from – it’s here.
• With the End in Mind (Mannix): Lessons from working with the terminally ill.
• This Way Up (Man Men): Interesting, funny, and the perfect Christmas gift for your dad.
• The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI (Doctorow): Very interesting. Also, that bubble burst is gonna hurt.
• No Time to Spare (Le Guin): Short essays. Most of them quite charming.
• Autocracy, Inc (Applebaum): “Unlike military or political alliances from other times and places, this group operates not like a bloc but rather like an agglomeration of companies, bound not by ideology but rather by a ruthless, single-minded determination to preserve their personal wealth and power: Autocracy, Inc.”
• Conspirituality (Beres, Remski, and Walker): The weird alliance between spiritual seeking, conspiratorial thinking, and the alt-right. From the people who brought you the podcast.

Theology August

That’s not an official thing. I just happened to read a lot of Armstrong all in one month.

• The Bible: The Biography (Armstrong): How and why it was written.
• Genesis (Armstrong): A short review of the first book of the bible, getting into some of the questions about where it all came from.
• The History of God (Armstrong) and The Case for God (Armstrong): I would read only one of these, if I were you. They’re very similar.
• Holiness and Desire (Martin): It was lovely in some ways, but I also can’t really tell you what it was about, at a very fundamental level.
• The Madness of Grief (Cole): Beautiful. He works closely with death, and yet he’s utterly unprepared for his own grief. There’s a reminder there to be compassionate to the grieving; it’s not easy or controlled or logical for anyone.

Fiction

• The Outrocerer’s Apprentice (Holt): I would describe it as “fine”, no more.
• Trad Wife (Langan): Tries to do too much at once, but still has its moments.
• Sawyer Lee and the Quest to Just Stay Home (Weinersmith): Short and sweet, from the SMBC dude.
• Love Will Tear Us Apart (McDonnell): Part of the Stranger Times series, which I’ve grown to like very much.