Currently reading Here Where We Live Is Our Country by Molly Crabapple. Just finished Great Sky River by Gregory Benford

Pick any of the Asimov’s books if you’re into science fiction.

Dungeon Crawler Carl. The premise is that aliens take over the world and immediately kill 99% of the population. The remaining 1% are forced to compete on an intergalactic reality TV show called Dungeon Crawler World. The series is a scathing critique of modern capitalism, dressed up like a fart joke. If you liked The Good Place, you’ll likely enjoy DCC. Book 8 just released earlier this month, with more on the horizon.

He Who Fights With Monsters is a fun fantasy isekai series. The world-building in this one is absolutely top notch, to the point that I have considered ripping entire cities out of it for my tabletop games. The main character is pretty divisive, and enjoying the series is dependent on liking him. So the people who enjoy the series really enjoy it, and the ones who dislike Jason simply can’t like it. It has 12 books currently. It would have been 13 by now, but the author was in a medically induced coma for lots of last year. That kind of put a damper on his writing schedule. But he is back to writing now, so book 13 is set to release soon.

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) was a nice sci-fi series. It’s still ongoing, but book 6’s release date is TBA. Nerdy computer programmer gets Futurama’d and frozen. But instead of waking up in a distant future like he expected, he wakes up as an AI in charge of a self-replicating space probe.

Non-fiction:

• The Demon-Haunted World
• The Fourth Turning is Here

Fiction:

• There is No Antimemetics Division

I’m currently reading The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs by Marc David Baer. It traces the history of Ottoman Türkiye through the sultans, with a particular focus on the European character of pre-WWI Türkiye and how much European history and culture was shaped and influenced by the Turkish. Indeed, Baer states in the introduction that he wrote the book to push back on the idea that Türkiye isn’t “Western” and that their history was peripheral to overall European history.

In particular, the centralisation of power in kings which is emblematic of Early Modern European history was driven to a large extent by non-Turkish kingdoms copying what was clearly working for Türkiye. Türkiye did take part in the Age of Discovery, establishing trading ports and colonies all along southwest Asia and as far as India, long before Portugal got there. Turkish nobles and artists were as much a part of the 15th-century Renaissance as those of France and England. And a big part of why Protestantism was able to establish itself in Germany was that the Holy Roman Emperor had to grant heretics considerable concessions in exchange for them joining the war against the Sultan.

Baer doesn’t say Suleiman the Magnificent was bisexual, but he also very specifically doesn’t nor say it.

I mean I’m a communist so YMMV, but I’m re-reading the Vietnamese textbook on Dialectical Materialism that Luna Oi translated. I’m re-reading it because I also have the second textbook she translated (on Historical Materialism) and I wanted to brush up before diving in to that one.

Pet by Awaeke Emezi is really good. Partly childish innocence, partly heavy topic about child abuse

I recently read (listened to the audiobook actually) Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.

It’s about the life of Thomas Cromwell. The narration style is not for everyone, but it’s the best historical fiction story I’ve read.

Currently reading about all the horrors of the CIA - finished The Jakarta Method and Washington Bullets, currently reading through Killing Hope, and next on my list is Operation Gladio.

The blade itself is what I’m current reading (when not frantically trying to catchup on one piece)

I’m reading a famous superhero web novel called “Worm” part of the Parahumans universe.

It’s pretty good. I heard it’s got 30 or so arcs with 1.4 million total words.

I am at arc 10 currently, and I got here super fast because the story is pretty good.

Non fiction I’d recommend atomic habits (self help), nuclear war: a scenario (existential horror), and Outliers (thought provoking).

Fiction I’d recommend There is no Antimemetics division (regular horror), Exhalation (thought provoking short stories), and A Memory Called Empire (very good commentary on cultural assimilation).

Depending on what you’re looking to get from reading i have other recs

For non fiction I’m reading The Concept of Mind by Gilbert Ryle, and can highly recommend. Short, thought provocative, and engaging. For fiction, Children of Strife is great, latest instalment in Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time series which I really enjoyed overall.

New Scientist magazine, the paper version so that I can put it down, think about it, and come back a week later. I’m not a scientist, and not highly educated, but I’m curious about the world, and many of their articles are easy to read at my level.

Not exactly a new book, but All Quiet on the Western Front was a fantastic read. It’s a grotesquely frank depiction of the unfortunate "Have Not"s fighting a meaningless war for the "Have"s in society, set in the german trenches of WW1.