This is to appease some well-meaning but overtly Christian and out-of-touch family members. Something for a 12yo who reads well above his age, along the lines of inspiration/motivation for teens to be good humans and members of society
Rather than have them pushing propaganda on my son I’d like to find a worthwhile read they will feel addresses the insufficient Christian influence in his life
It's been a long time since I have picked up a book that was not work related. I'm thinking it's time to start the first book of the year. Most years I would already have read probably 10 books so far. Any good recommendations that are recent releases?
Can someone recommend environmental and ecological #economics literature from the moral perspective that the only relevant metric is #WildAnimalWelfare What economic policies would have the best impact in reducing wild animal suffering?
haven't been reading a lot lately. unfortunately, i tend to hyperfocus on specific hobbies, so reading took a backburner as i went fully into eurovision
HOWEVER! i thought i would just talk about The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez a little bit. i've only read around a quarter of it, but it's shaping up to be one of the best books i've ever read! it's a dark fantasy where a god escaped from her prison and two guys help her escape while being chased. the prose, the pacing, the characters, the worldbuilding... everything about this book ticks all of my boxes
the second book i want to read this month is Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio. this book is actually part of a series that was recommended by the same person who recommended The Spear Cuts Through Water (hi mishal if you're reading this), so i'm very excited to read this. content warnings and description here: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/00dcdfc6-b4c8-4513-9023-58127155412c
i think my intense eurovision obsession has mostly passed now, and i can devote more time to reading, so hopefully i can finish a book this month!
anyway i hope anyone else reading any books this month reads something good
"That picture is just too simple. It implies that all we need to do, if we decide to right the wrongs of the system, is to throw these men out. It feeds into the conspiracy theories and thereby provides a convenient excuse to turn on the TV and forget about it all, comfortable in our third-grade view of history, which runs: 'They' will take care of it; the ship of the state is seaworthy and will get nudged back on course. We may have to wait for the next election, but all will turn out for the best...
...It would be great if we could just blame it all on a conspiracy, but we cannot. The empire depends on the efficacy of big banks, corporations and governments--the corporatocracy--but it is not a conspiracy. The corporatocracy is ourselves--we make it happen--which is, of course, why most of us find it difficult to stand up and oppose it. We would rather glimpse conspirators lurking in the shadows, because most of s work for one of those banks, corporations or governments, or in some way are dependent on them for the goods and services they produce and market. We cannot bring ourselves to bit the hand of the master who feeds us."
From "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins
Hallo, shop! Yesterday I didn't much care for 'The Cartographers', but today you can read about why I LOVED Starling House, by Alix E Harrow, on Nerds of a Feather!
Look, just do what the nice sentient house wants, all right?
#JustFinished Elves, Trolls and Elemental Beings a collection of Icelandic folktales.
The stories were so so in quality even if I always find lore interesting.
But I found myself curious the theme of missing people? Was children and people going missing super common in these times? Because why else would it be such a common theme in the folktales?
Has anyone read this one? I loved Orwell's classic and will have to bump this up on my tbr list.
“Newman hasn’t proved herself a worthy successor to Orwell; she’s outclassed him, both in knowledge of human nature and in character development. Julia should be the new required text on those high-school curricula, a stunning look into what happens when a person of strength faces the worst in humanity, as well as a perfect specimen of derivative art that, in standing on another’s shoulders, can reach a higher plane.” — Los Angeles Times
I've been reading (and writing) so much dark fantasy lately. I love the genre, but some days (like today) I need something lighter.
Give me your best #BookRecommendation for something sweet, hopeful, wholesome, gentle, funny, romantic, or any combination thereof. Feel free to recommend your own book, if it fits.
As the harbor explodes before me,
I glance back at David,
his face lit by the orange glow
of the shooting flames.
Before the curse can claim us,
David takes my hand, and we run.
So I recently picked up "Weapons of Mass Instruction" by John Gatto, and I have a wealth of thoughts about the book.
In summary, Gatto taught in Manhattan for decades and won many teaching awards. This book criticizes the outcomes, origins, and aims of compulsory public education and attempts to propose alternative solutions.
First, a few things about the author:
This guy is in his 90s, currently, if he's still alive. He is very much of a specific generation that recognizes that early America was not a panacea, but that definitely has some romantic notions about what opportunities existed in that time & place. He routinely brings up Benjamin Franklin as an example of someone who self-schooled to great success, and is very pro-free market capitalism & libertarianism (though, a self & community reliant brand. I wouldn't quite call him a left-libertarian based on his free-market ethos, but he's also far removed from the Peter Thiels and other right-wing "privatization will save us" libertarians we know and... er... don't love today).
With that being said, I find myself reading the book and doing a few eye rolls here and there. While Gatto definitely seems interested in solutions to education that center self-reliance and "utility" in a free-market capitalist system, his "open source schooling" proposal could easily be reframed within a more communal context, and I don't think that it's without merit. In fact, I think that ultimately he touches on a method of education that was the de facto standard (and is, still, in many places) globally for much of human history, including post-agricultural & "civilized" history.
Especially as someone who falls somewhere in the "neurodivergent" category, and as someone who suffered immensely through school, despite the fact that I graduated with honors (without attending class much of the time, and despite the fact that there were multiple classes I consistently spent under the influence), I resonate with a lot of Gatto's complaints and points. It's really actually fairly riveting to learn about the origins of compulsory schooling in eugenics, the aims of the early proponents and financiers, and how it still seeks to accomplish the same goals today. Having witnessed the school to prison pipeline and experienced significant internalized shame and a severe lack of confidence through the process of my own schooling, I have a hard time feeling as though these are the words of a right-wing conspiracy nut (especially because his sources are available online to scrutinize) despite the fact that it is obvious that his political ideals differ from my own.
I feel as though my interest in this book will be met with a significant amount of criticism or scrutiny, because oddly enough it seems that most leftists I speak to are somehow extremely pleased with institutionalized schooling, despite the fact that many are neurodivergent themselves and suffered greatly through it. While I think that the noble goals of education hold true: a populous in a democratic society must be able to think critically, literacy is crucial to survival and success, and so on, the facts seem clear (and have, to me, since long before I pulled this book off the shelf) that these goals are not the aim of schooling in the US. What was your experience in school, truly? Were you so much luckier? Do you really feel as though schooling made you capable, nurtured a sense of community, nurtured dialectic thought & challenging of the status quo? Most of my own friends would say no, but would also have a very hard time accepting that public school is anything but necessary, and that the attendance of school being actively enforced by the police state is somehow normal and necessary.
It's a really strange thing to navigate, but I'm excited to keep learning more and finding different perspectives, especially in the years preceeding making decisions for my own child that may permanently alter her behavior and her life.
I'm only about 60 pages into this next book, but I'd dare say this is also probably required reading for... everyone.
After so many books about the subjugation and weakness of his ancestors (even from the most seemingly progressive sources), my partner was extremely excited to find this and we've been really enjoying discussing it. It doesn't sugarcoat the atrocities of the imperial colonists, but it also doesn't downplay the very real power held within Indigenous nations in North America throughout the entire period of "conquest". This is a side of our history I've never read, and I'd guess most of you are in the same boat.