Herbert's corrective to the Mahdi's True Believers, i.e. the people who read Paul's ascendancy and holy war as an unproblematic hero's journey. Dune Messiah is not as sprawling as the first novel (at less than half its length), ….

Seventeenth-century Danish witch trials and surrounding social paranoia, narrated by the eponymous wax child, a creation of one of the accused. Ravn based her novel on extensive research into the lives of real women who were executed, but there is no stuffy archival feeling weighing it down.

Danes in space! A bizarre astrocapitalist oral history, “The Employees” unfolds through a series of interviews with the human and humanoid laborers on the Six Thousand Ship.

Brits behaving badly, wrestling with Ideas in the 70s. Monty and Harriet and Blaise and Emily and Edgar and Pinn and Kiki and David and Luca and over a half dozen dogs.

Daniel Kehlmann reimagines the life of film director G.W. Pabst, from Hollywood humiliations to, more crucially, his complicity with the Third Reich’s propaganda machine. The book looks at coercive power, tainted legacies, and artistic self delusion.

Reading this reminded me of a conversation I had a decade ago with a friend studying ethnic nationalism in the Balkans. He said that the amount of senseless killing was staggering. In “She Who Remains,” 17-year old Bekija avoids an arranged marriage by becoming a “sworn virgin,”…

Cabezón Cámara’s novel builds on the 17th century memoir of Antonio de Erauso, who, as a young girl, lived in a convent before escaping and living as a man. “We Are Green…” finds him in a dense South American jungle writing a letter to his aunt with a seemingly endless supply of ink and paper.)

Cocaine Orientalism. This is a rare instance where I feel like watching a movie first improved my reading of a book. I remember picking this up a few years ago, making it two chapters or so and thinking that the lore dump was too exhausting. I set it aside.

In “The Light Eaters,” Zoë Schlanger reports from the cutting edge of plant behavioral science—or at least synthesizing for a popular audience the fits and starts that have happened in that controversial field in the last several decades…

First of my read through of the Int'l Booker Longlist, second time reading Maia. I liked this one even more than "Of Cattle and Men" with its slaughterhouse setting, but the penal colony in "On Earth…" is no less brutal.

Mary Chapin Carpenter & @themountaingoats.bsky.social covering the supreme Christine Fellows? The perfect….pick-me-up 🤭for my Friday afternoon.

My Bookmatch results from @nplusonemag.com include 3 books I've read and one that I own but haven't cracked yet. Let NO ONE say this isn't scientifically calibrated! Excited for the rest.

@scottaukerman.bsky.social absolutely loved your Spidey run! Thank you 🕸️

Hong Kong Reader ❤️

Maboroshi no Hikari (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 1995)

Hubba hubba hub….uh???

Got that jumbo faith

He’s playing it as a Tim Robinson character: youtu.be/o7Xy61DnfJw

What is the bird-equivalent of a centaur? A question I didn’t know I needed an answer to until today.

Development economics has a new buzz word. We've shifted from "poverty exists bc politicians don't know how to reduce it" to "the problem is "low state capacity* to implement good policies" I have news: state capacity is politically-driven and its weakness usually reflects a lack of political will

“Even if the rebels have freed some of Assad’s prisoners, they will soon replace them with their own.” - intriguing post from Tariq Ali on the NLR Sidecar newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

Great job, @erinmaglaque.bsky.social Happy to see your byline continue to spread! www.nytimes.com/2024/12/10/b...

When ye look upon my works and despair

😐

It is wild how the Gen-X vigilance against "selling out" (which was, admittedly, too hawkish at times) has been replaced by its anthesis, the "bag-chasing nihilism." The same impulse motivated the cheers when Trump said tax avoidance "made [him] smart."

Great environmental reporting and an interesting interview on the "diamond trade" that is fish maw—Displayed in window shops everywhere here in HK. Sheung Wan alone has several metric tonnes of maw staring out from shops with more dried fish than a recently-dammed lakebed.

I want this book cover on my wall...

The young man was shot by a British sniper atop Divis Tower. Buckley called an ambulance. Halfway to the hospital, the ambulance was stopped: soldiers, again. ‘I said to the guy in charge, “that man is dying,”’ Buckley recalls. His answer: ‘That’s the idea, mate.’ www.the-fence.com/this-turbule...

@blankcheck.bsky.social To open, or not to open…

Watching The Small Back Room in a small back room.

Extraordinarily beautiful.

"Reconnecting the Democratic Party to its roots must start with the recognition that today’s working class has changed and has different needs. The provision of social insurance and countervailing power against business interests will always remain important elements of the progressive left."

In peace, Love tunes the shepherd’s reed; In war, he mounts the warrior’s steed; In halls, in gay attire is seen; In hamlets, dances on the green. Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, And men below and saints above; For love is heaven, and heaven is love.

Me explaining the feeling of listening to @backlisted.bsky.social to a friend who's never heard of podcasts. @iammilliam.bsky.social @johnmitchinson.bsky.social

@londonreview.bsky.social Have you announced Close Readings series for 2025?

The Commitments - Alan Parker, 1991

Admiralty Station, HK

"The crowd is getting bigger and bigger; the New York Times later reports there are thousands of people on the street. In the moment, I attempt to do a rough count before I realize I am still a little too buzzed to do it." My favorite piece on last night...

it's tuesday evening and we're korean

"I think when we approach questions of technology we need to be careful and concrete and empirical and selective and dialectical; and not fall into either a kind of eco-modernist all new technologies are good approach or some kind of anarcho-primitivist opposition to all kinds of technology." - Malm

A lot to add to the watch list @nytimes.com

This year was full of pre-2024 watches for me, and most of what was shared at the EOY list has not come here yet. But Hey!

[listening to The Pixies] he's saying the quiet part out loud!

@charcopress.com I loved this but I laughed pretty hard a few pages in when I realized what I’d picked for my “weekend away from the new baby” read.

My I-guess-you-had-to-be-there read of the month. Bookmatch 3/10 @nplusonemag.bsky.social

A darkly hilarious and oddly moving book. A motif: the insidious phrase “Don’t Tell” and the scars it leaves… Bookmatch 2/10 @nplusonemag.bsky.social