Debt: the First 5000 Years by David Graeber

It's really good, and really thought-provoking. I can only read about a chapter a day because each one gives me a lot to think about.

So far the thing that's resonating most with me is the distinction between intangible debt that mostly serves to create social relationships and obligations, and monetary debt which can be purely transaction. The whole "gig economy" is turning activities that used to be the former, like giving your friend a ride, into the latter and increasing social alienation as a result.

I'm about half way through Capital. The first couple chapters were a bit tough to get through, but now it's getting good.

Inventing reality by Michael Parenti, I was dissatisfied with Manufacturing consent it's too lib.

FYI Haymarket Books is offering 40% off right now!

Just finished Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber. A really good read, and very accessible. Next on deck is A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn.

Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions since World War II

Currently juggling four non-fiction reads that I'm moving through quickly

Just finished A Century of Revolution, which is an excellent advanced text. It is a collection of several essays examining revolutionary and counter-revolutionary violence in Latin America throughout the twentieth century. It is inspired by the work of historian Arno Mayer, two of whose works I've recently acquired as well.

Greg Grandin's Empire's Workshop, on how American Cold War policy in Latin America shaped the Bush Administration's modern "free market crusader" imperial foreign policy. It was written in 2006 and so very much reflects the time. TBH it mostly retreads ground I've already covered.

Grandin's The Last Colonial Massacre is on deck.

At home I'm slowly working through Parenti's Inventing Reality (the bloody paper it's printed on ruins my highlighters quickly).

I'm also rapidly moving through Stephen F Cohen's final work (he died this year) War With Russia?, which is a compilation of editorials and articles he wrote between 2014-2019 for non-mainstream news outlets ferociously criticizing American foreign policy toward Russia and the Russiagate neo-McCarthyite hysteria. If you want to understand the new Cold War that has been escalating between the US and Russia for at least the last 12 years, I strongly recommend you consult Cohen's works as they offer insights you'll never see in more mainstream sources.

I bought "The Jakarta Method"

I really don't want to read it. Gonna be depressing.

Just finished motorcycle diaries and definitely plan on watching the movie. Bought State and Revolution as well as 10 Days that shook the world

Taco USA - Gustavo Arellano. A pretty poor history of Mexican food in the USA. Interesting anecdotes in an almost paint-by-numbers mass market nonfiction book.

Not theory but im going through Frank Herbert's Dune series again.

I’m making my way through a short story compilation called American Fantastic Tales, but I wanted to share this very short story by Stephen Crane because it made me smile.

The Black Dog

Think Outside the Boss: How to Create a Worker-Owned Business

Set The Night on Fire: LA in the Sixties by Mike Davis and John Weiner. I’m about half way through and it’s very good. Huge survey of leftist movements that worked within LA in the 60s.

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