I decided that the best way to motivate myself to read again is to read something short, so I just read Rabbit Test by Samantha Mills. It's very good and I wasn't expecting the history aspect of it, which I also loved!

Ahhh, I get it. I read fanfiction for the exact same reason. Sometimes I feel lazy and I want to read but turn my brain off, so I'll open up AO3

Also (back in my sad cringe era) I did read a couple "gamer" fics which are like the fanfiction version of LitRPGs but worse. The problem with those was (other than the terrible writing and the sexism) the lack of a clear ending, so they go on forever and eventually fizzle out

I've been struggling to motivate myself to read lately, so I'm still reading The Bright Ages

I only got back into reading last year when I joined a book club and the first book I read as part of that club was Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty, which completely opened my eyes to the death industry (at least in the United States)

I finally finished The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins, a very depressing book about the US and its role in the 1965 coup in Indonesia, as well as the massacres that followed it. I was expecting it to be pretty specific to Indonesia but I came out of this book with a broad sense of what was going on in the Cold War (from the American perspective) in the third world.

For example, we hear about how domino theory was used to justify the Vietnam War, but the main country that they were afraid would fall to communism after Vietnam was Indonesia. When Sukarno was overthrown in Indonesia, it was like the Americans didn't need to win Vietnam anymore, because they had won a bigger prize in the region. Also, the events in Indonesia were used to justify other massacres across the third world, with US backing. It's depressing because, as the book notes, there is no way that Indonesia will acknowledge those massacres anytime soon, and most people still believe propaganda.

I've started reading The Bright Ages by Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry. It's a revisionist history of the "Dark Ages" that tries to address misconceptions that people have about that era of history. So far it's really interesting! I've just started my master's degree so it's very likely that the next book I read will be a textbook, so I'm going to enjoy this while I still can 😅

I don't usually buy physical books anymore, since I realised that I'd get better value for my money if I only get books that don't really work on a Kindle, like illustrated books. So recently, I bought The Middle Ages: A Graphic History by Dr. Eleanor Janega and it's pretty good! It's basically an introduction to the Middle Ages and it does a pretty good job at providing a overview of about 1000 years of history. This book got me interested in the Middle Ages enough that I feel like reading all of the Dan Jones books I've had in my TBR for ages now.

I use Storygraph but one of my friends is setting a Bookwyrm instance pretty soon, so I'll be migrating

I'm reading Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb for a book club, also reading The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins

I think I'm going to read a couple more books about neocolonialism and US intervention in the Global South this year, since I already read The Darker Nations by Vijay Prashad and How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney

I have a couple good ones

• I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy is her memoir where she struggles with her relationship with her mother and with eating disorders. She's so open and vulnerable and your heart will break 5 times reading this
• The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Stephen Brusatte is pretty much what it says on the tin. This book really brought out a childlike fascination about dinosaurs that I forgot I had! Also Brusatte has a sequel to this about mammals that I haven't read yet
• Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe is about the Sackler family and how they contributed to the opioid crisis in the United States. Kinda depressing, but also illuminates the many problems with capitalism and healthcare in that country
• Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti is about a lot of stuff: fascism, capitalism, communism, democracy, etc. Even if you don't share my political inclinations, this is still a good read, and pretty short too

Sorry, my descriptions are bad, but I think all of these are worth reading

yeah i'm sure everything will mellow out eventually

also becky chambers is great! i actually read her monk & robot books first, they're basically an exploration of what a solarpunk society would look like and they're super wholesome! wayfarers is wholesome too but more focused on found family

i think if you like cozy fantasy then becky chambers work will feel very familiar to you, so i recommend it! :)

We Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong is about microbes inside us and animals and I have no idea why I read it, but it was difficult to read because I'm terrible at biology. Still cool though

Edit: Oh, I didn't realise this is the fiction comm. Oops. I guess I don't read any challenging fiction books. Maybe I should rectify that

hi! just came over from hexbear, hope that's ok

i'm reading record of a spaceborn few by becky chambers, the 3rd book in the wayfarers series. i love cozy sci-fi 😊