Author: seanv2
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Weatherford’s Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern WorldJack Weatherford Before reading this, I knew nothing, like seriously nothing, about Ghengis Khan and the Mongol empire. I knew stereotypes, about rape and pillage, but that was it. This book was a revelation. A fascinating account of how a small nomadic tribe ended up taking over…
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Hartman’s Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social UpheavalSaidiya Hartman This is probably my book of the year. An incredible use of the archives to tell the stories of the lives of Black women at the turn of the century. Hartman uses criminal records, photographs, memoirs, to show how precarious and wonderful the lives of…
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Lanier’s Dawn of the New Everything
Dawn of the New Everything: Encounters with Reality and Virtual Reality Jaron Lanier I think Jaron Lanier is among the most interesting people in the world. This, his memoir, shows just how fascinating he is. Raised largely by a single father in a house Jaron built himself as a child (yes, really) he has carefully…
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Carroll’s Bullet Journal
The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the FutureRyder Carroll I have been keeping a journal off and on since I was a teenager, this year I started experimenting with using a bullet journal and got this book. In basic, Bullet journaling is a system for journaling that is flexible enough…
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Jacobson’s Pale Horse Rider
Pale Horse Rider: William Cooper, the Rise of Conspiracy, and the Fall of Trust in AmericaMarc Jacobson William Cooper you have so much to answer for. The author of Behold a Pale Horse, the ur-text of modern American conspiracy theory gave birth to a thousand late night stoned conversations, perpetuated antisemitism, encourage the militia movement,…
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Wright’s Going Clear
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief Lawrence Wright Exhaustive, fascinating dive in the history of Scientology from the brainchild of disturbed novelist and serial grifter L Ron Hubbard to the leadership of disturbed control freak David Miscavige. I found this absorbing from start to finish and I’m still not sure if scientology was…
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Krakauer’s Eiger Dreams
Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men And Mountains John Krakauer A collection of Krakauers early works, pre best seller, stuff focused on the world of rock climbing. Some of this is hilarious to read now (have you heard of this new thing called “bouldering”? Its getting kind of popular) and some of it still feel fresh (canyoneering…
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O’Neill’s Chaos
Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the SixtiesTom O’Neill and Dan Piepenbring A reporter is assigned to write an article on the Manson murders and Hollywood for a movie magazine. He somewhat reluctantly begins to dig into the story and finds that things don’t exactly add up. He gets interested, he…
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Carrère’s The Adversary
The Adversary: A True Story of Monstrous DeceptionEmmanuel Carrère An incredible book. The story of a man who lived a lie for years and years until it all came crashing down around him and how reflecting on this life effected the writer. I’d never heard of before this book, but the writer is so eerily…
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Gittlitz’s I Want To Believe
I Want to Believe: Posadism, UFOs and Apocalypse CommunismA.M. Gittlitz Ohhh boy this one is niche. The story of the rise of Posadism, perhaps the strangest of Trotskyite political sects, and trust me when I say Trotskyite sects can get pretty weird. Here is Posadism – a Trotskyite sect arising first out of the leftist…
Milo and the Calf 