Books

If you don't read books, you should. If you used to read books and stopped because of your pocket distraction rectangle, you should start again. Below are the best most insightful mind-blowing books I have read recently. Let me know what you think.

Also...if you like a book and want to send links about that book to people, may I be so bold as to recommend sending the authors own link from their website or the relevant bookshop.org link rather than Amazon or GoodRead which is owned by Amazon. There is a huge variance in how much money authors make depending on how you purchase a book. And also....help neighborhood book stores, they are important and have it tough.

https://craphound.com/category/internetcon/ The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation by Cory Doctorow. Ties it all together, what happens to tech companies when they become giant (enshittification), why, why and how they become monopolies, how that plays out for us, and....importantly....what to do about it.

https://www.galbeckerman.com/the-quiet-before The Quiet Before by Gal Beckerman The quiet before big change, the networks that were quietly built, or weren't and how that played out. Several very practical stories about people at the center of various networks, some a long time ago, most recent.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-code-of-capital-how-the-law-creates-wealth-and-inequality-katharina-pistor/9014677 The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality by Katharina Pistor People think of capital is just big chunks of money you can invest in various things. Au contraire, mon frere! The real story is so much more interesting as is the role of lawyers in creating ever more "instruments" that they can turn into capital through cleaver means of alchemy.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/gods-of-the-upper-air-how-a-circle-of-renegade-anthropologists-reinvented-race-sex-and-gender-in-the-twentieth-century/18354337 Gods of the Upper Air: How A Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race Sex and Gender in the Twentieth Century by Charles King A hundred years ago the Euro Atlantic educated white people consensus was that you could rank or higherarchicalize the races (whatever those are); all sorts of skull measuring, immigration anxiety, and bullshit. Then a group of people, mostly women, helped us realize how not serious that was by inventing anthropology. The individual stories of them and how they did that are really wild, and I didn't know anything about.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/butler-to-the-world-how-britain-helps-the-world-s-worst-people-launder-money-commit-crimes-and-get-away-with-anything-oliver-bullough/17389673 Butler to the World: How Britain Helps the World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, and Get Away with Anything by Oliver Bullough Bullough is the world's most insightful and hilarious expert on the internationalization of corruption, and the processes and systems that facilitate that, what it means for us, and what can stop it and roll it back. Also read his newsletter at https://www.codastory.com/oligarchy