Books are Good, Actually

For April, we read Socialist States and the Environment Lessons for Eco-Socialist Futures by Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro! We discussed things we have learned from the examples of socialist states, what was missing from the book, comparison to Half-Earth Socialism, and degrowth policies.

https://monthlyreview.org/2022/09/01/a-new-environmental-history-of-socialist-states/

May: Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham

June: Slow Down by Kohei Saito

July: Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

For March, we read King Richard by Michael Dobbs! We discussed our knowledge about Watergate, interesting tidbits gleamed from the book, what critical mistakes were made and the structure of the book.

Upcoming:

April - ⁠⁠Socialist States and the Environment Lessons for Eco-Socialist Futures by Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro

For February, we read Neuromancer by William Gibson! We discussed our favorite characters and scenes, vocabulary/language, comparing Neuromancer with its contemporaries, Gibson's vision of the future and would we live in that world!

Angela wrongly misidentified the comic Transmetropolitian as Cosmopolitian. Sorry for that mix up.

Upcoming Books:

March - ⁠King Richard by Michael Dobbs⁠

April - ⁠Socialist States and the Environment Lessons for Eco-Socialist Futures by Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro

New year, new book! For January, we read How to Read Lacan and we sort of understand it now. We discuss the regrettable choice of reading Less than Nothing first, looking at horror movies through Lacian lens, how dating can also be looked at in a Lacian lens and even Kingdom Hearts!

Upcoming books:

February - Neuromancer by William Gibson

March - King Richard by Michael Dobbs

April - Socialist States and the Environment Lessons for Eco-Socialist Futures by Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro

Our last book of the year, we read Half-Earth Socialism! We discussed that this is actually our third eco-socialist book, interrogated the solutions provided, veganism (again...Angela's fault), and the critique's!

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2022/05/30/book-review-half-earth-socialism-a-plan-to-save-the-future-from-extinction-climate-change-and-pandemics-by-drew-pendergrass-and-troy-vettese/

https://cosmonautmag.com/2022/10/who-holds-up-half-the-earth-a-review-of-half-earth-socialism/

January -⁠⁠⁠ How to Read Lacan by Zizkek⁠

For November, we discuss Ten Myths about Israel by Ilan Pappe! We discuss our own misconceptions and myths we have about Israel and Palestine, socialism and Zionism, an interesting discussion about Hamas, one state solution and how we can support the Pro-Palestinian side.

December -⁠⁠ Half-Earth Socialism by Drew Pendergrass and Troy Vettese ⁠⁠

January -⁠⁠ How to Read Lacan by Zizkek

Another late one but we managed, for our October book we read Men,Women and Chainsaws! We discussed the surprising analysis of possession films, could we apply the same analysis to contagion movies, grouping of horror movies, horror movies and race, and a side chat about Resident Evil movies and The Human Centipede!

Due to the Gaza Genocide we moved books down by one month:

November -⁠Ten Myths about Israel by Ilan Pappe

December -⁠ Half-Earth Socialism by Drew Pendergrass and Troy Vettese ⁠

January -⁠ How to Read Lacan by Zizkek

For September, we read Hegemony and Socialist Strategy by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe! Although we were late we did finish the book, we discussed the definitions, post-marxism, direct democracy, and starting compounds in minecraft.

Youtube summary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEnjZZzcJ4Y

October - Men, Women, and Chainsaws by Carol J. Clover

November - Half-Earth Socialism by Drew Pendergrass and Troy Vettese

December - How to Read Lacan by Zizkek

For August, we read Weird Scenes inside the Canyon and it was a doozy. We discussed the author's thesis, the evidence presented, debunked a misconception about Jim Morrison, the CIA, and most importantly Charles Manson!

September - ⁠⁠Hegemony and Socialist Strategy

For July, instead of reading a book we watched a movie - How to Blowup a Pipeline! We discussed our favorite characters, how those character's motivations worked for us, opsec corner, FBI's portrayal, the trolley problem and much more.

Next month, we are back to reading!

Upcoming: August - ⁠Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon⁠ September - ⁠Hegemony and Socialist Strategy