For the first time in years, I spectacularly failed my reading goal. Culprits included the unusual summer drought (which meant weather failed to scuttle many of my photography plans), digging into more podcasts (and more podcast limited series like the new season of Blowback) in lieu of as many audiobooks, and more recently, dipping my toes back into gaming after essentially a decade away.
I think as my tolerance for reading and screen time has ticked up over the years of concussion recovery, my attention span has started to become badly whittled down. It’s so much easier to flit back and forth between screens and social media posts and short form video than it is to concentrate (and physically, visually concentrate) on a book at length.
Nonetheless, I did manage to read about 50 titles, albeit mostly nonfiction.
“One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This” by Omar El Akkad [2025]
A searing and heartfelt read that doesn’t excuse the atrocities of October 7 or the authoritarian governments of the Middle East, but doesn’t get bogged down with “both sides”-isms. El Akkad weaves his own story with a narrative of the capitalist, colonialist foundation that makes the war on Gaza possible.
The final words packed a real wallop, especially in the audiobook:
“Some carriages are gilded, and others lacquered in blood, but the same engine pulls us all. We dismantle it now, build another thing entirely, or we hurtle toward the cliff, safe in the certainty that when the time comes, we’ll learn to lay tracks on air.”
More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity
A strong, righteous, and incisive critique of the Silicon Valley and its technolibertarian hegemons. Some of the material is fairly well-trodden if you’re familiar with a lot of tech criticism or leftist tech criticism, but the book nicely encapsulates everything and packages it in more digestible ways than usual (ex. Becker’s intentional decision to avoid “TESCREAL”).
The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces by Seth Harp[2025]
A very good nonfiction read by Rolling Stone reporter Seth Harp. I think the book pairs well with Matthew Cole’s SEAL book, Code Over Country, which is maybe more conventionally reported and includes more action, whereas Harp’s book is more of a community/crime story.
“Y2K: How the 2000’s Became Everything” by Colette Shade [2025]
I really enjoyed this one, which is written personally without delving too deep into biography or overstaying its welcome. Shade often uses a reflection on the pop culture of the era as a starting point for discussion of more material conditions. As an essay collection, some sections can be weaker than others, but there were several occasions where a topic I wasn’t terribly interested in (ex. Starbucks’ explosive growth and premium coffee culture) turned out to be a launching point for a good discussion on labour dynamics, etc.
“Twenty Years: Hope, War, and the Betrayal of an Afghan Generation” by Sune Engel Rasmussen [2024]
I don’t know if this will be the definitive book or part of the canon about everything that happened in Afghanistan during the “War on Terror” years, but it’s just so well-executed that it was hard not to give it five stars. A very empathetic and personal mix of different perspectives, especially the experience of women.
“Canada In The World: Settler Capitalism and the Colonial Imagination” by Tyler A. Shipley [2020]
“Are we the baddies?”
This was an interesting and punchy counterpoint to read amidst the “Elbows Up” patriotic fervour created by the Trump administration’s threats to Canada’s economy and sovereignty.
Shipley writes accessibly, somewhere between a popular history and a textbook. He’s at his best describing Canada’s damnable colonization and early history.
Perhaps ironically, I think the book weakest in discussing Canada’s role in Europe. His writing leans hard towards a tankie or Russia-enabling perspective of ‘Ukraine is a fascist state populated by Nazis, Euromaidan was all Nazis.’
“[Chrystia] Freeland was a willing participant in the construction of a Ukraine that would have made her [Nazi] grandfather proud.” Professor, come on.
Nevertheless, in the years since the book was written, many of the issues and resource exploitation he highlights have continued, and he was absolutely correct regarding both the very real and legitimate problem of anti-semitism and the weaponization of anti-semitism against supporters of a free Palestine.
Fiction
“Automatic Noodle” by Annalee Newitz [2025]
Just your run-of-the-mill novel about robots operating a noodle shop with civil rights, racism, LTGBQ, and gig economy themes that is somehow still quite light and whimsical. What?!
A brisk, fun read with some heart.
“The Future” by Naomi Alderman [2023]
Hats off to Alderman for truly understanding the tech oligarchs in a way that most mainstream publications fail to. Some of the lukewarm professional reviews of the book I saw at the time of its release make more sense to me now in light of how poorly understood and covered many of those tech industry leaders are. If you’re not familiar with the substantive critiques of these people and the mechanics of their businesses, you might think this book is more speculative than it is, but these are people who legitimately have or are constructing bunkers (and are often obsessed with doomsday scenarios), have delusions of grandeur or galactic obsessions, and care nary a wit for most people or for the environment.
I found The Future hit me a little bit like The Ministry of the Future, offering a fantastical alternate vision that maybe, just maybe we could make a few small but meaningful changes, and that while progress would never be linear, maybe we could keep things moving in the right direction.
To ask ourselves in each new situation: What would we hate anyone to do to us?
And: Who have we forgotten?
To exist in motion, falling forward, trying to bend our own histories toward what is fair and kind, what is sensible and good. We will keep failing, but final success was never the point.
“A Memory Called Empire” by Arkady Martine [2019]
This was on my reading list for ages, and I’m glad I finally got to it. A very strong sci-fi outing involving themes of diplomacy, language, and memory.
“Lexicon” by Max Barry [2013]
I wish I hadn’t slept on this for years; what a fun read and premise. It’s a shame the film adaptation never came to pass; this could have made for a really good miniseries.
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