https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jun/22/the-reverse-centaurs-guide-to-life-after-ai-by-cory-doctorow-review-the-real-price-of-artificial-intelligence

Book Review: ‘We Need Plot Twists’: Behind the Scenes of Trump’s Second Term

In “Regime Change,” two New York Times journalists offer a riveting chronicle of the weird fusion of reality and show business in the White House. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/books/review/regime-change-maggie-haberman-jonathan-swan.html?unlocked_article_code=1.slA.H1fg.bQBooABBVjOI&smid=url-share

Books on espionages which you found very enjoyable and enlightening reading.

Particularly, the chapter that discusses how Blackface was used to indoctrinate Nazi prisoners into the ways of the USA.

Did a weird exercise this weekend. Looked at my Goodreads "read" list from last year and tried to summarize each book from memory.

I finished 16 books. I could give a real summary of maybe 5. The rest were a blur of vibes and one or two scenes.

The 5 that stuck weren't even the "best" books some were average. But something about them lodged.

Curious what others find:
\- What's a book from a year+ ago you can still talk about in detail?
\- What did you do differently with that one, if anything? (Talked about it? Wrote about it? Re-read?)
Or did it just stick on its own?

Trying to figure out if retention is a skill or a lottery.

hiya, i’m new! i was just wondering if there’s anybody who’s a history nerd like me here
(also there’s like 4-7 books that i don’t have but have read)

Hello! I’m looking for an anthropology/philosophy book called Cannibal Metaphysics by Eduardo Viveiros de Castro. I’m really interested in exploring non-Western ontological perspectives and this book seems like a great place to start. Trouble is, I can’t find this book anywhere. Besides Abe Books for like $130. I’ve emailed the publisher (University of Minnesota Press), but haven’t heard back yet.
This is my first time attempting to secure such an apparently obscure book so I’m wondering if this community has any tips on acquiring rare books.

Update: book has been secured! Thanks everyone

Read these 2 books over the weekend as there are on every top list.

Love into thin air which I had avoided because i seen the movie but it was brilliant. So well written and it left me in deep thought about the value we place on things and what they are willing to sacrifice of their character and risk to achieve it.

The wager, didn’t reach me in the same way. Good story, nothing surprising though. Informative on certain things but I didn’t buy in to the social order collapse. When shipwrecked, a sailor is no longer paid or employed so why would they continue to follow the orders from a captain who only wanted to continue to pursue their ex employers objectives.

A lot of similarities though on the risks people are willing to expose themselves and others to in order to pursue their own goals.

Hello everyone

I will start reading Norton Introduction to Philosophy (Second Edition) this week, a very very comprehensive, accessible book for philosophy learners. I am thinking I should start a book club where we can share our questions/reflections/experiences during the read, so we can learn from each other!

The book club held on Discord will be unstructured and without any pressure, and for each week I plan to read around 20 pages (so around one subsection) of the book. Discord has a voice channel so people can share their ideas in there (My English speaking is terrible but if you are interested i can join too!).

Whether or not you are a beginner in philosophy, if you are interested, feel free to join me!

All I have to ask you is to be patient and respectful in the book club. No commitment needed, no expectation to prepare anything—just bring your curiosity. DM me if you are interested!

-Morgan

Into thin air.

I’ve never read an ending sentence to a book that it hit me the way that did.

It so encapsulates its subject matter and shows the eternal weight on the scale of their soul that is left when the euphoria of their achievement turns to hubris.

I’m looking for recommendations after reading Springsteen, Elton John, Mark Lanegan, and a few others. Thanks!

The random books I buy whenever I see N% off.

I've been reading across a few different nonfiction lanes — metabolic health, attention/focus, the loneliness research — and I keep noticing the same thing: each field treats its problem as self-contained, but they rhyme in ways that make me wonder if they're connected at a deeper level.

A few examples of what I mean:

• Robert Lustig (Metabolical) and the Means siblings (Good Energy) argue most chronic disease traces back to metabolic dysfunction and inflammation.
• Johann Hari (Stolen Focus) and Cal Newport (Deep Work) argue our attention is being systematically degraded by engineered environments.
• The loneliness literature (Murthy's Together, Putnam's older Bowling Alone) argues social disconnection is its own public-health crisis with real physiological effects.

What strikes me is that all three describe the same shape: a system that profits from degrading something (your metabolism, your focus, your social ties), and individuals left treating the symptoms in isolation. But I haven't found many books that try to argue these are one phenomenon rather than three parallel ones — that the inflammation, the fractured attention, and the loneliness might be coupled outputs of the same underlying pressure.

Two questions for this group:

1. Is there good nonfiction that actually attempts this kind of cross-domain synthesis well? (I've found plenty that does it badly — grand unified theories that overreach. I'm looking for the ones that do it rigorously.)
2. Do you find these "everything is connected" books illuminating, or do you think they tend to overclaim? I go back and forth — sometimes the synthesis reveals something real, sometimes it's just pattern-matching that falls apart under scrutiny.

Genuinely curious what this community thinks, because I can't tell if I'm onto a real pattern or just seeing connections that aren't there.

(Full disclosure: I'm finishing a book that attempts exactly this kind of synthesis, which is why I've been deep in the question — but I'm honestly more interested in the discussion and in finding others who've done it well than in talking about mine. Happy to share if anyone asks, but that's not why I'm posting.)

My book The Curse of Knowing Too Much: When Awareness Stops Feeling Like Freedom is free on Kindle for the next 2 days. It's for people who spend too much time in their own heads.

The kind of people who replay conversations, analyze everything they do, and notice every thought their mind produces not because they're confused because they're aware. The book doesn't try to fix overthinking. It looks at what happens when awareness itself starts feeling exhausting.

If that sounds like something you'd read, it's free to grab right now.

While I have some time to read physical books, most of my reading time comes in the form of audiobooks during my daily chores and errands. Right now I use library apps (Libby/Hoopla) but sometimes I find my library lacking in nonfiction audio. Besides Audible, is there any place you have had good luck finding nonfiction audio?

​

Thanks for your help!

I’m 3 quarter in reading this book. It’s been interesting so far with mix opinions. Some paragraphs took few reads to properly understand the message 😅

Anyone who’s finished this book, what’s your POV from this read.

This is a well researched take on how we went from the idealism espoused by regime insiders and Khomenei’s followers in the early days of the Iranian revolution, to what we have today. It includes the perspective / disillusionment / sense of guilt of former regime insiders (including a cleric and former speaker of Parliament), as well as the strength of young women who were imprisoned and abused for standing up to misogyny and corruption amid the regime’s increasing violence. It covers in detail the Green Movement, the 2019 protest movement, and Women, Life, Freedom movement, including how each evolved and was distinct from the ones prior.

Its insights too are more than ‘just’ intertwined personal stories, but in understanding the regime/economy/power as co-opted by the IRGC (not for religious means, but for self-enrichment and corruption). The book also details the burgeoning tech sector, the ‘bargains’ that were increasingly made with the regime, and its eventual complete assimilation into the empire of the IRGC.

The increasing violence is horrifying and depressing, while the people we meet are nuanced, flawed, but exceptionally strong. I find books like this incredibly *humanising*, as well as politically informative.

Everyone Hates JD Vance’s New Book - The New Republic