Among the best books I’ve ever read. Certainly the most hopeful concerning the state and future of humanity. I’ll look at the history and progress of human beings based upon or a century of social science regarding anthropology and archaeology. I can hope that people will read this instead of pseudo intellectual garbage like Sapiens by Harare or guns germs and steel by diamond. Those books are based on Western assumptions about the history of humanity highly colored by monotheism, liberalism, and rationality. This book will blow your brain open and it should be required reading.
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I used to be a librarian, now I'm a software developer. My reading interests tend to be in nonfiction. I'm really interested in anthropology, indigenous studies (particularly American), anarchism, and social justice. Some of my favorites are James Baldwin, David Graeber, and Cometbus. thneed@mstdn.social
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Brendan's books
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Brendan reviewed The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber
The renowned activist and public intellectual David Graeber teams up with the professor of comparative …
Review of 'The Dawn of Everything' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
An unusual crime thriller about a seemingly respectable man who commits a murder in his …
Review of 'The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Really brief good hard case novel. Totally unlikable protagonist who is a sociopath. Delving into his psyche. Reminds me a lot of Camus, especially the Fall.
Brendan rated Entangled Life: 5 stars
Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake
There is a lifeform so strange and wondrous that it forces us to rethink how life works…
Neither plant nor …
Brendan rated Debt: The First 5,000 Years: 5 stars
Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber
The author shows that before there was money, there was debt. For 5,000 years humans have lived in societies divided …
Brendan rated Go Tell It on the Mountain (Penguin Modern Classics): 5 stars
Go Tell It on the Mountain (Penguin Modern Classics) by James Baldwin
In one of the greatest American classics, Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity. Baldwin's …
Brendan rated The Utopia of Rules: 5 stars
The Utopia of Rules by David Graeber
The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy is a 2015 book by anthropologist David …
Brendan rated Bullshit Jobs: 5 stars
Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber
Bullshit Jobs: A Theory is a 2018 book by anthropologist David Graeber that argues the existence and societal harm of …
Brendan rated It Never Ends: 5 stars
Brendan rated The Fire Next Time: 5 stars
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice …
Brendan rated Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology: 5 stars
Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology by David Graeber (Paradigm)
"Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology" is one of a series of pamphlets published by Prickly Paradigm Press in 2004. With …
Brendan reviewed In on the kill taker by Joe Gross (33 1/3 -- 129)
Review of 'In on the kill taker' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This is a great book about the history of one of the better albums from my favorite band ever. All the members of the band participated and it gave me a newfound love for an album that I already loved a lot. Now if only someone would write a 33 1/3 book about every single Fugazi album I could die happy.
Brendan rated The One-Straw Revolution: 5 stars
The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka
Leaving a career as a plant pathologist, the author took over the family farm in Japan consisting of rice fields …
Brendan reviewed Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
McDougall reveals the secrets of the world's greatest distance runners--the Tarahumara Indians of Copper Canyon, …
Review of 'Born to Run' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This is the book that it and started me to become a runner years ago. Great prose, totally entertaining and engrossing.