As You Write, You Will Naturally Improve. Do Not Wait Until You Think You Are Good Enough To Start. You

CHARLES

THE DAWN OF EVERYTHING: A NEW HISTORY OF HUMANITY

This book is an absolute game-changing history of humanity that wipes the slate clean when it comes to most everything we were taught about our origins in prehistory. Graeber—the author of Debt, who coined the phrase “'the 99%”—and Wengrow begin here by dismantling the deeply unscientific influence of Hobbes and Rousseau on our understanding of the human timeline and how their bad assumptions can still be found in the works of contemporaries like Jared Diamond and Steven Pinker. After, they move on to a jaw-dropping discussion of the actual evidence for the incredible variety of ways people actually lived before and during the rise of “civilization.” All this is done in service of an Activist point of view; clearing the way for a more sophisticated understanding of who we are, where we come from, and the rich possibilities for real change in our societies now.

REVOLUTION IN OUR TIME: THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY’S PROMISE TO THE PEOPLE

A long-overdue history directed at kids, this introduction to the woefully underappreciated Black Panther Party is easily one of the most important children’s books this year.

MUTUAL AID: AN ILLUMINATED FACTOR OF EVOLUTION

Kropotkin’s most famous work, re-released here on the eve of its 100th anniversary. For those unfamiliar, Kropotkin was a Russian aristocrat who gave up his birthright and became one of the most important godfathers of modern anarchist thought. Mutual Aid was a direct attack on Social Darwinism by dismantling the cliche of “survival of the fittest” and replacing it with the much more accurate concept of “mutual aid as a factor in evolution.” To this day, Mutual Aid continues to be validated by each new breakthrough in our understanding of how the evolution of species actually works. This gifty volume is illustrated and includes an introduction by David Graeber.

LEVIATHAN FALLS (EXPANSE #9)

The last volume of The Expanse, one of the best sci-fi epics of the 21st century. This book will be followed quickly by the last season of The Expanse TV series, easily the best sci-fi show since Ronald Moore’s Battlestar Galactica. If you know what this is all about, you’ll definitely want this. If you don’t, I highly recommend the show and the first volume of the books, Leviathan Wakes. Fantastic stuff.

DANGEROUS VISIONS AND NEW WORLDS: RADICAL SCIENCE FICTION, 1950-1985

An exciting history/re-evaluation of literature’s disowned younger sibling: science fiction. Focusing on its radical shift to the Left in the 1960s, the essays here give long overdue credit to some of the sci fi greats that have only recently begun to find their way to acceptance within the pantheon. I’ve always found it to be teeth-grindingly frustrating how often the themes and tropes of sci fi are found in critically praised novels by “literary” authors without anyone ever giving props to how the same material has been dealt with for decades by very talented, but very ghettoized writers (I’m looking at you, The Road by McCarthy and you Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro, etc.). Our current apocalyptic trajectory as a society, for instance, has been predicted and discussed countless times over the decades in little pulp paperbacks with ridiculous cover art and found on spinner racks in grocery stores, only to be ignored by all the critics and award givers of literature. Meanwhile, the great themes of modern literature (alienation, transformation, absurdism, symbolism, the relativity of truth, etc.) are arguably dealt with just as well or better in the lesser known gems of sci fi. Anyway, this book will make the point better than I can …

Fuck Supernatural. Let's do a megathread of actual good lgbtq+ representation in media:

Welcome to Night Vale - no queerbating. Just shy gays at the beginning. Bonus points for domesticity, science, and 10/10 representation (gender, race, sexuality, ability. seriously 10/10) Kinda horror (?) Just listen to it.

Shameless (US) - as a Supernatural fan, you're starved for writers that actually care about continuity, and character development that pays off in a queer relationship. Let Gallavich dry your Destiel tears and turn them into Gallavich tears. You can thank me later.

Queer as Folk (US) - don't they teach you anything at gay school? These are the Sacred Texts. Do your homework, little gays. -20 points for being yt and cis as fuck. Also a bit stereotypical of the Gay Scene™ but it was the 90s and if you stick around the character development ACTUALLY PAYS OFF. What a concept!

D.E.B.S. - this cheesy 2000s film I randomly watched on tv one afternoon may or may not have been my bisexual awakening. It also might have been Kim Possible.

Carmilla - Badass loner + optimistic puppy trope. This is basically sterek but it's a lesbian vampire and the puppy is a youtuber au

Please Like Me - disaster gay being a disaster gay for 4 seasons. Bonus points for Hannah Gadsby and some mental health representation. Also hella yt.

Sense8 - international poly queers, have telepathic orgys with the mandatory YT straights that (almost) ruin everything. Directed by trans women. 9/10 representation.

Brooklyn 99 - Holt + Kevin are our dads. Rosa and Jake give my bi ass life. Bonus points for latina representation, Chelsea Peretti, and Terry Crews. -30 points for copaganda.

The Good Place - Eleanor is exactly the same kind of disaster bi Dean is but AT LEAST SHE ADMITS IT TO HERSELF and nobody around her acts like it's a big deal because it isn't dean pls just come out of the closet i-

Leave your own recs below ⬇️

fuck all of you who decide to stay neutral. fuck all of you who decide to stay silent. fuck all of you who are not educating yourself about what is happening right now. fuck every celebrity that posted a notes app screenshot of empty words. fuck bbc and nbc and joe biden and the u.s and britain and nearly every western country and media outlet. fuck israel and zionists and privileged white liberals turning a blind eye. fuck all of you. israel bombed a hospital and hundreds if not thousands are dead and a father had to carry the PIECES of his sons in plastic bags because they were blown to bits. a resting place for journalists has now turned into a morgue. every day people are being killed and it’s being DOCUMENTED and you still wanna be silent and neutral and say this doesn’t involve you. your lack of humanity is vile and horrid and i hope you never know one moment of happiness the rest of your life.

“It gets better” bro whennn????

I hate leftist infighting so much. We could be exploring each others bodies instead 🙄

headers by me ♡ ﹏ ♡ ))

"oh so it's women support women until--" yes actually, sometimes women do not in fact do things worth supporting and other women criticizing them isn't some sort of affront to feminism

Are you still alone

in bed? Is it morning yet where you are? The smoke turns to rain as usual. Listen, my love. This year is just a visitor & next year’s

ghost. Take care of it because yes—yes, you do deserve flowers for once in your life. You will be the only one left. So hold my hand & call me

tomorrow. We are all here.

— Michael Wasson, from “Your Shadow Invents You Every Time Light Fails to Pass Through You,” published in Poetry

Being brave doesn't mean you aren't scared. Being brave means you are scared, really scared, badly scared, and you do the right thing anyway.

— Neil Gaiman, Coraline