Reading

A quarterly column, steady as ever.

Books read:

Love’s Labour: How We Break and Make the Bonds of Love—Stephen Grosz
Affairs: True Stories of Love, Lies, Hope and Desire—Juliet Rosenfeld
The Light Years—Elizabeth Jane Howard

Books bought:

Working the Room: Essays and Reviews, 1999–2010—Geoff Dyer
Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair—Christian Wiman
Uncle Willy and Other Stories—William Faulkner
Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV—Emily Nussbaum

It’s Epigraph City out there. Just about every nonfiction book I have started over the last couple of months begins with at least one of the little bastards, often two. Love’s Labour by Stephen Grosz goes with a Rilke and an Iris Murdoch:

Sharmine Narwani joins Mnar Adley to unpack Saudi Arabia’s rejection of US and Israeli pressure, Israel’s escalating regional attacks, and Yemen’s growing role in the resistance axis.

The post Saudi Arabia just said NO to Israel & the US | Sharmine Narwani appeared first on MintPress News.

He was a young man fleeing a war-torn country, desperate to reach his family in Sheffield. Along the way, he lost his phone and could not contact them. Days later, they received the devastating news: he had died while trying to escape armed men. Weak, hungry and exhausted, he collapsed at the water’s edge in […]

Dear colleagues,

I just wanted to reach out and let you know that I’m officially done saying sorry. As a woman, I feel the flippant use and misuse of this word gives away my power, if that makes any sense. If you have any free time this week or next, or even in the next couple of weeks, feel free to read the rest of this email to understand further. If not, no worries at all—I’m sure you’re extremely busy this time of year.

My near-addiction to apologizing has been around as long as I can remember. Trigger warning: My dad wasn’t very emotionally present during my childhood, if it’s okay for me to bring that up. Not to make this whole thing about me, but seeking his approval has caused a lot of people-pleasing, codependent tendencies to manifest in the way I communicate. I’ve obviously gotten over most of them, but this “sorry” habit will be the last one to go.

I feel like I just talked forever. I would love to hear about your stuff, too, if you ever want to chat about anything. I’m here for you whenever you need me, just let me know.

Shortly after I moved to Manchester in 2007, I invited my friend Aaron — a Californian — to stay at my place for a couple of days. Within a few hours of his arrival, Aaron had been offered several narcotics, downed a pint or four in Dry Bar, and stumbled out of a city centre […]

In the sensory and communal modes of healing that people have used throughout history, there is guidance for today

- by Mariem El-Kady

Read on Psyche

The professor, author, and longtime commentator on the economy and Democrats under Trump.

The post Robert Reich Thinks Democrats Are On the Brink of a New Era appeared first on The Intercept.

The gravest of all decisions, to go to war, happens without the consent of the people. This is a great flaw in democracy

- by Vincenza Falletti

Read on Aeon

Internal university communications reveal how a network established for post-9/11 intelligence sharing was turned on students protesting genocide. 

The post How Universities Used Counterterror Intelligence-Sharing Hubs to Surveil Pro-Palestine Students appeared first on The Intercept.

History, as the saying goes, doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. As we approach the Labour Government’s decisive Budget, and an abstract debate rages around the future of welfare spending in the UK, a brilliant piece of historical research published this summer sheds new light on the catastrophic impacts of previous cuts to support […]