thee istsfor manity reader

The Best Stuff I Read This Week

“Reading this book reminded me of watching a cat lick a dog’s eye goo.”

— Dwight Garner, review of Jared Kushner’s Breaking History / The New York Times

“She attaches her gaze to the machines, obviously longing for a return to the standard script, which demands nothing of strangers in public spaces but the exchange of a few half-smiles, to indicate that you won’t knife each other.”

— Tess Gunty / The Rabbit Hutch

“The planet has warmed by about 1 ° C since we began burning coal on an industrial scale and average temperatures are on track to rise by as much as four times that amount before the century is up; the last time there was this much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, humans didn’t exist.”

— Naomi Klein / On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal

“A child born in 2020 will face a far more hostile world than its grandparents. Compared with someone lucky enough to be born in 1960, one study estimates that–on average–they will experience seven times more heatwaves, twice as many droughts and three times as many floods and harvest failures . . . Looking at the broader picture, anyone younger than 40 today will suffer ever more frequent bouts of extreme weather that would be virtually impossible in the absence of global heating.”

— Bill McGuire / Hothouse Earth: An Inhabitant’s Guide

“When God gives you more than you can tolerate, you turn to instinct. And instinct is a force beyond anyone’s control.”

—Ottessa Moshfegh / Lapvona

“The future isn’t cast into one inevitable course. On the contrary, we could cause the sixth great mass extinction event in Earth’s history, or we could create a prosperous civilization, sustainable over the long haul. Either is possible starting from now.”

— Kim Stanley Robinson / Guernica

“He wears his testosterone like a strong cologne.”

— Tess Gunty / The Rabbit Hutch

What I’m Listening To:

“So typically now
I sent you an image
You sent me a thumb down”

— U.S. Girls / “So Typically Now”