Reading Diary (1114-1130 '21) (Patreon)

Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump (Spencer Ackerman) - Strong recap of the Forever War, although by Ackerman's own admission it's too soon to get a complete portrait of Trump's virulence. Ties together the nativism, natsec abuses, and political and cultural complicity in American Islamophobia quite well. 

All the President's Men (Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward) - Mixed feelings. It's a riveting piece of investigative journalism that changed how books were treated as news media. Yet it also immortalized the Nixon administration as a standalone event, rather than a scion of the American surveillance state and voter suppression. Woodward's turn towards establishment shilling doesn't help either. Everyone should read it, but it's hard to get excited about it.

Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson) - Still in the early stages on this one (it's Stephenson's first veritable tome), but I think I like it. Stephenson's 90s testosterone-ass STEMiness is a lot, but he's a deceptively thoughtful writer whose fiction is largely guided by his characters. I should try to get through it faster.