It’s hard to figure out which of this past year’s books was my favourite. None were perfect. There’s one chapter in The Daughter’s War that may be the funniest I’ve ever read in the fantasy genre (if you know you know). Governing the Commons was an interesting book that reminded me of Mushroom At The End of the World – another investigation of pure curiosity in a domain that is so heavily tread with ideological winds. They Thought They Were Free was incredible for the mundane pathos of the interviews with former low-level participants in the Nazi party, but in the last half the author’s conclusions felt boring and irrelevant. Wark’s Raving was shorter and less enthnographic than I wanted; one day I’ll have to write my own autotheory on how karaoke bars feel the same all over the planet, as if connected like the libraries of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.

I must declare Valentina Tanni’s Exit Reality as the book I was most grateful to have read. There’s (too) much commentary about the sensation of swimming through internet culture, yet I found Exit Reality to be a good mix of descriptive encounters and analysis.

The Daughter’s War – Christopher Buehlman
Simple Sabotage Field Manual – United States, Office of Strategic Services
Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action – Elinor Ostrom
How Much for Just the Planet? – John M. Ford
Tales From The Spaceport Bar – Editors: George H. Scithers and Darrell Schweitzer
They Thought They Were Free – Milton Mayer
Mutual Aid – Dean Spade
Pirate Enlightenment or The Real Libertalia – David Graeber
Capitalism Realism: Is There No Alternative? – Mark Fisher
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York – Robert Caro
Darth Plagueis – James Luceno
Animorphs #1 – #10 – K.A. Applegate
The Conspiracy Against the Human Race – Thomas Ligotti
When We Cease To Understand The World – Benjamin Labatut
Katabasis – R.F. Kuang
Swords and Deviltry – Fritz Leiber
Predator: Eyes of the Demon – Editor: Bryan Thomas Schmidt
Level Design: In Pursuit of Better Levels – TychoBolt
Exit Reality – Valentina Tanni
Raving – McKenzie Wark
The Nightingale – Kristin Hannah
John Steinbeck – The Moon Is Down