LOCAL STORIES
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Four Reigns by Kukrit Pramoj - A sweeping multigenerational tale of a minor courtier (and her family/friends) in the Thai royal palace, from childhood to old age - over the course of 4 kings, from the late 19th century to mid 20th century. It was a pretty breezy read, kind of like Buddhist royal gossip - but as an outsider, gave an interesting view on how a Thai author-journalist characterized his society, proper social roles (esp vis-a-vis Confucianism), royalty, and interactions with the foreign (farang) world. There was a simplicity to the book that was kind of rewarding - kind of like when tidying up, and everything fits in its place. (All the characters, especially the protagonist, acted as they should, in conformity to their rather simplistic characters and Buddhist social mores.) That said, it was also kind of frustrating: people weren't really open to change, and the protagonist feels annoyingly unfeminist (to the contemporary western reader) - her role is to serve her husband and family, she self deprecatingly says she cannot understand politics or finances, etc.
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Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap (h/t Ashley B) - I read these short stories years ago and remember it as uneven. Werner read it this time and mostly agreed. Maybe give a pass.
LONGFORM
I actually haven't read anything I've LOVED enough to recommend, with one singular (and important!) exception:
- "Truth, Disrupted" (Harvard Business Review) - SUCH a good article. A group of MIT researchers recently published their findings on how "false news" travels on Twitter. (Scholarly article from Science magazine is unfortunately behind a paywall.) Luckily, this HBR piece is a great companion/follow-up article looking at: (A) why truth matters (sounds obvious, but they make points I hadn't thought of before); (B) how false news spreads (with interesting tidbits like: false news spreads faster than true news, this speed differential is due to humans not bots, and is despite the fact that false news often originates with poorly networked accounts); and (C) what we can do about it, as tech companies/designers, policy makers, and general citizen consumers. I had SO MANY aha moments from this.