README.txt

What Hacker News says

1. benwerdAug 2023
   Here are some I've read recently that I can highly recommend:

   Fiction:

   - How High We Go in the Dark, a deeply moving science fiction story about loss - https://bookshop.org/p/books/how-high-we-go-in-the-dark-sequ...

   - Severance (no relation to the TV show), which works as a pretty good double bill to the above - https://bookshop.org/p/books/severance-ling-ma/9880874

   - Ripe, about the artifice of Silicon Valley and its human cost - https://bookshop.org/p/books/ripe-sarah-rose-etter/18992345

   Non-fiction:

   - The Jakarta Method, on US foreign policy (really should be required reading for every US citizen) - https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-jakarta-method-washington-s...

   - Poverty, by America, which is in some ways a cathartic read about the systemic ways poverty is incentivized (by the author of the deservedly award-winning Evicted) - https://bookshop.org/p/books/poverty-by-america-matthew-desm...

   - README.txt: Chelsea Manning's memoir, which is riveting - not just about her story, but also in the little details about the information work she did while she was deployed - https://bookshop.org/p/books/readme-txt-a-memoir-chelsea-man...

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2. EdTechAndrewAug 2023
   I recently finished Chelsea Manning's Readme.txt and I thought it was great. The themes are about two different types of "trans." Transparency in government and trans rights. I think both topics typically attract different audiences but the book was a fascinating look at both. And if you have interest in both definitely worth checking out.

   While it wasn't the primary purpose, I also really enjoyed it from a personal perspective to Manning's upbringing. I have not seen the unique dynamic of growing up in a digitally connected America captured as well as it was in this book. The feeling of immense loneliness in real life but a deep connectedness online resonated very strongly with me.

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