Turns out I’m two years behind on these so I’m getting ’em up! No commentary because I gotta run out the door to ink more pages of Seacritters, but hopefully I’ll come back to this down the line.

(Previously: 2023 in Reading, 2022 in Reading, 2021 in Reading, 2020 in Reading)

1. 📖 The Raven Tower – Ann Leckie
2. 📖 The Night Manager – John Le Carré
3. 💬 / 📓 It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth – Zoe Thorogood
4. 📖 Network Effect – Martha Wells
5. 📓 The Beauty in Breaking – Michele Harper
6. 💬 / 📓 The Five Lives of Hilma Af Kilnt – Philipp Deines
7. 📖 The Fermata – Nicholson Baker
8. 📖 Birnam Wood – Eleanor Catton ❤︎❤︎
9. 📖 The Luminaries – Eleanor Catton
10. 🎙️ / 📖 Lightning Rods – Helen DeWitt
11. 📖 Prophet – Sin Blaché & Helen Macdonald ❤︎
12. 📓 Holy the Firm – Annie Dillard ❤︎❤︎
13. 🎙️ / 📖 Making Money – Terry Pratchett
14. 📖 Excession – Ian M. Banks
15. 📓 Your Money or Your Life – Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez
16. 📓 Subculture Vulture – Moshe Kasher
17. 📖 The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi – Shannon Chakraborty ❤︎
18. 📝 The Peace of Wild Things – Wendell Berry ❤︎❤︎❤︎
19. 📓 The Liars’ Club – Mary Karr ❤︎❤︎
20. 🎙️ / 📖 The Lies of Locke Lamora – Scott Lynch
21. 💬 / 📓 And Now I Spill the Family Secrets – Margaret Kimball
22. 💬 / 📖 Sex Criminals Vols. 1-6 – Matt Fraction & Chip Zdarsky ❤︎❤︎
23. 🎙️ / 📖 Red Seas Under Red Skies – Scott Lynch
24. 📓 Travelers to Unimaginable Lands – Dasha Kiper ❤︎
25. 💬 / 📖 Safari Honeymoon – Jesse Jacobs
26. 📓 What If This Were Enough? – Heather Havrilesky
27. 📖 Oliver VII – Antal Szerb
28. 💬 / 📓 How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less – Sarah Glidden
29. 🎙️ / 📖 The Republic of Thieves – Scott Lynch
30. 📝 44 Poems for You – Sarah Ruhl
31. 📓 Wild – Cheryl Strayed
32. 📓 Saving Time – Jenny Odell ❤︎❤︎❤︎❤︎❤︎
33. 🎙️/📖 The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman
34. 📓 The Wild Edge of Sorrow – Francis Weller ❤︎❤︎
35. 🎙️ / 📖 Nothing to See Here – Kevin Wilson
36. 🎙️ / 📖 The City of Brass – S.A. Chakraborty
37. 💬 / 📓 The Worst Journey in the World: Vol. 1 – Sarah Airriess, adapted from Apsley Cherry-Garrard ❤︎
38. 📓 Smile: The Story of a Face – Sarah Ruhl ❤︎❤︎
39. 📓 Gender/Fucking – Florence Ashley
40. 💬 / 📖 Pixels of You – Ananth Hirsh, Yuko Ota, J.R. Doyle
41. 📓 Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder – Lawrence Weschler / Visitng The Museum of Jurassic Technology IRL ❤︎❤︎❤︎
42. 💬 / 📖 Waverider (Amulet Book 9) – Kazu Kibuishi
43. 📖 Women Talking – Miriam Toews
44. 🎙️ / 📖 The Kingdom of Copper – S.A. Chakraborty
45. 📓 Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism – Premilla Nadasen ❤︎❤︎
46. 🔄 📓 Steal Like an Artist – Austin Kleon
47. 💬 / 📖 Danger and Other Unknown Risks – Ryan North & Erica Henderson ❤︎❤︎❤︎
48. 💬 / 📖 Lightfall: The Dark Times – Tim Probert
49. 🎙️ / 📖 The Empire of Gold – S. A. Chakraborty
50. 🎙️ / 📖 Night Boat to Tangier – Kevin Barry ❤︎❤︎❤︎
51. 📖 Funny Story – Emily Henry
52. 💬 / 📖 Stargazing – Jen Wang
53. 💬 / 📓 In Limbo – Deb JJ Lee
54. 🎙️ / 📖 The Midnight Library – Matt Haig
55. 📓 Four Thousand Weeks – Oliver Burkeman ❤︎
56. 💬 / 📓 Coma – Zara Slattery
57. 📓 The Long Run: A Creative Inquiry – Stacey D’Erasmo ❤︎❤︎
58. 📓 Mutual Aid – Dean Spade
59. 🎙️ / 📖 The Book of Love – Kelly Link
60. 📖 Red, White, and Royal Blue – Casey McQuiston
61. 🎙️ / 📖 Godkiller – Hannah Kaner
62. 📖 Whoever You Are, Honey – Olivia Gatwood ❤︎
63. 🎙️ / 📖 Sunbringer – Hannah Kaner
64. 🎙️ / 📓 Driven to Distraction – Edward M. Hallowell & John J. Ratey
65. 🎙️ / 📓 A Heart That Works – Rob Delaney ❤︎
66. 📖 Nervous Conditions – Tsitsi Dangarembga
67. 📓 Slouching Towards Bethlehem – Joan Didion ❤︎❤︎

Unfinished but Made Progress

1. The Nature Book – Tom Comitta
2. Annals of the Former World – John McFee
3. The Divine Comedy – Dante
4. Come Together – Emily Nagoski
5. Wildwood – Roger Deakin
6. The Idle Beekeeper – Bill Anderson
7. Bear – Marian Engel
8. This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed – Charles E. Cobb Jr.
9. A Month in Siena – Hisham Matar

vdgoltz posted a photo:

Auf einem Oldtimertreffen fotografiert
photographed on a vintage car meeting

Moment is updating its Long Weekend camera bags and accessories with a bright, summer-themed color while adding a couple of new pieces to the line: a new crossbody camera pouch and a braided rope camera strap.

[Read More]

Manuel Gual posted a photo:

Echoes of the Delta: A Visual Journey Through the Soul of the Blues

Description
This collection captures the raw, unyielding spirit of the American Deep South and the enduring legacy of blues music. From the mythical dirt crossroads under a midnight moon to the neon-lit doorways of bustling juke joints, these scenes weave a powerful narrative of hardship, resilience, and musical salvation. You can feel the steady rhythm in the weathered hands strumming a worn acoustic guitar on a wooden porch, hear the soulful wails echoing through smoky recording studios, and observe the quiet, melancholic contemplation in a lonely diner at dawn. It is a visual tribute to the pioneers of rhythm and blues, the rural landscapes where the sorrow songs were born, and the dusty highways that carried those melodies across the country. Every portrait—whether it is a passionate singer pouring his heart into a microphone, lifelong friends sharing a laugh over a quiet evening, or a lone traveler leaning against a vintage pickup truck—embodies the authentic, vibrant pulse of Americana folklore.

These images were generated by Artificial Intelligence.

Eudaemonius posted a photo:

Another annual reading list I’m putting up without much commentary, but there were some bangers in 2025. “The point seems to be this,” Kate Briggs writes, “left to its own devices, the path of reading is very rarely chronologically ordered, thematically coherent, limited by language or respectful of borders. Books open out onto, they cross with and follow haphazardly on from one another. Left to its own devices, the path of reading strays all over the place.”

(Previously: 2024 in Reading, 2023 in Reading, 2022 in Reading, 2021 in Reading, 2020 in Reading)

1. 📓 A Month in Siena – Hisham Matar ❤︎❤︎❤︎
2. 🎙️ / 📓 This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed – Charles E. Cobb Jr.
3. 📖 Sisters – Daisy Johnson ❤︎
4. 📓 Come Together – Emily Nagoski
5. 🎙️ / 📖 His Majesty’s Dragon – Naomi Novik
6. 🔄 / 🎙️ / 📖 Sabriel – Garth Nix
7. 📖 The Captain of the Polestar – Arthur Conan Doyle
8. 💬 / 📖 As the Crow Flies – Melanie Gilman
9. 💬 / 📖 Skip – Molly Mendoza
10. 🔄 / 🎙️ / 📖 Lirael – Garth Nix
11. 📖 The Diary of Mr. Poynter – M.R. James
12. 📖 The Morgan Trust – R. Bridgeman
13. 💬 / 📖 Sunhead – Alex Assan
14. 📖 Creation Lake – Rachel Kushner ❤︎
15. 📓 Inciting Joy – Ross Gay ❤︎❤︎❤︎
16. 💬 / 📖 Across a Field of Starlight – Blue Delliquanti ❤︎❤︎❤︎
17. 🎙️ / 📖 Abhorsen – Garth Nix
18. 📖 Martyr! – Kaveh Akbar ❤︎
19. 📖 Memorial – Bryan Washington ❤︎❤︎
20. 📖 The Vanishing Half – Brit Bennett ❤︎
21. 💬 / 📖 Squire – Sara Alfageeh and Nadia Shammas
22. 🔄 / 💬 / 📖 Giant Days Vol. 3 – John Allison & Max Sarin
23. 📓 The Noble Approach – Tod Polson & Maurice Noble ❤︎❤︎
24. 🎙️ / 📓 ADHD 2.0 – Edward M. Hallowell, M.D.
25. 📖 Madness is Better than Defeat – Ned Beauman
26. 📓 The Drummer and the Great Mountain – Michael Joseph Ferguson
27. 📖 Return to Sender – Vera Brosgol
28. 🔄 / 🎙️ / 📖 The Republic of Thieves – Scott Lynch
29. 📓 The Creative Act: a Way of Being – Rick Rubin and Neil Strauss ❤︎
30. 💬 / 📖 Rare Flavors – Ram V & Filipe Andrade ❤︎❤︎❤︎
31. 📓 The Saviors of God – Nikos Kazantzakis
32. 🎙️ / 🎭 Arcadia – Tom Stoppard
33. 📓 I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself – Glynnis MacNicol ❤︎
34. 📓 The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street – Helene Hanff
35. 💬 / 📖 The Many Deaths of Laila Starr – Ram V and Filipe Andrade ❤︎
36. 💬 / 📖 Boys Weekend – Mattie Lubchansky
37. 💬 / 📖 The Jellyfish – Boum
38. 💬 / 📓 Offhand – Yuko Ota
39. 🔄 / 📖 Finn Family Moomintroll – Tove Jansson ❤︎❤︎
40. 💬 / 📖 Witchlight- Jessi Zabarsky
41. 📓 Gift from the Sea – Anne Morrow Lindbergh ❤︎❤︎
42. 💬 / 📖 Sunburn – Andi Watson and Simon Gane
43. 💬 / 📖 The Book Tour – Andi Watson ❤︎
44. 🔄 📓 Unmastered – Katherine Angel ❤︎❤︎
45. 🎙️ / 📖 The Thief – Megan Whalen Turner
46. 📖 Art & Lies – Jeanette Winterson ❤︎❤︎❤︎
47. 📝 The Inferno – Dante (trans. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
48. 💬 / 📖 Fly by Night – Tara O’Connor
49. 🎙️ / 📓 Catching the Big Fish – David Lynch
50. 📓 Eros the Bittersweet – Anne Carson ❤︎❤︎❤︎
51. 📓 Art [Objects] – Jeanette Winterson ❤︎❤︎❤︎
52. 📓 Power of Gentleness – Anne Dufourmantelle ❤︎❤︎
53. 📓 / 💬 / 📓 One Bite at a Time – Ryan Claytor ❤︎
54. 📓 A Year in Practice – Jacqueline Suskin ❤︎
55. 🔄 📖 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – Michael Chabon ❤︎❤︎
56. 📖 We Play Ourselves – Jen Silverman ❤︎❤︎❤︎
57. 📓 Think Little – Wendell Berry ❤︎❤︎❤︎
58. 🎙️ / 📖 The Heart in Winter – Kevin Barry
59. 📓 No Bad Parts – Richard C. Schwartz ❤︎❤︎
60. 💬 / 📓 Past Tense – Sacha Mardou ❤︎
61. 💬 / 📖 Fresh Start – Gale Galligan ❤︎❤︎❤︎
62. 💬 / 📖 A Girl on the Shore – Inio Asano
63. 🎙️ / 📓 / 📖 Pathemata – Maggie Nelson
64. 🔄 / 💬 / 📓 It’s Okay That It’s Not Okay – Christina Tran ❤︎❤︎
65. 💬 / 📓 Home/World – Ben Hatke ❤︎❤︎❤︎
66. 📓 The Light of the World – Elizabeth Alexander ❤︎❤︎❤︎
67. 🔄 / 📖 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – C. S. Lewis ❤︎
68. 📓 Faith, Hope, and Carnage – Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan ❤︎❤︎

SINGAPORE: A 22-year-old Singaporean woman says she feels used and emotionally drained after allegedly being made to pay for most of her relationship expenses while her boyfriend claimed he was “saving for their future.”

In a post shared on a local forum on Thursday (May 21), the woman said she has been dating her boyfriend since 2023. According to her, he is a university graduate with a stable full-time job earning around S$5,000 to S$6,000 a month. She, on the other hand, is a diploma holder who runs a small home-based business and earns roughly S$3,000 to S$4,000 monthly.

She explained that pursuing a degree was never something she wanted for herself, saying the financial cost and academic pressure did not appeal to her.

“I don’t want a degree because it’s financially expensive, and I know I won’t be able to handle the pressure, so for me, a diploma is enough,” she wrote.

Despite earning less than her boyfriend, she claimed she somehow became the one footing most of the bills in the relationship. According to her, she regularly pays for meals, dates, petrol, and other day-to-day expenses whenever they go out together.

Over time, the financial burden allegedly became even heavier. She said she ended up contributing to bigger expenses, too, including paying for half of one of his university semesters and helping with costs related to his car.

“The only time he pays is when I start to get annoyed that he hasn’t been paying for anything,” she wrote. “Sometimes when I do, he says he’s saving for our future (has stocks or something, it’s not clear).”

Eventually, she said she reached her limit and decided to confront him about the arrangement. She suggested that they either split expenses more fairly or simply pay separately when they go out.

However, instead of understanding where she was coming from, she claimed her boyfriend became upset and defensive.

“He got angry and said he’s been considerate about how he’s [saving] for us so we can have a good house or whatever next time and that I’m ungrateful, and since I’m the one who’s running a business, my income is subject to a lot more growth, so I should be the one taking the financial burden when we go out now, and we can work together on it in the future after we settle BTO housing or whatever….”

“You’re too young to have a sunk cost fallacy. Find someone else.”

In the comments section, many users sided with her, saying she was right to question how finances in the relationship were being handled. Several felt the arrangement was unfair, given that he earned more but still contributed less. 

One wrote, “The same gaslighting playbook—it’s for our future, blah blah blah. Earning S$5-6k and having a car lol sounds like a very financially prudent person.”

Another said, “Please invest in yourself. Get that degree and get higher pay. Move on from this gaslighting relationship. For someone who earns twice as much as you, he can’t even buy a dinner? Time to move on. Please save yourself from a big headache and learn to PRIORITISE your needs.”

A third wrote, “Just dump him. What kind of self-respecting man lets his girlfriend, who earns less pay for the majority of the relationship? Unless it’s for paying off student debts, a guy like that is a complete burden. You’re too young to have a sunk cost fallacy. Find someone else.”

A fourth added, “Girl, the trash showed itself, and you really should take it out because it’s starting to go bad…Please don’t let people take advantage of you.”

A fifth shared a personal experience, saying their parents were in a similar situation.

“My parents are exactly like this. Mum earns way less, but was the one contributing to all the finances since me and my sibling were young. our allowance, food, and daily necessities. Dad, just for some reason, does not contribute financially despite earning twice the amount. They are now divorced with 2 traumatised children. So take that for what it is.”

In other news, a domestic helper in Singapore has claimed she suffered emotional distress after months of alleged privacy violations, constant surveillance, and verbal abuse from her employer.

Posting anonymously in the SINGAPORE TRANSFER (No Fees/SD), DIRECT HIRE & NEW HELPER Facebook group, the helper said her “lady employer”—whom she described as a “perfectionist with high standards”—would regularly check her phone and read her private messages.

Read more: Maid says employer checks her phone, reads messages, and tracks her on day off: ‘I don’t have peace or freedom’

This article (SG woman says boyfriend earning S$5K–S$6K still expected her to cover most expenses) first appeared on The Independent Singapore News.

For the longest time, thriller shows would rely on a single hook where the entire story revolved around solving the mystery and catching the killer. Thankfully, the genre has evolved over the last few years. Modern thriller shows aren’t interested in building suspense simply by hiding information from the audience. Instead, they operate in a much denser psychological space to make viewers question everything as the story progresses.

Characters are the heart and soul of any story, pushing the plot further while establishing themselves as integral aspects. However, characters do more than just drive a story; they also connect with the audience, whether good or bad, to evoke feelings. This personal connection with fans creates some of the most beloved characters, and anime, in particular, has a great deal of essential characters.

vdgoltz posted a photo:

Auf einem Oldtimertreffen fotografiert
photographed on a vintage car meeting

CoasterMadMatt posted a photo: