Trackstar Courier

Reading books, writing music, and delivering packages; in perpetuity.

[Trackstar Courier @trackstarmess]

The first half of the book was a quite interesting history of gift exchange (even if white anthropologists were sited uncritically) but the second half is primarily just an examination of boring white dude poets and lost me a bit.

[Trackstar Courier @trackstarmess]

Murakami is a very good writer; I had forgotten. This book delves into past traumas and how our futures are guided by them.

[Dr. Ghada Sasa, PhD 🇵🇸 @drghadasasa]

Speaking of how Palestinian land is now mostly empty, almost 44% of 418🇵🇸villages ethnically cleansed in 1948, by Israel, have only been occupied by Israeli invasive pines: Palestinian return is highly feasible. Here's a clip from the doc "Forbidden Land" by @AdalahEnglish.

[BreakThrough News @BTnewsroom]

UPDATE: Indigenous activists are now blocking the weapons shipment to Israel from leaving the Tacoma Port from the water.

The boat is still unable to leave the port.

[Trackstar Courier @trackstarmess]

This book is interesting and scary. The FBI was able to build a large presence in Latin America in the 1940s ostensibly to prevent Nazi infiltration but as is their typical way spent their time surveilling leftists.

[Trackstar Courier @trackstarmess]

Basically an in-depth analysis of the genocidal actions of everyone San Francisco named streets after followed by one of the clearest/most concise explanations of racial/cultural construction in the US…this was written in 1968 and yet folks are still falling for blood quantum.

[Trackstar Courier @trackstarmess]

we often see what we expect to see and are hardly aware of the world as it really is.This tendency is better seen in romantic encounters, but it does give us pause when we realize that scientists insist they are capable of objective, unbiased observations and we know they aren’t.

[Trackstar Courier @trackstarmess]

An incredibly refreshing approach to writing history. Understanding how much of the ‘history’ we take in uses hierarchy as its lens: focusing on governments, charismatic leaders, and systems of power. It is easy to overlook the millions who were able to live on their own terms.

[Trackstar Courier @trackstarmess]

This book was a thorough explanation of the propaganda education I was fed as a white kid growing up in New England. Embarrassed that so much of this lodged itself in my young brain.

[Trackstar Courier @trackstarmess]

A novel about learning your inner strength and power, I experienced just about every imaginable emotion while reading. The book is set during the rail worker’s strike in the 50s in Senegal. I cannot possibly recommend this book enough. A near perfect novel.

[Trackstar Courier @trackstarmess]

It’s deflating how many of her cultural criticisms are still relevant. I wish this included her communiques from the underground once the RAF started.

[Trackstar Courier @trackstarmess]

Started incredibly slow by really picked up steam as it went along; the essay “there never was a west” I wish everyone could read.

[Trackstar Courier @trackstarmess]

Very intense, unsparing look at colonial crimes in what is known as ‘Australia’ as well as some decent thinking on justice/repayment for crimes of the past.

[Trackstar Courier @trackstarmess]

Some of this was dry but the good stuff makes it well worth it. The Anne Waters, VF Cordova, and Thurman Lee Hester Jr sections were especially illuminating.

[Trackstar Courier @trackstarmess]

The information in this book is harrowing and well constructed, but the takeaways from the information are the neo-liberal apologist garbage that speaks of “development” as if it were an uncontested good for the world. NGOs lobbying corporate interests will not save the world.

[Trackstar Courier @trackstarmess]

Anarchist utopian novel written in 1890 which feels dated but not nearly as much as I expected it to. A very fun read.

[Trackstar Courier @trackstarmess]

“Imperialism creates the illusion of wealth as far as the masses are concerned. It usually serves to hide the fact that the ruling classes are gobbling up the natural resources of the home territory in an improvident manner”

[Trackstar Courier @trackstarmess]

This was a blast to read. You can’t tell the story of reggae without delving into slavery, colonialism, Walter Rodney, the US’ war on drugs, and the underside of capitalism. The book touches on all of this without feeling overly heavy.

[Trackstar Courier @trackstarmess]

Part magical realism novel, part anarchist history, this book is written from the perspective of a Celtic witch in 1950 trying to write out her family’s history; a history that happens to weave through the origins of the anarchist movements from the 1850s onward. Really fun!

[Trackstar Courier @trackstarmess]

Decade old examination of climate change and how knowledge of place, built by indigenous knowledge over thousands of years, provides helpful paths forward.