Can capitalism save the planet? What would a world of dreams be like? How can we start forming better habits? My June reading answered these questions and more.

Climate Capitalism: Winning the Global Race to Zero Emissions by Akshat Rathi

This is not the kind of book I’d normally read, but after reading Degrowth Communism last month, I thought this would be a good contrast. It’s a very optimistic book about all the great things that entrepreneurs and venture capitalists are doing to solve climate change through innovation. It was interesting to read about these projects, and some of them sound promising individually, but I’m still not convinced that the people who got us into this mess are the ones we should be relying on to get us out of it.

The Other Side by Albert Kubin

This was an odd little novel from 100 years ago about a world of dreams. As in dreams, all the normal rules of logic and causation are altered in ways that at first seem attractive but increasingly become more like a nightmare.

Norng Chan Phal: The Mystery of the Boy at S-21 by Kok-Thay Eng

I bought this book from Norng Chan Phal himself, one of the few survivors of a notorious Khmer Rouge prison camp called S-21. I’d been visiting the site and learning about the horrors of what happened there, and he was selling copies outside. It was a harrowing but important and powerful story of ordinary people caught up in the midst of a brutal and senseless genocide.

A Flat Place by Noreen Masud

Where I live in northern Serbia must be one of the flattest places on the planet, so I was interested to read this memoir in which Noreen Masud explores and muses on the nature of flat landscapes as a way of exploring her damaging childhood and her struggles with complex post-traumatic stress disorder.

This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Another book I picked up on my travels in Asia earlier this year, this one is an Indonesian classic set in 1899. Java is under Dutch colonisation, dominated by a rigid racial hierarchy, and this novel beautifully illustrates the absurdity and injustice of it all through a coming-of-age story in which an Indonesian boy grows into adulthood and runs up against all kinds of unfair barriers.

Atomic Habits by James Clear

Don’t we all need better habits? Why is it often so difficult to stick to doing the things we say we want to do? James Clear provides some useful answers based on understanding how our brains respond to cues and cravings and working with human nature rather than against it.

What Did You Read This Month?

That’s it from me. What was your favourite book of the month? Let me know in the comments.