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I present to you- the first edition of the Annual Palash's Terribly Written Terribly Tiny Reviews (TWTTR 
), where I give barely a line of review for books i liked reading this year. This is mainly just a long thread, for no reason, and the books are in no particular order.
), where I give barely a line of review for books i liked reading this year. This is mainly just a long thread, for no reason, and the books are in no particular order.
Courting The People by Anuj Bhuwania: Absolutely brilliant. A must read for everyone, esp law peeps to serve as a reminder that even when law ostensibly serves a 'progressive' goal very often its the same neolib agenda. And also Harish Salve sucks.
A People's Constitution by Rohit De: Beautifully written. An interesting study on how public imagination shapes constitution. But also an important contrast- in 50s the people imagined freedom, in 2020 the constitution seems to have no public life at all.
Automating Inequality by Virginia Eubanks: Depressing as fuck. Very well written, and brilliant analysis. But I feel one's takeaway from this book is often to focus on the 'flaw' in algorithms, instead it should be on the systems that deploy them.
The Gilda Stories by Jewell Gomez: Lesbian Vampires? How can this possibly go wrong? And wow! A very interesting inversion of all cishet vampire tropes, and using those tropes to imagine and celebrate queer chosen families.
Continuing on badass lesbians - the first 2 parts of The Locked Tomb Trilogy, Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir: Spacefaring lesbian necromancers, being EXTREMELY cool! This series is just pure weird af fun.
The Wall by Gautam Bhatia: Loved it a lot :P
First two of Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee- Jade City and Jade War: Author described it as 'Godfather but with magic and Kun Fu', and that only begins to describe how cool this is. The second book goes into political intrigue, international trade conflicts and... OMG READ IT!
The Internationalists by Scott Shapiro and Oona Hathaway: Loved the writing and narrative, highly immersive read. Shapiro and Hathaway examine an often ignored part of international legal history and do it well. Imp to mention that the book is very West Centric so...obv gaps.
The first 3 of The Masquerade series by Seth Dickinson: This is straight up my favorite. I can't believe people aren't writing thesises on this already. Colonialism, gender, political economy, trade wars, class, race...IT HAS EVERYTHING and done so well.
The Costs of Connection by Nick Couldry and Ulises Mejias: Absolutely fantastic. Like so much potential and makes one scared about how Big Tech will fuck us up so bad. And the book builds a great case which analyzes capitalism in that context instead of just tech.
Between Truth and Power by Julie Cohen: This is an absolutely brilliant analysis of how data and information became the mode of development, of the legal constructions which enabled the fuckery.
October by China Mievelle: While reading his account of the October Revolution, one tends to forget that this is real, and not a thriller novel. So much feels omg! One can almost hear The Internationale playing in the background.
Assata Shakur's autobiography 'Assata': An edge of the seat read, the very extraordinary tale of a very extraordinary person, and quite well written too!
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin: I had been putting it off for so long, and like..whats the point of reviewing Baldwin? He is simply magical. So much heartbreak, and yet so much joy, its incredible.
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine: This is a gem. Its like Martine was sent on Earth specifically to write a space opera with political intrigue and themes of expansionist empire, colonialism and culture.
Returning to Haifa and Other Stories by Ghassan Kanafani: Stories from a land brutally occupied, full of homesickness and small joys, pain written in with so much raw feeling that you can't help but shed a tear.
Embassytown by China Mievelle: This is the weirdest one i have read, but oh god China Mievelle is such a magical storyteller that its surreal. A book which explores a clash of cultures through the lens of language.
Between Equal Rights by China Mievelle: Yeah so the dude who brilliantly wrote a history book, so much cool sci fi, also wrote an incredible Marxist critique of International Law. Pure delight.
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone: This novella doesn't have much world building or plot, it relies almost entirely on prose, one would think thats bad, but the prose OMG! This is the closest i have come to tasting words.
Honorable mention of Capitalism as Civilization by Ntina Tzouvala, a book I am still reading through multiple interruptions. Its a Marxist account of "civilization" and its continuity in International Law. All i will say is that I definitely have a crush on this book.
