🤖 Mitch's newsletter
Four summer reading recommendations
A friend asked for recommendations for summer reading. I dipped into my memory of books I’ve read over the past 15 years or so and easily picked four that I loved.
-
“The Ministry of Time,” by Kaliane Bradley. A near-future secret British agency retrieves a small group of people from the past — all people who were on the verge of death — and brings them to the present. The narrator is an English woman, the daughter of a Cambodian immigrant mother, who works for the agency. The other main character is a member of a doomed 19th Century arctic expedition. It’s a paranormal romance and workplace comedy about generational trauma and colonialism. It tackles important, serious, difficult subjects and is also a great deal of fun.
-
“Summerland” by Hannu Rajaniemi. Another British spy agency, this one in an alternate history 1930s, fifty years after paranormal researchers have discovered how to communicate with the dead. The cold war is fought in both our world and the next, and for intelligence operatives, death is just a step up on the career ladder.
-
And if you like Stephen King, I highly recommend “11/23/63” and “Under the Dome.”
The U.S. is giving up a lot. Iran gives up nothing. Iran won.
This is a deal negotiated by a man who filed for bankruptcy six times, and couldn’t even run a successful casino.
Trump is selling out Israel and the people of Iran (whom Trump promised liberation and regime change, which he now denies saying, in one of many blatant lies). The agreement gives Iran the right to charge “fees” for use of the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. will work with “regional partners” to pay Iran at least $300 billion. The US is lifting sanctions and freeing access to Iran’s funds. In exchange, Iran agrees to “reaffirm” its commitment to swear off nuclear weapons, which it first made in 1970. And the whole thing is tentative.
They say that ghosts are the spirits of people who have died leaving unfinished business. I will come back from the dead to do expense reports.
🦍 Mitchellaneous 6.18.2026
Donny and Marie cover Steely Dan, accompanied by ice skating chorus girls. I’m just going to watch this all day.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XMGX8HBqMgg?si=38ft7n2Vspvd-Pdc" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>]