February 2026

Frankenstein

Karel čapek - r.u.r. [the first robot uprising book ever!]

the atlantic - Why Taylor Swift’s Accent Has Changed 
billboard - The Rise of ‘Mumble Rap’: Did Lyricism Take a Hit in 2016?
thrillist - Young Queer Christians Are Going on a New Kind of Pilgrimage
the guardian - Armed US immigration agents drive off with toddler after arrest of father
the guardian - It’s time to accept that the US supreme court is illegitimate and must be replaced

the atlantic - How Private Equity Is Changing Housing
"corporations now own a remarkable one in 11 residential real-estate parcels in the 500 urban counties with data robust enough to analyze. In some communities, they control more than 20 percent of properties."
"“They’re pulling all the starter homes off of the market in low-income, high-minority-density neighborhoods,” George McCarthy, the president of the Lincoln Institute, told me—a trend that is intensifying the country’s yawning racial wealth and homeownership gaps."

the atlantic - ‘Commuting Is Bad’—Particularly for Women 
"A 10-minute increase in average commute time decreases by 4.4 percentage points the probability that married women in the area work. The effect was driven pretty much entirely by moms, rose with the number of children they had, and was bigger for those with younger children."
"A study this year, using data from Norway, found that after having a child, mothers reduce their commute time considerably more than fathers do, leaving them with fewer and lower-quality job opportunities. And a paper last year, looking at Germany, found that women’s willingness to sacrifice wages for a shorter commute jumps by 130 percent after they have a child and does not start to decline again until the child reaches age 12."

the atlantic - The Podcast ‘Productivity’ Trap 
"...why subpar nonfiction is so much better than subpar fiction,” Garner wrote. “With nonfiction at least you can learn something.” That’s how I used to feel about podcasts. At least they help me improve my grasp of international affairs and prepare for the AI apocalypse."
this is definitely me...

January 2026

started my Chinese cinema class so am watching ~2 films a week. also started my other chinese class so all reading will be dedicated to that textbook.

Laborer's love [1922], New women [1935], battle of triangle Hill [1956], buddha's palm [1956], dragon Inn [1967], anora [2024], not your model minority [2021], the herdsman [1984], to live [1994]

Julie Salamon - Hospital: man, woman, birth, death, infinity, plus red tape, bad behavior  money, god, and diversity on steroids

december 2025

no articles this month!! too busy with finding an la apartment, moving, cleaning, parents coming home, baking, going to palm springs for a weekend, going to sd for a weekend, friend get-togethers... plus i finished a book :)

 meet joe black [1998], wallace and gromit: vengeance most fowl [2025], rental family, idiocracy [2006]

peter h gleick - bottled & sold: the story behind out obsession with the bottled water 

November 2025

28 days later [2002], 10 things i hate about you [1999] 

Michael Ruhlman - The Reach of a Chef: Professional Cooks in the Age of Celebrity 

focused on reading the above book this month so didn't read many articles.

the atlantic - Bridesmaid Inflation
psyche - How to tolerate annoying things
the atlantic - The Slow Death of Special Education
the atlantic - The Pentagon’s Preferred Propaganda Model

October 2025

flight! so i watched movies: materialists, flow [2024], lee [2023], good fortune

wanted to read more this month. purposely didn't bring a book to europe to do so, but then ended up spending a lot of time on chinese homework (midterms!!) and sleeping from both sickness and exhaustion.

the atlantic - Why Is Everything Spicy Now?
taste - The Expansive, Absurdist Canvas of Tiramisu
airmail - She Faked Her Way into Yale. Then Things Unraveled
the atlantic - The Dangerous Legal Strategy Coming for Our Books
the guardian - Five o’clock dinner crowd: why are young Americans eating so early?
the guardian - Sephora workers on the rise of chaotic child shoppers: ‘She looked 10 years old and her skin was burning’

the ringer - The Age of Corporate Capitulation Won’t Work 

LA times -  Why do poor Americans eat so unhealthfully? Because junk food is the only indulgence they can afford
"For parents raising their kids in poverty, having to say “no” was a part of daily life. Their financial circumstances forced them to deny their children’s requests — for a new pair of Nikes, say, or a trip to Disneyland — all the time. This wasn’t tough for the kids alone; it also left the poor parents feeling guilty and inadequate.... Honoring requests for junk food allowed poor parents to show their children that they loved them, heard them and could meet their needs."

september 2025

more reading this month. spent a total of 7 HOURS at pepboys (over two visits) for new tires and alignment, plus an oil change. ...don't even ask why it took so long... also, i made an effort to finish my book since i'm not taking one to europe next month. 

edge of tomorrow [2014], the squid and the whale [2005]

best american food writing 2019 (ed: samin nosrat)

the guardian - ‘Being short is a curse’: the men paying thousands to get their legs broken – and lengthened

the atlantic -  Modern Dentistry Is a Microplastic Minefield
"A plastic-bristled toothbrush may add approximately 30 to 120 microparticles of plastic to your diet with each brushing, according to one study. Another put the estimate at an average of 39 particles a day. Either calculation suggests that a plastic toothbrush adds tens of thousands of particles to one’s yearly load of microplastics, which is significant when considering that estimates of microplastic exposure from food, air, and water put a person’s yearly particle load at more than 100,000."

the atlantic - The States Where It’s Riskier to Have a Baby 
"...although the overall risk of dying from pregnancy is low, mothers living in states where abortion is banned were nearly twice as likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth compared with mothers living in states where abortion is accessible. In states with abortion bans, Black mothers were more than three times as likely to die as white mothers. ProPublica found that when Texas banned abortion after six weeks in 2021, rates of sepsis increased by more than 50 percent for women hospitalized with miscarriages in the second trimester, likely because women were being made to wait until either there was no fetal heartbeat, leaving them at higher risk for an infection, or their infection became life-threatening. ProPublica also found that after Texas banned abortion, blood transfusions during emergency-room visits for first-trimester miscarriages increased by 54 percent, suggesting that doctors were avoiding performing D&Cs. At least four women in states with near-total abortion bans have died because they were denied an abortion, according to news reports. In a 2023 survey from KFF, a health-care nonprofit, four in 10 ob-gyns in abortion-ban states said the Dobbs ruling made providing care during miscarriages or other pregnancy emergencies harder."