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A Personal Message From Me:

Hey hey! This list isn’t in any particular order.. it’s a living doc of the books I’m reading, have yet to read, or have already read to better understand the world: politics, psychology, media, power, history, business, spirituality, and human behavior.

I do my best to include context on why I picked each book.

Some links may be affiliate, and I earn a small commission if you use them

(totally optional, but it helps support my work.)

I also give links to download them for free.

My background is in direct response marketing, funnel building, content creation, etc so I’ve spent years studying human behavior, persuasion, storytelling, and systems thinking.

I only started paying attention to politics in January 2025. So yeah, there’s a heavy political and historical tilt at the top of this list. That’s me catching up, questioning everything, and trying to build a more well-rounded view of the world I live in.

Whenever I’m learning, I try to think from first principles as best I can, stripping ideas down to their fundamentals, and building my understanding from a solid foundation of timeless ideas.

I read across the spectrum. left, right, and everything in between. not to pick a side, but to understand. I can say I do not operated from a left / right political binary.

When I’m in the process of learning, I do my best to be aware of my own biases and assumptions. I explore multiple angles as honestly as I can. Because I believe clarity comes from holding multiple perspectives.

I believe curiosity is the greatest love language, in these chaotic times.

Take what resonates.

Question what doesn’t.

Happy learning ✌🏻

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Current Events Reading List (Last update June 10, 2025)

Title Author Notes / Purpose Physical Copy Digital Free Download
On Tyranny: Twenty lessons from the 20th century on resisting authoritarianism Timothy Snyder A pocket sized book, very quick read, but extremely practical today. I took it as a great primer for how to personally navigate a country descending into Tyranny. Navigating hyper polarization mixed with people who don’t pay attention at all.. It’s helped me center myself in it all, and explore how I want to show up during this time. Purchase Link Free Download
How Fascism Works Jason Stanley Analysis of fascist politics and their modern manifestations in current US Politics and Government April 22, 2025. A lot of people throw the word “fascist” around without actually understanding what it means. This book will tell you EXACTLY what it is and how to spot it, using historical accounts overlayed on top of recent current events in the US during the last decade. Purchase Link Free Download
Erasing History Jason Stanley Examination of how fascist governments from India, Hungary, Poland, and more erase and rewrite history to serve fascist political agendas Purchase Link Free Download
Hope In The Dark Rebecca Solnit You should read this if you are looking for a grounded, non-naive form of hope that helps you stay present, committed, and clear during times of political chaos in 2025 in the United States. It re-frames hope as active not passive. It's a love letter to activists and artists. It helps you zoom out and remember accounts of historical activism in the past and how it's borne fruit throughout history. It gives you language to help you remain persistent if you feel called to activism. I don’t like the word hope when it’s used without awareness. Reading this made me genuinely feel hope that can make it through this time April 28, 2025, just as we have in the past century.
How to Stand Up to a Dictator Maria Ressa Nobel Peace Prize winner's memoir about fighting for democracy. I resonate with her because she’s a Filipino journalist who’s work got President Duterte removed from office, despite being under numerous threats from the government. One of the most incredible journalists of our time. This is one of my favorites, given the current state of America April 28, 2025 Purchase Link Free Download
Careless People Sarah Wynn-Williams A deep dive into a former Facebook Executives wild account of how FB intentionally uses it’s platform to influence the consciousness of nations, voting patterns, and politics for profit. Her story is incredible.. It reads like a crime thriller. Purchase Link Free Download
Brown Skin, White Minds: Filipino-American Postcolonial Psychology E.J.R. David Who is a Filipino-American during these times of tyranny in 2025? And who am I to use my voice as a creator during this time, when I don’t even know who I am culturally - with the amplified racism and hate today. This book gave me many clues. It’s only within the last 50 years that Modern psychology has considered the effect of colonialism on mental health. I found this book to decolonize my mind as a third generation filipino-american citizen in the USA May 4, 2025.. This is the very first book I’ve ever read on decolonization specifically for the filipino psyche, and has been instrumental in waking me up to the atrocities that have happened to the Philippines from the US, why we have amnesia about who we are, and the harmful effects of colonialism on the filipino psyche. While it’s catered to the Filipino consciousness, it’s universal to any civilization that has been touched by colonialism.
Patterns That Remain: A Guide to Healing for Asian Children Of Immigrants Dr. Stacey Diane Aranez Litam Out of all the authors on this list, this is the only one I’ve actually met in person during her book signing in Las Vegas June 10, 2025. She’s praised by E.J.R David above, and this is an amazing synthesis of how to actionably heal diasporic wounds from colonialism. E.J.R highlights the problem. Dr. Stacey shares the way towards healing the colonized soul from a filipino perspective. Litam writes with intimate, grounded insight into the unique colonial and diasporic wounds that many Asian children of immigrants carry. Things like generational silence, survival guilt, identity confusion, perfectionism, and the pressure to "make our parents' sacrifices worth it". It speaks directly to the Asian diaspora experience. It blends psychology, spirituality, and cultural wisdom. Gives you permission to grieve. And she points toward healing as Relational and cultural based on the Filipino consciousness. I also appreciate her critiques on the 5 love languages (built on western values) and offers a new framework for healthy relationships built on the Filipino psyche and Kapwa consciousness. Read it, it feels like a decolonial warm hug.
The Jakarta Method Vincent Bevins I’m reading this book to get to the root of WHY there’s mass hysteria about communism. Why “communist” is thrown around in political rhetoric by so many people, when barely anyone understands what it even means. It reveals how “anti-communism” became a moral smokescreen. a way to destroy grassroots movements for land reform, labor rights, or anti-colonial self-determination. It destabilizes the American myth by showing how the U.S. exported mass murder as policy, how fascist-adjacent tactics were used to “protect democracy” and how third world solidarity was shattered by fear. This book is instrumental in understanding the root of “blaming it on the communists, socialists, marxists, and “radical left” (whatever that means)”.
Islamophobia - The Politics of Empire Deepa Kumar Kumar reveals how Islamophobia is manufactured and not natural. The anti-Muslim sentiment isn't about theology, it's about power, and she traces how US imperialism weaponized the fear of Islam to justify war, surveillance, economic extraction and the erosion of civil rights in the middle east and Americans post 9/11. You'll see how the U.S. recycled old Orientalist racist tropes.

It also exposes liberal complicity. How even Democrats and progressive institutions often reproduce anti-Muslim policies under the guise of "humanitarian intervention" or "fighting extremism". This is the same rhetoric that's used today in 2025 targeting the immigrant population in America. It gives you tools to dissect media narratives and shows how terms like "terrorism", "freedom", Where moderate Muslims are used to create consent for violence. You, in other words, you gain the tools to read through propaganda and decode the emotional framing of empirical narratives.

It directly connects the events of Cold War Anti-communist tactics via Jakarta Method techniques with it evolution into the war on terror.. It’s decolonial in tone, but grounded and readable - rooted in material analysis, not just theory.

Extremely powerful, and this is one of the best books I’ve ever read on the subject. This will heal many, who don’t see the unconscious programed racism in you towards, not just muslims, but any race. | | | | Orientalism | Edward Said | This will sharpen your ability to see and name the invisible narratives that have shaped how the west views the east, and how colonized people view themselves. And how this shows up in harmful racist ideas, rhetoric, and narratives in political and social discourse today in the United States, 2025. It names the colonial gaze. The Orient quote unquote is not a real place; it's a Western invention. Europe and the later United States constructed the East as exotic, backward, dangerous, and irrational so they could justify controlling it. This othering is the root logic behind cultural erasure, conquest, and modern foreign policy. This also applies not just to the Middle East but to Asia, the Philippines, and anywhere that the West projected its ideas of superiority. Once you read it, you'll start seeing orientalism everywhere in Hollywood films, in news coverage of quote-unquote unstable regions, and how Asian and Middle Eastern people are depicted as mythical sages, or violent threats. You begin see through the propaganda that makes colonization feel reasonable and colonized peoples feel inferior. It also connects literature, politics, and psychology because he was a literary scholar. So he doesn't just critique military conquests; he shows how novels, paintings, museums, and academic research all helped manufacture the idea of the West as being more civilized and the East as more primitive. And overall deepens your understanding of Islamophobia, neocolonialism, and racial capitalism. | | | | Pedagogy of The Oppressed | Paulo Freire | What do I do with all this new knowledge of colonialism, imperialism, capitalist realism, the origins of racism? How do I show up as a content creator in the best possible way to educate and share it with others sustainably, and transformationally? How do I share with others, while unlearning myself? This book gives tools for anyone who is called to be a voice and educator in times of tyranny. And inspired the crystallization of my motto: curiosity is a love language. | | | | Capitalist Realism | Mark Fisher | One of the most important books I’ve ever read to help me deconstruct capitalism, being someone who has been a business owner for the past 5 years June 10, 2025 - studying and building success under the capitalistic impulse. And the origins of my negative inner talk I’ve developed over the years.

Fischer defines capitalist realism as the idea that “it's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.”

He names it as a psychological/mental health condition that makes resistance feel pointless, even when we know the system is harmful, because we keep playing by the rules and because we've internalized that no real alternative exists.

Through it, I've come to understand capitalism as a kind of organism that just absorbs anything inside of it, even the things that rebel against it. For example, hip-hop culture. What was built on fighting against the power and rebellion - the capitalist system just chewed it up and said, "Oh, hey, we can market this." The very thing that hip-hop stood for and wanted to fight against it ended up being another product of capitalism. People now wear rebellion as a fashion statement. This phenomenon points to how even rebels and radicals end up reproducing the exact system that they hate.

He also connects Capitalist Realism to mental health.. and says that what we call mental illness is often a rational response to an irrational system.

This helped me wake up to the idea that my feelings of depression and inadequacy, never being enough, feeling guilty for resting, and all this isn't my fault. When a fish is sick, you don't treat the fish, you treat the water. I realized that Capitalism is the invisible water that we all swim in, is what is making us sick. On top of the mental health effects of colonialism.

One of the most important books I've read in my life that is challenging my worldviews for the past five years. | | | | How Europe Underdeveloped Africa | Walter Rodney | This book breaks down the economic anatomy of colonization.. Why does the “third world” supply the west with resources, but it stays so poor?

Rodney shows how colonialism systematically siphons wealth, breaks economic systems, and then blamed the victims. What he breaks down was the blueprint tofor understanding what’s happening to my people in the Philippines, and helped me realized HOW the the nation got to where it is today. It connects Africa and Asia as parallel victims of imperialism and colonialism and applies to other countries in the global south.. He helps deconstruct the Western lie that Africa, was “behind” or “barbaric.”

And that in truth, it was forced into that situation.

Crucial to understanding why the world is the way it is June 10, 2025 | | | | Development as Freedom | Amartya Sen | I’m seeking to create a blueprint on how to revive the third world, how to integrate modern systems without erasing culture. And trying to find economic alternatives to capitalism. Sen says development is not about GDP. It’s about expanding the real freedoms people have to live the lives they value. And he offers valuable frameworks for pluralism without domination. | | | | Sacred Economics | Charles Eisenstein | Eisenstein speaks directly to the spiritual wound of capitalism and offers a visionary, but grounded path forward. He argues that the core crisis of capitalism isn’t just structural. It’s relational and spiritual. This is connected to my decolonial journey and understanding the relational values of the Filipino psyche (Kapwa). And offers actionable alternatives that resonate with me, since he’s also walked a similar path as an entrepreneur, waking up to the harmful effects of colonialism, capitalism, and imperialism. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa and Capitalist Realism, shows you whats broken. Sacred economics can help you dream and design what could be healed. | | | | Tools For Conviviality | Ivan Illich | | | | | A Theory of Everything | Ken Wilbur | | | | | Integral Spirituality | Ken Wilbur | | | | | Attention Merchants | Tim Wu | | | | | The Age of Surveillance Capitalism | Soshana Zuboff | | | | | The Fire Next Time | James Baldwin | | | | | The Science Delusion | Rupert Sheldrake | | | | | Designs for the Pluriverse (New Ecologies for the 21st Century) | Arturo Escobar | | | | | Biopiracy | Vandana Shiva | | | | | Seeing Like A State | James Scott | | | | | Open Veins of Latin America | Eduardo Galeano | | | | | Debt: the first 5,000 Years | David Graeber | | | | | Resistance and Decolonization | Amilcar Cabral | | | | | Braiding Sweetgrass, Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants | Robin Wall kimmerer | | | | | Empire of Ai | Karen Hao | | | | | The White Mans Burden: Historical Origins of Racism in the United States | Winthrop D Jordan | | | | | | | | | | | Less is More | Jason Hickle | | | | | Words We Live By | Linda R Monk | | | | | What We Knew | Eric A Johnson | | | | | The Republic | Plato | | | | | The Rise and Fall Of Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 - 2000 | | | | | | The Black Jacobins | C.L.R James | | | | | A History of the Pan-African Revolt | C.LR. James | | | | | Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World | Tyson Yunkaporta | Yunkaporta doesn’t just critique colonialism, he things from outside it. He’s funny, sharp, wise, and never puts himself above us as readers. And shows us more direct relational alternatives to hierarchal power structures. | | | | The Divide: A Brief Guide To Global Inequality and it’s Solutions | Jason Hickle | Why is the Global South still poor? This book gives you one of the clearest and most hard-hitting explanations of how global poverty isn't an accident. It's the result of deliberate historical colonialism, imperialism, and parasitic economic systems. He makes it structurally visible, gives you language to articulate and name the problem, and proposes real feasible alternatives. While "Wretched of the Earth" by Fanon reveals the psychological trauma of colonization, the Divide shows you the economic machine that continues that oppressive domination today, but with spreadsheets and treaties instead of guns. | | | | Parable of the Sower | Octavia Butler | A prophetic story of societal collapse and survival in a climate-changed America. It was written 40 years ago, and takes place today in 2025. She got so much of it right, down to a T. | Purchase Link | Free Download | | The Handmaid's Tale | Margaret Atwood | A dystopian novel about a totalitarian society where women are stripped of their rights, closely illustrates the policies of project 2025 April 22, 2025 - I find it useful to also watch the TV series to see glimpses of the current direction of United States politics with Project 2025. | Purchase Link | | | Propaganda | Edward Bernays | Classic work on understanding propaganda from the man who invented it. | Purchase Link | | | A People's History of the United States | Howard Zinn | Alternative perspective on American history from the viewpoint of the oppressed | Purchase Link | | | Mutual Aid | Dean Spade | Guide to building community support networks and solidarity. | Purchase Link | Free Download | | Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want To Run The World | Anne Applebaum | Investigation into modern authoritarian governments and their methods | Purchase Link | | | How to Be an Antiracist | Ibram X. Kendi | Framework for understanding and countering racism in society | Purchase Link | Free Download | | Ordinary Men | Christopher R. Browning | Study of how average people can be drawn into participating in the murder of 4,600 Jews during the Holocaust | Purchase Link | Free Download | | Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong | James W. Loewen | Critical examination of how American history is taught in schools. Supplemented well with Jason Stanleys books on Fascism and Erasing History. | Purchase Link | Free Download | | All The Worst Humans: How I Made News For Dictators, Tycoons, And Politicians | Phil Elwood | Inside look at media manipulation and political propaganda from someone who created PR campaigns for dictators and other people in power. | Purchase Link | Free Download |

Title Author Notes/Purpose Buy The Physical Book Digital Download (Free)
We Are Proud Boys: How a Right-Wing Street Gang Ushered in a New Era of American Extremism Andy Campbell To understand the rise of extremism, and how Proud Boys came to be from a left wing perspective Purchase Link Free Download
Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed The Movement Kimberle Crenshaw, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller, Kendall Thomas Understanding structural racism. To understand the actual theory vs misconceptions. And understand the historical reframing of other similar terms like DEI and Structural Racism from a left-leaning perspective. Purchase Link Free Download
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism Robin DiAngelo On the journey of decolonization it changes you. And how you see the world and your relationships and friendships. This book helps me love and understand my “white” friends more, especially as I decolonize my own consciousness. Perspective on systemic racism, from the outside looking in — As I’m a third generation Asian American Purchase Link Free Download
Complicit: How Our Culture Enables Misbehaving Men Reah Bravo Understanding systemic issues in society Purchase Link Free Download
Raising Them Right: The Untold Story of America's Ultraconservative Youth Movement Kyle Spencer To understand youth radicalization Purchase Link Free Download
Broken News: Why The Media Rage Machine Divides America and How To Fight Back Chris Stirewalt Understanding us vs them propaganda, misinformation, and the media's role in hyperpolarizing human beings Purchase Link Free Download
Brutal Minds: The Dark World of Left-Wing Brainwashing in Our Universities Stanley K. Ridgley Reading to understand far-right perspectives of “the left” Purchase Link Free Download
The MAGA Diaries: My Surreal Adventures Inside the Right-Wing Tina Nguyen First-hand account of right-wing movement, from an Asian American Trump Supporter. Very helpful for me to understand the Asian American consciousness on the topic. Purchase Link Free Download
How To Destroy America in 3 Easy Steps Ben Shapiro To understand far-right rhetoric from Ben Shapiro. He’s a critique against the work of Howard Zinns: A Peoples History of The United States - That tells a deeper story into the atrocities committed in the forming of the US Purchase Link Free Download
How To Fight Anti-Semitism Bari Weiss perspective on modern antisemitism Purchase Link Free Download
It's Ok To Be Angry About Capitalism Bernie Sanders Progressive economic perspective Purchase Link Free Download
White Rural Rage: The Threat To American Democracy Understanding rural political dynamics Purchase Link Free Download
The Right To Learn: Resisting The Right-Wing Attack On Academic Freedom Critique on how right-wing movements are reshaping the education system to support a “Mythical Past” Purchase Link Free Download
Dare To Speak: Defending Free Speech For All Suzanne Nossel For learning how to use my voice more effectively, and with integrity during this time Purchase Link Free Download
Left ≠ Woke Suzan Neiman To understand the origins of the “Woke / Radical Left” narrative and verbiage that Trump and other people throw around all the time. Purchase Link Free Download
Social Justice Fallacies Thomas Sowell Conservative critique of social justice and leftist activism Purchase Link Free Download
What's Killing America Jason Rantz Understanding conservative concerns Purchase Link Free Download
Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and The Dangerous Distortion Of Truth Media manipulation analysis Purchase Link Free Download
Rising Out Of Hatred: The Awakening Of A Former White Nationalist Derek Black Understanding the process of far-right de-radicalization. Can it be turned into a how to de-radicalize your friends for dummies book? Purchase Link Free Download
The Fall: The End of Fox News and The Murdoch Dynasty Michael Wolff Media influence analysis Purchase Link Free Download
School Of Woke Kenny Xu Understanding anti-DEI arguments Purchase Link Free Download
Manufacturing Consent Edward S. Herman & Noam Chomsky Classic media criticism Purchase Link Free Download
Battle For The American Mind Pete Hegseth w/ David Goodwin For understanding Christian nationalist views Purchase Link Free Download
The Project: How Project 2025 Is Reshaping America David A. Graham A synthesis of the main ideas behind project 2025 to quickly to learn about how the mandate is shaping America today Purchase Link Free Download

Other Books

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