A look at many industries, individuals, and interests

An annotated reading of the books I finished in June 2026.

Books Read in June 2026

  1. Blood, Sweat, and Pixels
  2. A Mind at Play
  3. Beyond Shame
  4. Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!
  5. The Bell Jar
  6. Nobody’s Girl
  7. To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods

Behind the (gaming) scenes

Ever wanted to know how video games are made (like, really transformed into those titles you can’t stop playing or thinking about)? Blood, Sweat, and Pixels provides many stories of how iconic video game titles, such as Stardew Valley, came to be what they are today (i.e., a landmark in the industry). Passion surely fuels much of the industry, yet one also has to wonder whether chronic overwork (e.g., unpaid late night and weekend work hours) is simply a function of poor management common in game development firms or instead a necessary evil en route to a creative masterpiece? Time (and therapy) will probably provide a clearer answer as new generations of developers share their stories.

Reconstructing skillful patterns

Sexual shame is a ubiquitous carryover from many cultural traditions. To paraphrase the wise words of Brené Brown, guilt can be adaptive and helpful to promote positive change in one’s life, while shame (especially that which is based on the grounds of ostracization), in practice, is rarely skillful for enacting positive change. Beyond Shame can help one map out the difference between guilt and shame from the perspective of sexual health, in particular for those from certain religious backgrounds. In doing so, it can help you develop a better understanding of yourself and your values, which is almost always an activity with a high return on investment.

Wow, what a quaint lad

Claude Shannon, after whom Anthropic’s Claude model family is named, is known as the father of Information Theory. Many biographies and films of other leading figures in the history of computing, such as Alan Turing, have been published to date, yet Shannon hasn’t received as much attention until the last decade or so. With the publication of A Mind at Play, we now have a biographical window through which to peer into Shannon’s life and upbringing, what made him tick (or more tellingly, what made him curious), and how he viewed the world. My impression after reading this biography is that Shannon, albeit far from a perfect human being (in terms of relationships and sociability), was an exceptionally talented and charming character, resolutely interested in exploring the world through both science and engineering (e.g., through both mathematics and robotics). Another takeaway of mine: we need more Shannons in this world.

Feyman, you’ve done it again!

Like Shannon, Feynman was a curious character who cannot be easily encapsulated in a single description. He played a role in many instrumental discoveries in both science and engineering, and his interests varied widely (like many other historical polymaths). Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman is perhaps the best book to read for a glance into the witty world of Feynman, following him in his travels across America as well as internationally. You probably owe it to yourself to read this book at least once, so you’ll know what all the hubbub of Feynman is about (but don’t just stop there!).

Mental health in a past era

The Bell Jar is a sobering look at the author’s (semi-autobiographical) descent into mental illness in their early 20s, told their various literary devices such as absurdism, psychodelic imagery, and metaphor. The book is firmly rooted in its chosen setting, 1950s America, a time in which mental health (for women, in particular) was often stigmatized and lacked adequate treatment resources. With television adaptations on the horizon, this story is seeing renewed public interest, though it may very well continue to have broad literary impacts on book format.

Trail of trauma

A tale not for the weary of heart, Nobody’s Girl catalogues the journey of Virginia Roberts Giuffre through sex trafficing and, ultimately, through Jeffrey Epstein’s inner circle of human exploitation. Embedded throughout the book are glimpses of Virginia’s psychosocial processing of these events in realtime and how they impacted her life well into adulthood. Many prominent figures’ names appear in the book, while others remain elusive. Currently, it is unclear what impact (if any) the latter (unnamed) figures had on Virginia’s tragic passing not long after this book was published.

History meets fantasy, with the mechanics of magic

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods offers a satisfying blend of history and fantasy, with the narrative centered in Asia amidst rising geopolitical tensions between an alternative version of Rome and that of the fictional Pangu empire. Taking place during a parody of the Opium Wars in Ancient China, the story focuses on the protagonist, Ruying, and her journey from facing Roman occupation to incidentally ascending the ranks of the same empire. This tale offers a complex, nuanced spin on historically fictional conflicts, with a fantasy (combat) varnish that is hard not to appreciate.

Alex