I am very happy to learn more and correct my practice where there are issues. Life is complicated but I boycotted and protested against South Africa back in the day and try to not actively collaborate with injustice.

As for boats, I like them and my grandfather served in submarines.

On my limited cruise experience, mask use is varied. There are signs warning about hand washing and specific signs instructing people to use a paper towel to touch the door to the bathrooms.

As for price, in my experience, all rules are disclosed ahead of time, but much like Casino resorts, if you get drunk and make a poor decision, there is no sympathy from the company.

Thank you for promoting the book.

Thank you for mentioning the book. I will read it.

You have presented one side, so here are some thoughts. I appreciate the risk of norovirus and COVID is real, but sexually transmitted infections? How is it unique to cruise ships if people choose not to use condoms? Sexually transmitted diseases are also widespread on land. Some people treat cruises like Spring break, but every year, resorts on land are also full of people partying and finding people to have sex with. I have read that retirement communities also have rampant stis.

We took two elderly relatives on a cruise to Alaska and had a really nice time. They especially enjoyed the live music. The comfort of the ship made travel a reasonable choice for them. Cruise ships give disabled people access to glaciers and fjords.

There is a lot of bad industry practice in this world. I am glad there is a book calling out the cruise ships for their labor practices. Putting pressure on them to do better is a cause I that I fully support. Having said that, am I exploiting labor any less if I fly to Puerto Vallarta and stay in an all inclusive resort? Most if not all of the staff are from countries where people also see migrating to Quatar as a rational job seeking decision.

I have seen gatekeeping threads on the travel subreddits where people seem to look down on many forms of popular travel because they are not the ideal travel experience. Personally I am in favor of access to travel for the middle class, even if it doesn't exactly match my tastes and preferences.

I will have to read the book. Muckrakers have done great work historically from Uncle Tom's Cabin and Black Beauty and Upton Sinclair's the Jungle through Ralph Nader's work and Silent Spring by Rachel Carson and a Civil Action and Erin Brockavich, up to now with Empire of Pain about the Sacklers and many more.

If you want to truly investigate this, I would try short stories to see which authors have styles and characters you enjoy. You can find lists on r/suggestmeabook. I would also try narrative nonfiction to see if you like it better. Devil in the White City or Endurance by Lansing or into thin air tell compelling true stories. Or maybe you prefer books that explain something like the Man Who Mistook his wife for a hat for neurology or And the Band Played On by Shilts about the history of the AIDS crisis or Cadillac Desert about water issues in the Western United States or Flow by Csikzentmihalyi on the psychology of happiness.

However some people prefer podcasts or videos to books and that is ok. As long as someone is generally curious about life, I don't think there is a wrong way to learn or enjoy art. To my mind many video games today play a similar role and are just as artistic as opera was before television and radio. Bottom line, figure out how you enjoy your life.

One suggestion I have is to search r/suggestmeabook for best or favorite short stories. Many short stories are available online. The plot structure is tight because of the format. You can find authors whose work you like and then read their longer books.

He was a journalist not a historian, but try Randy Shilts' books for excellent nonfiction about historic events. He died too young.

It's not exactly literature, but I enjoyed the memoir Whatever you do don't run. However, there is no content outside of his work life, including colleagues, tourists and animals.

I have not tried the long Russian novels other than Crime and Punishment which I was assigned in school. I may tackle them in retirement.

I have read it several times. As for racism, he describes the reality of living in a segregated society, regardless of whether the segregation is de facto or de jure. I see the book as intended to subvert the worst of racist attitudes, but all members of such a culture are scarred and influenced by it and the author definitely has biases.

Edit, I have no doubt that the author is himself racist. But his intention and depiction is community between people of all colors and races. Given his era, for me, that is enough good faith and positive intent to not cancel the book.

I would contrast Lest Darkness Fall by L Sprague de Camp which leans into racism in an entirely unnecessary way, inserting it anachronistically into a plot about ancient Rome.

I agree. It is an excellent apocalyptic book.

Before I found reddit, I browsed shelves in bookstores and libraries. I read best books of the year articles. I paid attention to award winners.

Now I still do all that, but I also spend time on r/suggestmeabook, r/fantasy, r/printsf, r/historicalfiction.

Other people use r/romancebooks and r/horrorlit.

But every book is a bit of a gamble.

My favorite light reading is All Creatures Great and Small or something by Terry Pratchett, but not the first two Discworld books.

It was at least as early as biblical Paul, but it wasn't standardized across cultures and religions. Some cultures were more tolerant.

FOMO is a huge problem in the internet age because we have so many options. It is important to be ok with good enough experience, rather than needing the best possible, because that will be different for every person and impossible to predict. Monday morning quarterbacking is always perfect and never helpful going forward.

I use a complex mix of methods for choosing books. r/suggestmeabook, r/fantasy, r/printsf, r/romancebooks, r/yalit, r/horrorlit and r/historicalfiction all provide both a search function which can be used for words like best or favorite, and also the opportunity to request specific suggestions from long time readers.

I also use best of the year articles from reputable newspapers and lists of awardwinning books. I also have a local bookstore with a staff suggestions shelf that keeps me in touch with new releases. i have found some favorites there.

No, I mostly read at home. But it is a nice book store.

Edit I also read in coffee shops

I have a date with myself to read at least 30 minutes per day.

I also have an excellent local bookstore. I am buying fewer books now that I use the Goodreads want to read list to store books and authors that intrigue me. But it is a problem. Shopping is fun.

I have been like a kid in a candy store since discovering reddit book suggestion sites because I can learn what other readers love to read. These include r/historical fiction, r/romancebooks, r/horrorlit, r/fantasy, r/printsf, r/audiobooks.

I also check the staff picks shelf at my local bookstore. Best of the year articles from reputable newspapers. Lists of award winners.

I only use Goodreads to store my I might like to read this book list, because it is convenient to have the linked summary right there when I choose my next book.

Some books are harder than others. Check online for a summary of the book. r/homeworkhelp may have some ideas. If this is an ongoing problem, it may be your teachers or it may be a disability. You can talk to a school counselor or a doctor. Other people here will also likely have good advice.

Pick a story with a setting or profession that you want to learn about. Rumpole of the Bailey is funny but about an attorney in London and his cases. John Grisham wrote novels about lawyers in the US. The Call of the Wild is set in the Yukon Gold Rush. Graham's Sulee is about a young basketball player and has a lot of information about college basketball. My Name is Asher Lev is about the education of a young painter and contains a lot of art history. Pillars of the Earth is about building a cathedral.

I grew up spending many happy hours in the library and developed eclectic tastes based on explorations there. My favorites include historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, classics and realistic contemporary. I also read some nonfiction, both explorations of topics and memoirs/biography.

I'm not a huge fan of romance or horror but I will make exceptions for a very good book if someone recommends it.

You can choose books that are less emotionally intense and thought provoking while you are in school. Anything described as cozy or light would work. Also journalistic nonfiction as long as the subject isn't tragic.

Try r/fantasy. People are trolling you with books nothing like your request and this isnt a book suggestion subreddit

It is silent regarding ADHD and executive functioning. It talks about effects of social media on attention and focus in neurotypical people.

The book Stolen Focus by Johan Hari was accessible on this topic.

That was an amazing book. I will never forget it.

I read all three as a child. I enjoyed them all. I think Little Women is the strongest in terms of quality of writing, but I agree with you Little Men is more fun for children reading it. Thank you for your review.

I believe there is a subreddit dedicated to audio books that can help you find good narrator experiences. From my perspective as a long time reader, the book was good but not over the top great. You are missing out on this one, but the supply of good books is far greater than our capacity. Thank you for warning other audio book listeners.