Seventh read of 2026 is "The Jakarta Method" by Vincent Bevins. Probably one of the most sobering books I've ever read that wasn't a firsthand account of what it was describing (Bevins interviews dozens of survivors though).
It chronicles the Indonesian anticommunist massacres of 1965 and 1966, which murdered at least a million people, obliterated what was then the third-largest communist population in the world, installed a dictator who would kowtow to American corporate interests for the next 30 years, and served as the blueprint for 20th Century imperialism across the rest of the Third World for multiple generations. All the stuff they don't teach you in U.S. History class.
The author is a journalist, so the text is very approachable. He doesn't get bogged down in theory but brings it up whenever it's motivating the people in the story. It assumes the reader knows nothing about Indonesia but also offers unique, original perspectives that haven't been reported much before. This book is both depressing and galvanizing. Can't recommend it enough.
