"Screwing up is one of the inevitabilities of life, but dwelling on your own mistakes can get toxic - fast. In SNAFU: The Definitive Guide to History's Greatest Screwups, Ed Helms breaks down dozens of blunders from the past 70 or so years. Sometimes a river gets so polluted that it catches fire (multiple times), or the US government conducts human experiments involving copious amounts of psychedelic drugs. Or it turns out that a pair of the 20th century's greatest spies were also swingers."
"These days when you want to engage with some media, you can choose from podcasts, videos, games, live performances - or books, one of the oldest and most popular ways to learn something new or escape (at least temporarily) from today's troubled world. We polled the staff of The Verge to find out what books they read over the past year that really struck a chord - because the books were enlightening, educational, or just enjoyable. Here are some of the answers we got."
Readers favored books that provide education, escape, and enjoyment, spanning formats from podcasts and videos to traditional books. One highlighted title catalogs major blunders from roughly the past 70 years, detailing incidents like rivers catching fire, government-run psychedelic experiments, and notorious spies' personal lives. The work balances tragic historical episodes with levity, using humor to underscore the absurdity and folly of those responsible. The tone remains breezy, aiming to make readers feel better about everyday mistakes by juxtaposing personal mishaps with large-scale screwups, while still acknowledging the serious consequences of many events.
Read at The Verge
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