I am highly read up and researched on trauma bonds because I am trying to break the one I am addicted to with my abusive STBXH. I physically wanted to be with him after we had the ugliest divorce, custody and criminal battles. I had to find out what the fuck my problem was and trauma bonds is it. J+D parallel our lives in a lot of ways so let me list the reasons why it’s so strong (from the amazing book The Betrayal Bond: Breaking Free of Exploitive Relationships
When there are repetitive cycles of abuse
When the victim and the victimizer believe in their own uniqueness
When high intensity is mistaken for intimacy
When there is confusion about love
When there are increasing amounts of fear
When children are faced with terror
When there is a history of abuse
When exploitation endures over time
When the community family or social structure reacts in the extremes
When there is a familiar role and script to be fulfilled
When victims and victimizers switch roles of rescue and abuse
There's a fiction book that has a similar idea.
Basically, a virus/disease spreads to a small percentage of the world, leaving them paralyzed. But, even though it's a small percentage, it's still a pretty large number of people that are affected. So the governments help fund investments into remote robots that can be controlled by those who are paralyzed.
Nothing, I'm anticipating absolutely nothing. I was looking forward to the HBO adaptation of Ben Winter's "The Last Policeman", but it sounds like they're rewiring the premise into a forgettable, short-lived mess.
Ramus: A crime mystery with a dark twist https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07YP84KTR/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_SA353YMKZS9P664FN8R3 (mystery)
The Basement https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0053TIB2W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_YYESWM627P43ESQPVT22
Both British crime
This is some 10X shit. Hell yeah.
The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure https://www.amazon.com/dp/0470627603/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_3F7BH1GW5WC06GCXM4JT
People have pulled off crazier goals. If you pour everything you have into it and become obsessed with learning I believe even if you fall short of your goal you will be in a better place than you were 12-18 months ago.
Best of luck.
If you liked The Inverted World then The Gone World is an obvious rec (and it was also a fantastic read).
Oh, also Ian Tregillis’s alternate history Milkweed Triptych trilogy … WWII, Nazis, English sorcerers, Nazi superheroes/supervillains, and Cthulhu, what more could you want?
Here's another book with a similar set up. Definitely more of a thriller than pure scifi, but man it is really really good.
/u/gwern is a character in this book.
In the story, the end of the world is coming. One of the characters is an insurance analyst. He does a ton of statistical analysis to determine the risk/reward ratio of trying illegal drugs has now flipped over into the positive.
I think it really depends on the missionary. You, or anyone else interested in culturally respectful missionary work, should go read Bruchko it is about a man who goes to a tribe in Central America, converts the tribe to Christianity, helps them train their members in medical and engineering skills, and helped them fight off the white settlers trying to take their land, all while preserving their culture
One of the biggest reasons I loved the Millennium trilogy was Larsson's use of Sweden itself as a character. Everything from the weather to Scandinavian minimalism helped make the story so much more real.
Following those, I ended up reading and loving Tana French's trilogy. The stories follow three Irish police officers (though the stories are more loosely connected than Millennium) and her use of Ireland itself is absolutely brilliant. Give the first one In the Woods a shot and see what you think.
Edit: My mistake. It looks like a fourth book was just published in July.