Hey Sickos, it's the time of the month where we vote on what the Fiction & History Sickos Book Clubs will be reading in September! I'll have the polls up this afternoon in our Discord. As always, bribery and bullying are expected and encouraged. You'll have exactly 72 hours to force your will upon folk.

Quick reminder: to participate in the voting and discussion forums, you'll need a membership at the Sicko or above tier, that unlocks those channels (and a bunch of others) in our Discord.

Now I'm kinda lying because I've decided to pull the dictator card for the Fiction Sickos for the first (and last?) time this year. We had some excellent recommendations in the Discord for potential options and some of those are already plugged in for the October vote, but one of the recommendations is one that I simply need to read next month before the adaptation comes out on Netflix on October 1st.

You may have guessed it by now but the Fiction Sickos will be reading EAST OF EDEN by JOHN STEINBECK!

For the History Sickos we have a requested topic from the 'cord leading things off, a biography about a coo coo bonkers emperor, a nonfiction book I've been meaning to pick up, and a 2nd place vote getter from a previous round of voting. Here are those options with blurbs about 'em:

FIFTH SUN: A NEW HISTORY OF THE AZTECS by CAMILLA TOWNSEND

"In November 1519, Hernando Cortes walked along a causeway leading to the capital of the Aztec kingdom and came face to face with Moctezuma. That story - and the story of what happened afterwards - has been told many times, but always following the narrative offered by the Spaniards... the history of the Aztecs is offered in all its complexity based solely on the texts written by the indigenous people themselves... The conquest, in this work, is neither an apocalyptic moment, nor an origin story launching Mexicans into existence..."

NERO: MATRICIDE, MUSIC, AND MURDER IN IMPERIAL ROME by ANTHONY EVERITT & RODDY ASHWORTH

The Roman emperor Nero’s name has long been a byword for cruelty, decadence, and despotism. As the stories go, he set fire to Rome and thrummed his lyre as it burned. He then cleared the charred ruins and built a vast palace. He committed incest with his mother, who had schemed and killed to place him on the throne, and later murdered her... This is the bloodstained story of one of Rome’s most notorious emperors: but in Everitt and Ashworth’s hands, Nero’s life is also a complicated, cautionary tale about the mettle required to rule.

WE DON'T KNOW OURSELVES: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF MODERN IRELAND by FINTAN O'TOOLE

"... weaves his own experiences into Irish social, cultural, and economic change, showing how Ireland, in just one lifetime, has gone from a reactionary "backwater" to an almost totally open society - perhaps the most astonishing national transformation in modern history...."

THE CELTS: SEARCH FOR A CIVILIZATION by ALICE ROBERTS

"The Celts are one of the world's most mysterious ancient people. In this compelling account, Alice Roberts takes us on a journey across Europe, uncovering the truth about this engimatic tribe: their origins, their treasure and their enduring legacy today. What emerges is not a wild people, but a highly sophisticated tribal culture that influenced the ancient world - and even Rome..."