Author: seanv2
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Sex, death and nostalgia: three short reviews
The last three novels I’ve read have included a total of seven suicides, five acts of self-destructive sex and immeasurable quantities of nostalgia. To paraphrase Stalin, one death is a tragedy, but a handful of deaths is a real page turner. Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood is the story of a young man who falls in…
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Acquisitions for early-March
None of the Borders in my state or the one to its west are going out of business, so unlike the vultures Sean and Charm, I have not been picking at their corpse for new books. I have gone online and picked up some books I need to go through for some background research. The…
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Acqusitions for the Week of 2.27.2011
Unlike Charm, I haven’t found anything worth getting in the the Wall Street Borders, which is closing. Perhaps illustrating the efficient market hypothesis, it is already mostly picked over. I might pick up some trashy paperbacks when they drop the prices a little further. Just two this week from my local used bookstore. Frankenstein Unbound,…
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Remaindered: Books that don’t belong
Another installment in an occasional series about books in our libraries that embarrass, confuse or upset us. Today: the particular humor of our friends the police. Cop Jokes, Lou Savelli and Stuart Moss (Looseleaf Law Publication, Flushing NY, 2007). Lots of vocational groups have their own oral folklore, and jokes are a big part of…
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Acquisitions for the week of 2/27/11
Last week, I said no more new books, at least for a while. What a dismal failure. The continued death spiral of four nearby Borders is simply too tempting to a bargain-loving book jockey like myself. Below is this week’s intake. Antwerp, Roberto Bolañ0 (translated by Natasha Wimmer). New York: New Directions, 2010. Picked up…
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Review: Drazin’s Maimonides
Maimonides: Reason Above All Israel Drazin This is an odd little volume on the great Jewish thinker, the Rambam. Perhaps its worth a read for someone like me — a novice Jewish scholar. There is a lot of good introductory material here, but the book is kind of all over the place. Chapters focus on…
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Remaindered: Who Built The Moon?
Who Built The Moon? By Christopher Knight and Alan Butler (Watkins, 2007) It must be said that V. Charm is not the only one of us with disturbing books on his shelf. After “proving” that the moon had to have been construction by an intelligence, Knight and Butler offer three theories for its existence: the…
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Review: The Secret Temple: Masons, Mysteries and the Founding of America
The Secret Temple: Masons, Mysteries and the Founding of America by Peter Levenda (Continuum Books, 2009) A good introductory text to a subject is hard to find and with the subject of Freemasonry it is even more difficult. Freemasons take oaths to never divulge the secrets of the Society and (perhaps as a result of…
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Review: Maimonides: Reason Above All
Maimonides: Reason Above All by Israel Drazin This is an odd little volume on the great Jewish thinker, the Rambam. This book is worth a read for someone like me who is a novice Jewish scholar. There is a lot of good introductory material here, but the book is kind of all over the place.…
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Foxhill
Hello Internet, As you can see, I don’t really update this blog anymore. I’m still a ger, still learning about Judaism, and still blogging, but I am focusing my energies on my bookish blog The Fox Hill Review. Over there I and some friends write about books and all things bookish. I often discuss books…
Milo and the Calf 