Author: seanv2
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D’Var Torah for the first day of Rosh Hashanah
I was lucky enough to give a drash on the first day of Rosh Hashanah this year at the always amazing altshul. Here it is. As those of you who know me know, and those of you who don’t can probably guess from my name, I was not raised Jewish. I come to all of…
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2021: My Year In Books
2021, what a mess, right? We had our good days and our bad days, and somehow or other we got through. I was luckier than many, having the privilege to spend alot of time outside, and (occasionally) lounge with a book. As always, books were where I found solace. As I’ve said before, my reading…
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2020: My Year In Books
What a year, friends, what a year. At the start of the year I had big plans both intellectually and physically, but in the end, I ended up holding on and finishing, even if just barely, 52 books. Here they are, with some of the best highlighted. Best Fiction Book Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison…
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Kinzer’s Poisoner in Chief
Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind ControlStephen Kinzer Undoubtably the strangest, most disturbing, book I read this year. The story of Sydney Gottlieb and the early years of the CIA is almost too cruel, to horrible to really comprehend. Yes, I knew about MK Ultra (where the CIA drugged unsuspecting…
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Brakeley’s Skiing with Henry Knox
Skiing with Henry Knox: A Personal Journey Along Vermont’s Catamount TrailSam Brakeley I have a real soft spot for books like this. Young dude decided to take on doing the Catamount Trail, (a cross country ski route that runs the length of Vermont) in a single push. Ostensibly he’s doing this to give himself time…
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Eyre’s Death in Mud Lick
Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight Against the Drug Companies that Delivered the Opioid Epidemic Eric Eyre The worst book I read this year. A full of himself reporter takes the destruction wrought on West Virginia by big pharma and attempts to turn it into a hero story about himself. In almost every case…
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Cooper’s We Keep the Dead Close
We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of SilenceBecky Cooper True crime for fancy folks. An investigation into the murder of a student at Harvard in the 1960s that turns into an investigation into the way power works. The way Harvard, men, and the state all use power against…
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Calle’s True Stories
True StoriesSophie Calle Been sitting on my shelves for years and years. So happy I finally took down this little book of aphorisms and photos (both original and found) by the wonderfully bizarre performance artist / writer Sophie Calle. I have followed Calle’s work for decades. It has often focused on the contradictions of desire,…
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Odell’s How To Do Nothing
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention EconomyJenny Odell I may be the last dad in brownstone Brooklyn to read this book, but I’m glad I did. It lives up to the hype. The central premise you probably already know – there is power in slowing down, in paying attention, in resisting the never ending…
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von Straten’s In Search of Lost Books
In Search of Lost Books: The forgotten stories of eight mythical volumesGiorgio von Straten, Simon Carnell (Translator) A wonderful little book chronicling the stories of books lost to time. By “lost books” von Straten isn’t referring to rare books, or even books we know were published, but no longer have. Here’s he’s talking about the…
Milo and the Calf 