Category: Books
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Boyrain’s Borderlands: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity
Borderlands: The Partition of Judeo-Christinaty Daniel Boyarin Daniel Boyarin is a genius and a personally fascinating scholar. A Talmudic scholar and an expert on rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity, he’s also versed in what is generally called “theory” and rhetoric. He’s an observant Jew, and an anti-Zionist. He’s also, I’m afraid to say, a complex…
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Carreyrou’s Bad Blood
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies In a Silicon Valley Start Up John Carreyrou I have a real soft spot for the genre I call “Business Tell-Alls”. Books on rouge billionaires, hostel take overs, accounting scandals, I’m here for it all. And having read many, many of these books I can say with some authority that…
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Harris’s Dictator
Dictator: A Novel Robert Harris The final volume in Harris’s novelization of the life of Cicero, this one covering his actions during the time of the assassination of Caesar up to his death on the orders of Marc Anthony. Cicero is one of Rome’s most memorable senators. A brilliant lawyer and rhetorician who was also…
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Wrights Why Buddhism is True
Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment. Robert Wright This book is about much, much more than the truth of Buddhism. Yes, it convincingly makes the argument that the central tenet of Buddhism (i.e. there is no “you”) is true but it does so by marshalling the best that cognitive…
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Review: Knecht’s Who Is Vera Kelly
Who Is Vera Kelly Rosalie Knecht A clever spy novel that doubles as a coming out story, while also being an disection of gender and sexuality in 1950-60s American and is an subtle exposition of the catastrophic effects of U.S. involvement in Latin America. Many spy novelists are ostensibly liberals (LeCarre, Steinhauer come to mind)…
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Review: Holiday’s The Obstacle Is the Way
The Obstacle if the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph Ryan Holiday When I first heard of Ryan Holiday, and his mini-stoicism inspired empire, I figured he was probably an asshole. It was all a bit too Silicon Valley bro-y for me (and I’m someone with a deep interest in stoicism and…
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Review: Mackintosh’s I Let You Go
I Let You Go Clare Mackintosh A thriller about a dead child and a battered woman that has a plot twist that’s almost too clever. The writing is excellent, and the pacing in the first two third of the book feels like a perfect mix of long periods of dread and sorrow punctuated by short…
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Review: Hutchinson’s Endure
Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance Alex Hutchinson Anyone who has followed this site for any length of time knows I’m obsessed with human endurance. Why (and how) do we push through pain, how do we keep getting faster? Why are some people so much better at this, and how…
Milo and the Calf 