Category: Books
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Gurdjieff, Work, and the Dark Side of Hidden Truths — A review of some books about a now largely forgotten mystic that is really more of a memoir about me and a story about a guy I used to know.
This site’s mostly archives now. I’m writing fresh things over at Substack Come say hi: www.miloandthecalf.substack.com Meetings with Remarkable Men, G.I. Gurdjieff Luba Gurdjieff: A Memoir with Recipes, Luba Gurdjieff Everitt Gurdjieff: A Biography, James Moore Our Life With Mr. Gurdjieff, Thomas and Olga De Hartmann Boyhood with Gurdjieff, Fritz Peters The Unknowable Gurdjieff,…
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Book Review: Bosker’s Cork Dork
Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste Bianca Bosker A fun book about the world of tasting in general, and wine and sommeliers in particular. I love these sort of experiential journalism books – enterprising young reporter talks to eccentrics…
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Book Review: Levoy’s Ghettoside
Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America Jill Levoy A captivating, depressing, challenging, frustrating, must read book about the state of modern policing in poor communities of color. If you’ve read this one, I’d really like to talk about it. Levoy spent a year covering every murder in Los Angeles for the LA Times.…
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Review: Simenon’s Pietr the Latvian
Pietr the Latvian Georges Simenon The first of the many, many Maigret novels. Many smart people love these novels, but I’m not yet convinced. The writing is strong, the characters compelling, and the plot serviceable, but there’s more than a whiff of anti-Semitism and anti-immigrant sentiment here. I might give one more a try since…
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Review: Sun Tzu’s The Art of War
The Art of War Sun Tzu I don’t know. Far be it from me to disparage a classic of Chinese literature, but I was underwhelmed. A series of aphorism ostensibly proving advice on the conduct of a successful military leader, this must read of the management consultant can also be viewed as a general guide…
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Review: Woodward and Bernstein’s All The Presidents Men
All the President’s Men Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein I’m as surprised as you are that I never read this book before. Sure, I’ve seen the movie, and know the story, but reading this play by play of how Woodward and Bernstein uncovered the levels of deceit and criminality in the Nixon White House is…
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Review: Alter’s Irresistible
Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked Adam Alter This book, on the way smart phones and social media are behaviorally addictive, has led me to a mini-reading binge on the ways technology is changing our behavior for the worst. It’s been a personally transformative little journey that I’ll…
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Review: Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress
Devil In A Blue Dress Walter Mosley The first of the Easy Rawlins novels featuring an unemployed African American factory worker turned private investigator in post-war Los Angeles. A well done, if standard crime novel, which includes the usual characters — the missing woman, the crime boss, the good guy PI forced into morally questionable…
Milo and the Calf 