Milo and the Calf

Category: Books

  • Review: Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid

    Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution Peter Kropotkin When I used to work at Bound Together, an anarchist bookshop in San Francisco, they teased me because I had never read this book by Kropotkin (aka the anarchist formerly known as prince). The concept just seemed so basic that it didn’t seem necessary to read the…

  • Review: Al Aswany’s The Yacoubian Building

    The Yacoubian Building: A Novel Alla Al Aswany When I lived in Cairo in 2007, the Yacoubian Building was probably the most talked about book. Every time I brought up Mahfouz in a conversation, this book comes up as well. Written in 2002, but taking place during the time of the first Gulf War this…

  • Review: Raymond’s Cairo

    Cairo Andre Raymond   Its amazing to me that a city with a history so rich, that spans such important events in history of the world can be turned into such a boring book. I think Raymond is aping Braudel in this book with his focus on the economics and geographical changes that happened in…

  • Review: Cherryh’s Downbelow Station

    Downbelow Station (20th Anniversary) (Daw Book Collectors) C.J. Cherryh   If you’re going to say you know something about the science fiction genre (and for my own odd reasons I want to be able to say that*), you have to read C.J. Cherryh. She is one of the genre’s most respected writers both for the…

  • Review: Shakespeare’s Henry VI Part III

    Henry VI Part III (Folger Edition) William Shakespeare I don’t know this for a fact, but I imagine the Henry the 6th plays are among the least performed in the Shakespeare cannon. Written early in Will’s career, they just aren’t very good. The first is really down right awful. It is confusing, poorly plotted and…

  • Reading Egypt

    During law school I spent a summer in Egypt. I made many friends and read my fair share of books. Someone once said to understand a people, read their poetry. I’m not a poetry fan, but here are some of the best Egyptian authors or books about Egypt that I have read. I don’t read…

  • Review: Shakespeare’s Richard III

    Richard the Third, William Shakespeare, Folger Edition Richard the III is one of the most quoted of all Shakespeare’s plays (“My kingdom for a horse!), it is a title role all serious Shakespearean actors wish to play, and it is a huge step forward in the Bard’s writing from the Henry VI trilogy. This is…

  • Review: Rubenstein’s Aristotle’s Children

    Aristotle’s Children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Middle Ages Richard Rubenstein I have for some time been interested in the interplay between classical Greek philosophy, rabbinic Judaism, and early Christian thought. Neo-platonic thought and early Christian doctrine share a lot in common, and Aristotle had a clear influence on…

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    Review: Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors

    Comedy of Errors (Arden Shakespeare) William Shakespeare When I decided, years ago, to read the Bard’s works in chronological order, who knew that was going to be such a trying ordeal? I warn you, before you get to Lear and Hamlet you have to go through the long and turgid Richard the VI and the silly…

  • Notes on Reading All of the Shakespeare Plays

    Last year, I completed a project I’d been working on for years – to read the complete works of the Bard, in chronological order. It was a very up and down affair. You have to kiss a lot of frogs (King John, Comedy of Errors) before you find the princes (Hamlet (ha!), Lear, the HIVs).…