Category: Books
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Review: Pelecanos’s Hell to Pay
Hell to Pay: A Derek Strange Novel (Derek Strange Novels) George Pelecanos The second book in Pelecanos’s series about P.I. Derek Strange and his sidekick Terry Quinn. Probably even better than the first, this one has less silly shoot ‘em up scenes and more of the grime that is crime in South East D.C. as…
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Review: Simon’s Homocide
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets David Simon You’ve read this right? You have to. The best book on cops ever and its written by the creator of the world’s greatest TV show, the Wire. Baltimore in the early nineties was a violent place, policed by a largely white and often racist police force…
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Review: Zimler’s The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon
The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon Richard Zimler Murder mystery set among the Jewish community of Lisbon at the time they were being forced into exile. Good for the pop history of the Jews of Lisbon, but sub-par as a murder mystery. The scene of a community being torn apart and murdered because of antisemitism is…
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Review: Taleb’s Black Swan
The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable: With a new section: “On Robustness and Fragility” (Incerto) Nassim Nicolas Taleb The book every trader/i-banker/finance nerd had to read. The thesis of this is pretty much the same as Taleb’s earlier work – we discount the chances and effects of the random or…
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Review: Pelecanos’s Right as Rain
Right As Rain: A Derek Strange Novel (Derek Strange Novels) George Pelecanos Pelecanos is the great chronicler of our nation’s capital (Washington, D.C.) as it is lived by its actual citizens. For a crime writer who works in place and character, he is top of his game. This is the first of Pelecanos’s series chronicling…
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Review: Lessig’s Free Culture
Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity Lawrence Lessig Lessig is a law professor and one of the preeminent thinkers on open source and intellectual property in the contemporary era. This is his popular book in favor of open source software and a rethinking of the law of intellectual property. If you’re interested in…
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Review: Littell’s The Company
The Company: A Novel of the CIA Robert Littell A better than average page-turner spy novel tracing the history of the agency through the stories of a group of men who come into it as it was being formed and end up in the upper reaches of the organization. Clearly based on real guys, some…
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Review: Baer’s See No Evil
See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism Robert Baer Did you see Syriana? Well, Clooney’s character is allegedly based on Baer. If that’s true, it doesn’t seem to be a very accurate portrayal. What I got out of this book was not the story of a…
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Review: Collier’s Bottom Billion
The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It Paul Collier Here is the basic argument – while it sucks to be poor in countries like India, India is heading for relative prosperity, and therefore some hope for its poorest citizens. Where is really, really sucks to be…
Milo and the Calf 