Milo and the Calf

Tag: book reviews

  • 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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    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: Ehrman’s Triumph of Christianity

    The Triumph of Christianity: How A Forbidden Religion Swept the World Bart D. Ehrman Ehrman is among the world’s leading authorities on Early Christianity, and without a doubt, the most popular, serious, author on the topic. If Early Christian history and theology has a rock star, its Ehrman.  The dude has written over thirty books,…

  • 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…

  • Review: Zomorodi’s Bored and Brilliant

    Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self Manoush Zomorodi Another in a long line of books fretting over our distraction culture, this one focused on the importance of boredom in the creative process. I’ve read far more of these books than I care to admit (yet remain active…

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    Book Review: Westover’s Educated

    Educated Tara Westover The injuries in this book, the real bloody, life changing injuries. I wasn’t ready for that. I was ready for the story on the cover, of a woman raised by Mormon survivalists in the remote west, the story of a woman who didn’t know what the Holocaust was until she went to…

  • Book Review: Sternbergh’s Shovel Ready

    Shovel Ready Adam Sternbergh A crime novel set in post-apocalyptic New York City featuring a hit man with a heart of gold as the hero. New York has been hit with a dirty bomb, and most of the city has fled, or now lives their entire lives jacked into virtual reality. Except our hero, who…

  • Book Review: Miller’s Song of Achilles

    The Song of Achilles Madeline Miller If you’ve read the Iliad (and you really should read the Iliad) you know the basic outlines of Achilles life and, if you really paid attention, you remember Patroclus, his friend and consort whose death finally brings Achilles out of his moping to wage war on the Trojans. Miller’s…

  • Kurshan’s If All The Seas Were Ink

    If All the Seas Were Ink: A Memoir  Ilana Kurshan This book has been making the rounds among many of my friends and family and people’s reactions are so stark, and so diametrically opposed. There are those who love this book, who relate to its extreme bookishness, to the authors attempts to come to grips…