Milo and the Calf

Tag: book reviews

  • Melo’s Inferno

    A kind of sensationalistic kind of interesting novel of Brazilian street kid who goes on to become a drug lord of his favela before losing it all to betrayal, hubris and paranoia. Not a particularly new take on the story of the drug dealer (i.e. basically Scarface in Sao Paolo) but interesting none the less…

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    Welch’s Winter in the Blood

    Winter in the Blood James Welch Brutal, haunting and beautifully written tale of life over a couple of weeks on a reservation, in Montana, in the 1970s. If you think such a setting would produce a sad tale of heartbreak, death, alcoholism and little hope, you’d be right. Much of this book is brutal in…

  • Review: Labbe’s Loquela

    Loquela Carlos Labbe Bolano-esque, but more formally experimental and less enjoyable (at least to this pleb). Like many such literary affairs, it’s plot, such as it is, centers on a love story. Of course, one of the lovers is a novelists, struggling to write. There is much discussion about the nature of writing, digressions into…

  • Review: Desai’s Marx’s Revenge

    Marx’s Revenge: The Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism Meghnad Desai I’m genuinely surprised I don’t hear this book talked about more. On a macro level, Marx’s Revenge makes the argument that Marx would have welcomed globalization (the left’s boogie man of the day in 2004 when this came out) as the evitable…

  • Review: Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time

    The Fire Next Time James Baldwin The latest in a long line of classics I should have read years ago. The latest in a series of reviews o books so important, so pivotal, that it’s absurd to try to write a review. Still, I’ll give it a go. This, Baldwin’s combination letter to his nephew…

  • Review Gonzales’s The Spitboy Rule

    The Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk Band Michelle Cruz Gonzales Ok, so I know Michelle, the author of this book, and some of the other members of Spitboy, the band at the center of this story. There was a time, a long long while ago, when we were all close.…

  • Palmer’s Too Like the Lightning

    Too Like The Lightning Ada Palmer Too Like the Lightning is a strange book. At times, it is a difficult book. It is also a very, very good book. A work of science fiction, for sure (we’ve got flying cars, people) it’s also much more than that. It’s an attempt to transport enlightenment ideas about…

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    Review: Fitzgerald’s 80/20 Running

    80/20 Running: Matt Ftizgerald Fitzgerald is an ace at taking a basic idea about endurance sports and turning it into a useful, if a bit padded book. Racing weight is about, well, weight and racing, and 80/20 is about the very popular (some would say ubiquitous) running methodology of running eight percent of your miles…

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    Review — Fitzgerald’s Racing Weight

    Racing Weight Matt Fitzgerald A diet book that isn’t a diet book. A straight forward, no bullshit, guide to getting your weight to a level at which you will perform optimally at endurance events. The diet advice here is not revolutionary (eat whole foods, avoid bad shit as much as you can, don’t over eat,…

  • Review: Saawadi’s Woman At Point Zero

    Woman at Point Zero Nawal El Saawadi A novel based on Saadawi’s interviews with a n imprisoned psychiatric patient, Women at Point Zero is important, deeply moving and horrific. I’m not going to lie to you, this one isn’t easy to get through. Saadawi’s protagonist life is an unending series of horrors committed against either…