Tag: book reviews
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Review: Carson’s Red Doc>
Red Doc> Anne Carson A bit too much. As deeply as I loved Autobiography of Red, and as badly as I wanted to like this this, Red’s kinda sorta sequel, Red Doc> was too avant garde for me. Ostensibly, this is the story of what happened to Geryon, the protagonist of the Autobiography, when he…
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Review: Carson’s Autobiography of Red
Autobiography of Red Anne Carson Carson’s masterpiece of dysfunctional families, adolescent angst, love, and heart break as told (kinda, sorta) through an interpretation of the missing fragments of Stesichorus’ Geryoneïs and an imagining of was lost to history. It’s a strange book. There is a daring translation of some of what remains of Stesichorus’s work,…
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Review: Delany’s The Mad Man
The Mad Man The first Delany book I read, and what an introduction. There’s no point in starting this review off with anything other than the obvious – this book is full of detailed sexual adventures of men with other men. It is graphic, and there are portions (including accounts of corporphila and more) that…
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Review: Hamilton’s Mythology
Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes Edith Hamilton When I asked for a quick and dirty overview of the major Greek and Roman myths, everyone recommending this. I’m glad they did. When I started Mythology I was already half way through Hamilton’s the Greek Way, which is pretty bad, and I did not have…
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Review: Delany’s Dhalgren
Dhalgren Samuel Delany When people ask me what my favorite book is, I generally demure. Does anyone have a single favorite? I know I do not. But as I hem and haw about what it means for a book to be my “favorite” I almost always end up discussing Dhalgren. It isn’t my favorite book,…
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Review: Epictetus’s Discourses
Discourses and Selected Writings (Penguin Classics) Epictetus (trans Robert Dobbin) If Marcus’s Meditations are the most popular introduction to stoic philosophy, Epictetus discourses are perhaps the most substantive. Together, they are the two books of ancient stoic thought one really must read. Born a slave, Epictetus eventually gained his freedom and taught philosophy in Rome…
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Review: Popper’s Digital Gold Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money
Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money Nathaniel Popper Just the bitcoin book for me – the kind of guy very interested in the personalities involved and the political and economic repercussions, perhaps not the book for people interested primarily in the technical issues related to…
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Review: Aurelius’s Meditations
Meditations: A New Translation Marcus Aurelius (trans. Hays) This is most people’s introductions to the philosophy of Stoicism — it was certainly mine. This is* the private writings of the emperor Aurelius, written in Greek, and intended as, perhaps, a set of private exhortations to himself to be better. It is comprised of a series…
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Review: Warrick’s Black Flags: The Rise of Isis
Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS Joby Warrick First books about major events and movements are usually a bit thin and haphazard (Taliban is an exception). In the first year or so after a major event occurs such as a terrorist organization taking over vast amounts of one of the most contentious areas in the…
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Review: Rashid’s Taliban
Read in 2001 Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, Second Edition Ahmed Rashid The original edition, written before the September 11th attacks, this book went from minor work to one of the best selling books in the history of the Yale Press overnight. I bought it, in the Strand, about a mile from…
Milo and the Calf 