Milo and the Calf

Tag: book reviews

  • Review: Levy’s Who Killed Daniel Pearl

    Who Killed Daniel Pearl? Bernard Henri Levi Levy is an ass. Frankly, I have no idea why I thought reading this book was going to be a good idea. Perhaps it was worth the five hours or so it took to knock this one out, just so I know never to read anything by this…

  • Review: Wolf’s Peasant Wars of the 20th Century

    Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century Eric Wolf Analysis of the revolutions in a bunch of peasant / developing countries seen through a pretty rigorous historical Marxist analysis. This is by one of the top dogs in Marxist anthropology and I really liked this book when I read it* It was the first sustained look…

  • Review: Sifry’s Spoiling for a Fight

    Spoiling for a Fight: Third-Party Politics in America Micah Sifry This is, I am pretty sure, the only thing close to a complete history of third parties in U.S. electoral politics. I picked it up because of a paper I was writing on fusion voting and the Working Families Party, but it was so interesting,…

  • Review: Sebold’s The Lovely Bones

    The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold The plot of this one (young girl narrates her life and murder from heaven) put me off when I first heard it but, when many smart friends read, and loved it, I decided to give it a go. I am really glad I did. Seabold walks a fine line between…

  • Review: O’Brien and Williams’s Global Political Economy

    Global Political Economy: Evolution and Dynamics Robert O’Brien and Marc Williams This is another one that was probably more a textbook than a book, but as I read it cover to cover in undergrad, it counts. Politically economy is sometimes used as a code word for Marxists, but in O’Brien and Williams it was used…

  • Review: Eichenwald’s Conspiracy of Fools

    Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story Kurt Eichenwald Eichenwald is one of the best business writers around. Here, he gives the definitive account of what happened at Enron. The accounting explanations here can get a little hairy (because what was going inside Enron’s accounting was pretty bizarre) but it is still a fascinating read. I don’t…

  • Review: Skidelsky’s John Maynard Keynes: The Economist as Savior

    John Maynard Keynes: Volume 2: The Economist as Savior, 1920-1937 Robert Skidelsky It is hard to believe there was a time in my life when I thought reading a three volume biography of JMK was a good idea*. But there is it. On a personal note, I read most of this, and the first volume…

  • Review: Mieville’s The Scar

    The Scar China Mieville I think this is my favorite of Mieville’s trilogy of novels set in the world in and surrounding New Crobuzon. I can’t say why I like this one best, I think because the monsters in Perdido Street Station were too… monstery, and the socialism in the Iron Council was too… socialist.…

  • Review: Lowenstein’s When Genius Failed

    When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management Roger Lowenstein The death of Longterm Capital Management (LTCM) is one of the biggest collapses in modern financial history. So big, the Fed stepped in and made a number of major banks pony up serious dough to cover LTCMs loses so that the world…

  • Review: Clark’s Food Guide for Marathoners

    Nancy Clark’ s Food Guide for Marathoners: Tips for Everyday Champions Nancy Clark For a while at least, this was the definitive book on nutrition for endurance athletes. We’ve come a long way from the days of eat a ton of pasta the night before the race. Here, Clark discusses the timing of carbo-loading, the…