Tag: books
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Wright and Hope’s Billion Dollar Whale
Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World Tom Wright and Bradley Hope Kind of a business tell all book, but in the end more a book about hubris, greed, and insane spending sprees. This is a book about Jho Low, an overweight soft-spoken Malaysian who would, with…
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Steinhauer’s Middleman
MiddlemanOlen Steinhauer If literate, smart, fast paced thrillers are your thing, you should pick up every Olen Steinhauer novel as soon as it is published. He is without a doubt amongst the best in the business. This thriller about a leftist social movement (or is it a terrorist organization?) which one day tells its members…
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Heaney’s The Cure At Troy
The Cure At Troy: A Version of Sophocles’ PhiloctetesSeamus Heany I learned about this initially from Bill Clinton’s contribution to “By the Book” in the New York Times, a place where I’ve found scores of books to read, though none perhaps as powerful as this one. Here, Heaney retells the story of Philoctetes, who on…
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Solider’s Whereas
Whereas: Poems Layli Long Soldier Another book of contemporary poetry, this one short listed for the National Book Award. More formally experimental than Smith’s Don’t Call Us Dead, this one left me feeling a bit cold. While stylistically interesting, I found it a bit cold, and I prefer my poetry rawer, I think. Still, and…
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Heraclitus Fragments
FragmentsHeraclitus A strange and beautiful little book collecting the surviving fragments of poetic writings of Heraclitus, a pre-socratic philosopher and poet. None of the fragments collected here are complete, so it difficult to under how exactly they fit into the longer works to which they once belonged, but here, in a relatively new translation, and…
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Woodward’s Fear
Fear: Trump in the WhitehouseBob Woodward You know this one. Woodward’s latest tell all, this time about the campaign and first year of the Trump presidency. I read all the Woodward books, largely out of habit at this point, and I weighed whether or not to read this one – I have enough trump in…
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Smith’s Don’t Call Us Dead
Don’t Call Us Dead Danez Smith A stunning work of poetry. A book that left me breathless, and thrusting it into my wife’s hands, saying “you need to read this”. A work both political and deeply, deeply, personal full of poems that address race, love, manhood and more, tackling the deeply toxic race relations in…
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Kurtz’s Stronger Than Iron
Stronger Than Iron: Not Finishing Was Not An Option Wayne Kurtz and Stefan Zetterstrom There are endurance events, like a marathon, or even a half marathon. And then there are ultra endurance events, like 50 milers and hundred milers, and, I’d argue, ironmans. But then there is shit that is just so crazy that’s its…
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Donin’s To Pray As A Jew
To Pray As A Jew: A Guide To The Prayer Book And The Synagogue Service Hayim Halevy Donin A detailed discussion of the technical aspects of the rituals and traditions of Orthodox Jewish prayer. Literally a handbook that takes you, moment by moment, through Shabbat and daily services, and prayer at home. As I’ve written…
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Walker’s Why We Sleep
Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams Matthew Walker, Phd. A truly terrifying book about the long term health consequences of cutting your sleep short. Especially if, like me, you’re the parent of young children, who drinks coffee and alcohol. Its all around a grim scene, increased risk of all cause morbidity,…
Milo and the Calf 