Milo and the Calf

Tag: books

  • Goodell’s The Water Will Come

    The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World Jeff Goodell We all know the world is warming, we all know this will change the way we live. Goodell’s book doesn’t break any ground there, but what is does do is give us a very terrifying, very sobering, look…

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    Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing

    Sing, Unburied, Sing Jesmyn Ward I read and loved Salvage the Bones, Ward’s first novel about a poor black and rural family preparing for hurricane Katrina. And I read, and cried, over her memoir Men We Reaped. But this, her latest about mothers and her children, about prison, about drugs, about race and violence and…

  • Fei’s The Invisibility Cloak

      The Invisibility Cloak Ge Fei Short novel set in contemporary China, ostensibly about love and high-end audio equipment. Really about a country grappling with mass hyper-urbanization, corruption, and huge wealth disparities. It plays out at first as a sort of surreal comedy, but quickly (the whole book is less than 200 pages) into a…

  • Lorde’s Zami: A New Spelling of My Name

    Zami: A New Spelling of the Name Audre Lorde The autobiography of one of the most important poets of the twentieth century. The story of a first-generation immigrant, a visually impaired girl, who dreamt of things far beyond what her mother could imagine. The story of a woman who read, and wrote, and worked the…

  • Lorde’s Coal

    Coal Audre Lorde Audre Lord would go on to be one of the cornerstones of the contemporary poetry, a woman referenced by anyone who cares about the art form. An activist who taught a generation that “”Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society’s definition of acceptable women; those of us who…

  • Hanh’s the Miracle of Mindfulness

    The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation Thich Nhat Hanh A beautiful and practical book on starting and sustaining a meditation practice by Thich Nhat Hanh. If you’re reading this review you probably know Hanh is one of the most important Buddhist practitioners alive today. His writings, courses, and political activism…

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    Davis’s Are Prisons Obsolete

    Are Prisons Obsolete? Angela Davis   This book came out more than ten years ago, when the modern-day prison abolitionist movement was surging on the left, powered by groups like Critical Resistance and intellectuals like Davis. I was part of that world and I’m a little embarrassed it took me this long to read this.…

  • Chödrön’s Start Where You Are

    Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living Pema Chodron An accessible and clear introduction to foundational principles of Buddhism told through a series of Tibetan Buddhist maxims. Chödrön writes with compassion and clarity, and the structure of the book is elegant in its simplicity, taking one maxim at a time and reflecting on it.…

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    Ward’s Men We Reaped

    Men We Reaped: A Memoir  Jesmyn Ward There may be other American writers working today who are as gifted as Ward, but I have a hard time believing there are any more gifted. From fiction to memoir, Ward consistently leaves me at the edge of tears at the raw emotion of what she is sharing,…

  • Review: Hoffman’s Greeting from Utopia Park

    Greetings from Utopia Park Claire Hoffman Mindfulness and meditation are having a moment. All over the business world people are extolling the virtues of a daily practice for productivity and mental health. This mainstreaming of meditation is being led by apps like Headspace (which I use) and the leaders of the mindfulness movement like Joseph…