Milo and the Calf

Tag: books

  • Review: Taleb’s Fooled By Randomness

    Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (Incerto) Nicolas Nasim Taleb   If you’re interested in poplar economics, you’ve very familiar with Taleb by now. This, and its sequel Black Swan are required reading for the economically literate. Fooled by Randomness is both a very interesting book, and…

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    Review: Stewart’s The Places in Between

    The Places In Between Rory Stewart In theory, it is easy to hate an Eton educated upper class Scotsman who decides it’d be a lark to walk across Afghanistan six months after the fall of the Taliban. The idea reminds me of the stupidity and adventurism I encountered in my twenties with people going to…

  • Review: Delany’s 1984

    1984: Selected Letters Samuel Delany I have a Samuel Delany fetish. I have a google alert on the man’s name for Christ’s sake. I have read a bunch of his work, and hope to one day read it all, so I think I can say with some confidence that if you’re interested in Delany and…

  • Review: Adams and Frantz’s Full Service Bank: How BCCI Stole Billions Around the World

    Full Service Bank (How Bcci Stole Billions Around the World) James Ring Adams, Douglas Frantz If you know me, you know I have a deep and abiding love for books on business scandals. This shit fascinates me – the complexity of some of the fraud, the stupidity and greed of many of the people involved.…

  • Review: Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid

    Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution Peter Kropotkin When I used to work at Bound Together, an anarchist bookshop in San Francisco, they teased me because I had never read this book by Kropotkin (aka the anarchist formerly known as prince). The concept just seemed so basic that it didn’t seem necessary to read the…

  • Review: Al Aswany’s The Yacoubian Building

    The Yacoubian Building: A Novel Alla Al Aswany When I lived in Cairo in 2007, the Yacoubian Building was probably the most talked about book. Every time I brought up Mahfouz in a conversation, this book comes up as well. Written in 2002, but taking place during the time of the first Gulf War this…

  • Review: Raymond’s Cairo

    Cairo Andre Raymond   Its amazing to me that a city with a history so rich, that spans such important events in history of the world can be turned into such a boring book. I think Raymond is aping Braudel in this book with his focus on the economics and geographical changes that happened in…

  • Review: Cherryh’s Downbelow Station

    Downbelow Station (20th Anniversary) (Daw Book Collectors) C.J. Cherryh   If you’re going to say you know something about the science fiction genre (and for my own odd reasons I want to be able to say that*), you have to read C.J. Cherryh. She is one of the genre’s most respected writers both for the…

  • Review: Shakespeare’s Henry VI Part III

    Henry VI Part III (Folger Edition) William Shakespeare I don’t know this for a fact, but I imagine the Henry the 6th plays are among the least performed in the Shakespeare cannon. Written early in Will’s career, they just aren’t very good. The first is really down right awful. It is confusing, poorly plotted and…

  • Review: Rubenstein’s Aristotle’s Children

    Aristotle’s Children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Middle Ages Richard Rubenstein I have for some time been interested in the interplay between classical Greek philosophy, rabbinic Judaism, and early Christian thought. Neo-platonic thought and early Christian doctrine share a lot in common, and Aristotle had a clear influence on…