Milo and the Calf

Tag: recommended for the enthusiast

  • Review: Mieville’s Perdido Street Station

    Perdido Street Station China Mieville The first in Mieville’s acclaimed New Crobuzon series. A “weird fiction” novel set in a kinda of steam punky city featuring monsters, weird machines, solid character development and very good writing. If this is your kind of thing, you’ve probably alreayd read it. If not, you should. Recommended for the…

  • 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: Pelacanos The Night Gardner

    The Night Gardener George Pelacanos As you probably know, most of the writers for the Wire are actually accomplished crime novelists including Denis Lehane, Richard Price and this guy, George Pelacanos. Pelacanos made his name in crime circles writing hardboiled detail rich police procedurals taking place in Washington, D.C. This is the first book by him…

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    Review: Poundstone’s Fortune’s Formula

    Fortune’s Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street William Poundstone A book about the mathematical aspects of gambling, whether it be on Wall Street, or in the casino, this is a smart, playful book full of an eccentric mix of gangsters, MIT professors and business people…

  • Review: Vollmann’s Expelled from Eden

    One of the many reviews archived here from livejournal. Expelled from Eden: A William T. Vollmann Reader William T. Vollman I got a soft spot for this gun wielding, prostitute loving, million page book writing nutso-nerdo. I think sometimes if I was smarter, and crazier, and got beat up more in high school, I might…

  • Review: Pear’s Instance of the Fingerpost

    Orginally written in 2007 for a now defunct livejournal account. An Instance of the Fingerpost Iain Pears A literary thriller in the vein of the In the Name of the Rose, but not as good, nor as full of hidden philosophical ideas. Set in the time of the reformation, it’s a mystery inside a mystery.…

  • Review: Fromm’s Escape from Freedom

    This review, and the scores of others I’ve been posting, was written in 2007 for a now long defunct livejournal account.  Escape from Freedom Erich Fromm I blew through this in a week for a political theory class at my undergrad. The class was horrible, and frankly, I remember next to nothing about Fromm. What…