Milo and the Calf

Tag: recommended for the enthusiast

  • Book Review: Sternbergh’s Shovel Ready

    Shovel Ready Adam Sternbergh A crime novel set in post-apocalyptic New York City featuring a hit man with a heart of gold as the hero. New York has been hit with a dirty bomb, and most of the city has fled, or now lives their entire lives jacked into virtual reality. Except our hero, 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…

  • 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.…

  • 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…

  • ,

    Review: Ide I.Q.

    I.Q. Joe Ide Cat nip for the crime novel fan. Fast paced P.I. story set in Los Angeles with a compelling protagonist, I.Q. A genius, a high school dropout, black, socially insecure and from Long Beach. He’s an unusual hero in a genre more often populated by misanthropic ex-cop white dudes.  You won’t be surprised…

  • ,

    Review: Okorafor’s Who Fears Death

    Who Fears Death Nnedi Okorafor I’ve been reading science fiction and fantasy for most of my life. I devoured William Gibson in my teens, got deep into new wave in my twenties, and learned the classics in my thirties. I’m not an expert in the genre, by any means, but I’m also reasonably well read.…

  • Book Review: Lew’s This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared

    This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared: The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation Allan Lew A meditation on the Jewish High Holidays by one of the most important reform rabbis of the last fifty years. A deeply honest and moving book. The most spiritually moving piece of literature I have read,…

  • Review: Flynn and Gerhardt’s The Silent Brotherhood: The Chilling Inside Story of America’s Violent, Anti-Government Militia Movement

    The Silent Brotherhood: The Chilling Inside Story of America’s Violent, Anti-Government Militia Movement Kevin Flynn Gary Gerhardt The first on the scene book about the “the Order”, a white supremacist criminal gang that robbed banks to fund the white power movement and was involved in the assassination of liberal radio DJ Alan Berg. Told is…

  • Review: Palmer’s Seven Surrenders

    Seven Surrenders Ada Palmer The second book in Ada Palmers incredible Terra Ignota series. This one picks off exactly where Too Like the Lightning ended, and moves along at a blistering clip through scores of plot revelations, and extended explorations into the nature of gender, the place of violence in society, the complexities of competing…

  • ,

    Review Foer’s Moonwalking With Einstein

    Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything Joshua Foer I read a lot of these experiential journalism books. Some of these are call-in jobs that would have been better as a magazine article, but many, including this one (and Cork Dork), are entertaining edutainment in which a pretty smart person gets to…