Milo and the Calf

Tag: recommended

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    Book Review: Butler’s Parable of the Sower

    Parable of the Sower Octavia Butler I call myself a science fiction fan, and a progressive, but somehow, I’d reached middle age without having read Parable of the Sower. FAIL. Very pleased to have filled this gap in my education. Parable of the Sower is a modern classic of the dystopian future subgenre of science…

  • Book Review – Diaz’s Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

    The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz I’m late to the Diaz game, so probably you’ve already read this. If not, here goes: this is the story of awkward overweight SF fan Oscar Wao and his family. Its also a lot more than that.  Diaz uses the Wao family to tell the story of modern Dominican…

  • Akhil Sharma’s Family Life

    Family Life Akhil Sharma A slender, devastating book about family, immigration, childhood, and trauma. I could not put it down. This is the story of the Mishra family, who immigrate from India, full of hopes and ambitions, and fall victim to a terrible, unexpected injury to one of their sons.  The immigration, and the injury,…

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    Review: Hamilton’s Mythology

    Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes Edith Hamilton When I asked for a quick and dirty overview of the major Greek and Roman myths, everyone recommending this. I’m glad they did. When I started Mythology I was already half way through Hamilton’s the Greek Way, which is pretty bad, and I did not have…

  • Review: Delany’s Times Square Red, Times Square Blue

    Times Square Red, Times Square Blue Samuel Delany Delany’s memoir/ examination of 1970s era Times Square through the lens of late 1990s Times Square gentrification. This is a memoir of a young man exploring his sexuality in the in the porn theaters and sex shops of Times Square. It is also more than that. It…

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    Review: Delany’s Dhalgren

    Dhalgren Samuel Delany When people ask me what my favorite book is, I generally demure. Does anyone have a single favorite? I know I do not. But as I hem and haw about what it means for a book to be my “favorite” I almost always end up discussing Dhalgren. It isn’t my favorite book,…

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    Review: Aurelius’s Meditations

    Meditations: A New Translation Marcus Aurelius (trans. Hays) This is most people’s introductions to the philosophy of Stoicism — it was certainly mine. This is* the private writings of the emperor Aurelius, written in Greek, and intended as, perhaps, a set of private exhortations to himself to be better. It is comprised of a series…

  • Review: Rashid’s Taliban

    Read in 2001 Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, Second Edition Ahmed Rashid The original edition, written before the September 11th attacks, this book went from minor work to one of the best selling books in the history of the Yale Press overnight. I bought it, in the Strand, about a mile from…

  • Review: Seistad’s One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway

    One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway Anse Seiestad We’re only two weeks into 2016, but I think I may have my nonfiction book of the year in Asne Seierstad’s story of the Anders Breivik’s terrorist attack/mass murder in Norway. Do you remember that one? Breivik was a ultra-nationalist,…

  • Review: Lewis’s the Big Short

    The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine Michael Lewis It took the movie coming out for me to finally read this great book on the guys who figured out the subprime crash before the subprime crash. I’m not sure why I didn’t read this earlier, I’m a fan of both Michael Lewis and books skewering…