books

I’m reading…

August 19, 2010

and and (for anthropological analysis.) Reviews for all three to come soon, after this insanity that is SAS Level II Programming stops taking over my life and I turn back rightside up. I’ve been having a really hard time reviewing Super Sad True Love Story because it has so many dimensions and angles that I just can’t tackle it without sounding like I gushingly approve of everything Shteyngart wrote and sounding like every other review out there, from Slate, to ...

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A book about why the Middle East is crazy

August 3, 2010

I’ve been going on non-stop about this book on Twitter for the past couple of days now, but I really loved it and I think it’s really an important read for anyone involved in any sphere of Middle Eastern relations, even as a navel-gazer. MacFarquhar, who grew up in an expat compound in Libya, writes about his long experience in the region as a reporter and as someone who is constantly amused, amazed, and frustrated by movements there. He focuses ...

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Book Review: Stalin’s Romeo Spy

July 13, 2010

(Full disclosure: Book  provided for review by Northwestern University Press. Lots of spoilers below, but I think this book is more about the journey than the ending, so read on. Old time-y Pictures of Russia in the 1940s/50s/60s in this post from here. ) When I was in Moscow with my dad four years ago, we went to see waxy Lenin rotting away and, afterwards, walked along the walls of the Kremlin, where many current and former Soviet military leaders ...

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Oh Crap, It’s Bloomsday

June 16, 2010

I was startled this morning by the following in my Facebook feed from  friend  Monica. And I thought, “Oh, crap.” Because, you see, I’ve been trying to get through Ulysses this year in time for Bloomsday.  It’s not like I wasn’t warned it was impossible. I  remembered Marinka’s attempts to get through it and, though she struggled valiantly, finishing the world’s best novel wasn’t in her cards. The problem, though, was that I am part of an online bookclub that ...

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Rory Stewart Walked Through Afghanistan

January 14, 2010

source. I just finished The Places in  Between, a book by Briton Rory Stewart about his walk through Afghanistan in the winter of 2002, right after the invasion of Afghanistan by the Northern Alliance and the capture of the Taliban. This is probably one of the most amazing things I have ever read about. Stewart, originally a career diplomat with the British Foreign Service, felt something missing in his life, quit his prominent career, and decided to walk around the ...

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