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An Alluring Series

Bangkok Tattoo by John Burdett

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Will Leitch is one of my favorite writers. He covers sports in word form and movies on the Grierson & Leitch podcast. All year long, he has grappled with is love for the Wes Anderson movie Isle of Dogs, which is set in Japan and has many references to famed director Akira Kurosawa but whose characters are voiced mostly by white people. The movie has been deemed (accurately in my estimation) to be culturally appropriated. I’m not one for winning “Who’s the most woke white person?” contests. […]

I am the walrus

The Dude and The Zen Master by Jeff Bridges, Bernie Glassman

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In The Dude and the Zen Master, Jeff Bridges and his old friend Bernie Glassman have a loose and free-wheeling chat about life and Buddhism, attempting to make it more accessible by illustrating many of its concepts with The Big Lebowski as its main example (my love for which probably being what prompted this being gifted to me). Buddhism and mindfulness have both been recommended to me a lot, given that I have a few troubles with anxiety, and so using something that I already […]

10% Useful

10% Happier by Dan Harris

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10% Happier is, like Shonda Rhimes’ Year of Yes or Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic, part self-help book and part memoir. In fact, the first 80+ are essentially a chronicle of Dan Harris’s life as he rises through the ranks of broadcast journalism, becomes addicted to cocaine and ecstasy, and eventually has a panic attack on live television. It’s mildly entertaining, behind-the-curtain stuff, and it serves to frame his journey toward mindfulness and meditation, but it’s not especially useful if you’re hoping, as the extremely long […]

Enlightenment, yogis, Apaches, oh my!

A Death on Diamond Mountain: A True Story of Obsession, Madness, and the Path to Enlightenment by Scott Carney

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Is internal bliss at the expense of outward oblivion desirable? If we lived in a world reminiscent of that which Keanu Reaves faced in The Matrix, are we better off living in ignorance? And why does it seem that there is a fine line between religious fervor and religious fanaticism? Are they even mutually exclusive? these questions and more are tackled in A Death on Diamond Mountain, the story of several people’s search for enlightenment under the auspices of Tibetan Buddhism. Carney’s background as an […]

Buddhism, Sex and Snakes: Culture Shock in Thailand

Bangkok 8 by John Burdett

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Apparently Bangkok thrillers have a certain notoriety for sensationalism, and Burdett’s Bangkok 8 doesn’t fail in that regard, but it is also so much more. In fact, this noir detective story could be a Phillip Marlowe, if it weren’t for the fact that its hero’s name is a little harder to pronounce. Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep is the son of a Thai bar girl and a long-gone Vietnam-era American soldier, is a little too comfortable with many of the denizens of Bangkok’s notorious red-light districts, is […]



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