Michael Tamblyn Michael Tamblyn

The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis

Could be called "Fear II: Civil Disservice". Woodward's narrative is more detail on a now-well-known picture. Lewis, who has my vote for current master of narrative nonfiction, does him one better - revealing the near-destruction of critical parts of the US civil service due to ignorance and disinterest…

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Michael Tamblyn Michael Tamblyn

On the Shortness of Life by Seneca

Interviewing Ryan Holiday at Rakuten Optimism meant brushing up on my Stoics along with his more modern, but I daresay no more or less practical, books on growth hacking, marketing and media. (I actually read this in the lovely Penguin Great Ideas paper edition. Tell no one.)

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Michael Tamblyn Michael Tamblyn

Arbitrary Stupid Goal by Tamara Shopsin

I read chapter one in ebook. Okay. Listened to the rest in audio and it was magic. As a lover of neighbourhoods, families, and the streamlined beauty of meat slicers, this one hit me hard.

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Michael Tamblyn Michael Tamblyn

Rebellion by Peter Ackroyd

The last of my English-Civil-War-Glorious-Revolution binge. It's good to remember that this isn't the first time that the UK has said "let's jump off a cliff and see what happens." Although it's been a while...

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Michael Tamblyn Michael Tamblyn

Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker

I spent enough time working in restaurants, front and back of house, to pick up the rough basics of a wine education: varietals, tasting notes, food pairing. But I knew enough to know there was a lot I didn't know. Wine knowledge is hidden knowledge, mysterious, acquired at great expense…

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Michael Tamblyn Michael Tamblyn

American War by Omar El Akkad

A future that is grounded in the universal experience of refugees, the dispossessed who become terrorists, the violent grind of civil war. Except it's America… 

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Michael Tamblyn Michael Tamblyn

New Dark Age by James Bridle

James and I once spoke at the same conference, If:Book in Italy, in I'm guessing about 2011. I was struck by this quiet, intense, supremely thoughtful guy who

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Michael Tamblyn Michael Tamblyn

Opinel Knives

I have been carrying this in my pocket every day for two weeks in Sandy Cove…

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