- https://PayPal.Me/lukeisback
"Luke Ford reports all of the 'juicy' quotes, and has been doing it for years." (Marc B. Shapiro)
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff) LATEST POSTS:
- Dennis Prager v Cedars-Sinai Lawsuit
- Dennis Prager Through Randall Collins: Interaction Ritual Chains
- What is a ‘Received Idea’?
- Jordan Bardella: The Manufacture of Normality
- Everyone Became Television: Bourdieu’s Warning and the 2026 Iran War
- Marine Le Pen
- The Coalition-Proximity Rule
- Nigel Farage
- Bernard Haykel: A Life Between the Text and the Gun
- Walker Connor (1926-2017)
- Benedict Anderson and the Nation as Imagination
- Anthony D. Smith: The Student Who Kept the Question and Rejected the Answer
- Ernest Gellner
- Eric Kaufmann: The Man Who Made the Majority Visible
- Dominic Cummings: A Biography
- Steve Lopez: The Last City Columnist
- California Historian Kevin Starr
- Stephen Kotkin: A Life in Power
- William T. Vollmann: An American Life in Excess
- Rod Dreher: A Life in Exile
BEST POSTS:
- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
* Mr. Burge Draws The Line (6-23-26)
* 'Improving on Democracy' (6-17-26)
* People Leak To People Who Are Fun (6-11-26)
* Why Does Australia Produce So Many Great Journalists? (6-11-26)
* Steve Wynn and the Press: Power, Litigation, and the Contest Over Las Vegas (6-3-26)
* Sheldon Adelson and the Journalists (6-3-26)
* The Vigilant Animal: Thinkers Who Reject the Myth of Human Gullibility (6-2-26)
* The Cost of Refusing the Misunderstanding Myth (6-2-26)
* Show Me How It Travels (6-2-26)
* The Norm Explainers (6-2-26)
* Centering Marginalized Voices (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Washington Post put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Financial Times put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for the Los Angeles Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for The New York Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* Why Wembanyama Lives on the Perimeter (5-31-26)
* The Emotional Palettes Of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco & Sacramento (5-27-26)
* The Administrative Capital: Sacramento Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* San Diego - The Quiet Republic (5-27-26)
* The Quiet Bar: San Diego Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* SF v LA Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* Why Talent Travels Poorly Between San Francisco and Los Angeles (5-27-26)
* San Francisco and Los Angeles as Rival Models of Urban Access (5-27-26)
* Social Cliques in New York, 2026 (5-25-26)
* Social Cliques in San Francisco, 2026 (5-25-26)
* The Rival Courts of Washington (5-25-26)
* The City of Private Rooms (5-25-26)
Category Archives: Book Reviews
The Book of Vice: Very Naughty Things (and How to Do Them) by Peter Sagal
Publishers Weekly says: "NPR host Sagal (Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me) offers a hilarious, harmlessly prurient look at the banality of regular people’s strange and wicked pleasures. In the wake of the late-1990s obsession with other people’s fun, notes Sagal, … Continue reading
Posted in Articles, Author Interviews, Book Reviews
Comments Off on The Book of Vice: Very Naughty Things (and How to Do Them) by Peter Sagal
THEY KNEW THEY WERE RIGHT: The Rise of the Neocons by Jacob Heilbrunn
Timothy Noah writes for the New York Times: There’s no point denying it: neocons tend to be Jewish. There are plenty of prominent exceptions — William Bennett, the former education secretary, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the late United States senator, … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews
Comments Off on THEY KNEW THEY WERE RIGHT: The Rise of the Neocons by Jacob Heilbrunn
‘A novelist weaves vivid fiction through the already colorful history of a 14th century Hebrew codex’
Emily Barton writes in the LAT: Geraldine Brooks has based her new novel, "People of the Book," on the real-life adventures of a 14th century Hebrew codex known as the Sarajevo Haggadah, a richly illuminated version of the narrative Jews … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews
Comments Off on ‘A novelist weaves vivid fiction through the already colorful history of a 14th century Hebrew codex’
It’s A Fable, It Must Be Good
I got a filthy book in the mail. That’s not unusual. I get a lot of filfthy stuff in the mail. Strictly for journalistic purposes, mind you. But this one was different. To begin with, it was sent to me … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews
Comments Off on It’s A Fable, It Must Be Good
‘Her Last Death’ By Susanna Sonnenberg
Karen Valby writes for EW: As the story goes, when Susanna Sonnenberg was 2 years old, Norman Mailer took one look at her and pronounced to her mother that ”Susy’s got a great ass. It’s going to get her into … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews
Comments Off on ‘Her Last Death’ By Susanna Sonnenberg
On Your Knees, Sinner!
Every time I make a sexy post, every time I despoil the pristine gift God gave me, I must make two self-flagellating posts and three Torahdic posts. I must virtually scourge myself for my sins, staying awake until dawn, tossing … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews, Personal
Comments Off on On Your Knees, Sinner!
God, Man and Nietzsche: A Startling Dialogue between Judaism and Modern Philosophers by Zev Golan
Rabbi Gil Student writes: In a recent book, God, Man and Nietzsche, Zev Golan sets out to examine some of the specific approaches of Existentialists and both compare and contrast them with traditional Jewish texts. In chapters with titles such … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews, Judaism
Comments Off on God, Man and Nietzsche: A Startling Dialogue between Judaism and Modern Philosophers by Zev Golan
‘The Loved Dog’
I just saw author Tamar Geller interviewed on Donny Deutsch’s show. From the book description: Every dog owner must make a choice: Do you want a fearful and submissive pet, or do you want a happy, joyful, and well-mannered member … Continue reading
Posted in Animals, Book Reviews
Comments Off on ‘The Loved Dog’
Flipping Out? The Impact of the ‘Year in Israel’
I read this new book by Shalom Z. Berger, Daniel Jacobson and Chaim I. Waxman. It’s a solid book. There are few surprises. It cites surveys that show that high school graduates who spend a year in Israel in yeshiva … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews
Comments Off on Flipping Out? The Impact of the ‘Year in Israel’
NTY’s 10 Best Books Of 2007
From the NYT: MAN GONE DOWN By Michael Thomas. Black Cat/Grove/Atlantic, paper, $14. This first novel explores the fragmented personal histories behind four desperate days in a black writer’s life. OUT STEALING HORSES By Per Petterson. Translated by Anne Born. … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews
Comments Off on NTY’s 10 Best Books Of 2007