Recently Mentioned Books

4. Marwa Al-Sabouni, The Battle for Home: The Memoir of a Syrian Architect .  A poignant and readable take on what has happened in the city of Homs, Syria, through the lens of how the architecture of a city shapes its politics, norms, and liberties, including how it ends up getting destroyed in wartime.

3. Conversations with Roger Scruton .  A good introduction to Scruton’s overall thought, your opinion of this book will match your opinion of him.

2. Stevyn Colgan, Why Did the Policeman Cross the Road? How to Solve Problems Before They Arise .  How one very smart and analytical policeman thinks about the problems he encounters in his daily job.  No single part wowed me or revolutionized my ideas, but smart and thoughtful throughout.

1. Sebastian Junger, Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging .  Super short, large print, and in some places too speculative.  Still, this is one of the better books for understanding why 2016 seems to be running off the tracks.

That is from Marie Kondo, Spark Joy: An Illustrated Guide to the Japanese Art of Tidying , a recommended book.  Also never tidy the kitchen first, do not keep make-up and skin care products together, and “…the first step in tidying is to get rid of things that don’t spark joy.”

The author is Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon and the subtitle is Britain and Europe from the End of Empire to the rise of Euroscepticism .  It is maybe the best book to read on Britain’s earlier relations with the European Union.  Here is one bit:

If you want a new Brexit-relevant title of interest, try Brendan Simms, Britain’s Europe: A Thousand Years of Conflict and Cooperation .

That is the new book by Ben Wilson , and no it has nothing (directly) to do with Brexit.  Rather it is a survey of the technological breakthroughs of the 1850s and how they reshaped Great Britain and the globe more generally.  Here is one short bit:

I have pre-ordered this forthcoming Robert P. Jones book , here is the Amazon description:

The Force is strong with this one. Cass is by far the most widely cited legal scholar of his generation. His older book, Nudge , and his new book on Star Wars are both best sellers, and he was head of OIRA [Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs] under President Obama from 2009 to 2013. Powerful, you have become.

The Force is strong with this one. Cass is by far the most widely cited legal scholar of his generation. His older book, Nudge , and his new book on Star Wars are both best sellers, and he was head of OIRA [Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs] under President Obama from 2009 to 2013. Powerful, you have become.

Dickie Davis, David Kilcullen, Greg Mills, and David Spencer, A Great Perhaps?: Colombia: Conflict and Convergence .  After Uruguay, is Colombia not the longest standing democracy in South America?

Richard E. Feinberg, Open for Business: Building the New Cuban Economy .

Lee J. Alston, Marcus Andre Melo, Bernardo Mueller, and Carlos Pereira, Brazil in Transition: Beliefs, Leadership, and Institutional Change .

4. Srinath Raghavan, India’s War: World War II and the Making of Modern South Asia .  Consistently well-written and interesting, the title says it all.

3. Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets .  A good book, and a good introduction to her writing.  I have to say though, I did not find this incredibly profound or original. Chernobyl is deeper and more philosophical.

3. Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets .  A good book, and a good introduction to her writing.  I have to say though, I did not find this incredibly profound or original. Chernobyl is deeper and more philosophical.

2. Adam Kucharski, The Perfect Bet: How Science and Math are Taking the Luck Out of Gambling .  The subtitle is an exaggeration, nonetheless this is an interesting topic and book.  There is invariably a frustrating element to such an investigation, because the best schemes are hard to uncover or verify.  Nonetheless have you not thought — as I have — that a determined, Big Data-crunching, super smart entity could in fact beat the basketball odds just ever so slightly?

1. Andrej Svorencik and Harro Maas, editors, The Making of Experimental Economics: Witness Seminar on the Emergence of a Field .  Transcribed dialogue on the origins and history of a field, including many of the key players including Vernon Smith and Charles Plott, among others.  There should be a book like this — or better yet a web site — for every movement, major debate, new method, and school of thought.

3. Two Arabs, a Berber, and a Jew : I just ordered my copy .

That is the new Arnold Kling book , I very much liked the earlier draft I read.  Think of it as Fischer Black macro for 2016. Here is Arnold :

Here is the article , I just ordered the book here .  Here is my earlier post on this topic .  File under speculative .

Manisha Sinha, The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition .

Carlos M.N. Eire, Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650 , and

4. The Gene: An Intimate History , by Siddhartha Mukherjee.  This book filled in a number of gaps in my knowledge, plus it is engaging to read.  Overall it confirmed my impression of major advances in the science, but not matched by many medical products for general use.