Recently Mentioned Books

Brink Lindsey is the editor, and I am one of the experts (is anyone an expert on economic growth?), here are the other contributors , and that is also a link to the underlying on-line symposium.  It is a $6.99 ebook on Amazon .  Here is Cato’s home page for the ebook .

His new book is…different.  Think of it as a guide to dating and mating for males, but unlike the pick-up artists he (with Max) focuses on the separating rather than the pooling equilibrium.  That is, he advises men to actually be better men, and not just to send clever signals, and so the subtitle is Become the Man Women Want .  Hard to argue with that, right?

The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life When Robots Rule the Earth

By Barry Cunliffe, due out in November .  I’m counting the days…

No, not Dani Rodrik, the guest for tomorrow’s Conversations with Tyler chat, rather Elias Canetti .  As prep for Dani at 3:30 tomorrow (live stream), I thought I should read some more Canetti.  Here are a few maxims from his The Secret Heart of the Clock :

I learned something from every page, you can buy the book here .

I recommend L. Randall Wray’s Why Minsky Matters: An Introduction to the Work of a Maverick Economist , forthcoming in November.  Minsky isn’t so readable, but Wray is.  I’ve just started my review copy, I hope to report more on it soon.

Jennifer Mittelstadt’s The Rise of the Military Welfare State is a useful history of how a social welfare state for the military was first created, for recruitment purposes, and then  later dismantled.

Tom Gjelten’s A Nation of Nations is an interesting “immigration history” of Fairfax County.  I enjoyed Deirdre Clemente’s Dress Casual: How College Students Redefined American Style .

Tom Gjelten’s A Nation of Nations is an interesting “immigration history” of Fairfax County.  I enjoyed Deirdre Clemente’s Dress Casual: How College Students Redefined American Style .

3. Michael White, Travels in Vermeer: A Memoir .  Nominated in the non-fiction National Book Award category, I actually enjoyed reading this one, all of it except the parts about…Vermeer.  It’s better as a memoir of alcoholism and divorce, interspersed with visits to art museums.

2. Elmira Bayrasli, From the Other Side of the World: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, Unlikely Places .  A well-written, completely spot on analysis about how the quality of the business climate needs to be improved in emerging economies, and about how much potential for entrepreneurship there is.  If economists were to do nothing else but repeat this message, the quality and usefulness of our profession likely would rise dramatically.

1. Deep South , by Paul Theroux.  It’s OK enough, but Theroux’s best writing was motivated by bile and unfortunately he has matured.  Still, he can’t get past p.9 without mention Naipaul’s “rival book” A Turn in the South .  My favorite Theroux book is his Sir Vidia’s Shadow , a delicious story of human rivalry and one of my favorite non-fiction books period.

1. Deep South , by Paul Theroux.  It’s OK enough, but Theroux’s best writing was motivated by bile and unfortunately he has matured.  Still, he can’t get past p.9 without mention Naipaul’s “rival book” A Turn in the South .  My favorite Theroux book is his Sir Vidia’s Shadow , a delicious story of human rivalry and one of my favorite non-fiction books period.

I read about thirty pages of the new Salman Rushdie .  While it was better than expected, I didn’t feel compelled to continue; it is odd to tell a rationalist story through magical realist means.  Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life is turning out to be one of the year’s sensations.  I’ve read about one hundred pages and seems to be of high quality but its themes don’t grab me (New York City, child abuse), and it is taking too long to become conceptual.  And for another recent novel on child abuse ...

I read about thirty pages of the new Salman Rushdie .  While it was better than expected, I didn’t feel compelled to continue; it is odd to tell a rationalist story through magical realist means.  Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life is turning out to be one of the year’s sensations.  I’ve read about one hundred pages and seems to be of high quality but its themes don’t grab me (New York City, child abuse), and it is taking too long to become conceptual.  And for another recent novel on child abuse ...

I read about thirty pages of the new Salman Rushdie .  While it was better than expected, I didn’t feel compelled to continue; it is odd to tell a rationalist story through magical realist means.  Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life is turning out to be one of the year’s sensations.  I’ve read about one hundred pages and seems to be of high quality but its themes don’t grab me (New York City, child abuse), and it is taking too long to become conceptual.  And for another recent novel on child abuse ...

5. Peter Frankopan, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World , it is out already in the UK , which was my source.  My main objection to this book is the overselling in the subtitle.  It is a nice, readable account of Silk Road history and the importance of Eastern land transport for global economic history.  I liked it, but didn’t feel it revised my worldview in any big way or even tried to.  The material on the twentieth century struck me as too familiar.  Here is one useful review .

4. Andrew Wender Cohen, Contraband: Smuggling and the Birth of the American Century .  A good look at how America really ran its nineteenth century trade policies, full of good anecdotes and examples.

3. Lillian Faderman, The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle .  A good, readable, even-tempered treatment of what the title promises.  I learned a good deal about the 1940s and 50s most of all, recommended.  It is 816 pp. but never a drag.  I am surprised it is not being reviewed more prominently.

2. Gillen D’Arcy Wood, Tambora: The Eruption that Changed the World .  This 1815 volcanic eruption in Indonesia had a bigger impact on global history than you might think.  Be afraid, be very afraid.

1. Lavinia Greenlaw, A Double Sorrow .  A deeply sad but very affecting poem, based loosely on Chaucer’s Troilus and Cressida .  Here is a useful review of the work , and unlike many poems it is very easy to read.

This is no dull, ghost-written tome, rather it is interesting throughout .  You can pre-order the book here .

The author is Timothy Snyder and the subtitle is The Holocaust as History and Warning .  Here is one bit:

The new Greg Ip book is coming out soon , I just bought my copy…