Recently Mentioned Books

2. Eric Topol, The Patient Will See You Now: The Future of Medicine is in Your Hands .  I don’t have the time to read a book on medicine just now, but it looks quite interesting, a rebuttal to the claim that consumers are helpless in the world of medicine.

1. Lives of the Laureates: Twenty-three Nobel Economists , edited by Roger W. Spencer and David A. Macpherson.  I know an earlier edition of this book, my favorite piece is the essay by Thomas Schelling but it is a good book throughout.

You can order the book here .  It came out in December 2014 but will make my best books of 2015 list for sure.  For the initial pointer to this book I wish to thank Jim Olds.

That is a new (early 2014) and excellent book by Elaine Scarry, the subtitle is Choosing Between Democracy and Doom .  Here is one good sentence:

That is one of the essays in the book Violence, Terrorism, and Justice , edited by R.G. Frey and Christopher W. Morris.  By the way, Schelling cites the campaign of Palestinian radicals against Palestinian moderates as one of the examples of a successful terrorist plan.

I ordered this book through the UK , as it does yet have a U.S. publication date on Amazon.  It has a fascinating 891 pp. of text (and an excellent annotated bibliography ), virtually all of which are worth reading.  In just about any year it is one of the top five non-fiction books of that year.  I found it especially strong on English-French relations, and early modern times, and perhaps a bit weak on post-1970 developments, which are in any case harder to cover.

Of all the moderns who have written on automation and rising joblessness, Martin Ford is the original.  His Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future is due out this May, you can pre-order here .  Self-recommending.

If I apply the Amazon order test, the best book for me this last year was Michael Hoffman’s Where Have You Been?: Selected Essays .

Andrew Roberts’s biography of Napoleon made me want to read an additional biography of Napoleon, because it made his life to me more interesting.  It made Napoleon’s period more interesting too.  I might read a book on cavalry tactics as well, a topic I have never read on before.

That is from Natasha Singer, interesting throughout .  And I just received a review copy of the relevant Bruce Schneier book Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Capture Your Data and Control Your World .

6. Andrew I. Gavil and Harry First, The Microsoft Antitrust Cases , which upon a brief perusal appears to be a very thorough and useful look at what the title promises.

5. E.M. Forster, A Passage to India .  A very good reread, the Straussian in me remains convinced that the final “Hindu section” of the book somehow has to make sense.

4. Tom Paulin, Writing to the Moment, Selected Critical Essays 1980-1996 .  I loved this book, which (by a very important metric) caused me to buy at least five additional books on Amazon.  One of Ireland’s greatest poets writing an appreciation of other English-language poets and writers.  A 1996 book, but one of my most exciting reads for the year.

3. Roberta A. Ness, The Creativity Crisis: Reinventing Science to Unleash Potential .  A good overview of why innovativeness has declined and what might be done to restore it.

2.Bengt Jangfeldt, Mayakovsky: A Biography .  A non-fiction work translated from Swedish to English is virtually guaranteed to be good.  This book brings major advances to our understanding of Mayakovsky’s life, although it is perhaps for those who already have an interest in the topic.  That’s me.

1. Hilda Hilst, With My Dog-Eyes: A Nove l.  Life as an academic, as viewed by the Brazilian avant-garde.  This underappreciated novel is available in English for the first time, recommended to those who think they might like it.

Run the Jewels 2 and St. Vincent I might pick as runners-up.

Run the Jewels 2 and St. Vincent I might pick as runners-up.

3. Calypso Craze, 1956-57 and Beyond .  From the Bear label, this is by an order of magnitude the best Calypso compilation ever.  Seven CDs, and you don’t need to buy any more Calypso again.  You’ll also learn how much influence Calypso has had on subsequent popular music, including Chuck Berry (“ Havana Moon “), Harry Nilsson, and a good deal of rap, among others.

2. D’Angelo and the Vanguard, Black Messiah .  Self-recommending.

1. Aphex Twin, Syro .  Especially impressive after such a long hiatus because his later recordings were not always first-rate.

The author is Barry Eichengreen and the subtitle is The Great Depression, The Great Recession, and the Uses — and Misuses — of History .  My copy has now arrived.

This book is interesting throughout for its treatment of fiscal and monetary issues during the time of the French Revolution.  It is not geared toward current macroeconomic debates, but arguably that liberates it to be more interesting on the historical side.  The author is Rebecca L. Spang, of The Invention of the Restaurant fame.

This book is interesting throughout for its treatment of fiscal and monetary issues during the time of the French Revolution.  It is not geared toward current macroeconomic debates, but arguably that liberates it to be more interesting on the historical side.  The author is Rebecca L. Spang, of The Invention of the Restaurant fame.

This is from Karen Dawisha’s more-important-than-ever Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia? :