Recently Mentioned Books

3. Drew Daniel, 20 Jazz Funk Greats , in the 33 1/3 series.  On the Throbbing Gristle album of the same name, this superb book is one of the best and most instructive pieces of popular music criticism I have read, ever.  I recommend reading it while listening to the album, song by song.  Drew Daniel by the way is part of the group Matmos (interesting in their own right) and an English professor at Johns Hopkins .  He deserves something better than tenure.

3. Drew Daniel, 20 Jazz Funk Greats , in the 33 1/3 series.  On the Throbbing Gristle album of the same name, this superb book is one of the best and most instructive pieces of popular music criticism I have read, ever.  I recommend reading it while listening to the album, song by song.  Drew Daniel by the way is part of the group Matmos (interesting in their own right) and an English professor at Johns Hopkins .  He deserves something better than tenure.

2. Hermione Lee, Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life .  This book made many UK “best of” lists.  It is subtle, like the author herself, and will prompt you to further reading or rereads, for instance I enjoyed The Gate of Angels right after this biography and soon will try Offshore .

2. Hermione Lee, Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life .  This book made many UK “best of” lists.  It is subtle, like the author herself, and will prompt you to further reading or rereads, for instance I enjoyed The Gate of Angels right after this biography and soon will try Offshore .

2. Hermione Lee, Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life .  This book made many UK “best of” lists.  It is subtle, like the author herself, and will prompt you to further reading or rereads, for instance I enjoyed The Gate of Angels right after this biography and soon will try Offshore .

6. John Limbert, Negotiating with Iran: Wrestling the Ghosts of History .  Four detailed case studies of past failures and successes negotiating with Iran, from a scholar who knows his topic very well and can write clearly.

5. Pete Earley, Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia’s Master Spy in America After the End of the Cold War .  A fun look at the Russian spy world behind “ The Americans ” (TV show), also with a fascinating discussion of the KGB in Ottawa spying on the Canadians.

4. Lane Kenworthy, Social Democratic America , I will quote my blurb: “If you wish to read the case for a big increase in social welfare spending, this is the very best place to go.”   Here is a related piece from the book .

3. Gary J. Bass, The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide .  The story of the India-Pakistan-Bangladesh-USA relations in the earlier 1970s and the conflict of that time, a very good book.

2. John Williams, Stoner .  This is not quite the great lost American novel, as some critics are making it out to be.  Nonetheless it is good, brisk, absorbing read about the horrible life of a stultified academic.  First published in 1965.

1. M. John Harrison, Light . I thought I was sick of cyberpunk but this held my attention from the first page through the end.  It falls in the category of “don’t worry if you don’t get everything that is going on, enjoy anyway.”

MRUniversity.com has a new class on Hayek’s Individualism and Economic Order , free on-line pdf version of the book is here .  The class is based around my reread of the book — often considered the single best introduction to Hayek — and what I learned from each chapter., whether positively or negatively.

3. The forthcoming Thomas Piketty book will be very important .

Here is one very positive review of the book .  In the United States the book comes out February 2014 under a different title .  You also can buy the British edition for U.S. Kindle now.

Here is one very positive review of the book .  In the United States the book comes out February 2014 under a different title .  You also can buy the British edition for U.S. Kindle now.

I am also starting to like Churches, Bones of What You Believe .  My favorite jazz album of the year has been Charles Lloyd and Jason Moran, Hagar’s Song .  I have more on order.

5. Matangi , by M.I.A.  Her first album had enough posturing that I figured that was it, but by now she has compiled an impressive streak.

4. Wed 21 , by Juana Molina.  Why isn’t she better known?

2. MBV , by My Bloody Valentine, there is a good short review here .  If you had to ask who did better after a 20-year hiatus, Kevin Shields or Bobby Fischer , this is decisive evidence in favor of Shields.  A totally unexpected renaissance.

1. Kanye West, Yeezus .  His best album by quite a bit.

That is all from Richard Thalheimer’s “The Economics of Racetrack-Casino (Racino) Gambling,” from The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Gambling , edited by Leighton Vaughan Williams and Donald S. Siegel.

While we are on the topic, I very recently received a review copy of The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Gambling , edited by Leighton Vaughan Williams and Donald S. Siegel, which appears to be excellent.

The author is Natasha Dow Schüll and the subtitle is Machine Gambling in Las Vegas .  I read this on the flight back home and it is a good choice for one of the very best books of the year, as well as one of the best books on “behavioral economics” and “nudge.”

You can buy it here , the book’s home page is here .

5. There is a new Hilton Root book: Dynamics Among Nations: The Evolution of Legitimacy and Development in Modern States .  The MIT Press website is here , and the book’s own home page is here .