Recently Mentioned Books

That is the new book about ARRA and fiscal stimulus, by Michael Grunwald, available here with the subtitle The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era.  Excerpt:

The new book by Brink Lindsey is out, namely Human Capitalism: How Economic Growth has Made us Smarter — and More Unequal .  I am a big fan of Brink’s and of the book.

The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln .  I should teach it next year for my Law and Literature class…

That is the forthcoming book by Barry Eichengreen, Dwight Perkins, and Kwanho Shin .  I just pre-ordered my copy to arrive in October…

5. Free new chapter from Tim Harford’s The Undercover Economist , the full book is here .

The author is Ryan Holiday and the subtitle is Confessions of a Media Manipulator .  Anyone interested in the economics of blogs or new media should read this book, replete with and indeed emphasizing seamy tales of manipulation, etc.  Think of it as Upton Sinclair on the blogosphere, and you will even find an anecdote about Marginal Revolution.

5. New Fuchsia Dunlop cookbook due February 2013 , pre-order here .

That is from David Wessel’s Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget , which I enjoyed very much.

11. Best book about Chinese fiction : Sabina Knight, Chinese Literature: A Very Short Introduction .  This short book is a marvel of economy, substance, and style.

6. Book, set in, fiction (not by Chinese author): Edgar Snow, Red Star Over China .  Pearl Buck I find boring.

5. Book, non-fiction : James Fallows, China Airborne .  I am also a fan of the book where the guy drives a car around China. The Private Life of Chairman Mao is a stunner, maybe the best book I know on tyranny.

5. Book, non-fiction : James Fallows, China Airborne .  I am also a fan of the book where the guy drives a car around China. The Private Life of Chairman Mao is a stunner, maybe the best book I know on tyranny.

2. Movie : The Story of Qiu Ju .  A real charmer.

1. Novel : Soul Mountain , by Gao Xingjian.  Parts of Dream of the Red Chamber are splendid, but it is hard to keep track of the whole thing and also I wonder whether any of the available editions in English are satisfactory.

Everything by Gary Gorton is worth reading.  I am not sure when this book is due out (Amazon claims Nov.2012), but it is not out yet.  The link is here .

Edited by Aaron Edlin and Joseph Stiglitz, the book has many fine short essays by various luminaries…

The author is Martin Gilens and the subtitle is Economic Inequality and Political Power in America .  A few points:

The author is David Wessel, of The Wall Street Journal , and the subtitle is Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget .   You can pre-order it here , due out July 31.  I very much look forward to reading my copy.

You can buy the book here .

Climate Matters: Ethics in a Warming World .  Excerpt:

That is the new book by Angus Burgin and the subtitle is Reinventing Free Markets since the Depression .  As I had suspected, it is interesting.  Here is the core thesis:

That is a new book out by Jim Lacey .  Here is one good review by Christopher Tassava :

Just yesterday on my doorstep I received the book The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free Markets since the Depression , by Angus Burgin, which offers a lengthy contrast between Hayek and Friedman, among other matters.  It looks interesting: “Postwar conservative thought was more dynamic and cosmopolitan than has previously been understood.”

You can buy it here .  Rossman blogs here , and he is on Twitter here .

That is the new book by Greg Woolf .  Could it now be the best single-volume introduction to the history of ancient Rome?  It is conceptual yet avoids the pitfalls of overgeneralizing, a difficult balance to strike.  It also has a superb (useful rather than exhaustive) bibliography.  A good measure of books such as this is whether they induce you to read or order other books on the same topic and this one did.