Recently Mentioned Books

10. Indeed , by Oren Ambarchi and Jim O’Rourke (LP only, a real winner, beautiful sound).

9. The Smile Sessions , The Beach Boys.

8. Wilco, The Whole Love .

7. This May be My Last Time Singing: Raw African-American Gospel on 45 RPM, 1957-1982 , assorted artists.

6. Miles Davis, Live in Europe 1967 .

5. Shabazz Palaces, Black Up .

4. St. Vincent, Strange Mercy .

3. James Blake, James Blake and also Enough Thunder .

3. James Blake, James Blake and also Enough Thunder .

2. Lykke Li, Wounded Rhymes .

1. Abigail Washburn, City of Refuge .

Although the initial reviews were only somewhat positive, I’ve been noticing how many times it has popped up on the year’s end “best of” lists.  And so I bought it .  It is indeed brilliant, and it is not out of line to compare it to top novels by Thackeray or Forster.  I used to think of Hollinghurst as “superb writer but not so much along my lines of interest,” but this one has won me over.

Charles Calomiris wrote in 1999 that the euro is doomed (pdf).  Milton Friedman had some pretty good predictions about the euro .  Here are my 2004 predictions about the euro, and here is my bit from 2003 (“The three percent rule is effectively dead…The real question is what will happen when one of the smaller nations thumbs its nose at France and Germany…and then claims exemption from the relevant penalties.”)  I have been worried about euro-like arrangements since the late 1980s.  Here are Pau...

You can buy the book here .

It is a new graphic novel , by Gruber, illustrations by Nathan Schreiber, and it covers the U.S. health care system and ACA. Excerpt :

It is by far the best book on how to fix our current innovation dilemma and it is entitled appropriately Launching the Innovation Renaissance (Amazon link, B&N for Nook, also iTunes ).  I’ve read it twice and bought it once, even though Alex might have given me a copy had I asked, and now I am reviewing it once and probably will review it again.

You can buy it here .

The author is Candice Millard, the subtitle is A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President , and the topic is James Garfield, with good bits on Alexander Graham Bell.  Excerpt:

The New North: The World in 2050 , by Laurence Smith.

The book has a remarkable density of information, as virtually every sentence tries to teach you something.  I have never read a book quite like it, definitely recommended.

John Sutherland, Lives of the Novelists, A History of Fiction in 294 Lives .  I’ll blog about this remarkable book soon.

Robert F. Moss, Barbecue: The History of an American Institution .

John Gimlette, Wild Coast: Travels on South America’s Untamed Edge .  This book covers Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.  A revelation, I loved it.  Could Gimlette be my favorite current travel writer?

Joshua Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything .  Funny thing is, I read this on Kindle, didn’t have a physical copy to put in “my pile,” had no visual cue as to the continuing existence of the book, and thus I forget to cover it on MR .  I enjoyed it very much.

David Gilmour, The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, its Peoples, and their Regions .