Recently Mentioned Books

1. The Left Hand of Darkness , by Ursula LeGuin.  I hadn’t read this since I was fourteen, but it held up surprisingly well and I enjoyed it thoroughly.  This time around I could see how much the author is the daughter of anthropologist Alfred Kroeber.

John Holbo offers up some recommendations , and the comments section is especially good.  I’ll recommend Fritz Lang’s Siegfried , Buston Keaton’s Sherlock, Jr ., Carl Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc , and Docks of New York , for a start, assuming you already know Chaplin and Eisenstein.  And don’t forget Ozu, Mizoguchi, and Dovzhenko, from further away.  Your ideas?

John Holbo offers up some recommendations , and the comments section is especially good.  I’ll recommend Fritz Lang’s Siegfried , Buston Keaton’s Sherlock, Jr ., Carl Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc , and Docks of New York , for a start, assuming you already know Chaplin and Eisenstein.  And don’t forget Ozu, Mizoguchi, and Dovzhenko, from further away.  Your ideas?

John Holbo offers up some recommendations , and the comments section is especially good.  I’ll recommend Fritz Lang’s Siegfried , Buston Keaton’s Sherlock, Jr ., Carl Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc , and Docks of New York , for a start, assuming you already know Chaplin and Eisenstein.  And don’t forget Ozu, Mizoguchi, and Dovzhenko, from further away.  Your ideas?

The author is Mara Hvistendahl, and the subtitle is Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men .  It will make my best books of 2011 list, excerpt:

6. Javier Marias, A Heart so White .  Loved it, a modern classic by Spain’s leading writer.

5. Popular Crime , by Bill James.  Silly idea, or self-recommending?  Perhaps a bit of both, because this is the Bill James, writing a 500-page treatise on popular crimes and also on other people’s books on popular crimes.  The classic error detection and pattern recognition skills are still there.  The bottom line is that a) I finished it (skimmed maybe a fifth, some of the cases I didn’t care about), and b) I liked it increasingly as my read progressed, and c) I have no trouble with books whic...

4. Hart Crane, The Bridge .  Two-thirds of this is stunning, mostly the first half and most of what comes after “Three Songs.”  Plus it’s fairly short and easy to read, though difficult to comprehend at the highest levels.  Think of it as the next step after Leaves of Grass .

3. Made in Britain , by Evan Davis.  Too simple for my tastes, but this is nonetheless an effective accounting of where the British economy remains strong and also where the weaknesses are starting to bite.  The author has a good understanding of economics and he avoids the mercantilism that you might fear is implicit in such an enterprise.

1. Red April ( Abril Rojo ], by Santiago Roncagliolo, translated by Edith Grossman.  This Peruvian “Shining Path noir” tale is as good as the strongly positive reviews indicate and it has an excellent dark humor.  Here is an interview with the author .

1. Red April ( Abril Rojo ], by Santiago Roncagliolo, translated by Edith Grossman.  This Peruvian “Shining Path noir” tale is as good as the strongly positive reviews indicate and it has an excellent dark humor.  Here is an interview with the author .

That is the subtitle, the title is Keep from All Thoughtful Men and the author is Jim Lacey.  Excerpt:

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined , due out in October, 848 pages.  I’ll be sure to review it.

That is from Lyn Rodley’s classic Cave Monasteries of Byzantine Cappadocia , a book which you read only if you are going to…Cappadocia.

From his Notebooks , (the best Emerson to read, in my view) circa 1841:

Other notable Hungarian composers are Kodaly and Péter Eötvös, sorry that I have not in every case mastered the diacritical marks.  Most Kurtag leaves me cold but the Kafka Fragments are one place to start.  There are many fine Hungarian film music composers.

3. Gyorgy Ligeti .  My favorite piece is Lux Aeterna but that is best heard in concert, like a lot of choral music.  On disc the horn trio works best. The Sony collection volumes are uniformly excellent and perhaps the piano music is the easiest place to start.

3. Gyorgy Ligeti .  My favorite piece is Lux Aeterna but that is best heard in concert, like a lot of choral music.  On disc the horn trio works best. The Sony collection volumes are uniformly excellent and perhaps the piano music is the easiest place to start.

1. Franz Liszt : The “late, serious” pieces are important but I don’t think they are much fun to listen to.  I recommend the Transcendental Etudes, performance preferences here .  “Funerailles,” played by the young Lazar Berman .   “Years of Pilgrimage, the Swiss years,” by Aldo Ciccolini.  The Hungarian Rhapsodies, played by Cziffa or Robert Szidon.  Many of the opera transcriptions are subtler than they are made out to be, as creative examples of early mash-ups.  The B Minor Sonata is a bit to...

2. Movies : Bela Tarr , Satantango .  It’s over seven hours long, but don’t be put off.  It has some of the best shots of grazing cows and angry peasants committed to reel, and I wanted it to be longer.  It’s mesmerizing in a way that makes it one of the film classics of the new century.  I find Werckmeister Harmonies too corny but it has some fine scenes.  Less traditionally thought of as Hungarian is the great Emeric Pressburger , who collaborated with Michael Powell on numerous fine films. Al...

2. Movies : Bela Tarr , Satantango .  It’s over seven hours long, but don’t be put off.  It has some of the best shots of grazing cows and angry peasants committed to reel, and I wanted it to be longer.  It’s mesmerizing in a way that makes it one of the film classics of the new century.  I find Werckmeister Harmonies too corny but it has some fine scenes.  Less traditionally thought of as Hungarian is the great Emeric Pressburger , who collaborated with Michael Powell on numerous fine films. Al...

2. Movies : Bela Tarr , Satantango .  It’s over seven hours long, but don’t be put off.  It has some of the best shots of grazing cows and angry peasants committed to reel, and I wanted it to be longer.  It’s mesmerizing in a way that makes it one of the film classics of the new century.  I find Werckmeister Harmonies too corny but it has some fine scenes.  Less traditionally thought of as Hungarian is the great Emeric Pressburger , who collaborated with Michael Powell on numerous fine films. Al...

1. Author : Peter Nadas, A Book of Memories , is a classic novel of ideas which is under-read in the United States.  Nadas has a new book coming out this fall .  Imre Kertesz doesn’t do much for me.

1. Author : Peter Nadas, A Book of Memories , is a classic novel of ideas which is under-read in the United States.  Nadas has a new book coming out this fall .  Imre Kertesz doesn’t do much for me.

Addendum : Tim Worstall sends along this useful link .