Recently Mentioned Books
Showing 25 of 6792 mentions, ordered by most recent.
2. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and Another Side of Bob Dylan and Blood on the Tracks and most of all Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits volume II are the albums I listen to most often. The last one sounds horrible from its name, but it was conceived conceptually, avoids the traditional problems of greatest hits albums (unlike Vol. I), and has some not otherwise available tracks; highly recommended. Then comes Time Out of Mind . I think of Bringing it All Back Home as the “best” Dylan album, but I enjoy...
2. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and Another Side of Bob Dylan and Blood on the Tracks and most of all Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits volume II are the albums I listen to most often. The last one sounds horrible from its name, but it was conceived conceptually, avoids the traditional problems of greatest hits albums (unlike Vol. I), and has some not otherwise available tracks; highly recommended. Then comes Time Out of Mind . I think of Bringing it All Back Home as the “best” Dylan album, but I enjoy...
2. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and Another Side of Bob Dylan and Blood on the Tracks and most of all Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits volume II are the albums I listen to most often. The last one sounds horrible from its name, but it was conceived conceptually, avoids the traditional problems of greatest hits albums (unlike Vol. I), and has some not otherwise available tracks; highly recommended. Then comes Time Out of Mind . I think of Bringing it All Back Home as the “best” Dylan album, but I enjoy...
1. No Direction Home , the biopic directed by Martin Scorsese. It’s one of the best documentaries on American music more generally, and a superb albeit hagiographic portrait of Dylan and his music.
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus , by Charles C. Mann, is one of my favorite books ever, in any field. And now there is a “sequel,” namely 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created , due out in August. Excerpt:
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus , by Charles C. Mann, is one of my favorite books ever, in any field. And now there is a “sequel,” namely 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created , due out in August. Excerpt:
The authors are the renowned Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch and the subtitle is How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong with America .
That’s the new book by Youssef Courbage and Emmanuel Todd and the subtitle is The Transformation of Muslim Societies Around the World . I read it as offering three major messages: a) there is no unique pattern for Muslim demographic evolution, b) there is more civilizational convergence than divergence, and c) the demographic data we observe explain a good deal about various Muslim countries. Here are some specific points:
June 9 it is coming out in a physical edition, hard cover. Amazon pre-order is here . Barnes&Noble pre-order is here . The text is exactly the same as the eBook edition, although I made a minor addition to one footnote. If you’ve read Borges’s Pierre Menard , you’ll know why I regard the electronic edition as “the real book” and this volume as a kind of postmodern satire. Still, many people demanded a physical edition, sometimes for classroom use, and so now there is one.
5. Markets in everything: Barbara’s Bakery Peanut Butter Puffin Cereal .
That poem is cited in the new and enjoyable book by David Orr, Beautiful & Pointless {A Guide to Modern Poetry} .
Science-Mart: Privatizing American Science, by Philip Mirowski.
The authors is Michael Spence (yes, the Michael Spence and he used to be “A. Michael Spence”) and the subtitle is The Future of Economic Growth in a Multispeed World . The book’s home page is here .
The authors are Roderick Floud, Nobel Laureate Robert W. Fogel, Bernard Harris, and Sok Chul Hong, and the subtitle is Health, Nutrition, and Human Development in the Western World since 1700 . Here is one key sentence:
That’s the new Harold Bloom book , which has all the strengths and weakness of Harold Bloom books (I am a fan). Excerpt:
The author is Michael S. Neiberg and the subtitle is Europe and the Outbreak of World War I . This book stunned me, in a positive way. It argues for six main propositions, a few of which can be summarized quickly:
David Brooks (don’t forget his new book ) writes :
Another pick would be Pato Fu’s Televisao De Cachorro , which has only two Amazon reviews. It is better known in Brazil, though it still sounds as if it should have serious crossover potential. Some of the songs are in English, too.
Pop Said… , by The Darling Buds .
You may have your favorite neglected microtonal drone guitar album , but let’s take this in another direction. What’s the best accessible pop album that never caught on with listeners and buyers?
All are worthy of purchase, we will see how they develop. I found The Windup Girl , by Paolo Bacigalupi, the most enjoyable science fiction novel I’ve read in a few years, and it should appeal to fans of Thailand too.
4. Zoo City , by Lauren Beukes; so far I love it, imagine a mix of Raymond Chandler, near-future science fiction, and South African grit.
3. Music for Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and his Fifteen Quartets , by Wendy Lesser.
2. The Moral Lives of Animals , by Dale Peterson. It looks like Adam Smith’s TMS applied to the moral sense of non-human animals, making the point that the moral sense is not unique to human beings.
1. Food Trucks: Dispatches and Recipes from the Best Kitchens on Wheels , by Heather Shouse. I’ve read enough of this book to know it is true to its title.