Recently Mentioned Books

6. Vaclav Smil, Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867-1914 and Their Lasting Impact .  Perhaps the best book on what its subtitle indicates.

5. Pramoedya Ananta Toer, The Mute’s Soliloquy .  The first third is a superb humane and philosophical response to adversity, namely imprisonment on Buru Island.  Of the rest, which is never sent letters to his family, at least half is very good.

3. The Tiger’s Wife , by Tea Obreht.  The author may be 25, Serbian, beautiful, and feted everywhere, but still I found it contrived and overwritten.  The substance-obsessed Laura Miller nails it .  Against my better judgment I enjoyed and finished Kevin Brockmeier’s The Illumination .

3. The Tiger’s Wife , by Tea Obreht.  The author may be 25, Serbian, beautiful, and feted everywhere, but still I found it contrived and overwritten.  The substance-obsessed Laura Miller nails it .  Against my better judgment I enjoyed and finished Kevin Brockmeier’s The Illumination .

2. Margaux Fragoso, Tiger, Tiger: A Memoir .  This book raises questions about the meaning of consent, but despite its quality I was unable to get all the way though it.  Too brutal for me.

1. Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad .  National Book Award for fiction, and it is enjoyed by most people who pick it up,Will Wilkinson reviews it well .

The author is Hamid Dabashi and the subtitle is A Religion of Protest .  This book is excellent in every chapter and on virtually on every page, including in its discussion of cinema and aesthetics.  Excerpt:

That’s the new Terry Eagleton book , which apparently needs no subtitle.  Most of the claims in the book are correct, and they debunk superficial or incorrect readings of Marx.  In that regard it is useful and it is also clearly written.  Still, I have to judge it as a bad book, for instance:

The author is William Tsutsui and the subtitle is Fifty Years of the King of Monsters .  Excerpt:

It may be out of date, but the starting point for any study of Japan is still Karel von Wolferen’s The Enigma of Japanese Power .   Definitely recommended.

That is a 2010 book by Daniel Ben-Ami , published in the United Kingdom.  It is a very good updating of the basis thesis of Julian Simon that economic growth is a strong net positive for humanity.  Some MR readers will already know these arguments, but many people should read this book.

Here is more , and the data are taken from this new book by Simmons and Daniel Sutter , on the economics of tornadoes, the book’s home page is here .

The author is David Sims and the subtitle is The Logic of a City Out of Control .  It is interesting throughout for anyone studying urban density or informal land titles or urban sprawl or Third World mega-cities.  This passage is off the central topics of the book, but I found it an interesting corrective to the usual picture:

The author is Gordon C. Bjork and the subtitle is Structural Change and the Slowdown of U.S. Economic Growth .  I recommend this not-so-well known book, first published in 1999, very highly.  Among its other merits, it traces how much of the productivity slowdown results from the switch of the U.S. economy into lower-growing sectors.  Excerpt:

And David's new book is here .

The author is Laura J. Snyder and the subtitle is Four Remarkable Friends Who Transformed Science and Changed the World .  This is an excellent book about the history and status of science in 19th century England and in particular the contributions of Charles Babbage, John Herschel, William Whewell, and Richard Jones, the latter an economist and of course Whewell debated induction and scientific method with Mill.  Babbage too had writings on economics .  Here is an excerpt from Snyder:

The author is Laura J. Snyder and the subtitle is Four Remarkable Friends Who Transformed Science and Changed the World .  This is an excellent book about the history and status of science in 19th century England and in particular the contributions of Charles Babbage, John Herschel, William Whewell, and Richard Jones, the latter an economist and of course Whewell debated induction and scientific method with Mill.  Babbage too had writings on economics .  Here is an excerpt from Snyder:

Yes, that Derek Parfit here , and here .  Remember how they used to ask about how good a Beatles reunion would have been?  This is an event.

The author is David Brooks and the subtitle is The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement .  I pre-ordered my copy some time ago and it is due out this Tuesday…

Things to Come is on Amazon here and on Wikipedia here .  Some stills and commentary are here .  Here is an NYT review from 1936 : "probably as solid a prophecy as any."

You can find the essay in this unorthodox and stimulating book .

That's the new Haruki Murakami book , due out in the U.S. in late October.  It's over one thousand pages and it was published originally in three parts.  My view of Murakami is that his later works are good but not special, and that his masterpieces are the early novels and also his non-fiction chronicle of the Tokyo gas attacks, Underground .  My favorite is Hard Boiled Wonderland the End of the World , which also should appeal to science fiction fans.

That's the new Haruki Murakami book , due out in the U.S. in late October.  It's over one thousand pages and it was published originally in three parts.  My view of Murakami is that his later works are good but not special, and that his masterpieces are the early novels and also his non-fiction chronicle of the Tokyo gas attacks, Underground .  My favorite is Hard Boiled Wonderland the End of the World , which also should appeal to science fiction fans.

James Le Fanu, in his 2000 history of modern medicine , lists definitive moments of modern medicine.  In the 1940s there are six such moments, seven moments in the 1950s, six moments in the 1960s, a moment in 1970 and 1971 each, and from 1973-1998, a twenty-five year period, there are only seven moments in total.

5. Patrick Cockburn and Henry Cockburn, Henry's Demons: Living With Schizophrenia, A Father and Son's Story .  Interesting but never insightful (can I coin that as a new phrase?).  On the surface this book shows the difficulties of having a son with schizophrenia, from both the perspective of the parents and also in the son's own words.  In reality, it turned me (further) against the idea of forced institutionalization of an adult.  They lock the son up for years and they don't seem to regret it...