Recently Mentioned Books

The authors are Andreas Bergh and Magnus Henrekson and this book is a good summary of ongoing attempts to correlate the size of government with economic growth.

This splendid intellectual biography, by John A. Hall, should be read by all those interested in Hayek, Popper, Berlin, Oakeshott, and the foundations of a free society.  You can order it here .  I spent $33 on the book and it paid back every penny and then some.  Here is Henry on the book .

5. Gypsy Jazz: In Search of Django Reinhardt and the Soul of Gypsy Swing , by Michael Dregni.  This perfectly titled book delivers in each of its stated areas and brings its subjects to life, while setting Reinhardt in the proper broader context.

3. The Squam Lake Report: Fixing the Financial System , by Ken French, Martin Baily, John Campbell, John Cochrane, Doug Diamond, Darrell Duffie, Anil Kashyap, Frederic Mishkin, Raghu Rajan, David Scharfstein, Robert Shiller, Hyun Song Shin, Matthew Slaughter, Jeremy Stein, and Rene Stulz, and maybe some others too by the way I left out the middle initials.  The recommendations and analysis of this book are perfectly reasonable, but it's an object lesson in the diminishing returns to simply stack...

2. Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 , by Christopher Clark.  I don't love this period, but I found this to be one of the better history books I've read, ever.  Compelling, informative, and readable on every page.

1. Hitch-22: A Memoir , by Christopher Hitchens.  I delayed reviewing this book, because I found it hard to write about someone who was just diagnosed with esopheagal cancer.  I can say this: a) I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, b) it embodies and channels a way of living, thinking (and drinking), and writing which I totally reject, and c) that is why I liked it.  It's a kind of "bulletproof" book; the more you find in it to reject, the more interesting it becomes.

This also suggests that schools themselves will never make an intellectually convincing case for tenure, since they can't come out and admit that "in the longer run, most of us don't really matter, we only pretended our productivity was worth something in the first place."  Education as theatre, and all that; see my The Age of the Infovore .

You can pre-order the book — The Age of the Infovore in the paperback edition – on Amazon here (Kindle too ), Barnes&Noble here , and Borders.com here .

You can pre-order the book — The Age of the Infovore in the paperback edition – on Amazon here (Kindle too ), Barnes&Noble here , and Borders.com here .

That is from the new and notable book Steak: One Man's Search for the World's Tastiest Piece of Beef .  This book is interesting and substantive on virtually every page and it is one of the best food books I have read in some time.

That is from Allan Meltzer's History of the Federal Reserve, volume 2, book 1, 1951-1969 .

So says Larry Kotlikoff, in his new book, entitled Jimmy Stewart is Dead: Ending the World's Ongoing Financial Plague with Limited Purpose Banking .  It's lively and polemic, and suddenly it lurches into a proposal to reform financial intermediation:

That is from Bill Hayton's new book — Vietnam: Rising Dragon — which I found informative and insightful on virtually every page.  Recommended.

David Grossman , the well-known Israeli writer, has a new book coming out this September, namely To the End of the Land (pre-order at that link).  The basic plotline is of a mother who sets out on a wander through the Galilee, with a former lover, to avoid any news of her son's possible death on the front in Lebanon.

I don't usually pull out media quotes to mock them, but this one caught my eye.  There is a new book out — Lucy — and it is the (fictional) story of a woman who is part human, part bonobo chimpanzee, but who looks quite human.  Michiko Kakutani wrote this criticism about the story:

Here is my previous post on the book .  You can pre-order it on Amazon here (Kindle too ), Barnes&Noble here , and Borders.com here .

Here is my previous post on the book .  You can pre-order it on Amazon here (Kindle too ), Barnes&Noble here , and Borders.com here .

Here is much more and I thank Eric John Barker for the pointer.  You will find similar themes in my The Age of the Infovore , the new title for the paperback version of Create Your Own Economy .

The full story is here , hat tip Yoram Bauman .  Is he still a Lecturer there ? This interesting Jonah Lehrer article , via Michelle Dawson, covers the U.S. goalie:

6. Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses .  This one is a re-read, as I will teach it next spring in Law and Literature and I am studying it well in advance.  This is Rushdie's most significant achievement and one of the truly excellent novels of the last thirty years.  It's not an easy read, but worth the commitment if you haven't already done so.  Sadly, this book seems to have fallen into a commercial black hole; you can't even get it on Kindle.

5. Herta Müller, assorted.  When she won the Nobel Prize last year, I was skeptical.  In Berlin I've been reading her work, much of which is set in Berlin, and I like it.  It helps if you have a connection to those who have left formerly communist countries.  In English, I suggest The Land of Green Plums as a starting point.

4. William Voegeli, Never Enough: America's Limitless Welfare State .  Voegeli has a good basic point, namely that a) the welfare state is here to stay, and b) we need to set limits to it.  At some point the book runs into diminishing returns.  Arnold Kling wrote a good review of the book , plus he had lunch with the author .

2. My Name is Charles Saatchi and I am an Artoholic , an interview with Charles Saatchi.  Entertaining throughout, plus you can read it in a few minutes time.  This is the sort of book Felix Salmon would blog.  Saatchi claims that Pollock, Warhol, Judd, and Hirst are the four artists from recent times who will pass into history as the immortals.  The others will be swept away.

1. Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy , by Eric D. Weitz.  A bit stolid, but a good general overview of an era I very much would like to be able to visit.  That said, deflation and fascist political movements make for an obviously nasty combination.

This is the paperback of Create Your Own Economy , with (to me) a better title and better cover.  I am pleased to have persuaded the publisher in this regard.  It is out this coming Tuesday, one week from today.  You can pre-order it on Amazon here (Kindle too ), Barnes&Noble here , and Borders.com here .