Recently Mentioned Books

That's for literature , sadly he never had the chance to win a prize for economics, as his political career as a Peruvian classical liberal was cut short by electoral defeat.  He has many fine books but I have two particular favorites: The War of the End of the World (serious and epic, concerning a millenarian revolt in Brazil) and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (a fun story and spoof of telenovela culture). Conversation in the Cathedral is sometimes considered a classic but I find it unreadabl...

5. State of Play , good British TV show on journalism and politics, recommended.

6. John Quiggin, Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us , reviewed by Arnold Kling .

5. Steve Hely, How I Became a Famous Novelist .

4. Steven Rattner, Overhaul: An Insider's Account of the Obama Administration's Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry .  An entertaining account of economic policy making inside the Obama administration.

3. Barry Eichengreen, Exorbitant Privilege: The Decline of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System .

2. Robert L. Tignore, Egypt: A Short History .  A good introduction and overview.

1. J.G. Ballard, Miracles of Life: Shanghai to Shepperton An Autobiography , self-recommending.

4. We learn from John Boswell that high levels of gay tolerance, in antiquity, were followed by a counter-reaction and higher levels of prejudice.

That's an excellent new book by Roger Moorhouse .  I found good material on virtually every page:

That's from the new book on music by Alex Ross .  It's not a comprehensive tour de force like The Rest is Noise was, but it is smart and well-written on every page and if you liked the first book you should buy and read the second.  The portraits cover, among others, Radiohead, Bjork, John Luther Adams, Marian Anderson, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and Uchida.  The chapter on Bob Dylan is especially good and it eclipses Sean Wilentz's entire recent book on Dylan.

That is Adam Savage, from Jeff Potter's new and periodically interesting book Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food .  This is most of all a book for those who wish to think of cooking in terms of engineering, but without going the molecular gastronomy route.

4. Das's The Difficulty of Being Good is about to come out, FT review here .

3. David Thompson's new book, the amazing Thai Street Food .  Here is a recent article on Thompson's promotion and reinvention of Thai cuisine .

2. Oaxaca al Gusto: An Infinite Gastronomy , the new book by Diana Kennedy.

That's the new book by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson .  I have a different take on the main argument, but this is an important book for raising some of the key questions of our time.  I would recommend that people read it and give it serious thought.  The writing style is also clear and accessible.  Two of the key arguments are:

2. Matthew Kahn on Climatopolis , his new book .

That is the new book by Adam Phillips , which of course I bought on the spot.  Reading it over lunch, I enjoyed this bit:

That is the new Roger Scruton book , which I finished with pleasure.  Here is one good passage:

The author is Dani Rodrik and the subtitle is Democracy and the Future of the World Economy and it is due out early next year.

Eugene Richter, that's who, in 1893.  There is now a reissue of Richter's Pictures of the Socialistic Future .  There is an interview with Bryan Caplan about the book here .  Here is the book on-line and free .

Here is Doug Irwin , I remember once hearing a related argument from David Glasner (was his piece on that ever published?):

That is a book by Anton Chekhov , part memoir, part ethnographic study of a penal colony and the surrounding economic institutions on Sakhalin Island .  I hardly ever hear of this work, but it is both a literary and social science masterpiece; I will teach it next spring in my Law and Literature class.  Here is one review of the book .  This excerpt reminded me of some recent events:

5. Michael Whinston, Lectures on Antitrust Economics .  A very good introduction to current thinking on antitrust policy, through the lens of theory and empirics.

4. Tom Segev, Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends .  Many books on the Holocaust tread on well-tilled ground, but this was original and compelling throughout.  Here is a useful review , although I think it considerably exaggerates how critical the book is of Wiesenthal.  I also very much like Segev's The Seventh Million .