Recently Mentioned Books

2. Why Europe: The Medieval Origins of its Special Path , by Michael Mitterauer.  How many of the preconditions for the European miracle were in place by the Middle Ages?  This isn't a fun book (translated from the German), but specialists should pick it up.  Here is one very serious review of the book (JSTOR).

1. John Carey, William Golding: The Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies .  The subtitle gets at the point and I still can't finish his other books.  Much of his life he wasted in a state of repression.  Alcohol and boarding schools play roles in this story.  Recommended.

Here is another blog post discussing the book .  Here is the Amazon listing .  At the time this book was published, it was unpopular to suggest that everyone simply might take too much risk at once, leading to an eventual overextension and collapse.  Yet theories of that nature have held up relatively well, in light of the financial crisis.

Here is one good review of the restaurant .  Here is a short bit on how elephants were viewed in antiquity .  Here is my favorite book on elephants .

The author is Sonia Shah and the subtitle is How Malaria has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years .  Excerpt:

When I was young, I very much enjoyed reading John Robbins's Calvinist answer to Ayn Rand (revised here ), even though I did not agree with much of it.  I often learn more when ideas clash in relatively stark forms.

When I was young, I very much enjoyed reading John Robbins's Calvinist answer to Ayn Rand (revised here ), even though I did not agree with much of it.  I often learn more when ideas clash in relatively stark forms.

The author is C. Bradley Thompson and this new book is in broad terms an Objectivist ("Randian") critique of neoconservatism and Leo Strauss.  Here is one summary bit:

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 .