Recently Mentioned Books

3. Anthony de Jasay, Political Philosophy, Clearly: Essays on Freedom and Fairness, Property and Equalities .  This one is a Liberty Fund edition.

2. Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creation Destruction , by Thomas McCraw, new in paperback.  I loved this book, you can Google back to my previous reviews.

1. Acting White: The Ironic Legacy of Desegregation , by Stuart Buck.

I loved this book , which is written by Charles Emmerson.  Here is one short bit:

That is the new book by David Schmidtz and Jason Brennan.  It is ideal for anyone looking for a broad overview of human history from a classical liberal point of view.  Self-recommending, as they say.  Buy it here .  Here are Schmidtz and Brennan on CatoUnbound .

I read these new volumes in December.  There are six large books, two columns to a page, large pages, the whole thing weighs about thirty pounds.  I can't recall taking on such a large reading project in such a short period of time, but I am very glad I spent a few weeks immersed in the world of Vincent van Gogh.  I was impressed by how smart van Gogh was, what an intellectual omnivore he was, and how well he could compose a letter and pour forth a lot of information very rapidly.  The illustrat...

That's one good sentence from the book, which you can order here .  There is an excerpt from the book, on Michael Burry, here .  Here is a Felix Salmon review of the book .  In terms of policy, Lewis attaches great weight to the fact that the major investment banks became publicly-traded companies rather than partnerships.  I liked the stories and much of the inside scoop, but it didn't have the giddy fun of Liar's Poker or Moneyball nor did it have the analysis of some other books .

Here is more , via Steve Silberman .  How much of the health care cost-saving revolution will occur in the hands of the individual patient ?

That's the new Gary Gorton book and the subtitle is The Panic of 2007 .  It brings together Gorton's writings on the crisis in one convenient place but it serves up a fascinating afterword in which he asks how people will view this crisis one hundred years from now.

5. The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You've Been Told About Genetics, Talent, and IQ is Wrong , by David Shenk.  There's nothing new in here, plus not everybody can be a genius.

4. Mikhail Lermontov, A Hero of Our Time .  This new translation is a big improvement on the old and thus a chance to rediscover a classic of Russian literature.

3. Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo .  Some parts of this story are very good, but overall I felt manipulated by the author and I was glad when it was over.  I prefer Henning Mankell.

2. Ender's Shadow , by Orson Scott Card.  Not as good as Ender's Game and the trilogy, but still worth reading if you have an interest in the series.

1. Baba Yaga Laid an Egg , by Dubravka Ugresic.  These interrelated stories, which concern the aging of women, are so far my favorite fiction of the year.  This was from a Bookslut recommendation; here is one review .

Most of the twentieth century greats, such as Cheever and Barthelme, don't much stick with me.  I am a huge fan of Alice Munro and have read most or all of her work (the last collection is good but somewhat below average.)  She is consistently interesting about human nature and its foibles; maybe start here .

The author is Peter Hessler and the subtitle is A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory .  It is the account of the author's driving journeys throuh the Middle Kingdom.  Here is one bit:

6. Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity , by Sam Miller.  Bombay had its book , now Delhi has its.  Recommended, it captures the feel of the place.

5. No Such Thing as Silence: John Cage's 4'33" , by Kyle Gann.  There are over twenty-four recordings of this piece and skeptics can consider that an attempt at competitive rent exhaustion.  Yet probably none of those have come close to David Tudor's presentation of the work at its premiere.

4. Why Translation Matters , by Edith Grossman.  Short but self-recommending.  It is part of the "(Why X Matters)" series.  Here is one good review .

3. Gridlock: Why We're Stuck in Traffic and What To Do About It , by Randall O'Toole.  This Cato book is mostly an attack on transportation planning, including a critique of high-speed rail subsidies.

2. Umberto Eco, The Infinity of Lists .  The color plates are beautiful and favor artworks with large numbers of massed individuals.  The book itself is mostly excerpts of classic texts and it doesn't have much insight into…lists.

1. The Weeping Goldsmith: Discoveries in the Land of Myanmar , by W. John Kress.  The subtitle sounds so intriguing and then you discover its about the search for rare plants.  But it turns out to be even better than you thought at first.  It's a wonderful introduction to Myanmar, the idea of a scientific quest, and some aspects of botany.  The photographs are beautiful too.  I very much like books which serve up surprising combinations, as this one does.

Her new book is The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education .  Her bottom line is this:

That's from the new and noteworthy The Hollywood Economist: The Hidden Financial Reality Behind the Movies , by Edward Jay Epstein.  You can buy it new, in paperback, for only $11.

Here is Carpenter's previous book , which I have not read.  For the pointer to this work I thank Steve Teles.