Recently Mentioned Books

Most of the answers seem too obvious to list.  I will say only that there is more to Swedish detective fiction than Stieg Larsson (start with Henning Mankell), lingonberries are usually a good idea in a meal, "Honey Honey" is the most underrated Abba song (it didn't make Greatest Hits I ), there are more excellent Bergman movies than most people think even if you don't like the stereotypical ones, Carl Milles's greatest work is in a Fairfax/Merrifield cemetary on Rt.29 in Virginia , Emanuel Swed...

That is from How the Beatles Destroyed Rock n; Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music , by Elijah Wald.

I was put on to this anecdote from Bill Streever's very good new book Cold: Adventures in the World's Frozen Places .  Single-topic popular science books may feel like an exhausted genre, but we're still seeing good ones come along.

It's an excellent book , whether on Sicily or Italy more generally, and it is written by Peter Robb.  It is also an excellent book about Naples:

2. Movie, set in : This is a tough one.  But I'll opt for Visconti's The Leopard (big screen required, don't bother with Netflix) over Coppola's Godfather sequence, not to mention La Terra Trema and L'avventura .  Wow.  Is there a Sicily scene in Patton ?

1. Novel, set in : The Leopard , by Giuseppe di Lampedusa.

The parts of this book about Jacobs are splendid.  The parts about Moses are good, though they were more familiar to me.  I believe there has otherwise never been much biographical material on Jacobs's life.  Here is an excerpt from the book .  Here is one review .  Did you know about her book A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska ?

The subtitle is How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City and the author is Anthony Flint.  Here is an excerpt:

It differs from "insight through analysis," "insight through description," and related concepts.  I am never sure if I should report on books which offer insight through horribleness. Jack Henry Abbott is a (dead) author who has insight through horribleness.

5. Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future — Chris Mooney's new book — is now out.

You can buy it here .  Here is an Imperial slide show .

The subtitle is Food, Wine, and the End of France and the author is Michael Steinberger.  This is a very readable and interesting book on France's decline as world culinary leader, building on an informal "economics of cuisine."  Even in France I would usually rather eat outside of Paris and this book helps explain why.

5. TV show about : Veronica Mars , especially season one .  Excellent dialogue, and it asks what family really consists of.  One of my favorite years of any TV show.  Is the British show Life on Mars good?  I vaguely recall My Favorite Martian from when I was a kid.  Was it actually about being gay?

5. TV show about : Veronica Mars , especially season one .  Excellent dialogue, and it asks what family really consists of.  One of my favorite years of any TV show.  Is the British show Life on Mars good?  I vaguely recall My Favorite Martian from when I was a kid.  Was it actually about being gay?

4. Film about : Mission to Mars .  Underrated de Palma, much better on a big screen, where it has a nice poetry of motion.  I already know that some of you hate this movie, so there is no need to pillory me again on this count.  I have never seen The Eyes of Laura Mars .  What's that old science fiction movie modeled after The Tempest ?

4. Film about : Mission to Mars .  Underrated de Palma, much better on a big screen, where it has a nice poetry of motion.  I already know that some of you hate this movie, so there is no need to pillory me again on this count.  I have never seen The Eyes of Laura Mars .  What's that old science fiction movie modeled after The Tempest ?

2. Album about : David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars . Venus and Mars is not overall a good album; it is mostly dull and overproduced.  So Bowie is a clear winner here.

5. The Generalissimo: Chiang-Kai-Shek and the Struggle for Modern China , by Jay Taylor.  A new and apparently exhaustive biography, based on many new sources.  The first fifty pages (all I've read so far) read very well.  I am told that Chiang was "incorruptible" — who would have known?  "Brutal, but underrated" seems to be the takeaway.  This could well be one of the more important non-fiction books of the year.

4. The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science , by Richard Holmes.  It's a well-written book with a great cover, a nice title, favorable reviews everywhere, and good information on each page.  Still, I don't quite see what it all adds up to.  But if you're inclined to read it, I don't see any reason not to.

3. Bangkok Days , by Lawrence Osborne.  Books on this topic are tricky because they have a tendency to exploit cheap salaciousness but this one is quite good and also conceptual in nature.  It prompted me to order more books by the author.

2. Calvin , by F. Bruce Gordon.  This excellent biography brings French Renaissance theology to life.  Recommended.

1. Genesis , by Bernard Beckett.  A dystopia by a Kiwi author who writes (broadly) in the style of Margaret Atwood.  My complaint that it was too short is one of the better complaints you can have about a book.

The subtitle is Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic and the author is David Wessel.  Here is one good excerpt:

The author is Joel Grus and the link to the book is here .  I am a pro-religion non-believer, but if you wish to hear from an anti-religion non-believer, this is the place to go.  He will tell you that your religion is false.

8. Gospel : Blind Boys of Alabama.  They transfer better to disc than do a lot of gospel groups.