Recently Mentioned Books

2. World music : Tinariwen, Aman Iman: Water Is Life .  They’re the desert nomads who were described as the world’s greatest rock and roll band by Slate.com .  Runner-up would be Segu Blue , by Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba.  Acoustic string music from Mali is in this year, plus there is Bembeya Jazz National , from Guinea.  Here is a very good NPR list of top world music picks .

2. World music : Tinariwen, Aman Iman: Water Is Life .  They’re the desert nomads who were described as the world’s greatest rock and roll band by Slate.com .  Runner-up would be Segu Blue , by Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba.  Acoustic string music from Mali is in this year, plus there is Bembeya Jazz National , from Guinea.  Here is a very good NPR list of top world music picks .

1. Best jazz album of the year : Charles Mingus Sextet with the Eric Dolphy, Cornell 1964 .  Personally I like this CD very much, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who doesn’t already know most of the essential Mingus. Dee Dee Bridgewater , who sings jazz over a kora background from Mali, was another popular selection.  I often find jazz singing too facile but the African mix provides an appropriately meaty counterweight.

1. Best jazz album of the year : Charles Mingus Sextet with the Eric Dolphy, Cornell 1964 .  Personally I like this CD very much, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who doesn’t already know most of the essential Mingus. Dee Dee Bridgewater , who sings jazz over a kora background from Mali, was another popular selection.  I often find jazz singing too facile but the African mix provides an appropriately meaty counterweight.

That’s from an Amazon review of Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind , which is in fact the best written tedious fantasy book that I have come across for a while.  Recommended.

5. Vernon Smith, Rationality in Economics: Constructivist and Ecological Forms .  This is Vernon’s big picture book, covering Hayek, the extended liberal order, and how experimental economics makes it all fit together.  A capstone to an amazing career, next will come his autobiography.

4. Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy , by Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt, and David Weaver-Zercher.  How the Amish came to forgive the guy who shot ten of their children.  A sleeper book, it has turned up on some of the odder "best of" lists for the year.

3. Daniil Kharms, Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings of Daniil Kharms .  The best collection of the Russian absurdist, offered up in many short bits; recommended, he is an underread writer outside of Russia.

2. The Sourcebook of Contemporary Architecture , by Alex Sanchez Vidiella.  I loved this book, which is mostly photos.  It is amazing how many first-rate buildings the world has put up since 2000.  Can any other seven year period in world history compare?  Japan is underrepresented in this volume, and they don’t even resort to Dubai.  Spain and America take the lead.

1. Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium , by Ronald Findlay and Kevin H. O’Rourke.  A definitive economic history of many things, including globalization and trade.  It is nicely balanced, though a bit boring to actually read.

That is from Wayne Koestenbaum’s recent Hotel Theory , which is possibly the funniest book I have read, with the caveat that a satire of queered Heidegger theory, combined with a fictional story of Lana Turner and Liberace, may not be your thing.  I also loved The Queen’s Throat ; Koestenbaum is one of the most original writers working today.  Here are reviews of the book .

That is from Wayne Koestenbaum’s recent Hotel Theory , which is possibly the funniest book I have read, with the caveat that a satire of queered Heidegger theory, combined with a fictional story of Lana Turner and Liberace, may not be your thing.  I also loved The Queen’s Throat ; Koestenbaum is one of the most original writers working today.  Here are reviews of the book .

5. Popular music : LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver , or possibly Neon Bible , by Arcade Fire.

5. Popular music : LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver , or possibly Neon Bible , by Arcade Fire.

4. Classical CD : Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Sings Peter Lieberson, "Neruda Songs." Read the excellent Ed Uyeshima review on Amazon, it is first.

2. Miscellaneous book : Letters of Ted Hughes .  Everyone loves this, I haven’t read it yet.

Here is one balanced appreciation .  The Wikipedia page is patchy but offers lots.  If you’re only going to buy one or two, I say start with Mantra and then move on to Stimmung .  The hard cores should seek out Spiral . Gesang der J ü nglinge is perhaps the most influential and seminal work, or perhaps Hymnen , order them here .  The junk includes the Helicopter Quartet, Tierkreis , anything with an American Indian theme, and most of material from the operas. Gruppen you probably had to hear liv...

Those are both from H.G. Wells’s excellent and far ahead of its time, The Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth .  The novella concerns a new tool of genetic engineering that makes people thirty-five feet tall, and of course occasions social conflict. Well’s short fiction is in general much underrated.

Those are both from H.G. Wells’s excellent and far ahead of its time, The Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth .  The novella concerns a new tool of genetic engineering that makes people thirty-five feet tall, and of course occasions social conflict. Well’s short fiction is in general much underrated.

Two books that show economic intellect to advantage are Discover Your Inner Economist , by Tyler Cowen and One Economics, Many Recipes , by Dani Rodrik. Cowen’s book is a set of observations on everyday life, while Rodrik’s book looks at the high-level issue of which economic institutions to recommend for underdeveloped countries.  I made the case for Cowen’s book here and the case for Rodrik’s book here .

Two books that show economic intellect to advantage are Discover Your Inner Economist , by Tyler Cowen and One Economics, Many Recipes , by Dani Rodrik. Cowen’s book is a set of observations on everyday life, while Rodrik’s book looks at the high-level issue of which economic institutions to recommend for underdeveloped countries.  I made the case for Cowen’s book here and the case for Rodrik’s book here .

Loyal MR readers already know about Tim, a regular columnist for The Financial Times and author of The Undercover Economist .  Here is Tim’s blog , and here is Tim’s homepage .

You may remember our very successful book forum on Greg Clark’s A Farewell to Alms .  In short, we all read the book together and I offered running commentary on the contents.  There was a special encouragement for reader comments, and Greg very graciously responded at length.  Next Alex and I, along with some specially invited guest bloggers, will be doing Tim Harford’s new The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World .  Tim’s book won’t be out until January 15, so of course...

Everything .

That is from In the Company of Crows and Ravens , a fascinating book.  Most of all this volume stresses how much crows have co-evolved with humankind.