Recently Mentioned Books

3. Trevor Corson, The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi, from Samurai to Supermarket .  The first few chapters are an excellent overview and history of sushi, after that the book is a lame account of a bunch of losers taking a sushi course.

2. Janos Kornai, By Force of Thought: Irregular Memoirs of an Intellectual Journey .  Charming memoirs of one of the major economists from the Communist bloc.  An intellectual autobiography, an account of how and why human beings change their minds, and an explanation of why he was more creative in Hungary than with the mainstream at Harvard.

1. Liza Mundy, Everything is Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction is Changing Men, Women, and the World .  Excellent stories, even-handed, and surprisingly philosophical.  How can you not read a good book on this topic?

Here is more information .  And if you are interested in Alzheimer’s, John Bayley’s Elegy for Iris is one of my favorite books.

That is from Paul Collier’s very worthwhile The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It .

That is from Johan van Overtveldt’s The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business .  I enjoyed this book very much.  Instead of stopping at Friedman, Coase and Director, it also offers a comprehensive treatment of such neglected figures as Herbert Davenport, Laurence Laughlin, H. Gregg Lewis, Albert Rees, Theodore Yntema, and Jim Lorie, in each case noting their roles in the broader story.

By the way, Seth’s The Shangri-La Diet is now out in paperback.

The first disc of this BBC-produced nature series blew me away, buy it here .  Amazon calls it "quite simply the greatest nature/wildlife series ever produced," and no it doesn’t matter that the narrative is at a fourth-grade level and fails to mention the Hotelling rule or the tragedy of the commons.

Here is the full interview with Frank , mostly on his teaching philosophy and his excellent new book, The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas .  My blurb for the book was:

Now this was not Sraffa’s argument, but Sraffa’s argument was far more complicated and also worse.  It relied on aggregation theorems which simply didn’t stick, and Mark Blaug tore it apart .

4. In 1960 he published the neo-Ricardian cult tract The Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities .  Sadly this book is almost entirely misleading.  It tries to resurrect the Ricardian idea that costs alone determine price (or perhaps I should say it cryptically hints at that idea without actually defending any real propositions at all).

7. Soprano : Kirsten Flagstad, anything by Wagner .

6. Pianist : Leif Ove Andsnes is remarkably consistent and tasteful.  HÃ¥kon Austbø is a strong and underrated runner-up, I love his Messiaen on Naxos .

5. Novels : Knut Hamsun was a fascist, still Hunger holds the reader’s attention.  My favorite is Sigrid Undset ; Kristin Lavransdatter is long but a must-read.  Ole Rolvaag’s tales of the American frontier often have interesting property rights themes.

5. Novels : Knut Hamsun was a fascist, still Hunger holds the reader’s attention.  My favorite is Sigrid Undset ; Kristin Lavransdatter is long but a must-read.  Ole Rolvaag’s tales of the American frontier often have interesting property rights themes.

4. Playwright : Almost everything by Ibsen is superb, and yes it does repay a rereading.  Too many smart people had A Doll’s House forced on them in high school and then take him for granted.  His fantasy piece Peer Gynt is one of the most imaginative literary creations, period.

3. Jazz : Norway is now a world leader in this field ; start with the Tord Gustavsen Trio, Changing Places .  Here are more resources .  That said, Jan Garbarek has never thrilled me.

2. Classical music .  My favorite Grieg recording is Lyric Pieces , by Emil Gilels.  Mostly the composer bores me, but if you get the piano concerto try Dinu Lipatti . Peer Gynt reminds me of a bad coffee commercial, which in fact it once was.  For contemporary composers, Arne Nordheim is consistently interesting.

2. Classical music .  My favorite Grieg recording is Lyric Pieces , by Emil Gilels.  Mostly the composer bores me, but if you get the piano concerto try Dinu Lipatti . Peer Gynt reminds me of a bad coffee commercial, which in fact it once was.  For contemporary composers, Arne Nordheim is consistently interesting.

1. Film : The 1989 Pathfinder is one of the best "unknown" movies, why is there no DVD reissue?

That is again Kierkegaard , from Prefaces .

Here , and on another topic don’t forget wunderkind Ben Casnocha’s new book .

My Danish host, Nicolai Foss, has a blog on archtop jazz guitar .  Here are his posts on the best of jazz guitar .  I’ll nominate Joe Pass’s Virtuoso album , any number of Django Reinhardt collections, the Jim Hall-Sonny Rollins album , and the Wes Montgomery live album Smokin’ at the Half Note as my top picks.  George van Eps and the old Kress and McDonough recordings are particular favorites as well.  John McLaughlin is not to be neglected, and there is also the incomparable Bola Sete from Bra...

My Danish host, Nicolai Foss, has a blog on archtop jazz guitar .  Here are his posts on the best of jazz guitar .  I’ll nominate Joe Pass’s Virtuoso album , any number of Django Reinhardt collections, the Jim Hall-Sonny Rollins album , and the Wes Montgomery live album Smokin’ at the Half Note as my top picks.  George van Eps and the old Kress and McDonough recordings are particular favorites as well.  John McLaughlin is not to be neglected, and there is also the incomparable Bola Sete from Bra...

My Danish host, Nicolai Foss, has a blog on archtop jazz guitar .  Here are his posts on the best of jazz guitar .  I’ll nominate Joe Pass’s Virtuoso album , any number of Django Reinhardt collections, the Jim Hall-Sonny Rollins album , and the Wes Montgomery live album Smokin’ at the Half Note as my top picks.  George van Eps and the old Kress and McDonough recordings are particular favorites as well.  John McLaughlin is not to be neglected, and there is also the incomparable Bola Sete from Bra...