Recently Mentioned Books

Pretty good is Jon K. Lauck, The Good Country: A History of the American Midwest, 1800-1900 .

There is the interesting Plato Goes to China: The Greek Classics and Chinese Nationalism , by Shadi Bartsch.  Here is my very good CWT with her , in which we discuss the topics of the book a bit.

Jamieson Webster, Disorganisation & Sex .  Lacanian, yet readable.  Recommend to those who think they might care, but it will not convince the unconverted.

Nicolai J. Foss and Peter G. Klein, Why Managers Matter: The Perils of the Bossless Company , is an interesting defense of corporate hierarchy, based on economic reasoning and also a dash of Hayek.

Newly published is Daniel B. Klein, Smithian Morals , Amazon link here , some of the essays are with co-authors.  Free,  open access version is here .

Ahmet T. Kuru, Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Comparison is one of the best books on why Islam fell behind Western Europe.  I don’t think it solves the puzzle, but has plenty of good arguments in the “rent-seeking” direction.

Rodric Braithwaite, Russia: Myths and Realities .  Perhaps a little simple for some readers, but probably the best place to start on the topic of Russian history.

Keiron Pim, Endless Flight: The Life of Joseph Roth .  Gripping throughout.

Andrew Mellor, The Northern Silence: Journeys in Nordic Music & Culture .  I will read this one again.  It assumes some knowledge of the Nordic countries and also some knowledge of classical music, but it is exactly the kind of book I hope people will write.  It explains at a conceptual level how those countries built up such effective networks of musical production and consumption.

and Olivier Guez, The Disappearance of Josef Mengele , excellent and easy to read in one sitting.

Alessandro Manzoni, The Betrothed , translated by Michael F. Moore.

Ovid, Metamorphoses , translated by Stephanie McCarter.

You can buy it here .

5. Cecile McLorin Salvant, Ghost Song .

So far a spectacularly good book, call it speculative fiction broadly in the vein of Susanna Clarke .  Plus she has written many other books .  Plus she is only 26 years old.  Plus she is getting a Ph.D from Yale in Asian Languages and Literatures.  I am far from finished, but so far this is one of my favorites of the year.

There is probably no book this year I will read more avidly than this one.  Highly recommended, at least for those who care.  You can buy it here .  You get almost 700 pp. from authors Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair, do it!

COWEN: How do you avoid what Harold Bloom called the anxiety of influence ?

A novel, one of the best books of the year, also short and readable.  The author is from Strasbourg.  “I’ve read enough about the Holocaust” is not a good reason to avoid iihs book.  Here is a short review , and you can buy it here .  How does in fact a sophisticated doctor become a Nazi and then frame that decision to himself?  Definitely recommended.

And Leah Kral of Mercatus has a very good new book out: Innovation for Social Change: How Wildly Successful Nonprofits Inspire and Deliver Results .

There is Glory Liu, Adam Smith’s America: How a Scottish Philosopher Became an Icon of American Capitalism .  Not exactly my point of view, but a very able treatment of how later free marketeers picked up on Adam Smith, interpreted him for their own purposes, and how that process had so much influence.

5. Lulu Yilun Chen, The Story of Tencent and China’s Ambition .  There should be more books on Chinese businesses, and this is a good start in that direction.

4. Andrew Mellor, The Northern Silence: Journeys in Nordic Music & Culture .  An excellent book trying to understand the Nordic countries through the lens of music, architecture, and the arts.  “Finland has an unusually high proportion of expatriate Japanese.”  This one will make the addended “best of the year” list.  A good study of social capital, in addition to everything else.

3. Katy Hessel, The Story of Art: Without Men .  A good revisionist account, and with nice photographic images.  Still, the treatment is oddly conservative in some regards.  Why not much more coverage of textiles and pottery, two areas with a highly significant female presence?  Why not more on photography, especially in its earlier phases?  Overall this is a good catalog of underrated women creators, but it won’t help you to understand their history much.

1. Annie Ernaux, The Years .  The most famous book by the most recent Nobel Laureate in literature, and a good and stimulating read.  It takes about twenty pages before you figure out what is going on, so stick with it.  Nabeel was ahead of the curve with this one.

Garett Jones, The Culture Transplant: How Migrants Make the Economies They Move to a Lot Like the Ones They Left .