Recently Mentioned Books

2. Martin J. Sherwin, Gambling with Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis .  a very well-done book about mankind’s biggest problem and risk — what more could you want?  I didn’t find much shocking new in here, but a very good overview for most readers.

1. Darmon Richter, Chernobyl: A Stalker’s Guide .  This year’s best travel book?  And do you get the joke in the subtitle?  It has an unusual flair, excellent photos, and will make the updated “best of the year” list.

4. New Proust stories appearing in English for the first time order them here .

COWEN: I don’t think he wants to sterilize people, but he has those essays on population , which are not put into the collected works. They’re not mentioned by Roy Harrod . He is greatly worried that the people from some countries — I think including India — will outbreed the people from Britain, and this will wreak havoc on prices and wages, and it’s a big crisis. He even says, “We need to worry not only about the quantity of people, but the quality of people in the world.”

Zach is author of the recent book The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes , which has been on many year-end “best of” lists.  Here is the audio, transcript, and video .  Here is part of the CWT summary:

Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy .  I think you need to have a preexisting connection to Mexico and Mexican food to enjoy it.  I do.

The Wedding Plan , a few years older, a Rama Burshtein movie, imagine an Israeli woman setting out to get married by a particular date no matter what.

2. Worthwhile Canadian moose car-licking warnings .  And new Jordan Peterson book coming in March .

As noted, Ben has a new and very interesting book coming out Religion and the Rise of Capitalism .  He is also the author of the superb The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth , and the earlier Day of Reckoning , about the economic policies of the Reagan administration.  Ben has been a leading macroeconomist since the 1970s, and he taught me Ph.D. macro at Harvard in 1984, one of my favorite professors I might add.  Here is Ben on scholar.google.com .

As noted, Ben has a new and very interesting book coming out Religion and the Rise of Capitalism .  He is also the author of the superb The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth , and the earlier Day of Reckoning , about the economic policies of the Reagan administration.  Ben has been a leading macroeconomist since the 1970s, and he taught me Ph.D. macro at Harvard in 1984, one of my favorite professors I might add.  Here is Ben on scholar.google.com .

Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) was of course the grandfather of Charles Darwin and also of Francis Galton.  And that passage is from the truly excellent biography Charles Darwin Voyaging , by Janet Browne.

This year I also rediscovered Robert Ashley’s opera Atalanta (Acts of God) , and Raymond Lewenthal’s Alkan CD , one of my favorite recordings of all time, a kind of proto-rock and roll.

This year I also rediscovered Robert Ashley’s opera Atalanta (Acts of God) , and Raymond Lewenthal’s Alkan CD , one of my favorite recordings of all time, a kind of proto-rock and roll.

Caroline Shaw, Orange, Attaca Quartet .

Philippe Manoury, Temps Mode d’Emploi .

Hans Abrahamsen, String Quartets .

I listened to a good deal of Szymanowski, who has finally started to make sense to me.  In prep for my CWT with Alex Ross , I relistened to a great deal of Wagner.  What rose in my eyes was the von Karajan Die Meistersinger and the Clemens Krauss Ring cycle .

I listened to a good deal of Szymanowski, who has finally started to make sense to me.  In prep for my CWT with Alex Ross , I relistened to a great deal of Wagner.  What rose in my eyes was the von Karajan Die Meistersinger and the Clemens Krauss Ring cycle .

Chopin CD of the year would be by Jean-Paul Gasparian .

Masaaki Suzuki put out more Bach organ music , and conducted an incredible version of Beethoven’s 9th symphony .  His genius remains under-discussed, as he is also a world-class harpsichord and keyboard player, and has produced the definitive recording of Bach’s entire cycle of cantatas.  Why is there no biography of him?  He is one of the greatest creators and performers in the entire world in any area.  If you are wondering, his parents were Japanese Protestants and he is a Calvinist.

Beethoven, Complete works for Piano Trio, van Baerle Trio .  Again, the best recording of these works I have heard, and there is stiff competition.

Beethoven Bagatelles , by Tanguy de Williencourt.  This is Beethoven at his most arbitrary and willful and whimsical, all good things.  I have many recordings of these pieces, but these are perhaps my favorite.  Why again is it that French pianists are so good with Beethoven?

Beethoven Complete Piano works , by Martino Tirimo .  I probably know the performance canon for Beethoven piano sonatas better than any other area of classical music, and this is one of my two or three favorite sets of all time.  They are fresh, direct, and to the point, and remind me of the earlier Yves Nat set, though with better sound and the mistakes edited out.  Here is one review : “It’s decades since a pianist has managed to convey such an overwhelming sense that we’re listening to pure B...

That is the new, forthcoming book by Benjamin M. Friedman, due out in January, you can pre-order here .  I will be inviting him to do a CWT, he was also an excellent macro professor way back when.

The former head of the CIA, grew up in North Bergen, NJ, fluent in Arabic.  I will be doing a Conversation with him.  Here is his Wikipedia page .  Here is his new book Undaunted: My Fight Against America’s Enemies at Home and Abroad .