Recently Mentioned Books

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 .

John Fabian Witt, American Contagions: Epidemics and the Law from Smallpox to Covid-19 is a short but useful treatment of what its title promises.  I had not known that both Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X were opposed to compulsory vaccination.

There is Judith Flanders, A Place for Everything: The Curious History of Alphabetical Order .

5. Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology .  From the 1830s, this remains one of the great scientific classics.  I had never known how well-reasoned or beautifully written it was, a big positive surprise for me.  Not just a bunch of crusty old rocks, though it is also about…a bunch of crusty old rocks.

4. Charles Camic, Veblen: The Making of an Economist Who Unmade Economics .  It makes sense that a biography of Veblen should be…somewhat verbose.  Nonetheless this is a valuable contribution for anyone interested in the topic.  To me the main question is why the libertarian right takes Veblen more seriously these days than does the Left, perhaps it is because they read Veblen and immediately think of Wokeism?

2. Terryl Givens, Mormonism: What Everyone Needs to Know .  Perhaps if one needs to read this book, one is also under-qualified to comment on it.  Still it seemed very good to me and providing one of the better introductions.  I hadn’t know for instance that Abraham and even Adam to some extent were “in on” the covenant all along.

1. Gregory M. Collins, Commerce and Manners in Edmund Burke’s Political Economy .  Burke is underrated as an economist, and also more generally.  This very thorough and thoughtful book goes a long way toward setting the record straight.  In the meantime, it is not sufficiently well known just how much Keynes was influenced by Burke.

Darmon Richter, Chernobyl: A Stalker’s Guide .

Joe Henrich, The WEIRDEST People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous .

Steven Levy, Facebook: The Inside Story .

Bruno Macaes, History has Begun: The Birth of a New America .

Garett Jones, 10% Less Democracy: Why You Should Trust the Elites a Little More and the Masses a Little Less .