Recently Mentioned Books

Graduation , a Romanian movie and perhaps the most notable film about corruption I have seen, ever.  From the director of Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days , also known as “the Romanian abortion movie.”  Both strongly recommended.

The author is Deirdre Mask and the subtitle is What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power .  The opening bit would have fit under “New York City fact of the day”:

That forthcoming book is authored by Lawrence Roberts, and the subtitle is A White House at War, A Revolt in the Streets, and the Untold History of America’s Biggest Mass Arrest .  Here is one excerpt:

MEARS: I know this rule, because I was reading that when you published that book . It was when I was doing the field work in 2012, 2013. And I remember reading it and laughing, because you were saying avoid trendy restaurants with beautiful women. And I was like, “Yeah, I’m one of those people that’s actually ruining the food but creating value in these other forms because being a part of this scene and producing status.” So yeah, I think that’s absolutely correct.

Ashley Mears is a former fashion model turned academic sociologist, and her book Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit is one of Tyler’s favorites of the year. The book, the result of eighteen months of field research, describes how young women exchange “bodily capital” for free drinks and access to glamorous events, boosting the status of the big-spending men they accompany.

She also has a new book coming out this fall, How to Decide: Simpler Tools for Making Better Choices .  So what should I ask her?

That is the title of the new and excellent book by David Skarbek, and the subtitle is Why Life Behind Bars Varies Around the World .  Here is part of the Amazon summary of its contents:

You can order it here , and I expect a print edition will be coming in due time.

You can order the book here .

That is from Oliver Craske’s Indian Sun: The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar , which I am quite enjoying.

The author is Zachary D. Carter, and the subtitle is Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes .  Maybe you’ve read plenty about Keynes, but still this book is good enough to qualify (without reservation) for the year’s “best of non-fiction” list published every December.

From a legal perspective there is Ron Harris, Going the Distance: Eurasian Trade and the Rise of the Business Corporation, 1400-1700 .

7. Sonia Jaffe, Robert Minton, Casey B. Mulligan, Kevin M. Murphy, Chicago Price Theory .  A very good intermediate micro text, patterned after how Econ 301 is taught at Chicago.  Apparently in the current Coasean equilibrum, this book ends up published by Princeton University Press.  Get the picture?

6. Ryan Patrick Hanley, Our Great Purpose: Adam Smith on Living a Better Life .  Smith as a practical moral philosopher, this short volume pulls out the side of Smith closest to Montaigne and the Stoics.  You can ponder Smithian sentences such as “The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life, seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another.”

5. Douglas Boin, Alaric the Goth: An Outsider’s History of the Fall of Rome is a fun look at one part of ancient history through alternative eyes.  I always wonder what to trust about this era other than primary sources, and if you can’t understand them or grasp them intelligibly maybe that is itself the correct inference, namely that we have no idea what the **** went on back then.  Still, as imaginary reconstructions go, this is one that ought to be done and now it is.

4. Mieko Kawakami, Breasts and Eggs .  The hot new novel from Japan, it comes with a Murakami rave endorsement.  To me it seems like “ordinary feminism” (not that there’s anything wrong with that), and so far it is a bore.  If it doesn’t get better soon, I’ll write it off as a “mood affiliation text,” not that there’s anything wrong with that.  It probably makes most sense read in a very specific cultural context.

3. Susanna Clarke, Piranesi .  Yes this is a work of fiction.  Clarke of course wrote Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell , a very long novel that I have read twice, an odd mix of fantasy, science, magic, and Enlightenment esotericism, the only novel I know with fascinating footnotes.  I was thrilled to receive this one, and on p.51 I am still excited.

3. Susanna Clarke, Piranesi .  Yes this is a work of fiction.  Clarke of course wrote Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell , a very long novel that I have read twice, an odd mix of fantasy, science, magic, and Enlightenment esotericism, the only novel I know with fascinating footnotes.  I was thrilled to receive this one, and on p.51 I am still excited.

2. Jeffrey D. Sachs, The Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions .  This book is a series of lectures, based on Sachs’s earlier work on economic geography and development, yet somehow with a vaguely Yuval Harari sort of glow.  Some parts are a good introduction to the earlier work of Sachs, other parts are pitched a bit too low or too generally.  It is strange to see chapter subheadings such as “Thalassocracy and Tellurocracy.”  As an economist , I still maintain that Sach...

1. Jordan Mechner, The Making of Prince of Persia: Journals 1985-1993 .  A memoir and game development journal from a game developer.  The content is foreign to me, but this is one of the most beautiful and artistic books I ever have seen and I suspect some of you will find the narrative gripping.  A product of Stripe Press — “Ideas for Progress.”

Obviously recommended, and you will be hearing more about this both from me and from others.  You can pre-order here .

That is the new Jason Brennan book , just out yesterday, here is a summary:

I have browsed Judith Herrin’s Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe , and it seems to be the definitive book on the early history of that city (one of my favorite one-day visits in the whole world).

5. Adam Thierer, Evasive Entrepreneurs and the Future of Governance: How Innovation Improves Economies and Governments .  A very good libertarian, “permissionless innovation” look at tech.

4. Alaine Polcz, One Woman in the War: Hungary 1944-1945 .  I am surprised this book is not better known.  I found it deeper and more gripping than many of the more broadly recommended wartime memoirs, such as Viktor Frankl.  And more honest about the toll of war on women.