Recently Mentioned Books

Myra Melford’s Snowy Egret, The Other Side of Air .

Most of all, I discovered jazz guitarist Mary Halvorson this year.  Start with Code Girl or Meltframe , or of course YouTube .

Most of all, I discovered jazz guitarist Mary Halvorson this year.  Start with Code Girl or Meltframe , or of course YouTube .

Shaka joined Tyler to discuss his book Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison , what it was like to return to society not knowing the difference between the internet and a Word document, entrepreneurialism and humor in prison, the unexpected challenges formerly incarcerated people face upon release, his ideas for helping Detroit, what he connects with in Eastern philosophy, how he’s celebrating the upcoming anniversary of his tenth year of freedom, and more.

Consider people who love to consume information, or, as I have labeled them, infovores . They can stay at home every night and read Wikipedia, scan Twitter, click on links, browse through Amazon reviews and search YouTube — all for free. Thirty years ago there was nothing comparable.

Wilhelm Furtwängler, The Radio Recordings, 1939-1945 [sic].  James Altena writes: “…layers of aural varnish have been stripped away to uncover the true glories of one incandescent performance after another, from the conductor’s most inspired period of music-making during the horrors of the Nazi regime and World War II.”  Other critics concur, so political correctness has not yet come to classical music reviewing.  If you are reluctant to spend so much money, you can always try the Furtwängler 19...

Wilhelm Furtwängler, The Radio Recordings, 1939-1945 [sic].  James Altena writes: “…layers of aural varnish have been stripped away to uncover the true glories of one incandescent performance after another, from the conductor’s most inspired period of music-making during the horrors of the Nazi regime and World War II.”  Other critics concur, so political correctness has not yet come to classical music reviewing.  If you are reluctant to spend so much money, you can always try the Furtwängler 19...

Feodor Chaliapin, The Complete Recordings , 13 CDs (not my thing).

Poul Ruders, The Thirteenth Child (Danish opera, sung in English).

As for old classics, the Marek Janowski recording of Bruckner’s 4th is my favorite in a crowded (and impressive) field, recommended as a Bruckner introduction too.

James Tenney, Changes: 64 Studies for Two Harps , more listenable than you might think.

Alvin Curran, Endangered Species , two CDs of jazz and popular song classics but done with piano distortion, plenty of spills and turns, a genuinely successful hybrid product.

The author is Ross Douthat and the subtitle is How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success .  Excellent book!  It has a real dose of Peter Thiel (and some Tyler Cowen), and most of it comes as fresh material even if you have read all of Ross’s other columns and books.  Imagine the idea of technological stagnation tied together with a conservative Catholic critique of decadence, and in a convincing manner with a dose of pro-natalism tossed in for good measure.  There is commentary on Star Wars, ...

Some of you will like this a lot, but don’t expect a normal CWT episode.  And here is Fuchsia’s wonderful new book The Food of Sichuan , a significantly updated new edition of the old.

6. New (expensive) book on the economics of Michael Polanyi .

I am sure to read the whole thing through, you can pre-order here .

There is also Anne Case and Angus Deaton, Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism .

5. Edmund Morris, Edison .  Lots of impressive research, but this book didn’t have the emphasis on innovation and institutions that I was looking for.

4. Norman Lebrecht, Genius & Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World 1847-1947 .  An informative and engaging account of what the title promises (you can learn more about Heine and Alkan and Moholy-Nagy).  Nonetheless the author never really addresses the question of why that period was quite so remarkable for Jewish achievement, relative to the rest of world history.

3. Thomas O. McGarity, Pollution, Politics, and Power: The Struggle for Sustainable Electricity .  A very useful of the last four decades of transformation in the electricity industry.

2. Daniel M. Russell, The Joy of Search: A Google Insider’s Guide to Going Beyond the Basics .  I don’t need this, but I suspect useful for many.

1. Camilla Townsend, Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs .  I read this one straight through, it does more to bring the Aztecs (a misnomer, by the way, as it is technically the name of the military alliance…a bit like referring to “NATO people”) to life than any other book I know.

Here is the audio and transcript , the chat centered around music, including Ted’s new and fascinating book Music: A Subversive History .  We talk about music and tech, the Beatles, which songs and performers we are embarrassed to like, whether jazz still can be cool, Ted’s family background, why restaurants are noisier, why the blues are disappearing, Elton John, which countries are underrated for their musics, whether anyone loves the opera, whether musical innovation is still possible, and mu...

I am a big fan of Yuval Levin, and now he has a new forthcoming book A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream .

I do not have time to read David Abulafia’s The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans , but based on a browse it is 918 pp. of substance on everything from the Polynesians to the monsoon to sailing across the Atlantic, and then some.