Recently Mentioned Books

Brian Eno, Another Green World , and

That is from Kenneth Tynan, Profiles , which is in fact a remarkable and remarkably good book.

Jeffrey Lane, The Digital Street , is an interesting and original urban ethnography of how digitalized media, and the recording of street interactions, affect gang norms and patterns of violence.

Kimberly Clausing, Open: The Progressive Case for Free Trade, Immigration, and Global Capital delivers exactly what its subtitle promises.

M. Todd Henderson, Mental State , “When conservative law professor Alex Johnson is found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at his house in Chicago, everyone thinks it is suicide.  Everyone except his brother, Royce, an FBI agent.”

Louise I. Shelley, Dark Commerce: How a New Illicit Economy is Threatening Our Future , is a useful survey of varying kinds of black and dark markets.

4. Sally Rooney, Normal People .  A novel, they’re not, Irish, recommended.

3. Charles Allen, Coromandel: A Personal History of South India .  “I have called this book Coromandel chiefly for sentimental reasons.  I first became aware of that sonorous word as a fifteen-year-old schoolboy exiled in England. Coromandel! was the title of the third in a series of Boy’s Own -style adventure stories set in India written by John Masters, an ex-Indian Army officer turned popular novelist.  It was all about a West Country lad who sails to India with a map to find the legendary Co...

2. Nell Dunn, Talking to Women .  Interviews with British (and Irish) women, circa 1964, remarkably frank and open, “ witty, anarchic, and sexually frank .”  Strongly recommended, is it possible that the quality of discourse on these matters has not much advanced or even declined?

1. Sevket Pamuk, Uneven Centuries: Economic Development of Turkey since 1820 .  The best economic history of Turkey I know, it comes with strong recommendations from Daron Acemoglu and Dani Rodrik.  Not an engaging read, but a useful survey.

If you are wondering, three of my favorite travel books are Robert Byron’s The Road to Oxiana , David G. Campbell, The Crystal Desert: Summers in Antarctica , and also Suketu Mehta, Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found , perhaps the best travel book ever written.

If you are wondering, three of my favorite travel books are Robert Byron’s The Road to Oxiana , David G. Campbell, The Crystal Desert: Summers in Antarctica , and also Suketu Mehta, Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found , perhaps the best travel book ever written.

If you are wondering, three of my favorite travel books are Robert Byron’s The Road to Oxiana , David G. Campbell, The Crystal Desert: Summers in Antarctica , and also Suketu Mehta, Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found , perhaps the best travel book ever written.

My biggest complaint is that travel books seem not to discriminate between what the reader might care about or not.  Here is a randomly chosen passage from a recent travel book of Jedidiah Jenkins :

Paul Lewis, Joseph Haydn, Piano Sonatas 32, 40, 49, 50 .

Bach, Violin Sonatas and Partitas, get both the latest Christian Tetzlaff recording and Ning Feng , and:

Bach, Violin Sonatas and Partitas, get both the latest Christian Tetzlaff recording and Ning Feng , and:

John Adams, Doctor Atomic , 2018 recording.

Murray Perahia, Beethoven, Hammerklavier Sonata/Moonlight Sonata .

Hector Berlioz, Les Troyens , conducted by John Nelson.

Kyle Gann, Hyperchromatica , “…an extended set of movements…scores for three retuned mechanics pianos…The music draws together every facet of Gann’s style and life-long musical interests: rhythmic complexity, microtonality, extended “tonal” harmonies and voice leading, post-Minimalist surfaces, and more.  The result is a tremendous mix of sheer enjoyment coupled with extremely sophisticated compositional craft.” (Carson Cooman).

That is the new and excellent book by Alain Bertaud , so many pages have excellent food for thought.  Here is one simple bit:

There are also books which I think very likely deserve to make this list, but I have not had time to read much of them.  Most notably, those include the new biographies of Alain Locke , Thomas Cromwell , Gandhi , and Winston Churchill .

There are also books which I think very likely deserve to make this list, but I have not had time to read much of them.  Most notably, those include the new biographies of Alain Locke , Thomas Cromwell , Gandhi , and Winston Churchill .

There are also books which I think very likely deserve to make this list, but I have not had time to read much of them.  Most notably, those include the new biographies of Alain Locke , Thomas Cromwell , Gandhi , and Winston Churchill .