What I’ve been reading

1. Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov, Part 1: 1973-1985, by Garry Kasparov.  Self-recommending!  His chess books are full of history, drama, and suspense, in addition to the chess, he is simply a great mind.

2. Michael Krondl, Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert.  The best book I know on the history of dessert, with plenty of information on India, my personal favorite dessert country.  There is also the short and useful Bread: A Global History, by William Rubel.

3. Nan Shepherd, The Living Mountain.  Written in the 1940s, published in the late 70s, ignored, just republished.  It’s like reading a poem.  The Guardian is on the mark to call it “The finest book ever written on nature and landscape in Britain.”

4. Katerina Clark, Moscow, The Fourth Rome: Stalinism, Cosmopolitanism, and the Evolution of Soviet Culture 1931-1941.  A revisionist take which portrays the culture of the era as about more than just about communism, in any case thought provoking.

5. Peter Conrad, Verdi And/Or Wagner.  A multifaceted comparison of the two composers, integrating music, politics, and history, readable and recommended.

6. William A. Barnett, Getting it Wrong: How Faulty Monetary Statistics Undermine the Fed, the Financial System, and the Economy.  He pushes his own work on Divisia monetar aggregates, although Scott Sumner will tell you that a steely focus on nominal gdp will suffice.

7. David Mikics, Who Was Jacques Derrida?  Recommended by Gordon, this book is a good intelligent and intelligible introduction to Derrida.

8. Ben Lerner, Leaving the Atocha Station.  So good (and short) that I read it twice in a row, it is a mock of “creative” slackers who decide they wish to live abroad.  One of my favorite novels of the year.

In my pile of review copies are Jonathan Schlefer, The Assumptions Economists Make, and Paula Stephan, How Economics Shapes Science.