What I’ve been pawing or will be pawing

1. J.G. Ballard, Miracles of Life: Shanghai to Shepperton An Autobiography, self-recommending.

2. Robert L. Tignore, Egypt: A Short History.  A good introduction and overview.

3. Barry Eichengreen, Exorbitant Privilege: The Decline of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System.

4. Steven Rattner, Overhaul: An Insider's Account of the Obama Administration's Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry.  An entertaining account of economic policy making inside the Obama administration.

5. Steve Hely, How I Became a Famous Novelist.

6. John Quiggin, Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us, reviewed by Arnold Kling.

7. Robert Ashley, Outside of Time.  The story of his compositions, a new theory of drone, why American opera has failed (one syllable per note is a problem), and how he used his Tourette's to help him turn involuntary speech into music: "I spent years tinkering with my consciousness trying to reconcile the performer — legal and highly paid — with the person you cross the street to avoid."