What I’ve been reading
1. David Nutt, Drink? The New Science of Alcohol + Your Health.
A very good introduction to the growing body of evidence about the harms of alcohol, in all walks of life.
2. Samuel Zipp, The Idealist: Wendell Willkie’s Wartime Quest to Build One World.
Who cares about Wendell Willkie? I received this review copy determined not to read it, but of course I could not help but crack open the cover and sample a few pages, and then I was hooked. The first thirty pages alone had excellent discussions of early aviation (Willkie was an aviation pioneer of sorts with a cross-world flight), Midwestern family and achievement culture of the time, and the rise of the United States.
3. I was happy to write a blurb for Michael R. Strain’s The American Dream is Not Dead (But Populism Could Kill It).
4. Simon W. Bowmaker, When the President Calls: Conversations with Economic Policymakers.
The interviewed subjects include Feldstein, Boskin, Rubin, Summers, Stiglitz, Rivlin, Yellen, John Taylor, Lazear, Harvey Rosen, Goolsbee, Orszag, Brainard, Alan Krueger, Furman, Hassett, and others.
4. Cheryl Misak, Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers.
Thorough and useful, though not exciting to read.
5. Gabriel Said Reynolds, Allah, God in the Qur’an.
A very good treatment of what it promises, with an emphasis on the concept of mercy in Islam.
6. Sophy Roberts, The Lost Pianos of Siberia.
A wonderful book if you care about the lost pianos of Siberia and indeed I do: “Roberts reminds us in this fresh book that there are still some mysterious parts of our world.” (link here) Also of note is Varlam Shalamov, Sketches of the Criminal World: Further Kolyma Stories, the first third being remarkably moving and incisive as well.
There is also Sidney Powell and Harvey A. Silverman, Conviction Machine: Standing Up to Federal Prosecutorial Abuse is a frank and brutal documentation of why you should never trust a prosecutor or speak to the FBI.
Also new and notable is Lily Collison, Spastic Diplegia–Bilateral Cerebral Palsy: Understanding the Motor Problems, Their Impact on Walking, and Management Throughout Life: a Practical Guide for Families.