What I’ve been reading

1. Ethan Sherwood Strauss, The Victory Machine: The Making and Unmaking of the Warriors Dynasty.  On top of everything else this is an excellent book on management, and the random events along the way to making a team (the Warriors once wanted to trade both Curry and Thompson for Chris Paul).  Kevin Durant ends up as the fall guy, recommended to those who care.

2. Valerie Hansen, The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World — and Globalization Began.  Worth reading, my favorite part was the discussion of how Cahokia in Mississippi was connected to the Mayans.  And Chichen Itza is probably the world’s best preserved city from the year 1000.

3. Zena Hitz, Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life.  “Drawing on inspiring examples, from Socrates and Augustine to Malcolm X and Elena Ferrante, and from films to Hitz’s own experiences as someone who walked away from elite university life in search of greater fulfillment, Lost in Thought is a passionate and timely reminder that a rich life is a life rich in thought.”

4. Alaine Polcz, One Woman in the War: Hungary 1944-1945.  I am surprised this book is not better known.  I found it deeper and more gripping than many of the more broadly recommended wartime memoirs, such as Viktor Frankl.  And more honest about the toll of war on women.

5. Adam Thierer, Evasive Entrepreneurs and the Future of Governance: How Innovation Improves Economies and Governments.  A very good libertarian, “permissionless innovation” look at tech.

I have browsed Judith Herrin’s Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe, and it seems to be the definitive book on the early history of that city (one of my favorite one-day visits in the whole world).