What I’ve been reading

Bjorn Lomborg’s Best Things First delivers the expected dose of correct common sense.

Charles Horsnby, Kenya, A History since Independence is a very good long treatment of everything up to about 2010, conceptual too.

David Schleicher, In a Bad State: Responding to State and Local Budget Crises.  An important, unfortunately timely, and very intelligent book on how the federal government has responded to state and local insolvency in the past.  My main complaint is that at 171 pp. of text it is far too short.

Norman Lebrecht, Why Beethoven: A Phenomenon in One Hundred Pieces.  A good introduction to Ludwig van, even if some parts do rush by too quickly.  Also a good introduction for how to think about different recorded versions of the same piece.

There is Markus K. Brunnermeier and Ricardo Reis, A Crash Course on Crises: Macroeconomic Concepts for Run-ups, Collapses, and Recoveries.

And also Angus Deaton, Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality.

Kelly Smith offers his account of Prenda micro-schools in his A Fire to Be Kindled: How a Generation of Empowered Learners Can Lead Meaningful Lives and Move Humanity Forward.

Patrick Mackie, Mozart in Motion: His Work and his World in Pieces is a good introduction to what the title promises.