January Books

Right back at it. Already off the pace and ignoring my resolution to read more fiction this year. Always happy to read anything by Tim Harford. Hillbilly Elegy was bracing, though flawed, and the Smith Tapes reminded me how distant 1972 is from the present.

Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives

by Tim Harford

Not as good as his other books, but, like everything he writes, lucid and a pleasure to read. I think I had read half the book in excerpts before I cracked my copy.

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

by J.D. Vance

Vivid picture of another part of America, along with the acknowledgement that it won't be so easy to make America great again. Not perfect, by any means, but worth the effort.

The Smith Tapes: Lost Interviews with Rock Stars & Icons 1969-1972

by Ezra Bookstein

Great collection of interviews with icons of the 1970s, celebrities, activists, everybody. The times they have a changed.

What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam & Modernity in the Middle East

by Bernard Lewis

Very helpful concise history of politics and culture in the region from the beginning until now. Recommended.

Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility

by James P. Carse

Interesting premisse, repeated over and over again in various opaque epigrams. Short book that seemed to go on forever, oddly appropriate, I guess.