| PAGES |
AUTHOR | TITLE |
DATE |
| 441 |
Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe |
Miles: The Autobiography |
02/01/2009 |
| An interesting book that is not very enjoyable to read. Definitely pops Miles's mystique bubble. My favorite bits were his unpopular at the time, but brutally honest opinions of fellow musicians. |
| 244 |
Michael Pollan |
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto |
06/01/2009 |
| Though it lacks the adventure of Pollan's best-seller "The Omnivore's Dilemma," and comes off as far more polemical, I still found it informative and, dare I say, inspirational. You could say I drank the Kool-Aid, though as a processed food with artificial ingredients, it wouldn't qualify. |
| 372 |
Stefan Fatsis |
Word Freak |
28/01/2009 |
| A fascinating look into a world most of us are not even aware exists -- professional Scrabble. Could have benefited from slightly more aggressive editing, but on balance, fantastic. And you've got to admire the author's dedication -- he actually became a full-time Scrabble player for several years. |
| 261 |
Theodore Dalrymple |
Life at the Bottom |
03/02/2009 |
| Dalrymple, a doctor in the slums and a prison in Birmingham, gives a chilling account of the moral and cultural decrepitude of the British underclass and traces it to the welfare state's overwhelming culture of victimhood and a complete refusal on society's part to hold people responsible for their choices, fostered by liberal intellectuals. A must-read for anyone raising or planning to raise children, at the very least. Either affirming or controversial for the rest. A few more comments here. |
| 588 |
David Remnick |
Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire |
26/02/2009 |
| An excellent account of the glasnost era and the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union, including, crucially, a very good analysis of the history of the regime and the political and social forces that formed (and failed to form) modern Russia. Highly recommended. Thank you, Steve, for the present. More comments here |
| 209 |
Leslie Gourse |
Art Blakey: Jazz Messenger |
06/03/2009 |
| A brief and very mediocre biography of the great jazz drummer Art Blakey. Does give you some appreciation of his role as a mentor to young musicians, but otherwise fairly worthless. |
| 276 |
Cash Peters |
Gullible's Travels |
15/03/2009 |
| Only occasionally funny. |
| 321 |
Phyllis Rose |
Jazz Cleopatra: Josephine Baker in Her Time |
24/03/2009 |
| A lot about her time, which is interesting, but less than one might expect about Baker herself. Informative, but didn't really draw me in. |
| 319 |
Herbert Lottman |
Left Bank |
07/04/2009 |
| An enjoyable history of a fairly narrow subject: political involvement and allegiances on the part of intellectuals, particularly writers, in France between 1930 and 1950. Recommended if you care about that sort of thing, and want to get an impression of how pervasive Communism was in France before De Gaulle. |
| 272 |
Varian Fry |
Surrender on Demand |
18/04/2009 |
| Fry, as the representative of the Emergency Rescue Committee in Marseille from August 1940 until September 1941, is credited with saving over 1,000 refugees from Nazi-occupied France, most of them clandestinely. It is a shame he is not better known. This is his fascinating and occasionally chilling memoir. Highly recommended. |
| 592 |
Louis-Ferdinand Céline |
Death on the Installment Plan |
05/07/2009 |
| Had its moments, but on the whole -- definitely a slog. Céline's Journey... was much better, and that's saying something. |
| 241 |
W. Hodding Carter |
Flushed: How the Plumber Saved Civilization |
19/07/2009 |
| Surprisingly interesting and occasionally very funny. A little heavy on the solid waste removal aspect of plumbing for my taste. |
| 342 |
Arika Okrent |
In the Land of Invented Languages |
27/07/2009 |
| An absolutely fascinating and very well-written account of artificial languages throughout history, their inventors' frequently outsized personalities, and the motivation behind their quixotic undertakings. Heartily recommended. |
| 677 |
Anne Appelbaum |
GULAG: A History |
03/10/2009 |
| Let's face it: most of us will never have the fortitude to get through Solzhenitsyn's opus. This book is the best substitute. |
| 376 |
Alberto Moravia |
The Conformist |
01/11/2009 |
| Though I've seen the movie twice, reading the book reminded me how much I didn't remember about it. I initially had some misgivings about Moravia's style, but in the end it worked. |
| 173 |
William Faulkner |
New Orleans Sketches |
21/11/2009 |
| A delightful collection of Faulkner's early sketches, written when he lived briefly in New Orleans in 1924-1925, and inspired by it. Very enjoyable, and made more so by my recent trip there. The editor's introduction is very well-written as well and gives some interesting information on Faulkner's early life. |