Permanent DistortionHow the Financial Markets Abandoned the Real Economy Forever Let the record show that reading the “Books and Arts” section of a newspaper can actually be worth your time. Not that arts and books aren’t important. I love books. I love art. But, who has the time? If I hadn’t read the recommendation for Nomi Prins’ book in the Nation, I would have been worse off for it. And quite honestly, financial markets are a topic I have a...
Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilizationby Neil deGrasse Tyson I know Neil deGrasse Tyson is often the victim of ridicule, but I can’t help but like the guy. At the very least he’s considered annoying because he likes to challenge our understanding of things, and people don’t like that. He can sometimes be that guy at parties who likes to correct people, so of course that’s annoying. It’s just that NGT (those who know him personally call him that, or...
The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginariesby Kathi Weeks The struggle of the proletariat against Capitalism is hard and real. So is the struggle against this book. I should know better than to commit to a book with such an enchanting title, because the subject matter sounds interesting and relevant. However, the reality is that The Problem with Work is damn-near unreadable for the entirety of its 230 pages. I’ve had a long academic career and...
I Went Down to St. James Infirmary By Robert W. Harwood A Pig’s Tale By Ralph Sutherland and Harold Sherrick At first glance, these two books have little in common other than being about popular music. The first traces the evolution of a classic blues song, the other the birth and life of a bootleg record company. In the end though, they both involve the quirks of American copyright law, especially as it applies (or doesn’t) to music and the...
Happy-Go-Luckyby David Sedaris I forget every time I crack open a new David Sedaris book how this guy isn’t as popular as he should be. Oh, I realize he’s a rich famous author with enough money to throw around to own multiple houses, Picassos, and shop for useless overpriced things that he’s probably never even going to take out of the wrapping, so he’s clearly successful and widely read. But, it’s just the humanity of it all that I think...
I Am Not Spockby Leonard Nimoy What a difference there is between new Star Trek and the old school series where it all started. Any true fan of the show will tell you that Spock is the best, and also a groundbreaking character for TV in general. I don’t quite understand why Leonard Nimoy wasn’t more popular or why he was only ever associated with Spock. It turns out, Leonard Nimoy himself is quite aware of that, which is why...
Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empireby David Remnick I love Soviet Russia history. It’s my jam and I suspect it will ALWAYS be my jam. But, I have to admit it’s been mostly the Lenin-Stalin era that I’ve sought out: the beginning. Probably because it all plays out like a sad soap opera right up to Stalin’s death. With this book, I decided to skip right to the end and learn about what made it all fall...
Don’t Trust Your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want in Lifeby Seth Stephens-Davidowitz I read mostly non-fiction because I consume so much fiction already (whether it’s TV or movies) that it’s my only avenue for learning. And self-help books don’t count, because let’s face it, they’re all a complete waste of time. Most of the time, they just tell us what we already know or what we want to hear. However, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz has taken it upon...
Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythmby Dan Charnas It’s about time someone wrote a book on J Dilla. A legendary producer who I only recently became aware of, his music is intriguing and sounds vaguely familiar, and as it turns out, it’s because of certain unique element that have since become a norm of sorts in modern hip hop. J Dilla seems both a God and an underappreciated element in the...
Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise and Fall of SST Recordsby Jim Ruland I’m going to start calling Jim Ruland “Jim Rules-and” or “Jim Rules Land.” By the time I came to punk rock in the late 90s (and it really is a calling), SST was already going “dormant.” It a took a few years of dedication to realize I had to go back to the source to truly understand modern music and that inevitably led me to SST Records. But,...