1. Edwin Frank, Stranger Than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel. Excellent short versions of various classic novels, including Machado de Assis, Mann’s Magic Mountain, Dr. Moreau, Carpentier, Perec, and others. At this point I usually get sick of books like this but this one I’m holding on to as it oozes everywhere.
2. Peter Doggers, The Chess Revolution: From the Ancient World to the Digital Age, is a good book, although it is very much within my current knowledge set.
3. Rebecca Charbonneau, Mixed Signals: International Relations Across the Iron Curtain. This book fits right into my recent “Soviet science” reading program. This is a “Cold War” book rather than a “UFO book.” And I read the full saga behind the Byrds’ song “CTA – 102” for the first time.
4. Geoffrey Wawro, The Vietnam War: A Military History, is one of the best books on its subject and is brilliant and very readable.
Coming in 2025 is David Spiegelhalter, The Art of Uncertainty: How to Navigate Chance, Ignorance, Risk and Luck.
The Legacy of Robert Higgs, edited by Christopher J. Coyne, is an excellent collection for those interested in the topics Bob worked on.
Louis Kaplow, professor of law and economics at Harvard, rethinks merger analysis in Rethinking Merger Analyses.
I haven’t had a chance to start Agustina S. Paglayan, Raised to Obey: The Rise and Spread of Mass Education.
John Cassidy has an upcoming reading collection, Capitalism and its Critics, History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI.
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