By Date (5 column layout) for JaneGalt.net

by George R. R. Martin

I don't read a lot of science fiction and fantasy, but I'm as fond as the next person of well-written page-turners, which this one is. It's a low-magic version of The War of the Roses, with the Yorks as protagonists.

by Peter D. Kramer

The author of Listening to Prozac, which I read when it came out, followed up with this book, which argues against the notion that one's depressed self is somehow the authentic, natural self, and that medication is thus false comfort.

A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

by Steven D. Levitt,
Stephen J. Dubner

Yes, you've heard about it from every economics blog in creation, including theirs. But it really is enjoyable. It won't give you a basic grounding in economics, but it will give you insight into economic problem-solving. It's just a bonus that the writing is engaging and entertaining.

by William Lashner

Sort of noirish fiction set in modern-day Philadelphia, narrated by a wanna-be mob lawyer. He's no Tolstoy, but he will help you pass more than a few pleasant hours. I liked his earlier books even better, but I recommend them all very highly if you like mysteries.

by Orson Scott Card

Wall Street, the IMF, and the Bankrupting of Argentina

The Conflict Between Iran and America

by Kenneth Pollack

Absolutely required reading, given the current nuclear imbroglio. Warning: enough failed American realism to make you want to side with the Iranians.Absolutely required reading, given the current nuclear imbroglio. Warning: enough failed American realism to make you want to side with the Iranians.

A Story of Failed States, Financial Crises, and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations

by Sebastian Mallaby

Engaging. A nice counterpoint to Easterly's The Elusive Quest for Growth. It shows the actual machinations behind putting all the World Bank's theories into practice.

Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation's Drive to End Welfare

Simply outstanding. It gives you a gritty, and touching, picture of the utter chaos of their lives; walks you through the policy process that brought us welfare reform in the first place; and shows you how welfare reform did, and didn't, transform the world of welfare mothers.

Free trade: Good. Mr Wolf lines up, in exhaustive detail, all the reasons why.

by Will Durant,
Ariel Durant

Later they collaborated on the enormous multi-volume Story of Civilization. This book isn't so ambitious; it's just a summing up of what they've learned about people and governments from their study of history.

I can't recommend it highly enough.

Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations

by James Surowiecki

Mr Surowiecki's astonishing awesomness as the New Yorker's financial columnist is on full display in this book.

Outstanding, even in translation . . . and I generally hate translation. Tolstoy's characters breathe even though they (never) lived over 100 years ago.

by William Lashner

Invisible in America

by David K. Shipler

A collection of unpublished writings, which was put together after his death. It lacks the polish of his published work, and some of it is unfinished, but it offers in some ways a more intimate look into his mind.

by Orson Scott Card

The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship Sharon

It's a popular history about a whaling boat where a couple members of the crew kill the captain. The author dissects the official story, which had native crewmen going bonkers for no particular reason, and reveals that the captain was possibly crazy, certainly cruel. I found it surprisingly engrossing. I also learned a great deal about whaling, not that I expect this to come in handy any time soon.

by William Lashner

The Story of a Childhood

by Marjane Satrapi

I don't quite know where to put this: it's a semi-autobiographical graphic novel by a woman who grew up in Iran around the 1979 revolution. It's really quite stunning.

by George R. R. Martin

I may nominate the beginning of this book for best prose ever. I actually get chills down my spine every time I read the words "And this too was among the dark places of the earth". If you haven't read this, you must, and not just because you liked Apocalypse Now.

A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government

The book that started my slow slide into libertarianism. Still unbelievably hilarious after fifteen years--I mean, milk - out - of - the - nose, collapse - into - a - heap, go - to - the - emergency - room - for - laughter - induced - muscle - cramps hilarious. If you haven't read it, you must.

Okay, it's not quite Conrad, but who is? It's still absolutely first class fantasy writing. If you haven't read the prequel trilogy, the Farseer trilogy, which starts with Assassin's Apprentice, I'm very excited for you, because you have an enormous treat in store. The books are lovely and thick, perfect for taking on vacation.

by Sloan Wilson,
Jonathan Franzen

It's a period piece--postwar 1950's "Isn't there something better than this?" literature. It's enjoyable not merely as a period piece--though peaking into the heads of our near ancestors is in itself a pleasurable reading experience--but as a novel, even though it gets a little sappy at the end.

Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics

by William Easterly

Shut off your computer, step smartly out to the nearest bookstore, and buy it at once--it's one of my all-time favourite books about global economics

by Ira Levin,
Peter Straub

Didn't know it was a book, did you? I confess, I was taken aback by how much I enjoyed this book, which has a lean, understated prose style that really sets off the underlying horror.

On (Not) Getting By in America

by Barbara Ehrenreich

Offers occasional insight into the lives of the working poor, but almost unreadable because of its dripping, venomous contempt for the middle class (and its paternalistic contempt for her working class co-workers, whom she repeatedly implies are too stupid or deluded to understand that THEY'RE BEING BRUTALLY EXPLOITED AND THEIR LIVES ARE WORTHLESS!).

by Orson Scott Card

by Julia Child,
Louisette Bertholle,
Louisette Bertholle,
Simone Beck

Bush, Gore, and the Supreme Court

Editors:
Cass R. Sunstein,
Richard A. Epstein

The Origins of a National Gun Culture

by Michael Bellesiles

Unfortunately, it's a sham

A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News

by Bernard Goldberg

The phenomenon Goldberg is covering is real, but the book is hopelessly sloppy.

by Orson Scott Card

The 70's: The Decade That Brought You Modern Life--For Better or Worse

It's a book about the 1970's, arguing that it wasn't the 1960's, but rather the 1970's, that created modern life. Yes, it sounds unbelievably dull, but it's incredibly good -- I've already re-read it several times. In the process, I've developed an enormous crush on David Frum. Also an enormous inferiority complex.

Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking

. This book is full of concepts and tips for the beginner-to-middling cook--no instructions to buy larding tools to pull strips of pork fat through your roast, or spend three days making your own duck pate to put in the beef wellingtons. It's practical everyday cooking, and some of the ideas are really cool--like cooking short-grained rice in a soup, and then pureeing it, for a low-fat cream soup.

An Age Like This 1920-1940: The Collected Essays, Journalism & Letters

It's adorable even if you don't love long, Victorian novels, but if you do, it's positively irresistable. Having so loved it, I'm embarking on a Russian binge. This will not, however, include learning Russian, or learning to eat pickled herring.

by George R. R. Martin

More Than 125 All-Time Favorite Pies & Tarts

I love pie. All kinds of pie: custard, lemon, any sort of fruit, chicken . . . if I had to pick one food to live on forever, it would be purple raspberry pie. (Sigh) The book doesn't just have recipes; it has the science of piecrusts, fillings, and toppings (meringues, whipped creams) laid out in excruciating detail for those of us who are still struggling to live up to our mothers.

, Run, don't walk, down to your nearest bookstore and pick this up. John Cheever was one of the prose greats of the twentieth century

The New Upper Class and How They Got There [BARGAIN PRICE]

China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy

by Kenneth Pomeranz

A sampling of the autobiographical musings he dictated at the end of his life. Because he didn't mean it to be published until after his death, it is much more frank than most autobiography, and of course, Mark Twain is one of the most brilliant writers ever.

The Logic of Human Destiny

Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software

by Charles Petzold

A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster

Jon Krakauer was on Everest in 1996 when everything went to hell. This chronicle of that expedition is brilliant.

And Other Progressive Causes

Washington's Faustian Bid for World Dominance

The Madness of American Law

Against the Tyranny of the Market

by Pierre Bourdieu

The Fates of Human Societies

by Jared M. Diamond

Although I have some problems with the book, it's a must read for anyone who wants to know how domestic civilization arose. I highly recommend it.

by Philip Greenspun

Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age

by Michael A. Hiltzik

Lessons from the Halls of Power

by Lawrence B. Lindsey

by Betty Crocker Editors

. This is the cookbook I do half my baking out of, and all of my jello molds. It's actually surprisingly fabulous . . . a beginner's cookbook from the era before baking mixes and salad oil became staple ingredients. The section at the end urging tired and depressed housewives to "consult a doctor and follow medical advice" (hellllooooooo, Valium) is alone worth the price.

The Imperial Global Economy Explains Itself to the Membership in Davos, Switzerland

by Lewis H. Lapham

The Radical Assault on America's Future

Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom?

How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed

My current short story find . . . 12 stories about people who long to be not just somewhere else, but somewhen else . . .

Richard Nixon vs Helen Gahagan Douglas-Sexual Politics and the Red Scare, 1950

I highly recommend.

by George R. R. Martin

Less biographical, more journalistic than Into Thin Air; it's a reconstruction of a boy on the hippy fringe who breaks all ties with his family and goes off into the Alaska wilderness to test his manhood, where he dies. It all sounds rather juvenile and melodramatic, and it is, but at the heart of juvenile melodrama there is a worthy core of aspiration that Krakauer deftly extracts.

The Increasing Inequality of Wealth in America and What Can Be Done About It

by Edward N. Wolff

50th Anniversary Edition

One of the hardest things about learning economics is learning to look beyond your first order intuitions to second order effects. Hazlitt does an excellent job of puncturing common economic fallacies by leading the reader, in simple, easy-to-understand language, through the second order effects.

by William Lashner

The book isn't the usual sort of "swords and elves" thing; it's rather hard and bloody, but wonderfully written, and the characters are absolutely fantastic.. Read the whole Farseer trilogy. The books are lovely and thick, perfect for taking on vacation.

Toward Clarity and Grace

by Joseph M. Williams

A humorous book about Wall Street written in mid-century, skewering the conceits of both investors and brokers. The shocking thing is that almost all of it still applies today.

Great Writers on Good Times

A compilation of works by a number of damn fine writers, including Mark Twain, Charles Bukowski, Henry Miller, Vladimir Nabokov, Spalding Gray, and Dorothy Parker, that offers tribute to the peccadilloes we regret.

by Margaret Mitchell

It's unmistakeably racist, and it glorifies a system I am not sad to see gone. But this may have the best set of characters in any English language book, and she manages to make you sympathise with the thoroughly unsympathetic heroine, so it's not much of a leap to sympathising with their compatriots. Plus the story is utterly absorbing, and it's long enough to last for a few lazy holiday afternoons.

War, Money and the English State, 1688-1783

I can't believe he packs so much gifted prose and raw emotion into such a short little book. This, of course, makes me insanely jealous. But it's worth it. The opening is a very good candidate for Best Opening Ever.

May be the best modern thriller about the Middle East.

It's practical everyday cooking, and some of the ideas are really cool...it's full of concepts and tips for the beginner-to-middling cook--no instructions to buy larding tools to pull strips of pork fat through your roast, or spend three days making your own duck pate to put in the beef wellingtons.

by Rose Wilder Lane

These stories are really oustanding. It's a series of interlaced stories about a gawky, too-bright girl growing up in a very small town at the turn of the century, but not in that mawkish, "turns into a swan" style that makes you gag.

by Rose Wilder Lane

Rather good, especially if you've read her mother's children's books; she tells the darker, adult side of pioneering, like the couple out on the prairie who were murdering families who stopped at their houses and stealing their stuff . . . dozens and dozens of people.

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

One of the patron saints of light verse.

OUR ORIENTAL HERITAGE: VOLUME I

I'll read this someday when I have a zillion dollars to spare.

One of the patron saints of light verse. When I was in college, I thought I wanted to be Dorothy Parker, until I realised that no matter how hard I tried I was never going to be talented, Jewish, or short, and that dying alone only sounds romantic so long as you continue to believe yourself to be immortal.

by Milton Friedman,
Anna Jacobson Schwartz

revolutionised monetary policy, removing it from the clutches of the Keynesians

I couldn't be happier with mine.

It's not as useful as the stand mixer, because you have to hold it in your hand and move it around, which is fine for cakes, but makes your arm tired awfully fast if you're dealing with a stiff dough. Mine came with dough hooks, but I'd rather knead the bread by hand than get carpal tunnel trying to drive my hand mixer through a thick wad of bread dough.

I've been surprised, actually at how many people have asked where I got this . . . even before I showed them how twisting the bottom of the spice canister automatically measures out 1/4 teaspoon of spice. They are set up so that you can stack them into one tall carousel . . . the arrangement that has attracted all my guests has four of them stacked on atop the other.

Again, non cooks are goggling their eyes, dumbstruck by the thought that someone could actually buy an entire gadget just for removing lemon and orange zest. But once you've used a zester, you'll never go back to the grater. Not only does it avoid the nastiness of scraped knuckles; it removes a perfect layer of zest, with none of the bitter white underpeel to contaminate your cooking. And it's about eight times easier and faster than using a grater. I just can't communicate how you, or that special cook in your life, will rave once they've tried this.

It's got a sensor cook/reheat feature that figures out how much cooking things need by the steam they're releasing, a terrific defroster, and a keep warm feature. If you're dieting, try throwing a bag of mixed raw vegetables into the microwave for using the sensor cook setting for raw vegetables, then tossing the perfectly steamed veggies with a little butter, some lemon juice, and a little crushed garlic. Mmmmm. If you're not, six minutes on high will produce the best bacon you ever ate.

This is my new find for this year. It's a bowl you stick in the freezer for twenty-four hours, then slot onto your Kitchenaid with a special dasher attachment.