Jan Reid: Texas Tornado: The Times and Music of Doug Sahm (Brad and Michele Moore Roots Music Series)
Wonderful biography of the American Roots Music Master and one of the original cosmic cowboys.
Tom Nolan: Three Chords for Beauty's Sake: The Life of Artie Shaw
Well written and thoroughly researched biography of one of the real greats of the Swing Era. In the late thirties and early forties swing fans were either fans of Benny Goodman or Artie Shaw. While Goodman was easily the more popular, Shaw made music of rare beauty and was a much more mercurial figure. Unlike Goodman, Shaw retired fro performing in the fifties, but lived into his nineties to see his music reissued and revived. This book does a great job of telling his life and describing his music while unflinchingly describing his unnattractive personality.
Anthony Bourdain: Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
Effectively a series of short essays, some as short as a blog post about a variety of food and dining issues. If you've seen his TV show (highly recommended) or read his "discussions" on the internet, you've heard all this before. Entertaining in his normal neo-Hunter S Thompson style.
David Lebovitz: The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City
The author talks about his life as an American transplanted to Paris. Since is is a chef and cookbook author by trade, I would describe this as autobiography with recipes. The stories of Paris are quite good. So are the recipes.
Michael Lewis: The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
Riveting account of several big players who saw the financial crisis in subprime lending coming and made money based on their foresight.
David Weber: A Mighty Fortress (Safehold Book 4)
Book 4 of the Safehold series continues the trend of being more action packed as the adventure unfurls. This book will be especially enjoyed by lovers of nautical fiction.
Lynne Olson: Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England
Very interesting book about the English politics that replaced Neville Chamberlain with Winston Churchill as World War two started. Much more interesting and complicated than you expect.
Nathaniel C. Fick: One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer
Outstanding book that lets you see the front lines in our ongoing war on terror and the culture of the U. S. Marines.
Rick Atkinson: The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (The Liberation Trilogy)
Excellent detailed account of the US European campaign in World War II started with the Pulitzer Prize willing An Army At Dawn. Reading this while traveling in Italy helped to underscore the impact that terrain had in this hard fought theater in the war.
Dunstan Prial: The Producer: John Hammond and the Soul of American Music
John Hammond is one of the great figures in American music and an important figure in the early civil rights movement. He produced Bessie Smith's last record session and Billie Holiday's first. He was an important figure in the careers of Count Basie. He also signed Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen to their first recording contracts. I much prefer Hammond's autobiography but this is is a well told tale.
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chart from Marginal Revolution
While this does beg the question as to what happened in 1980, charts like this are dangerous without knowing the growth in the two factors. For example, the lack of growth in the Clinton years is likely the result of the great growth in GDP. At the same time, the scary trend in Bush 2 is likley driven at least in part by the lack of growth in GDP.
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