1. Hamid Keshmirshekan, Contemporary Iranian Art: New Perspectives. I get tired of reading through the same old histories of Persia/Iran, and how they tell the same old tales of the rise and fall of the Shah, etc. So how else might you try to understand contemporary Iran better? Books like this are a very good place to start, plus they are fun to page through. If anything, the works seem to get better and more original post-1979? And you can see continuing currents of the non-Islamic undergrounds strands in Iranian theology?
2. Neal Bascomb, The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less than Four Minutes to Achieve It. While the major focus is on Roger Bannister, there is plenty on the other runners of his time as well, most of all the Australian John Landy, who rapidly broke Bannister record after it was achieved. Many smart people do not read enough books about the history of sports. Yet the genre is very good, as often both the readers and the authors (!) actually really care about the content of the material. Recommended.
3. Barry Mazor, Blood Harmony: The Everly Brothers Story. I’m not going to pass this one up, as Macca once said: “The biggest influence on John and me was the Everly Brothers. To this day I just think they’re the greatest.” In addition to the very famous songs, “Roots” is an incredible and now neglected album. This book however is good not great, as it never quite brings them to life. But it is now the main biography, and in that sense is self-recommending.
4. Ian Penman, Erik Satie Three Piece Suite (Semiotext(e)/ Native Agents. A hard book to explain. A kind of devil’s dictionary of terms related to Erik Satie, interesting and witty throughout, at least if you know something of early modernism and its culture. Recommended, for those who care.
5. Alexander Ivashkin, Alfred Schnittke. “Schnittke really lies between two traditions, with German rationalism on one hand and Russian irrationalism on the other.” Lately I have been listening to the Psalms of Remembrance and the violin sonata #2. I had not known that Schnittke grew up speaking Volga German.
5. Rachel Tusk, Parade. I quite enjoyed this, described on the back cover as “a carousel of lives.” You will find an overview and spoilers here. Somehow it is not yet on Amazon? Someone gave me a special copy!
Bill McGowan, and Juliana Silva, Speak, Memorably: The Art of Captivating an Audience, is a good and useful book.
Jo Ann Cavallo, editor, Libertarian Literary and Media Criticism: Essays in Memory of Paul A. Cantor. There is even an essay by David Gordon (!) in here.
The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Immigration, edited by Sahar Akhtar, is the best collection on its topic.
There is Thomas Piketty, Equality is a Struggle: Bulletins from the Front Line, 2021-2025. Columns in favor of democratic socialism and higher taxes.
And there is Samuel Arbesman, The Magic of Code: How Digital Language Created and Connects Our World — and Shapes Our Future.
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