Readings, briefly

I haven't written about books in a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been reading. Here's what I've read, some recent, some from several months ago that need to go back to the library, with brief commentary.

• The Age of American Unreason, Susan Jacoby: A history of the decline and fall of rationality in American public discourse. The most interesting chapter is the one on Middlebrow Culture. Recommended reading.
  
  
• Faceless Killers, Henning Mankell: The first of the Swedish Wallander mysteries, which are becoming a regular feature on PBS's Masterpiece Mystery. The mystery was a bit thin, and the writing is serviceable, at best, the promise implicit in the setting and the detective are discernible.
  
  
• The Cruel Stars of the Night, Kjell Eriksson: The second novel in another Swedish detective series, this one with a single mom as lead detective (much easier to pull off in Scandinavia). Eriksson's prose is several steps above Mankell's (though both men's books suffer from weak translations by non-native speakers), but the case was far-fetched and a bit melodramatic. Eriksson did a much better job than Grafton in alternating between the killer's and detective's perspectives, but it still didn't really work. Particularly troublesome in the story, though, was that for all the emphasis on the single motherhood of the lead detective, her interaction with her child, not to mention the child himself, is barely mentioned. Just one of several ways in which the set of characters wasn't made interesting enough to induce me to read any more books in the series.
  
  
• Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson: Quite entertaining tongue-in-cheek early 1990s cyberpunk. Read it in most boring non-science class during your nerdy adolescence. If you've already passed that developmental stage, Cryptonomicon is a better entry point to Stephenson's oeuvre.
  
  
• The End of Order, Francis Fukuyama: A kind of dry follow up on some ideas in Trust, which was a kind of dry follow up (read Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone instead, or at least first) on some ideas implicit in Fukuyama's (infuriating, incorrect, but interesting) policy-wonk bestseller of nearly two decades ago, The End of History and the Last Man. As with the works of Richard Posner, one of the small number of right of center public intellectuals worth engaging with, there is a methodological/worldview problem: every phenomenon is reduced to markets and questions of utility maximization -- the dismal science to save the day! This can be useful for making a model to help get a grasp of certain aspects of the system under consideration, but the meta-issue of not confusing the model for the system seems to pass pundits of the economicist persuasion by more often than not.
  
  
• Dark Age Ahead, Jane Jacobs: A great little book, written at the end of Jacobs's life, an example from my favorite nonfiction genre: gloom and doom decline and fall thrillers. (Perhaps "thriller" exaggerates.) Jacobs identifies five trends pointing towards social decline, and they're not the ones you'd expect. Her discussion of these trends is intelligent, proceeds from an urbanist point of view (she's famous for The Death and Life of Great American Cities), and uncovers interesting insights and connections (using language and analysis that reminds me of dynamical systems theory). It's too bad she'd dead; I would have loved to read more.
  
  
• Case Histories, Kate Atkinson: Melanie already mentioned this one, but I hadn't read it. A relatively quick, entertaining read. Atkinson is definitely a good writer, with sure-footed prose and interesting characters. (The female one's talk and think about sex or lack of it way too much for my taste, though. It distracts from the mystery story.) The mystery itself is a bit thin, and though she plays fair with the reader, there is enough that's far-fetched to raise eyebrows, but you keep reading, in part because the detective, Jackson, is quite likable. I'll read the next one.
  
  
• Gott schütze dieses Haus, Elizabeth George: The first Inspector Lynley mystery, and the first book in German I've read in six months. The German was at just my level, though even I could tell that it was pretty bad. A pleasant read nonetheless, with interesting characters and not too much interpersonal romantic intrigue to turn me off.
  
  
• The Craftsman, Richard Sennett: A completely terrific book, deserving of its own post when time permits; in the meantime, read the NY Review of Books article on it. Another book about the work of hand and head was recently featured in the New York Times, but I have a hard time imagining that it could match the deep insight and lucid prose of Sennett's ambitious book, which, happily, is the first of a planned trilogy.
  
  

What I'm still working on:

• Essays, Roger Bacon: I made it through the first half on the trip to NM. A stranger on the train from Grand Central to White Plains late one night (we were riding back after a lovely Friday evening with our friends Toby and Hyeseung) asked jokingly if it were a real page turner. I could honestly answer affirmatively.
  
  
• War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy: Advice from the same stranger on a train -- just make it through the first chapter, then it sails along. I have yet to make it through the first chapter without falling asleep -- I read mostly at bedtime -- but I have high hopes.
  
  
• The Manual of Detection, Jedediah Berry: One of my birthday gift books, sporting a fabulous green cover. At the sentential level, exquisitely tautly crafted, it doesn't overplay the noir style. It promises to be a very clever, entertaining book, but the somewhat whimsical-magical scenario and atmosphere requires me to be in the right frame of mind to really delve in and enjoy it.
  
  
• Collapse, Jared Diamond: I feel like I know the punch line, and each case of yet another mysterious vanished civilization is presented with the same verve as an invited review in Science. It's a bit too much like reading for work, which is a disappointment -- I'd expected a more engaging read, based on ten year old memories of thoroughly enjoying Guns, Germs, and Steel.
  
  
• A Death in Belmont, Sebastian Junger: From the man who brought you the perfect storm, the story of a murder that happened in his childhood Boston neighborhood -- when he was still an infant -- while the Boston Strangler was on the loose. This one's pages turn easily.