Rated Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat 6/10
Mostly delightful, occasionally eye-opening, occasionally tedious history of cooking not from the perspective of what we eat but how we prepare and serve it. This is sneakily a book about how technology doesn't just give us new ways to do things, but actually shapes our culture, our expectations and our possibilities. Lots of surprises about how old some things are and how recent others are.
Rated Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street's Great Foreclosure Fraud 10/10
Everyone should read this book. It's a very clear, very compelling story of how the financial industry essentially stole millions of homes through a mix of "innovative" maneuvers, sloppiness, malign negligence and outright fraud, and never faced any consequences. It's like the Big Short, but from the perspective of the people who got screwed over, not the people who got away with the money. Dayen writes vividly about the people who exposed and fought the banks and mortgage servicers, and he makes extremely complicated stuff accessible even as he tells the human story. Barely anybody in the finance industry, the justice system or the political system, from the White House to county courthouses, comes off looking good. Highly recommended, though frustrating and sad.
Wants to read Liège. Le tournant des années 1970
Wants to read What to Listen for in Music