What I’ve been reading

1. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.  It's derivative in its set-up, but still it has a splendid plot.  If you're looking to explore the new trend of adults reading works for "young adults," this is a good place to start.  The bottom line: I've just ordered volumes two and three, not just volume two.

2. W.G. Sebald, On the Natural History of Destruction.  Pitch perfect throughout, you can add Sebald to the list of authors with first-rate contributions to both fiction and non-fiction.

3. John W. Dower, Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor/Hiroshima/9-11.  Combines public choice and behavioral economics approaches to foreign policy, all through the lens of the events mentioned in the subtitle.  Consistently interesting, and it shows how the intelligence failures leading up to the second Iraq War had many precedents.  Dower is the same guy who wrote the excellent books on the Pacific War and Japanese postwar recovery; I recommend his work more generally.

4. Tom Segev, Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends.  Many books on the Holocaust tread on well-tilled ground, but this was original and compelling throughout.  Here is a useful review, although I think it considerably exaggerates how critical the book is of Wiesenthal.  I also very much like Segev's The Seventh Million.

5. Michael Whinston, Lectures on Antitrust Economics.  A very good introduction to current thinking on antitrust policy, through the lens of theory and empirics.