Book of the Year
Claire Berlinski, Ed. ·
Dec 10, 2010 at 2:59am
One of my favorite editors, Martin Levin of the Globe and Mail, wrote to me yesterday to ask if I'd contribute to the annual "My Book of the Year" issue. "A paragraph or two," he proposed to contributors, "on the book(s) that most engaged, moved, provoked or challenged them in the past year."
My pick will be revealed in the fullness of time. What's yours?
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Comments :
Oct '10
Re: Book of the Year
William Voegeli's Never Enough.
Amir Taheri's The Persian Night.
Aug '10
Re: Book of the Year
The long version of his City Journal article, Pascal Bruckner 's The Tyranny of Guilt was one of the more trenchant this year.
Oct '10
Re: Book of the Year
Mark Levin Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto
Such a well executed project, and so informative
May '10
Re: Book of the Year
George Gilder's The Israel Test. A "Wow. Ya, of course!" kind of book.
Aug '10
Re: Book of the Year
Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics. Third edition.
May '10
Re: Book of the Year
Going Rogue. It transformed literary history and should be considered one of the finest works ever written by man. Two paragraphs are not sufficient to describe the nirvana inside it's pages. I expect Freedom to win a lot of these.
Sep '10
Re: Book of the Year
Brian R. Myers' The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters was really interesting.
Jun '10
Re: Book of the Year
Al Kennedy: William Voegeli's Never Enough.
Amir Taheri's The Persian Night. · Dec 10 at 3:13am
Al presents two superb choices. Voegili's insights on the welfare state are brilliant. No one knows the nature of Iran than Amir Taheri (now a London-based journalist and writer).
But I would nominate Melanie Phillips' The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power. Phillips is a brave British journalist. Her book is a brilliant exposition of the fundamental irrationism of the leftist mind (using, as examples, the new religion of climate change, anti-Semitism in the West, and a host of others). Truly a book that caused me to think differently. And an extra bonus: it's published by Ricochet sponsor, Encounter Books.
Edited on Dec 10, 2010 at 9:28amMay '10
Re: Book of the Year
I believe that Going Rogue, Basic Economics, The Israel Test and Liberty and Tyranny are all ineligible because they did not come out for the first time in 2010.
I disqualify myself because I am also a year behind.
Jul '10
Re: Book of the Year
Colonel Roosevelt.
Nov '10
Re: Book of the Year
My pick would be Matt Ridley's recent tome, The Rational Optimist. It barrages the reader with examples galore of how life has gradually improved for the human race, and makes a credible case that the best is yet to come. A bracing antidote to defeatest rhetoric. Key idea: progress comes from "ideas having sex".
Check out the current edition of Uncommon Knowledge!
Oct '10
Re: Book of the Year
tabula rasa
Al Kennedy: William Voegeli's Never Enough.
Amir Taheri's The Persian Night. · Dec 10 at 3:13am
Al presents two superb choices. Voegili's insights on the welfare state are brilliant. No one knows the nature of Iran than Amir Taheri (now a London-based journalist and writer).
But I would nominate Melanie Phillips' The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power. Phillips is a brave British journalist. Her book is a brilliant exposition of the fundamental irrationism of the leftist mind (using, as examples, the new religion of climate change, anti-Semitism in the West, and a host of others). Truly a book that caused me to think differently. And an extra bonus: it's published by Ricochet sponsor, Encounter Books. · Dec 10 at 9:27am
Edited on Dec 10 at 09:28 am
Tabula, thank you very much for the recommendation. I have ordered it. Two other Encounter books I enjoyed are Herbert London's America's Secular Challenge and James Pierson's Camelot and the Cultural Revolution. I have found Encounter's books to be informative and thought provoking, beautifully written, and rigourously edited.
May '10
Re: Book of the Year
Whatever Flynn wrote. The title doesn't matter. . .
(American Assassin)
May '10
Re: Book of the Year
Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism by Stanley Kurtz.
No more mysterious Obama after reading this deeply researched exposé.
Edited on Dec 14, 2010 at 3:47pm