Happy Groundhog Day Saint Patrick’s Day Summer Solstice! Taking advantage of the daylight to finally finish writing up the list for 2024. (I’ve been busy.)

I thoroughly enjoyed Speaking Out in Viet Nam—Public Political Criticism in a Communist Party-Ruled Nation by Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet. The author is known for his Viet Nam studies, and this one did not disappoint. I marvel at the patience and persistence he had to collect the data on forms and types of protests, large and small, and then cut through assumptions and accepted wisdom to show that the world is more interesting and complex. If, like me, you have an interest in issues of speech and civic participation and you, like me, prefer data over assertions, you’ll enjoy this book.

As I was working on a study of institutions in Viet Nam, I thought it would be worthwhile to refresh my memory on some academic writings on the topic, starting with Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance by Douglass C. North. It’s interesting to reflect on how much of the institutions literature now seems obvious and mainstream, although that was not the case when he and others started writing on the topic.

Slouching Toward Utopia by J. Bradford DeLong gives a more modern story of economic and social progress, and contemporary thinking, focusing on “the long 20^th Century”. The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow provided some perspectives on long-term progress I hadn’t heard before. The authors’ biases became more apparent as the book (caught on audio) wore on, and the overall thesis was not completely convincing, but I learned some things and was glad to have read it.

I also took in William Easterly’s The White Man’s Burden—Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good. As with Easterly’s other books, it was quite critical of aid—as you might guess from the title!—but also insightful for the stories about how economies work. It was a nice surprise to see the references to Peter Murrell and his (correct) observations about economic shock therapy circa 1990.

The Secret of Our Success: How Culture is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter by Joseph Henrich was eye-opening.  The title and cover give the impression of a how-to-get-rich book, but this was very different, focused on cultural learning with a nice mix of stories and science.

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb was brilliant. He comes across as a bit, well, confident in his own intellect, shall we say, but the important thing is that he is also confident in what he and others don’t know. (And his confidence in himself brings personality that makes the book fun.)

For a more micro look at progress, there was The Toyota Way (Second Edition) by Jeffrey Liker. I’d heard about the Toyota system in a course on economic development long ago and thought it gave some insights into how to do all kinds of things better. It feels almost like a religion in the way the story is told, but the insights are real enough.

A classic which completely lived up to that description was In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Grisly murder and great writing in one. It was hard to put this one down. Similarly, Hell’s Angels by Hunter S. Thompson was a noisy and chaotic blast. (I enjoyed the Audible narration by Scott Sowers.) The Wager by David Grann was also nonfiction, but the story was as gripping as a novel. Another one where history has provided lots of fodder for pop culture—and an historical look at a peculiar type of institution—came from Cosa Nostra by John Dickie.

A planned trip to Papua New Guinea prompted me to pick up Walking with Ghosts in Papua New Guinea: Crossing the Kokoda Trail in the Last Wild Place on Earth by Rick Antonso. A bit of history, a bit of discussion of modern challenges, told against the backdrop of a trip on the Kokoda Trail.

I enjoyed a number of fiction classics, a couple of which I was happy to discover were already on my phone when I found myself on a flight unprepared with reading material and stuck in “airplane mode”:  Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson and The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. Both are classics for a reason. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley felt more dated to me, but I enjoyed it, nevertheless. I’m not quite sure how to classify The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli—glad to have finally read it, but not sure what I took away from it. A trip to Montana prompted me to bring A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean, another classic-for-a-reason.

For more modern science fiction, I enjoyed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu and All Systems Red by Martha Wells.  I picked Phantoms by Dean Koontz because my Kindle offered it to me when I was traveling and needed something to read. It was hard to put down, and I can see why he has sold so many books.

Not-exactly-a-book section: Blues Brothers: The Arc of Gratitude by Dan Aykroyd (and read by him) was such a treat. From the Streets to the Suites by Snoop Dogg also introduced me to an interesting person and life story. The podcast series Mother, Neighbor, Russian Spy, by Emma Weatherill was fun and a bit chilling. (But not as chilling as In Cold Blood.)