What Were the Best Books of the Year?
If you are a regular FrumForum reader, we assume you are an intelligent and literate person. This probably means you enjoy giving and receiving books as holiday gifts. With the development of Kindles and iPads, you can now carry around massive doorstoppers in your hand with an ease that previous generations could only imagine.
In this spirit, as we enter the home stretch of the holiday shopping season, FrumForum wants to know from both our contributors and readers: What books would you recommend from 2010? The books can be new, old, fiction, or non-fiction. We'll feature your selections before Dec 25th so you can get some ideas when you need to make that last minute dash to Borders to get something for your in-laws.
Please email your choices to noahkgreen [at] gmail.com or write them in the comment section below.
To get us started, here is a portion of the transcript from David's recent livechat where he talked about his top three books of the year:
Moderate: Which were your 5 favorite books of 2010? I miss the Book Club.
David: I am not sure I can remember which of the books I read in 2010 were published in this year, but as I look back on the year, here are some that made a big impression on me
1. J. Adam Tooze, The Wages of Destruction, an economic history of WW2. At once brilliantly original and entirely convincing. I guarantee you will never think the same way again about the war after reading it.
2. The Box, by Author Marc Levinson, a history of the container. Yes , yes, I know. This is the book that caused the most mockery. "You're reading a book about boats that carry boxes"? But containerization is the foundation of globalization. And it happened almost yesterday.
3. All the Devils are Here by Bethany McLean Best book yet on the origins of the financial crisis. Angelides can go home, his committee report has been written.