Two Years in Books

For a variety of reasons — writing my thesis while working last year and a focus on other things this year — I haven’t read a huge number of books in the last two years while I’ve been in Wellington.
However, the process of packing away items to send to Auckland for next year has reminded me of some of the better books I have read, so I’ve decided to put some notes on some below. You’ll note that none of the books below are fiction. I have read no fiction in the last two years and I welcome recommendations from anyone keen to change that, or any non-fiction recommendations for that matter.
A History of the Crusades, Steven Runciman
Beautifully written. My favourite books of the last two years.
Runciman offers a bleak perspective on the Crusades, with the Franks cast as dirty, brutish men, who descend into the Levant as barbarians, abusing the local populations of Armenians, Muslim Arabs, and followers of the Greek Catholic rite.
Imperial Spain, 1469–1716, J.H. Elliott
I didn’t have a good grasp on domestic Spanish history until I read Isabella of Castille, which while excellent offers a very character-driven depiction of events. In contrast, Elliott does a good job expressing the economic and political environment of the Spanish Kingdoms.
In particular, I enjoyed the section on the Aragonese constitutional environment. Until I read this book I viewed contractual government as a firmly English tradition (with its roots in Magna Carta, the Barons War, the Glorious Revolution etc.) in contrast to the Roman traditions of the continent.
To my delight, the book explains how the Kingdom of Aragon, with its constrained executive branch and contractual constitutional tradition, was a wealthy Mediterranean trading nation.
Jerusalem: A Cookbook, Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi
There are people on the internet who make jokes about cooking books that are dense with essays, history, and ingredient guides. Frankly they’re wrong and Jerusalem is a perfect example of why they’re wrong.
The book is packed full of photos of the old city, short sections on the use of ingredients by different populations, and notes on the conflicts in the city.
Recipe-wise, the book is excellent. I’m not much of a baker, but the Clementine and Almond Syrup Cake is so delicious that any of my faults are quickly hidden.
Words That Work, Frank Luntz
Luntz is a GOP political consultant and messaging expert. I spent my degree solving Lagrangians and Hessians, so I needed to read something before I started writing copy and PRs at work. I’m still crap in the great scheme of things, but this book helped me with messaging and issue framing.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, Samin Nosrat
Turn off Netflix, buy the book, and read it.
Suicide of the West, Jonah Goldberg
Sounds like a culture war book, but it isn’t.
It’s a good read if you’re a conservative, but ultimately the book tries to do too much unpicking Western Civilisation and Anglo-American norms. That’s probably reflective of the uncomfortable position of Jonah himself who is increasingly lonely as a principled conservative in the United States (see the uncomfortably quick decline of Ben Sasse as a counterpoint).
Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance
A pretty grim look into the life of J.D. Vance, whose childhood in Appalacia/Rust Belt America offers some insight into the white working class that broke towards Trump in 2016.
I’d encourage my libertarian/classically liberal friends to read it and think in particular about Bill English’s efforts in social investment, and simply the way he talked about poverty and malignant social failures. There was value in the compassionate language and culture of expectations itself, putting aside the policies themselves.
