What We Are Reading Today: Macroeconomics and Financial Crises

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Updated 20 July 2023
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What We Are Reading Today: Macroeconomics and Financial Crises

Authors: Gary B. Gorton & Guillermo L. Ordonez 

There are no bigger disruptions in the functioning of economies than financial crises.

“Macroeconomics and Financial Crises” rethinks how technological change, credit booms, and endogenous information production combine to generate financial crises as inherent and recurrent reactions to macroeconomic dynamics.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Genius at Play’ by Siobhan Roberts

Updated 30 December 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Genius at Play’ by Siobhan Roberts

A mathematician unlike any other, John Horton Conway (1937–2020) possessed a rock star’s charisma, a polymath’s promiscuous curiosity, and a sly sense of humor.

Conway found fame as a barefoot professor at Cambridge, where he discovered the Conway groups in mathematical symmetry and the aptly named surreal numbers.

He also invented the cult classic Game of Life, a cellular automaton that demonstrates how simplicity generates complexity — and provides an analogy for mathematics and the entire universe.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Supply Chain Justice’ by Mary Bosworth

Updated 29 December 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Supply Chain Justice’ by Mary Bosworth

In the UK’s fully outsourced “immigration detainee escorting system,” private sector security employees detain, circulate and deport foreign national citizens.

Run and organized like a supply chain, this system dehumanizes those who are detained and deported, treating them as if they were packages to be moved from place to place and relying on poorly paid, minimally trained staff to do so.

In “Supply Chain Justice,” Mary Bosworth offers the first empirically grounded, scholarly analysis of the British detention and deportation system. 


What We Are Reading Today: ‘An Everlasting Meal’

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Updated 29 December 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘An Everlasting Meal’

  • The book is divided into thematic chapters that blend narrative storytelling with culinary advice

If you’re looking for a book to whet your culinary curiosity and get the cooking juices flowing, look no further than the 2011 masterpiece, “An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace.”

The book is a blend of practical cooking instruction and thoughtful reflections on food. It focuses not only on how to prepare meals, but on how to approach cooking with intention and care. It is about making the kitchen a place of creativity rather than just another chore.

Written by Tamar Adler, a former cook at the renowned restaurant Chez Panisse and a contributing editor to Vogue magazine, she blends both worlds well in the book. Her perspective is informed and deeply personal. And delicious.

The book is divided into thematic chapters that blend narrative storytelling with culinary advice. With a dash of fun.

In the aptly titled chapter, “How to Boil Water,” Adler starts with the basics, showing that cooking can begin with the simplest of ingredients: literally water, setting the tone for the rest of the book.

“There is a prevailing theory that we need to know much more than we do in order to feed ourselves well. It isn’t true,” Adler writes. “Most of us already have water, a pot to put it in, and a way to light a fire. This gives us boiling water, in which we can do more good cooking than we know.”

In “How to Teach an Egg to Fly,” she explores the versatility of eggs, demonstrating their power to transform simple leftovers into something egg-cellent.

Other chapters, with equally witty titles, provide ways to salvage dishes that may not have gone as planned.

Throughout the book, Adler gives practical tips on using whatever you have in the pantry or fridge, emphasizing her belief that almost everything can be used, and almost nothing should go to waste.

“An Everlasting Meal” is not just a cookbook or a book about cooking; it’s an invitation to slow down, pay attention and enjoy what we place on our plates.

Her prose carries a warmth and clarity that allows the reader to feel as though they’re being guided by a trusted and friendly friend through their kitchen as they prepare their next meal together.

 


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Digital Cultural Shock’ by Katherina Reinecke

Updated 28 December 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Digital Cultural Shock’ by Katherina Reinecke

Robots that encroach on your personal space, baffling emojis, a chatbot that gives you an answer that seems terribly rude—does any of this sound familiar?

An encounter with new technology can teach us to embrace the unfamiliar, but a mismatch between design and user can create misunderstanding and loss of trust, and can even become a tool of digital imperialism.

In “Digital Culture Shock,” computer scientist Katharina Reinecke travels through countries and cultures around the world to show the many fascinating ways that technology design and use can differ. 


What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Essence of Software’

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Updated 27 December 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Essence of Software’

  • “The Essence of Software” introduces a theory of software design that gives new answers to old questions

Author: DANIEL JACKSON

As our dependence on technology increases, the design of software matters more than ever before. Why then is so much software flawed? Why hasn’t there been a systematic and scalable way to create software that is easy to use, robust, and secure? Examining these issues in depth, “The Essence of Software” introduces a theory of software design that gives new answers to old questions.

Daniel Jackson explains that a software system should be viewed as a collection of interacting concepts, breaking the functionality into manageable parts and providing a new framework for thinking about design.