Andrew Batson

Recommends rcmnd

• What they recommendrcmnd 14 things — each backed by an exact quote.

  Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.

  Recent

  • Disputing Disaster: A Sextet on the Great War Liked

    I also enjoyed Anderson's Disputing Disaster: A Sextet on the Great War

    andrewbatson.com 2025-12-16

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  • I Deliver Parcels in Beijing Liked

    Perhaps the best of the various gig-worker memoirs published in recent years.

    andrewbatson.com 2025-12-16

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  • The Wide Wide Sea Liked

    The causes and meaning of those events have been debated ever since, and Sides delivers a careful, sympathetic and engaging account of the entirety of Cook's final expedition.

    andrewbatson.com 2025-12-16

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  Show 11 more

  • The Secret of Our Success Liked

    Not every plank in his argument is convincing, and the research has evolved since the book first came out a decade ago, but the ambition is impressive and the framework holds up.

    andrewbatson.com 2025-12-16

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  • Specimen Days Liked

    Tying them all together is Whitman's love for the American landscape and people, and his unique voice, so fresh he still seems like a contemporary.

    andrewbatson.com 2025-12-16

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  • The Indian Ideology Loved

    Out of all the reading on India I did this year to prepare for my first visit, this was my favorite: compact, punchy, and argumentative, packed with erudition and information.

    andrewbatson.com 2025-12-16

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  • The Lumumba Plot Liked

    Nominally a biography of Patrice Lumumba, this book is actually a gripping, blow-by-blow account of how the Congo stumbled to independence from Belgian rule.

    andrewbatson.com 2025-12-16

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  • The Lantern-Bearers and Other Essays Loved

    Stevenson is best known as a novelist, but I think I prefer his nonfiction: he had an interesting life and was interested in lots of things, and the sentences are marvelous and daring.

    andrewbatson.com 2025-12-16

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  • The Ebb-Tide Recommends

    Stevenson's last published novel is not particularly famous but deserves to be better known.

    andrewbatson.com 2025-12-16

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  • Crossing to Safety Loved

    Stegner's last, great work is an understated, closely observed portrait of the relationship between two couples.

    andrewbatson.com 2025-12-16

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  • Cahokia Jazz Liked

    A hard-boiled mystery set in an alternative 1920s America, by turns familiar and strange.

    andrewbatson.com 2025-12-16

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  • Orbital Loved

    One of the most perfectly crafted pieces of prose I've ever read; short, basically plotless, almost unbearably intense.

    andrewbatson.com 2025-12-16

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  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Liked

    Twain's original is, still, the better book.

    andrewbatson.com 2025-12-16

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  • Red Harvest Loved

    I re-read all of Hammett's novels this year, and this, his first, held up the best.

    andrewbatson.com 2025-12-16

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  All 14 recommendations →

• Everything, newest firstFeed Posts from the cards above, in one stream.

  • Everybody is sharing their favorite Dolly clips. This is one of mine, of her singing harmony with Doc Watson in a backstage rehearsal. Two giants of American m… 25 Aug
  • This is terrible, Chris was one of the greats 20 Aug Quoting@anthonytedAcross 3 decades, Chris Bodeen was always pushing me to learn more about China, to understand it better, to dig deeper. His loss, far too e…
  • “Zhu shored up state power instead of letting it go” is the correct take on his legacy 12 Aug Quoting@JChengWSJZhu Rongji, Engineer of China’s Economic Overhaul, Dies at 97—The former premier steered China toward Western market principles and champio…
  • Sadly American culture has become more humorless since this was written 12 Aug Quoting@McReynoldsJoe@Noahpinion Evergreen -- the US military's 1943 manual for soldiers headed to China:
  • The Sanxingdui relics are some of the most beautiful and amazing ancient artifacts in the world, very much worth seeing in person 10 Aug Quoting@JChengWSJA Lost Civilization Is Baffling Experts and Rewriting China’s Origin Story—The otherworldly beasts and enigmatic masks of Sanxingdui still…
  • “Trump tuba tariffs” is such a gift to headline writers 9 Aug Quoting@scottlincicomeAlso, LOL

  Show 18 more

  • Li Daokui's comments are important because there are so few domestic voices in China stating what (I think) is the obvious truth about the economy: the main pr… 6 Aug
  • Just listened to this last night, it’s a great record (if not quite at the exalted level of the original Sangam album). Charles Lloyd and Zakir Hussain made on… 6 Aug Quoting@bluenoterecords.@CharlesLloydSax "Sangam & Friends" reviewed by Larry Blumenfeld in The Wall Street Journal! "With 'Sangam & Friends' Mr. Lloyd celebrates…
  • Real talk about the exchange rate 1 Aug
  • A great list, and not just because my friends are on it 30 Jul Quoting@CundillPrizeWe're excited to announce the exceptional 15 titles chosen for the 2026 #CundillHistoryPrize longlist! Read the full list here: https://t.c…
  • A lot of the discussion about the depreciation of/undervaluation of China's real effective exchange rate takes for granted that this is about the currency. Aft… 29 Jul
  • Excellent piece, very clear and accurate. Just what I've been saying! China's weak real effective exchange rate is a consequence of bad domestic macro policies… 28 Jul Quoting@GitaGopinathThe Chinese yuan is no doubt undervalued. But demanding that China revalue the yuan gets both the diagnosis and the cure wrong. Our piece,…
  • A promising pairing of authors and subject: Christopher Priest, the British author of mind-bending fictions, finished most of a biography of JG Ballard, anothe… 19 Jul Quoting@LAReviewofBooks"'The Illuminated Man' seeks to trace out the roots of Ballard’s visionary fiction in his life, without reducing the former to the latter."…
  • Waiting for someone to dig up the UK statements protesting Chinese nationalizations in 1956 18 Jul Quoting@ReutersChinaChina's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that it would closely monitor the United Kingdom's nationalisation of Chinese steelmaker-owned Br…
  • Dongbei culture is the best culture 1 Jul Quoting@EmilyZFengA belated piece on China - on the wonderful, colorful, humorous culture of the northeast (or Dongbei, in Mandarin) and why it’s taken off a…
  • The best music I heard in 2025 28 Dec 2025
  • The best books I read in 2025 17 Dec 2025
  • China bows to de-industrialization 23 Nov 2025
  • Exams are everything in China 19 Oct 2025
  • First explorations in Indian classical music 12 Oct 2025
  • Historical trajectories of local government in India and China 29 Aug 2025
  • Who believes in China’s output gap? 13 Aug 2025
  • Readings on India 5 Aug 2025
  • India and the invidious comparison with China 28 Jul 2025