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Good Reading : April 2007
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APRIL 2007 ı goodreading 41 general non-fiction word of mouth The Carpet Wars Christopher Kremmer When the hardcover edition of The Carpet Wars came out in 2002, the Taliban gover nment in Afghanistan had been routed, the neocons were in control of White House foreign policy and the Second Gulf War against Iraq was still on the drawing board. Neither Kremmer nor the most pessimistic commentator could have believed that within the space of four years, the Taliban would be making a strong comeback in Afghanistan and American foreign policy in Iraq would be in chaos. If anything sets the tone for this welcome new paperback edition, with an additional and insightful post- script, it’s the way the world is currently devolving. The Carpet Wars is the result of a decade of Kremmer’s life as a journalist in Central Asia. It is a brilliantly written and evocative work of reverence for a people, a culture and the product that is a currency, an export and one of the first commodities of a globalised trading system. Kremmer writes that even in the midst of war, a bazaar will spring up during a momentary ceasefire and carpet merchants will quickly resume business as if nothing had happened. His luminous descriptions of the people and places whose lives are centred around the carpet trade makes this one of the most important and rewarding books you could own. ★★★★★ Harper Perennial $24.99 Reviewed by Alan Gold Gittinomics Ross Gittins I’m a great fan of Ross Gittins’s arti- cles in the Sydney Morning Herald: he always takes aspects of economics – not one of my favourite subjects – and explains them with clarity and insight to the economically chal- lenged such as myself. But don’t think this book is going to help you reduce your weekly or monthly budget per se. Gittins essen- tially tells us that to live the good life we should don a bit of a hair shirt, stop consuming so much, stop buying new stuff and get real about house size. Stop our ‘joyless consumption’. Along the way, however, he’s illuminating about the psychology of economics – that new branch of economic thought that uses behaviour to solve economic problems. Some of it falls into the bleedin’ obvious category: for example, that politicians assume that women would stay home if only they had the choice, whereas the reality is that ‘mothers want to work to exploit their investment in a high level of education’, and that ‘A house is worth what you believe it’s worth only if you can find a buyer willing and able to stump up that amount.’ On taxation, education and the ageing of the population he offers more original insights. An interesting read, but I wonder if he isn’t simply preaching to the converted? ★★★ Allen & Unwin $26.95 Reviewed by Alison Pressley HAVE YOU VISITED www.goodreadingmagazine.com YET? • Visit our blog where you’ll find popular fantasy author Jennifer Fallon has something to say • Join in the chat on our message board • Sign up for our free monthly e-newsletter • Find a bookshop by region or specialty • Keep up to date with hot news on our news ticker • Find out what book events are happening near you • Let us help you find an out-of-print book • Vote on our current poll www.goodreadingmagazine.com
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