Christmas/New Year’s is the time for lists. You can’t blame journalists for wanting to have a life, can you? So they make lists, aka “phoning it in”. There are only two list-makers I like, so my list will not be long:
Dan Drezner: “Your nonfiction book picks for the end of 2018 Actually, Dan makes several reading lists each year, and this isn’t a very good one, since it doesn’t have any books that I’d actually want to read. But usually he’s better. And, anyway, it’s short.
Fred Kaplan: “The Best Jazz Albums of 2018* I often don’t agree with Fred, but he always includes clips, so you can sample the albums yourself. His list doesn’t include a very good new album, Sweet Stuff , by Daniel Rotem and Josh Johnson.
That’s it! Bring on the egg nog!
