“What will be the last book
I read? Woolf’s finest work,
the only one I shunned?
The Turgenev novel
everyone disdains?
End Game in Poetry,
a just-uncovered work
by Grandmaster Borges,
or Dinesen’s stories,
seeking for a fourth time
the mercy of my eyes?
What will be in my hands
the morning they find me?
A dog-eared Borzoi,
or sassy new Penguin?
A pockmarked Pantheon,
or pristine Random House?
And will the failed-poet
coroner claim foul play
and confiscate the thing?
Will the book then appear
in a dealer’s locked case,
scarred by marginalia
claimed to be authentic,
where I propose a brief
tying-up-of-ends-type
poem? Or will the last book
be the one that I wrote
and never could abide,
but could read that night
with kinder eyes, and whom
I turned slowly to greet
like a long-lost daughter?”
Richman died at age sixty-three – too young but old enough to begin thinking of last things – the last kiss, the last laugh, the last book read.
3. Barry Mazor, Blood Harmony: The Everly Brothers Story. I’m not going to pass this one up, as Macca once said: “The biggest influence on John and me was the Everly Brothers. To this day I just think they’re the greatest.” In addition to the very famous songs, “Roots” is an incredible and now neglected album. This book however is good not great, as it never quite brings them to life. But it is now the main biography, and in that sense is self-recommending.
4. Ian Penman, Erik Satie Three Piece Suite (Semiotext(e)/ Native Agents. A hard book to explain. A kind of devil’s dictionary of terms related to Erik Satie, interesting and witty throughout, at least if you know something of early modernism and its culture. Recommended, for those who care.
5. Alexander Ivashkin, Alfred Schnittke. “Schnittke really lies between two traditions, with German rationalism on one hand and Russian irrationalism on the other.” Lately I have been listening to the Psalms of Remembrance and the violin sonata #2. I had not known that Schnittke grew up speaking Volga German.
5. Rachel Cusk, Parade. I quite enjoyed this, described on the back cover as “a carousel of lives.” You will find an overview and spoilers here.
Bill McGowan, and Juliana Silva, Speak, Memorably: The Art of Captivating an Audience, is a good and useful book.
Jo Ann Cavallo, editor, Libertarian Literary and Media Criticism: Essays in Memory of Paul A. Cantor. There is even an essay by David Gordon (!) in here.
The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Immigration, edited by Sahar Akhtar, is the best collection on its topic.
There is Thomas Piketty, Equality is a Struggle: Bulletins from the Front Line, 2021-2025. Columns in favor of democratic socialism and higher taxes.
And there is Samuel Arbesman, The Magic of Code: How Digital Language Created and Connects Our World — and Shapes Our Future.
LLRX July 2025 Issue – Articles and Columns
- The Trump Administration’s Continued War Against Science, Research and Public Health – Sabrina I. Pacifici’s overview of selected articles highlights the devastating impact of the Trump administration’s dismantling of agencies across the federal government, with a focus on cancelling critical scientific and health related research grants. The total cancellation of funds is escalating as grant suspensions are ongoing, but it is in the billions of dollars. Unilateral, sweeping and rapid actions are targeting a wide range of projects, programs, education and funding for research on critical health issues including: Alzheimers’, cancer, the climate crisis, weather and forecasting, vaccines, HIV, infectious diseases, food and drug safety, fossil fuel, air and water pollution.
- Book Review: The AI Con – A Critical Look At AI Hype – Jerry Lawson
- How to Get AI Out of Your Google Search Results – John R. Platt,
- Fair Use in the Age of AI: When Training Isn’t Copying, and Licensing Isn’t the Law – Kyle K. Courtney
- Trump Administration Looking to Slash Environmental Protection Rules for Rocket Launches – Heather Vogell and Topher Sanders
- Can you trust climate information? How and why powerful players are misleading the public – Professors Klaus Bruhn Jensen and Semahat Ece Elbeyi
- AI in Finance and Banking, July 31, 2025 – Sabrina I. Pacifici – Eight highlights from this post: Preparing for systemic risks in the age of generative artificial intelligence; JPMorgan, Robeco Quietly Deploy AI in Daily Wall Street Routines; Can finance put an end to AI data mining; The Transformational Effects of Artificial Intelligence on the Finance Sector Workforce; Algorithmic Coercion with Faster Pricing; AI-Powered Trading, Algorithmic Collusion, and Price Efficience; From Banks to Bots: Behind the Rise of AI Money; and Federal Reserve conference included Fireside Chat – Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle W. Bowman and Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO; and Here’s What ‘Terrifies’ OpenAI’s CEO About Financial Institutions Today.
- AI in Finance and Banking, July 15, 2025 – Sabrina I. Pacifici – Six highlights from this post: Artificial Intelligence in Finance; Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Corporate Finance; AI and the Fed; Artificial Intelligence and Entrepreneurial Finance: A Guide for Research; AI Won’t Be Held Accountable for Regulatory Failings, But Your Firm Will Be; and Anthropic’s Claude dives into financial analysis.
- Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, July 26, 2025 – Pete Weiss – Four highlights from this week: How big tech is force-feeding us AI; Microsoft exec admits it ‘cannot guarantee’ data sovereignty; Why Are So Many Healthcare Companies Getting Hacked?; and Age verification needs better privacy protections, report says.
- Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, July 19, 2025 – Pete Weiss – Five highlights from this week: Big Tech Researchers Issue Strict Warning About How AI Thinks; How to find spyware and other hidden apps on your iPhone; Google vs. AI: when to use which; Crowd-Sourced ICE Tracking Alerts Aim To Provide Local Communities With Early Warning Of Immigration Raids; and Crowd-Sourced ICE Tracking Alerts Aim To Provide Local Communities With Early Warning Of Immigration Raids.
- Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, July 12, 2025 – Pete Weiss – Five highlights from this week: Deepfake Scams Are Distorting Reality Itself; Why does Amazon use palm scanners at Whole Foods and doctors’ offices?; Crypto news: Why shocking and violent “wrench attacks” are going to get worse; Privacy Alarm: Meta Caught De-Anonymizing Android Web Activity; and When the FBI Has a Phone It Can’t Crack, It Calls These Israeli Hackers.
- Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, July 5, 2025 – Pete Weiss – Five highlights from this week: Deepfake Scams Are Distorting Reality Itself; Why does Amazon use palm scanners at Whole Foods and doctors’ offices? Crypto news: Why shocking and violent “wrench attacks” are going to get worse; Privacy Alarm: Meta Caught De-Anonymizing Android Web Activity; and When the FBI Has a Phone It Can’t Crack, It Calls These Israeli Hackers.