Read any good books lately?

A couple days ago a friend of mine asked me that question, and I was stumped. I knew that I had read several books lately, but I couldn't remember any that struck me as worth recomending. In fact, I had a hard time even remembering the titles of any of the books I read in last month or so. But today I am happy to report that I have read a good book. It's not a book anyone else is likely to read, nor is it a recent publication, but still. Margaret Walsh's slim 1982 volume *The Rise of the Midwestern Meat Packing Industry* is a model of detailed scholarship combined with clear and concise writing. In under 100 pages of text (plus c. 80 pages of appendix and notes) the author deftly chronicles the technological, economic and environmental forces shaping the development of midwestern meat packing. Is--or was--the book full of startling revelations, turning upside-down the world of meat packing scholarship? Frankly, I don't know. But it is so meticulously documented with statistics and tables, yet so easy to read, that it deserves to be honored. If only the book extended past the 1870s.