Salonica, City of Ghosts

"Salonica, City of Ghosts" is definitely an excellent read. I thought it was somewhat sad how the world wars of the 20th century diminished one of Europe's great, culturally rich cities.

Best books I read in 2011: * "Salonica, City of Ghosts" by M.Mazower. Tells the history of Thessaloniki, informative, entertaining, at times nostalgic. * "The Cauchy-Schwarz Master Class" by J.M.Steele. A guided tour of mathematical inequalities. Very entertaining and readable (for a math book) and extremely well written. * "Indiscrete Thoughts" by G-C.Rota. Irreverent anecdotes about mathematicians. * "Black Swan" by N.N.Taleb. Maybe overhyped and at times annoying and pompous, but extremely insightful nevertheless.