All Book Reviews
Japan tsunami aftermath provides the setting for this quiet, wise novel“The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World” deals with the aftermath of Japan’s devastating 2011 tsunami, and provides a message of hope and endurance.
Tom Stoppard’s friends have nothing but good things to say about himWith full access, Hermione Lee has written the most authorized of authorized biographies of the British-Czech playwright and member of the literati.
Where American women’s ambitions took wing at midcenturyPan Am, along with the Barbizon in New York City, offered women of the 1940s-1960s a rare place to follow their career aspirations.
‘The Graduate’ director Mike Nichols felt he had something to proveMark Harris’ biography traces Mike Nichols’ work from comedy improv duo with Elaine May to Broadway plays and big Hollywood films – as well as flops.
‘Klara and the Sun’: Do androids dream of human emotions?A likable android studies human behavior in Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Klara and the Sun,” which explores the effects of AI.
The Enlightenment stressed not only reason, but also empathySome historians have emphasized the intellectual part of the Enlightenment, while downplaying the other attributes that made it such a fruitful era.
MLK, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin were shaped by their mothers“The Three Mothers” asserts the pivotal role these women played in the formation of their sons’ religious, political, and literary achievements.
A mother searches for the child she gave up as a teen in ‘The Kindest Lie’Nancy Johnson’s debut novel “The Kindest Lie” is a well-crafted exploration of class, race, and culture; of motherhood; and of family ties.
Bill Gates is energized by big challenges, especially climate changeIn “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster,” Bill Gates uses plain language to lay out the problem – and the technologies he believes are key to fixing it.
An unlikely romance animates ‘The Girl from the Channel Islands’During World War II, a young Jewish woman escapes Vienna for Britain's Channel Islands. Then the Nazis arrive.
Ethan Hawke’s ‘A Bright Ray of Darkness’ draws on his acting careerActor Ethan Hawke brings his own experiences to bear on a novel about a performer facing the challenges of a Broadway play and a failed marriage.
Two women, one canoe, and 2,000 miles to the ArcticAfter graduating from college, two friends set out to become the first women to paddle from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay in Manitoba, Canada.
A love story spins out across the space-time continuumIn ‘The Love Proof,’ a physicist sets out to demonstrate that a true connection persists beyond the here and now.
‘No Heaven for Good Boys’ tackles a family’s misplaced trustIn her fiction debut, Keisha Bush follows a group of boys caught up in the machinations of a corrupt religious teacher in Senegal.
‘Featherhood’ describes the ties that bind us to our fellow creaturesIn his wry and moving memoir, Charlie Gilmour saves a magpie chick and discovers something in common with his absent father.
‘Dog Flowers’ traces a mother’s struggle and a daughter’s hopeIn a memoir about family and identity, Danielle Geller uses her archival skills to create a portrait of her absent mother.
Mozart did not consider himself a tortured genius“Mozart: The Reign of Love” shows him as “fundamentally a happy man,” and rejects the depiction of him as a desperate, impoverished cult figure.
Joan Didion commands the essay form in ‘Let Me Tell You What I Mean’A collection of Didion's work showcases her evolution as a young writer and exhibits her preoccupation with understanding the world through writing.
‘American Baby’ focuses light on the dark history of US adoptionGabrielle Glaser traces the changes in social attitudes toward motherhood and the rights of adopted children during the baby boom years.
It’s never to late to change one’s lifeTwo 50-something women learn to pilot a craft along an English canal, finding reassessment and reinvention along the way in “The Narrowboat Summer.”
