All Book Reviews
Senior sleuths step in to solve the crime in ‘The Thursday Murder Club’With wry British humor, and a cast of intrepid retirees, Richard Osman’s delightful mystery caper offers surprising depth.
How a tiny company paved the way for Big Tech – and big problemsHistorian Jill Lepore cracks open the world of the Simulmatics Corporation, which presaged the move toward predicting human behavior.
‘Monogamy’ reveals conflicted emotions over a long marriageSue Miller’s latest novel paints a vivid portrait of a woman struggling with the death of her husband, and with knowledge of his infidelity.
Kissinger evokes respect and vitriol in equal measureSome Americans see him as a canny statesman while others think he should be tried for war crimes. Is there a middle ground?
‘Money’ tells the history of currency – with some digressionsWhat exactly is money? How have humans developed this concept over centuries? NPR’s Jacob Goldstein tackles these questions.
Native American poetry anthology vibrates with powerful voicesU.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo serves as lead editor of this new collection, which showcases a range of poems as vast as the continent.
A grandmother and granddaughter swap lives in the charming novel ‘The Switch’A Yorkshire widow trades village life for a London flat and online dating in Beth O’Leary’s gently humorous and kindhearted story.
False smiles and lush locations pervade ‘The Glass Kingdom’A confidence woman’s plans are derailed as she lands in Bangkok and meets a cast of mysterious characters who inhabit a crumbling apartment complex.
John Lewis believed in nonviolence. His faith led the way.Jon Meacham’s biography of the late Georgia congressman shows how his deeply held religious beliefs animated his fight for civil rights.
Storm warning: The impact of hurricanes is on the riseTwo new books, “A Furious Sky” and “Katrina,” offer insights into these storms and the challenges that they pose for planning and mitigation efforts.
Tolstoy suffered writer’s block as he worked on ‘Anna Karenina’“Anna Karenina” has consistently been ranked as one of the best books in history, but writing it was no easy feat, says biographer Bob Blaisdell.
The reasons why democracy is in decline around the worldFrom Poland to Britain to the U.S., antidemocratic political movements have enjoyed the support of the conservative elite, says Anne Applebaum.
‘Natural History’ is a beautiful, challenging puzzleA collaboration between a curator and a fashion designer evolves into a mind-bending exploration of perception and truth in this enigmatic novel.
Before Serena Williams and Megan Rapinoe: Early female athletes paved wayLottie Dod and Alice Marble blazed a trail not only in sport but also through gender stereotypes, as successful competitors.
‘Brontë’s Mistress’ may speculate, but it does so delightfullyHistorians will quibble over what we can really know, but this historical novel is a worthwhile diversion full of vibrant, multifaceted characters.
Russians took their pianos with them into exile in SiberiaCan you know a place by its instruments? A British travel writer wanders Siberia on a strange and wonderful quest to write about historic pianos.
Hawaii’s Big Island creates the setting for a novel about family and memory“The Color of Air,” a new novel by Gail Tsukiyama, looks at lives in a Hawaiian village in the 1930s.
‘A Registry of My Passage upon the Earth’ is compassionate, wiseA new collection of short historical fiction stories is characterized by its beautiful prose and its author’s gentle curiosity and sense of wonder.
What wasn’t the US telling about Hiroshima? A reporter found out.The book “Fallout” examines John Hersey’s reporting in The New Yorker in 1946, which set the agenda for anti-nuclear activism.
Camping in Siberia: On the trail of the world’s largest owlAmerican biologist Jonathan C. Slaght joins Russian ornithologists in studying the habitat of the endangered Blakiston’s fish owl.
