All Book Reviews
'The Cloister' probes deeply into matters of faith, dogma, complicity, and forgivenessIn James Carroll's latest novel, the protagonists' present lives are deeply affected by their perceptions of past mistakes.
3 compelling new mystery booksReliable names in mystery writing shine in two new mysteries and a biography of the queen of the genre.
'The Woman's Hour' wonderfully recalls the furious fight to ratify the Nineteenth AmendmentElaine Weiss’s superb book focuses on six key weeks in the suffrage battle.
'Picasso and the Painting that Shocked the World' depicts the heady, hardscrabble Paris yearsThe book culminates in the creation of the radical 1907 masterpiece 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.'
'Basketball' is a fast-break compilation that goes from from the beginning to Stephen CurryA new Library of America collection of the best basketball writing offers an embarrassment of riches.
'Camp Austen' is the most delightful Jane Austen book of the season'Camp Austen' is a sharp and wholly affectionate portrait of author-fandom raised to a manic pitch.
'Children of Blood and Bone' is a sweeping epic, perfect for fans of Laini Taylor and 'Black Panther''Children of Blood and Bone' deserves every extraordinary piece of praise lavished upon it.
Madeleine L'Engle bio 'Becoming Madeleine' is aimed at middle readers but is also interesting to adultsThe life of this sensitive, insightful woman – at least, the 40-plus years that the book covers – is as absorbing as a novel.
'Green Sun' tells a compelling tale about a Vietnam vet-turned-cop policing the mean streets of OaklandAuthor Kent Anderson traffics in archetypes without lapsing into tired storytelling.
'Time Pieces' is author John Banville's tribute to Dublin, the city that helped to shape himAt its best, 'Time Pieces' can be an invitation to wonder, aided by accompanying photographs by Paul Joyce.
'The Cadaver King and The Country Dentist' will shake your faith in the US justice systemThe authors focus on the wrongful convictions of two black men, Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer, each charged in separate murders during the early 1990s in Mississippi.
'Enlightenment Now' says human progress is real, remarkable, and yet often unacknowledgedSteven Pinker marshals data from detailed studies that show the stirring extent of progress human beings have achieved since the 18th century.
'Without Precedent' brings shrewd legal perspective to the career of Supreme Court justice John MarshallThe book's narrative is especially strong when relating the turbulent legal and political infighting of Marshall's years as chief justice.
'The Future of Humanity' recommends evacuating Earth in order to save the speciesBestselling writer Michio Kaku is a practiced and very effective popularizer of science for a general audience.
'Secrets We Kept' is the wrenching story of the abusive truth behind the marriages in an author's familyThrough her family story, author Krystal Sital examines the widespread nature of domestic violence in Trinidad, where it has traditionally been considered a private family matter.
'Down and Across' is a lively YA debut starring a self-doubting teen and a crossword-puzzle loverIranian-American teen Saaket “Scott” Ferdowsi grapples with his own insecurities and struggles to live up to his parents’ expectations.
3 intriguing new science fiction titlesThree strong new sci fi releases get 2018 off to an excellent start.
'The Marshall Plan' considers how and why the US became a global superpowerThis is a welcome, timely, and significant addition to what we know about the way that the Marshall Plan shaped the post-World War II landscape.
'Young China' profiles a generation facing a sometimes confusing mix of prosperity and pressureYoung Chinese in their 20s, firmly ensconced in the world's middle class, are their country's first modern generation 'less preoccupied with needs and more involved with wants.'
'The Seabird's Cry' follows the 350 bird species inhabiting the coastlines and open oceans of our planetIt's a completely pitiless world, in which the attrition of natural predation is increased exponentially by the harshness of the environment.
