All Book Reviews
'Directorate S' attempts to unravel the countless complexities of the Afghan warRelentless reporting and fastidious cultivation of sources are the hallmarks of Steve Coll's reporting and this book is no exception.
'The New Negro' explores Alain Locke not only as writer but also as a thinker and a fighterStewart's impressive new book confronts for the whole of its great length the “two-ness” described often by W. E. B. Du Bois in his masterpiece, "The Souls of Black Folk."
'Love, Hate and Other Filters' is 2018’s most important YA novel so farAs we witness the senior year of Maya Aziz – the teenage daughter in the only Indian Muslim family in Batavia, Ill. – we’re treated to a sliver of an American Muslim bildungsroman.
'Epic City' tells the story of a young expat and his love affair with CalcuttaAuthor Kushanava Choudhury's forte is history, well and freshly told.
'Jefferson's Daughters' tells the story of three of Thomas Jefferson's daughters – white and black'Jefferson’s Daughters' brings its period vividly to life, a credit to Kerrison’s exhaustive research, her passion for her subject, and her elegant writing.
'The Monk of Mokha' follows the true-life adventures of an immigrant turned coffee-entrepreneurIt's yet another example of the uncanny ability of Dave Eggers to transform the long-odds stories of real-life immigrants into poignant page-turners.
'Armed in America' asks exactly what the Founding Fathers intended with the Second AmendmentCharles, a historian and legal scholar, spent almost 10 years digging deeply into the issue of gun rights and he has written a credible record of what he learned.
'Norwich' is the town that grows OlympiansHow valuing development over winning helped a town become an Olympic pipeline.
'Bringing Columbia Home' is a grimly captivating new history of the loss of the space shuttle ColumbiaAuthors Michael Leinbach and Jonathan Ward set their account apart from other 'Columbia' books by following the story from its central tragedy to its almost unthinkably sad immediate aftermath.
'Winter' is Karl Ove Knausgaard's attempt to make you see things anewKnausgaard's essays are naive, charming, and eye-opening.
'Tears of Salt' is a deeply moving, first-hand response to Italy's refugee crisisAs a doctor on Italy's southernmost island, Pietro Bartolo has a front-row seat to one of the world's most horrifying spectacles.
5 new titles to check out in the New YearAmong the flood of 2018 book releases, here are five particularly fine new titles.
'Munich' dramatizes one of the turning points of World War IIRobert Harris's book centers on the Munich conference held in September 1938 in which British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Hitler in one last desperate attempt to forestall a general European war.
'Fools and Mortals' finds Shakespeare's brother taking center stageAs in all the best historical fiction, readers will come away with a seminar's-worth of historical knowledge without feeling like they did any heavy lifting.
'The Square and the Tower' considers the staggering power of networks'The Square and the Tower' gains in fascination as it tells its stories, considering networks ranging from the Mafia to the Soviet Union of Stalin.
'The Music Shop' celebrates the resilience of ordinary people and the healing power of music'The Music Shop' is less melancholy than Rachel Joyce’s 2012 debut 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry,' but still tends to a minor key.
'The Road Not Taken,' a biography of Edward Lansdale, makes no secret of its belief in its heroThe book is comprehensively researched and insightfully written. Max Boot is, as always, an extremely talented writer.
'Ghosts of the Tsunami' humanizes the survivors of Japan's 2011 catastrophe'Ghosts' is less an analytical or journalistic account than it is a character-driven, novelistic narrative about loss and trauma.
'A Village with My Name' blends family stories with 20th-century Chinese historyAn NPR reporter tracks his family roots and comes to see China in a new way.
'The Newcomers' follows 22 immigrant students as they become AmericansThis deeply affecting book tells the story of young people who've lost everything except the hope for a chance to start over.
