All Book Reviews
'Ray & Joan' is a biography in three parts: Ray, Joan, and McDonald’sWhen McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc finally went to whatever his rewards, his widow Joan took to philanthropy with avidity.
'Mercury' is the story of a beautiful horse, and the woman loves himIn Margot Livesey's new novel, clarity of vision proves elusive, even with corrective lenses.
'A Space Traveler’s Guide to the Solar System' leads readers into spaceSpace writer Mark Thompson employs current science, along with today’s rapidly expanding knowledge of our solar system, to enable us to visit places no one has gone before.
'John O'Hara: Stories' is a well-assembled collection of work worth revisitingA new volume of short fiction from an American master highlights the writer's commitment to honesty and freedom from nostalgia.
'Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited'A new biography by Philip Eade seeks to use newly available documents to reopen questions about the writer's love life and wartime exploits.
'Eleanor Roosevelt: The War Years and Beyond' is a touchingly human portraitBiographer Cook captures the headlong energy of those years perfectly, and she blends the international with the personal easily and comfortably.
'How to Travel Without Seeing' takes readers on a book tour of Latin AmericaThe most breathtaking voice in travel writing today may be that of a writer who feels ambivalent about travel itself.
'Homeward Bound' and 'Born to Run' trace the making of two American iconsTo grasp the genius of Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen, it helps to know their lives.
'Krazy Kat 1934' is a year's worth of joyThis wonderful volume is a chance to see an iconic American comic strip as closely as possible to the way it was originally presented in 1934.
'An Iron Wind' is an unsparing, riveting examination of life under HitlerThis is a book about how people behave when a kind of moral plague sweeps through their world.
'The 15:17 to Paris': how three ordinary young men became instant heroesThere's something wonderfully old-fashioned and inspiring about this true story of three regular guys who rose to the occasion and bravely saved an entire train from a terrorist bent on destruction.
'The Tunnels': how brave Berliners tried to dig a path to freedomAt constant risk of structural collapse, discovery, and sabotage, cold war-era Berliners on both sides of the wall made extraordinary efforts to rescue friends, family, and strangers from the East by digging tunnels.
'The Boat Rocker': Nat'l Book Award-winner Ha Jin packs a quiet punchThis outwardly nondescript story about a journalist facing up to the Chinese government has a powerful moral core.
'The Whistler,' John Grisham's 29th novel, offers mostly empty caloriesThe narrative verve Grisham fans usually enjoy seems lacking in 'The Whistler.'
'In Wartime' tells the grim but important story of conflict in Ukraine'In Wartime' is a fast-paced and very topical book, appealingly ambitious in its scope.
'Today Will Be Different' is absolutely delicious black comedyThe latest novel by Maria Semple (author of bestselling 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette?') stars a mom who aspires to getting out of her yoga pants.
'Upstream' places poet Mary Oliver in her 'arena of delight'This collection of essays by Oliver is a testament to a lifetime of paying attention.
'The Trespasser': Tana French scores again in 'Dublin Murder Squad' seriesOnce again, French presents a taut detective drama in which everyone is guilty of something.
'The Conservative Case for Trump': Is there one?Three noted conservatives work hard to paint Trump as a contemporary Ronald Reagan.
'Reputations' tells of a political cartoonist, haunted for decades by the events of a single nightIn Vásquez's new novel, the protagonist thinks of Colombia as an 'amnesiac country obsessed with the present, a 'narcissistic country where not even the dead are capable of burying their dead.'
