All Book Reviews
'Agent Storm' recounts the journey from radical Islam to informantBurly, red-headed, and Danish, Morten Storm was an unlikely double agent in the war on transnational terrorism.
'The Glass Cage' asks: Will automation rob us of our skills?Nicholas Carr wonders how human beings will learn to enjoy technology – without losing the edge that comes from striving.
'Florence Gordon' may be the most magnificent fictional character you will meet this yearFlorence Gordon is the grouchy old feminist that no reader will be able to resist.
'Thirteen Days in September' is a great, readable account of the Camp David Accords'The Looming Tower' author Lawrence Wright delivers what will likely be one of the best accounts of the talks between then-President Jimmy Carter, Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1978.
'Edge of Eternity' keeps the pages turning through the end of the 20th centuryThe concluding book of Ken Follett's 'Century' trilogy turns the second half of the 20th century into gripping reading.
'A Deadly Wandering' takes a sharp look at the fatal consequences of texting and drivingMatt Richtel’s tragic probe of a texting-and-driving case is also an examination of the role technology plays in our lives.
'Tennessee Willams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh' paints a troubling yet compassionate portraitNew Yorker critic John Lahr examines the damaged, tormented life that inspired the work of Tennessee Williams.
'Grand Opera: The Story of the Met,' a biography of America's flagship opera company, informs and amusesCharles Affron and Mirella Jona Affron carefully and engagingly trace the history of the Metropolitan Opera from its birth in 1883 to the present day.
'Brown Girl Dreaming' blends history and personal memories into lovely verseJacqueline Woodson's memoir-in-verse is filled with perfect tiny moments about family, about friends, and about writing and reading, and about following your dreams.
'After We Kill You, We Will Welcome You Back as Honored Guests' offers an unvarnished but informed view of life on the ground in AfghanistanTed Rall's writing and cartooning creates a series of blunt, witty, and precarious images of his experiences in Afghanistan.
'Michelangelo' traces the tensions of Michelangelo's era in his workMichelangelo was one of the first artists to demand to be treated not just as an artisan but as an aristocrat of the spirit.
'The Bone Clocks' is fantastic, ambitious, messy, and highly creative'The Bone Clocks,' a series of six interlinking novellas, was a finalist for the Booker Prize.
'Liar Temptress Soldier Spy' finds thrills and chills in Civil War historyFour women – two Union sympathizers and two proud Rebels – served their causes in surprising fashions during the US Civil War.
'The Roosevelts: An Intimate History,' by Geoffrey Ward and Ken Burns, makes a gorgeous companion to the PBS seriesTheodore, Franklin, and Eleanor Roosevelt believed that they could do great things – and succeeded more often than not.
'On Tocqueville' examines the life and work of one of America's most prescient observersAlexis de Tocqueville was only 25 when he visited the United States in 1831 but his book remains influential to this day.
'World Order' by Henry Kissinger is spellbinding and convincing – when it isn't frustrating and contradictoryKissinger is a thinker of the first order who lays out cool, careful, and sometimes brilliant principles – only to ignore them when it suits his purposes.
'The Narrow Road to the Deep North' is a window into the cruelty of warAn Australian surgeon suffers in a Japanese POW camp on the Thai-Burma Death Railway, even as he struggles with memories of an affair with the spouse of a family member.
'The Secret Place' is certain to rank among the best mysteries of the yearA Dublin detective finds a group of teenage girls to be as mysterious as the murder case he must unravel.
'Getting Schooled' takes an honest look at the life of a teacherA classroom veteran examines the struggle to love his work.
'Conversion' resets the Salem witch trials in a preppy girls' school'Mean Girls' meets 'Prep' meets the Salem witch trials to create a contemporary page-turner.
