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Why do some novels win literary awards?

Why do some novels win literary awards?

Let's see if we can figure out why this paper-thin work of fiction won wide recognition and a literary award for its author. Snow Hunters introduces . . . let's count them: eight characters in 226 pages: Yohan, a North Korean soldier captured by UN forces late in the Korean...

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Explore My “BEST OF the category” selections

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE BOOK?

When people ask me that question, I never know what to say. In a lifetime of reading, I’ve read many thousands of books. And I’ve reviewed well over 2,000 of them on this site. Picking just one as a “favorite,” or even a handful of them, makes no sense to me.

The problem is, I read for many different reasons. Perhaps you do, too. And I read many different sorts of books. Mysteries and thrillers. Popular fiction, especially historical fiction. Science fiction.

And nonfiction, history in particular. You’ll find hundreds of reviews in every one of those categories on this site.

Look to the right for a rotating random selection culled from throughout this site.

Happy reading!

 

Cover image of "The Darkling Spy," a Cold War espionage story.

A grim tale of Cold War espionage

Reading The Darkling Spy by Edward Wilson is a lot like finding yourself caught in the middle of that classic old Abbott and Costello routine, "Who's on first?" When Costello asks him for the names of the players on a baseball team, Abbott says: . . . Who's on first, What's on second, I Don't Know...

James Bond, lies within lies, and coming of age in the 1960s

Kurt Andersen's short bio on Amazon.com describes True Believers as "a novel about youth, secrets, lies, politics, love and James Bond." All that's true, of course, but it misses the point. So far as I'm concerned, this is a book about coming of age in the famously turbulent years of the 1960s. ...
brain implant: Amped by Daniel H. Wilson

Want to buy a brain implant? Think twice

A review of Amped, by Daniel H. Wilson. @@@@ (4 out of 5). A thriller set in the near future when brain implants “amplify” the brains and bodies of half a million Americans — and all hell breaks loose.

Cover image of "The Insecure Mind of Sergei Kraev,"

A cautionary tale about brain implants

Something happened on April 17, 2120. Something so big that now, a century later, it's still referred to as 4-17. Whatever it was, it's somehow connected to the brain implants that have been universally required for decades. But what exactly happened, and why, isn't at all clear. To find out,...
Cover image of "Scorpion," a novel built around future technology

A CIA analyst takes on an international assassin

When I read a techno-thriller, I expect a clever plot built around some whiz-bang technology. The device or process in question might either be currently operational or a reasonable projection into the near future. Runaway AI, for example. Genetic engineering, maybe. Or nanotechnology. The...
"Drive" highlights the auto industry before Henry Ford.

This thrilling account of the early auto industry sets the record straight on Henry Ford

At first, before Henry Ford, before the twentieth century, the automobile was not a sure thing. In fact, it was a downright nuisance. For starters, they couldn't agree on what to call it. A "road machine?" "Automotor horse?" "Buggyaut?" "Horseless carriage?" They didn't know what fuel to use....

In Ishmael Beah’s novel, hope lives on in the depths of hell

If you think you’ve experienced the worst that a human being can bear, Ishmael Beah will show you how very wrong you are. Then, remarkably, he’ll share his hope for better and leave you feeling restored. In Radiance of Tomorrow -- just in case you didn't get it, radiance = hope...
The Colonel's Mistake

A spellbinding MIddle Eastern spy story

Mark Sava's long tenure as the CIA Station Chief in oil-rich Azerbaijan has made him one of America's leading experts on the country's next-door neighbor, Iran. Now retired but still living in Baku, he is teaching at a local university and working on a book. He can't help but continue to take a...
Cover image of "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone," a novel by one of the authors who make the most money

Which authors make the most money?

We all know some writers make it, and some don't. In fact, most people who are gripped with the obsession to write a book never make a dime from it, if they can even get it into print. (Even self-publishing isn't all that easy for the technologically challenged, as it turns out.) But what's not...
The Social Labs Revolution is about what makes social change happen.

What makes social change happen?

Planning based-approaches -- so common across government, civil society, and even business -- represent a neo-Soviet paradigm" and have long been shown to be at best minimally effective in fostering meaningful social change. If that assertion is a revelation to you, you're sure to find The Social...

My Most Popular Reviews

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Mal Warwick - Book Reviews

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Mal Warwick

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