The Latest

SCIENCE FICTION

MYSTERIES & THRILLERS

Porfiry Rostnikov’s last case

Porfiry Rostnikov’s last case

Before his death in 2009, the prolific detective novelist Stuart Kaminsky wrote 16 police procedurals featuring a Moscow investigator named Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov. The books span the years 1981 to 2008. They encompass the final years of Communist rule and the first two...

read more

NONFICTION

20 top nonfiction books about World War II

20 top nonfiction books about World War II

If you've been reading my reviews for very long, you're aware that the World War II era holds special fascination for me. This might have something to do with the fact that I was born then—in fact, about six months before the USA entered the war. Or maybe it's just because it...

read more

Popular Fiction

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 Sentient Machine" by Amir Husain, a book about today's artificial intelligence

Today’s artificial intelligence is already transforming our lives

Artificial intelligence researchers draw a clear distinction between Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI) or Weak AI, and Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) or Strong AI. Weak AI is the stuff of today's Siri, self-driving cars, those annoying systems that answer you when you phone just about...
A History of Future Cities is a study of urbanization and globalization.

Urbanization, globalization and the future of humanity

The journey from developing world hinterland to globalizing city has become the defining journey of the twenty-first century," writes journalist Daniel Brook. In his A History of Future Cities, Brook traces the story of that journey toward urbanization and globalization to 1703 in St....
Cover image of "River of Darkness," the first of Rennie Airth's series of British police procedurals

Rennie Airth’s John Madden series spans the world wars

In six suspenseful crime novels set in England from the First World War to the aftermath of the Second, South African writer Rennie Airth tells the story of Scotland Yard detective John Madden and his wife, née Dr. Helen Blackwell. John is a veteran of the Great War, unhinged by his experiences in...
The Corridors of Time is a Poul Anderson novel.

A legendary sci-fi author makes a mess of time travel

The Danish-American author Poul Anderson (1926-2001) won seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards as well as many other science fiction and fantasy awards for the innumerable novels and short stories he wrote in a career spanning the last six decades of the twentieth century. But his 1965 novel,...
Cover image of "Voyage,"

Up close and personal on a journey to Mars

NASA has dreamed of sending astronauts to Mars for at least the past six decades. For a time in the late 1960s and early '70s, agency officials advanced plans to do just that once the Apollo program had wound down. Those plans faltered, of course, foiled by political and budgetary pressures on the...
Cover image of "Nations Apart,"

Why American politics has become so divisive

Most Americans came alive to the reality of polarization in our politics only recently. In the 1990s at the earliest, with the advent of Fox News and Newt Gingrich's take-no-prisoners partisanship. But a remarkable book published in 2011 explained with faultless logic that the polarization began...
Cover image of "Blood on Snow," an example of outstanding Scandinavian noir

Jo Nesbo: outstanding Scandinavian noir

If you have a taste for outstanding Scandinavian noir, you're likely to have read at least one of Jo Nesbø's novels. Nesbø's unforgettable Norwegian detective, Harry Hole, is featured in so many of his books that it's tough for a fan of his work to accept stories from him about anyone else....
Cover image of "Quietly in Their Sleep," a novel about the Italian Catholic church

An indictment of the Italian Catholic Church

In Quietly in Their Sleep, Donna Leon's intrepid Italian policeman, Commissario Guido Brunetti, receives a visit from one of the nuns who has been caring for his aged mother in a nursing home. He knows her as Suor' Immacolata (Sister Immaculate) though she has shed her habit and appears panicked....
Cover image of "Aurora," a novel about a massive solar storm

A massive solar storm threatens life on Earth

More than ninety percent of the Earth's people now have access to electricity, according to the World Bank. What might happen if the world's electric generating and transmission facilities suddenly died as the result of a solar storm, a massive wave of charged particles from the Sun? It happened...
crusading Russian journalist: Tatiana by Martin Cruz Smith

A crusading Russian journalist and the Mafia

Like so many mystery fans, I met Arkady Renko in 1981 when he first appeared in Martin Cruz Smith's brilliant, best-selling novel of suspense, Gorky Park. Seven more tales about the troubled Russian crime investigator have followed at intervals of three years or more. I've read nearly all of them;...

My Most Popular Reviews

Weekly Reviews Delivered to You!

Mal Warwick - Book Reviews

Weekly book reviews to match your taste!

Love mysteries and thrillers? Historical fiction fan? Prefer to read nonfiction? Or, like me, you just love reading? Take your pick of my three weekly newsletters. Just click the Yes! button, and you’re on your way.

Here you can take your pick of the three newsletters I publish each week. They’re all free of ads, and I never share subscribers’ email addresses with anyone. Just make your newsletter selections below.

Feel free to subscribe to any or all of these newsletters. Remember, they’re ad-free, and I won’t share your contact information with anyone.

Enjoy reading!

Mal Warwick

The latest mystery
& thriller book
reviews every Tuesday.

…includes my latest mystery and thriller book reviews, with links to other content in the genre.

The latest nonfiction book reviews every Wednesday.

…includes my latest nonfiction book review, with links to other nonfiction content.

My latest
book reviews,
every Thursday.

…includes summaries and links to all the previous week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in any of the other newsletters.

The Latest Book Reviews of the Week

...includes summaries and links to all of the week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in the other newsletters.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

The Latest Mystery & Thriller Book
Reviews Every Week

Mysteries & Thrillers Tuesday includes my latest mystery and thriller book review,
with links to other science fiction content.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

The Latest Nonfiction Book
Reviews Every Week

Nonfiction Wednesday includes my latest nonfiction book review,
with links to other nonfiction content.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

The Latest Book Reviews of the Week

The Weekly includes summaries and links to all the previous week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in any of the other newsletters.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Tuesday's Newsletter

Tuesday's Newsletter

Mysteries & Thrillers Tuesday includes my latest mystery and thriller book review, with links to other science fiction content.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Wednesday's Newsletter

Wednesday's Newsletter

Nonfiction Wednesday includes my latest nonfiction book review, with links to other nonfiction content.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

The Weekly Newsletter

Thursday's Newsletter

The Weekly includes summaries and links to all the previous week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in any of the other newsletters.

You have Successfully Subscribed!