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Ken Follett’s monumental saga of the First World War

Ken Follett’s monumental saga of the First World War

No one is still alive with any adult memory of World War I, which ended a century ago. So when we think of the events that have shaped the world we live in today it's likely World War II looms large. But its antecedent three decades earlier may have had greater long-term...

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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 "Empire of Secrets,"

British espionage as the Empire faded into history

Six pivotal events set the course of history in the twentieth century. The emergence of the United States as the world's preeminent economic and military power. The Bolshevik and Chinese Revolutions. World Wars I and II, often lumped together into a latter-day Thirty Years War. And decolonization,...
Cover image of "The Umbrella Man," one of the Singapore detective novels

Investigating a terrorist bombing in Singapore

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes Just imagine: three enormous bombs explode almost simultaneously, destroying the three largest American-owned hotels on Singapore's busiest thoroughfare. The heart of the city now lies in ruins. And Inspector Samuel Tay of the Singapore police lies in the rubble,...
Cover image of "Dead Man's Ransom," the ninth of the Cadfael Chronicles mysteries

A baffling murder amid civil war in medieval England

Brutal, face-to-face warfare rages across the English countryside in 1141, as the ninth of the Cadfael Chronicles mysteries opens. But the life-or-death struggle over the throne between King Stephen and the Empress Maud has reached a climax. At Lincoln, in the northeast, Maud's forces have...
Cover image of "Landscape with Invisible Hand," a novel about an alien invasion

A clever new take on an alien invasion in a humorous young adult novel

Science fiction is full of clichés about alien invasions of Earth, some evil, some benign. The murderous rampaging monsters that lay waste to the planet. The enigmatic species so different from the human race and so far advanced that communication with them is virtually impossible. The humanoid...
Cover image of "The Givers," a book about philanthropy

Is philanthropy good for America?

Few Americans appreciate the extraordinary scope and depth of philanthropy in our country. In 2015, the most recent year for which reliable estimates were available at this writing, Americans contributed a total of $373 billion to what is loosely called "charity." That amounts to 2% of the...
Cover image of "Bluebird, Bluebird" by Attica Locke

A compelling tale of murder, race, and family secrets by Attica Locke

Two bodies have turned up in quick succession in a small town in hardscrabble East Texas. The sheriff is inclined to treat them as unconnected. But not so Darren Matthews, a Texas Ranger who has come to town at the urging of a friend in the FBI who suspects larger forces at work there. An African...
Cover image of "Nexus" by Ramez Naam, a novel about the post-human future

The post-human future explored in an outstanding SF novel

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes Nearly sixty years ago, a psychologist and computer scientist named J. C. R. Licklider published a landmark paper under the title "Man-Computer Symbiosis." He is best known today as the Pentagon official who funded the predecessor to the Internet, the ARPANET. But...
Cover image of "The Mugger," the second in a series of police procedurals

When mugging turns to murder

Novelists have been turning out stories about crime since the early 1800s, and private detectives entered into the picture not long after. But police investigators didn't gain a firm hold in the mystery and suspense genre until well into the twentieth century. And it wasn't until the 1950s that...
Cover image of "Apple in China," the story of the partnership between Apple and China

How Apple made China great—and became a $3 trillion company

You might have wondered, as I have, how China could become so prosperous and powerful in less than half a century since Deng Hsiao-ping launched what I might call the Second Chinese Revolution. Certainly, the centralized power of the Communist Party has played a pivotal role. Like the Soviet Union...
"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....

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Weekly Reviews Delivered to You!

Mal Warwick - Book Reviews

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Mal Warwick

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