The Latest

SCIENCE FICTION

MYSTERIES & THRILLERS

Travis McGee wades into a sordid case of group sex and murder

Travis McGee wades into a sordid case of group sex and murder

Before there was Jack Reacher, there was Travis McGee. Lee Child, who created Reacher, has never been shy about the debt he owes. Neither have Carl Hiaasen, Dean Koontz, and a long list of other bestselling writers. Between 1964 and 1985, John D. MacDonald wrote 21 novels about...

read more

NONFICTION

The man who taught Donald Trump everything he knows

The man who taught Donald Trump everything he knows

It's difficult to imagine how any single American over the past 100 years could have done more damage to our country than Roy Cohn. Even Senator Joseph McCarthy and Donald Trump may bear less responsibility for the harm they've done to millions of lives, because to a great...

read more

Popular Fiction

The man behind the throne of Rome’s first Emperor

The man behind the throne of Rome’s first Emperor

Ancient history, especially that of Greece and Rome, continues to fascinate many of us even in the 21st century. Many observers continue to find parallels to events in our own time. "Cautionary tales" supposedly abound in the behavior of the Caesars and in the unraveling of the...

read more

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.

Check out our rotating random selection here, culled from throughout this site.

Happy reading!

 

It Was All a Lie explains how the Republican Party became Donald Trump.

How the Republican Party became Donald Trump

Amazon lists more than 1,000 books about Donald Trump. And only two US Presidents—George Washington and Abraham Lincoln—account for more (over 2,000 in each case). But Trump hasn't even completed a single term in office, and there are lots more books to come. One of the latest, and in its way most...
Cover image of "Poets and Murder,"

A Tang Dynasty judge solves a string of baffling murders

For readers in the USA or Europe, it can be a challenge to understand law enforcement policies and procedures in countries grounded in non-Western values and assumptions. In China, for example. The Inspector Chen novels of the Chinese expatriate author Qiu Xiaolong show just how very different...
The Captain and the Glory is a satirical novel about Donald Trump.

A satirical novel about Donald Trump by Dave Eggers

It's a little hard to believe that anyone could write a satirical story about Donald Trump, whose behavior is so far over the top that he would seem immune to satire. Yet that's exactly what San Francisco literary phenomenon Dave Eggers has done in The Captain and the Glory. Unlike Christopher...
Cover image of "The German Client,"

An outstanding novel about the Italian Resistance in World War II

The French Resistance dominates accounts written in English about irregular warfare in World War II. But the most effective Resistance efforts may well have been in Poland, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union. And there was anti-Nazi activity everywhere in occupied Europe. Italy was no different....
Cover image of "The New Jim Crow," an account of mass incarceration in America

The tragedy of mass incarceration in America

A review of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander. ★★★★★. The United States now has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, dwarfing the rates of nearly every developed country, even surpassing those in highly repressive regimes like Russia, China, and Iran. The number of prisoners of African-American and Latino descent is wildly out of proportion to their share of the general population, and the War on Drugs accounts for the lion’s share of the difference.

Cover image of "The Deep Sky,"

Sabotage on a one-way interstellar journey

With a monumental global effort spearheaded by a trillionaire, the starship Phoenix has set out for the yet-to-be-named Planet X. An all-female crew of 80 represents the wealthier countries that have helped fund the project. They're on a "one-way interstellar voyage to settle a new world," free of...
North Korea's Great Leader is featured in this book.

North Korea’s “Great Leader” was a film buff

What do Americans know about North Korea? For even the best-informed among us, the answer is, sadly, not much. What we know, or at least have been persuaded to believe, comes largely from the testimony of the small but growing community of North Korean refugees. Their experiences contributed to...
The Bombay Prince

Murder in Bombay during the Indian independence movement

When Britain's Crown Prince Edward strode through the Gateway of India in Bombay late in 1921, the subcontinent was seething with unrest. Thousands of loyalists turned out to gain a glimpse of the glamorous royal. But the city as a whole was quiet. Civil disobedience championed by Mohandas Gandhi...
The Counterfeit Agent in Alex Berenson's novel is a rogue ex-CIA agent.

Alex Berenson’s John Wells takes on a rogue ex-CIA agent

The modern history of Iran and the US is fraught with conflict. Today, Americans vilify the ayatollahs who have governed Iran since its revolution in 1979. We're all too likely to forget (assuming we ever knew in the first place) that the Iranian Revolution was in large part a consequence of the...
Cover image of "A Path Appears," a book for those committed to building a better world

The path to altruism and a better world

Nicholas Kristof is one of the most-honored journalists of our time. He's regarded by many of his peers as the "moral conscience of journalism" for his decades-long work exposing human rights abuses and human trafficking. Among a plethora of other awards and distinctions, Kristof...

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!