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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...

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NONFICTION

Popular Fiction

Laughs in sci-fi? P. G. Wodehouse did humor better.

Laughs in sci-fi? P. G. Wodehouse did humor better.

The legendary English humorist Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881-1975), known to readers as P. G., wrote about 100 books in a career that spanned much of the 20th century. His output included 71 novels, 24 collections of short stories, 42 plays, three memoirs, and a lot...

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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.

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

Happy reading!

 

Cover image of "Founding Brothers,"

Seven men and one woman set the course of the United States

A handful of rich white men played leading roles in the American independence movement and the early years of the republic they created. You know their names: George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. Others—John Jay and Aaron...
Cover image of "The Travelers" by Chris Pavone, a clever spy story

A clever spy story that will keep you guessing

In his third novel, The Travelers, Chris Pavone weaves a tale so baffling that you're likely to be shocked again and again as the truth at the heart of the story gradually floats to the surface. Once again, as in his previous books, Pavone's subject matter is espionage. The scene shifts rapidly...
Cover image of "Winter in Madrid,"

A spy story set in WWII Spain

Journalist Harry Brett had visited Spain in 1931 with a schoolmate, Bernie Piper, and returned six years later. Then, Bernie had gone missing while fighting along with Communist volunteers against Franco’s nationalist forces. It's now another three years later, 1940-41, and the civil war is in the...
A Spectacle of Corruption highlights rampant political corruption.

Rampant political corruption in 18th century England

At a time when Americans have grown increasingly concerned about corruption in our political system, it's useful to review the origins of electoral democracy in England. After all, our own representative democracy honored the same historical roots as the British parliamentary system. And the...
Cover image of "The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party," offering lessons in life from the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

Lessons in life from the #1 Ladies’ Detectives

A review of The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party: The New No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Novel, by Alexander McCall Smith. @@@@@ (5 out of 5). Join Precious Ramotswe for the weeks that elapse in this charming tale of life in Botswana, and you may emerge with fresh perspective on life. This is a celebration of the Africa that never was.

Cover image of "The Wolves," a novel about spies in Hong Kong

Spies, a billionaire, and a supermodel in Hong Kong and Macao

Now 82 years of age, Sheldon Adelson is the 18th richest person in the world, according to Forbes. His $28 billion fortune was built in the casino business in Las Vegas and Macao. Fanatically pro-Israel, he is best known to political observers in the U.S. as the individual who has given more money...
Cover image of "The Matchmaker," a spy thriller

The best mysteries and thrillers of 2022

To be clear, what follows is not a list of the best mysteries and thrillers published during the past year. Instead, I’ve decided not to copy those reviewers who imply they've read the many thousands of mysteries and thrillers published in any given year. Nobody, and no team of...
Cover image of "The Death of Rex Nhongo," a thriller in Zimbabwe

A satisfying thriller set in Zimbabwe

The Death of Rex Nhongo is framed as a thriller, but its primary value (at least to me) is the intimate portrait it paints of Zimbabwe today. Zimbabwe, as you are probably well aware, is a large nation that lies along the northern border of South Africa. It's also one of the most poverty-stricken...

Global warming and climate change: the next fifty years

We are now at least a decade into what journalist Mark Hertsgaard terms the "second era of global warming," which began sometime around the turn of the 20th century. As he writes, "The battle to prevent dangerous climate change was now over; the race to survive it has begun." Estimated reading...
The Zhivago Affair helped bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union.

How a novel helped speed the collapse of the Soviet Union

Historians squabble about how change has happened over the five thousand years of recorded human events. Is it the influence, whether malign or constructive, of those individuals called Great Men? Is it the material circumstances of society at a given moment in history, as a certain breed of...

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