The Latest

SCIENCE FICTION

MYSTERIES & THRILLERS

NONFICTION

Were British double agents the key to the Normandy invasion?

Were British double agents the key to the Normandy invasion?

Americans' views of the Second World War have been dominated by films, books, and television specials about the role that U.S. troops played in the fighting. Even today, more than three-quarters of a century after the war ended, we tend to believe that it was our ingenuity and...

read more

Popular Fiction

A brilliant novel of love, hope, and the Rwanda genocide

A brilliant novel of love, hope, and the Rwanda genocide

Today, Rwanda is one of the brightest lights in Africa. The economy is booming. Corruption is rare. Government delivers services. The streets of Kigali, the capital, are clean. It's even easy to open a business. Thirty years ago the country was in chaos, as this award-winning...

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.

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

Happy reading!

 

Cover image of "Jeeves and the Wedding Bells," a new Jeeves and Wooster novel

A new Jeeves and Wooster novel is almost as funny as the originals

What is this? A new Jeeves and Wooster novel? Didn't P. G. Wodehouse die in 1975? Surprise! Long after the authors died, new novels kept coming out in the bestselling series by Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Tom Clancy, Ian Fleming, Vince Flynn, Stieg Larsson, Robert Ludlum, and Robert B....
Cover image of "Sycamore Row," sequel to John Grisham's breakthrough novel

The belated sequel to John Grisham’s breakthrough first novel

John Grisham has become one of the world's best-selling authors of crime and suspense novels. But he hasn't accomplished this by creating a continuing series based on the exploits of a quirky hero-investigator. (Think Michael Connelly's Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch, Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski,...
Manhattan Beach is a bestselling historical novel.

Jennifer Egan’s bestselling historical novel is a winner

Jennifer Egan won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her fourth novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad. One critic commented on that book's "time-hopping narrative, unorthodox format, and motley cast of characters." Her fifth book, Manhattan Beach, a bestselling historical novel, is a more...
Cover image of "Abundance,"

Both Democrats and Republicans have lost their way

The pundits Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson describe themselves as liberals, and the public looks on them that way. But conservatives will find the two men subscribe to many of their long-held beliefs. That's the message in Abundance, Klein and Thompson's thought-provoking new book. And readers in...
A Night at Camp David is a novel that anticipated Donald Trump.

A novel that anticipated Donald Trump, five decades ago?

Its title is Night of Camp David, but the publisher topped off the cover with a teaser page to emphasize the novel's relevance to the madness in Washington today. "What would happen if the President of the U.S.A. went stark-raving mad?" the teaser reads. The implication is that this novel...
Cover image of "Sell Us the Rope,"

When Stalin was a young revolutionary

How do you humanize a monster? Perhaps if you dig deeply into his early years, when he was a young revolutionary. As a thug, a bank robber, a killer, to be sure. But decades before he became the all-powerful mass murderer who starved millions of Ukrainians to death, sent millions more to the gulag...
Cover image of "How I Became a North Korean," a novel about North Korean refugees

A compelling story of North Korean refugees in China

Three North Korean teens fleeing North Korea find one another over the Chinese border and end up cowering together in a cave, hiding from the police who would send them back. The three couldn't be more different. Yongju is the treasured son of the #11 official in North Korea's government, but the...
Cover of this biography of Wild Bill Donovan

The remarkable spymaster who launched the US into espionage

A review of Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern American Espionage, by Douglas Waller. @@@@@ (5 out of 5). Donovan was a law unto himself both in his (often-public) private life and in his extended role during World War II as the founding director of the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA. He went head-to-head with many of the most powerful, stubbornest, and most manipulative figures of the age, including Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevent, Douglas MacArthur, Chiang Kai-Shek, and J. Edgar Hoover — and, more often than not, came out the winner.

Cover image of " Sycamore Row" by John Grisham, one of the great courtroom dramas

Great courtroom dramas

Here are 18 courtroom dramas I’ve read, enjoyed, and reviewed here. You’ll see several familiar names among the authors. Jodi Picoult's name frequently appears on the New York Times bestseller lists. Michael Connelly writes the popular series featuring the Lincoln Lawyer, Mickey Haller, in Los...
Origin Story is a survey of Big History.

A survey of Big History by the man who created the field

Origin Story is historian David Christian's valiant effort to cram the history of the universe into 300 pages. Historians typically trace the beginning of human history to the time some 5,000 years ago when people started committing language to writing. After all, history as practiced in academia...

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!