The Latest

SCIENCE FICTION

MYSTERIES & THRILLERS

A Tang Dynasty judge solves a string of baffling murders

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...

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NONFICTION

A soldier helped build America’s Empire. Then he spoke out.

A soldier helped build America’s Empire. Then he spoke out.

Few know his name today. But over a 34-year military career, Marine officer Smedley Butler (1881-1940) was for long America's most famous soldier. He fought in the Philippine–American War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Mexican Revolution, World War I, and all of the USA's imperial...

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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!

 

German businessmen

The German businessmen who bankrolled Hitler and made World War II possible

In 1965, just twenty years after the collapse of the Nazi regime, I visited Auschwitz. Even though that was nearly half a century ago, my memory of that shattering experience remains vivid: the mountains of human hair, eyeglasses, and gold dental fillings; the photographs of skeletal prisoners...
Cover image of "Cutting for Stone," a novel about surgery in action

A deeply affecting medical drama set in Ethiopia

Marion Stone is a general surgeon at a charity hospital in New York City, and this is his story. It's a story of war, revolution, and painful separations, but equally a tale of compassion, love, and the power of life-saving surgery. Born of Indian parents and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,...
Cover image of "Echo House," a novel about real power in DC

Who wields the real power in Washington, DC?

It's a commonplace that what transpires "inside the Beltway" that rings Washington, DC, is at best a poor reflection of American views and values. Over the years, scholars, pollsters, and pundits have attempted to understand this contrast, but the mechanistic tools of science and the biases of...
Cover image of "Twelve Days" by Alex Berenson, a nail-biting thriller

In a nail-biting thriller, John Wells must stop a US war with Iran

Iran and the United States are on the brink of war. A cache of Highly Enriched Uranium has turned up in Istanbul, and the evidence points to Iran as its source. After Iranian-funded terrorists down a US airliner over Mumbai with two ground-to-air missiles, killing hundreds, the US President issues...
Cover image of "Notorious Nineteen," a book by Janet Evanovich

Enough already! An open letter to Janet Evanovich

A review of Notorious Nineteen, by Janet Evanovich. @@@ (3 out of 5). The 19th in the series of humorous novels featuring Stephanie Plum, the lingerie-buyer turned incompetent bounty hunter.

Cover image of "Ice Cream Social," a book about a responsible company

The true story of Ben & Jerry’s fight to build a responsible company

One of my most vivid memories of the dozens of Social Venture Network (SVN) conferences I've attended over the years was seeing Ben Cohen walking into the dining hall in 2000, in tears over the sale of Ben & Jerry's to Unilever. I went over to hug him -- that's the sort of thing you do at SVN...
A Rising Man is an historical detective novel set in India.

A brilliant historical detective novel set in India following World War I

This historical detective novel set in India highlights life in the subcontinent shortly after World War I. India was the first major nation to gain its independence from Great Britain in the years following World War II when, in 1947, Viceroy Lord Mountbatten partitioned the subcontinent into two...
Cover image of "Where'd You Go, Bernadette?," a novel about eccentric people

If you like weird stories about eccentric people, you’ll love this novel

A review of Where’d You Go, Bernadette?, by Maria Semple. @@@@ (4 out of 5). About a 40-something suburban mom in Seattle who is anything but typical. The story of her nervous breakdown and disappearance is told by her precocious 15-year-old daughter.

Lock In is a near future sci-fi novel.

John Scalzi’s near future sci-fi novel set after a strange pandemic

John Scalzi has been writing books at a furious pace since 1999. His output has included 17 science fiction novels to date plus nine nonfiction books as well as a slew of short fiction. He's best known for his Old Man's War series (six novels and three novellas published between 2005 and 2015)....
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....

My Most Popular Reviews

Weekly Reviews Delivered to You!

Mal Warwick - Book Reviews

Weekly book reviews to match your taste!

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Mal Warwick

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…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.

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