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SCIENCE FICTION

MYSTERIES & THRILLERS

A compelling thriller full of surprises

A compelling thriller full of surprises

Ariel Pryce awakens to a sunny day in Lisbon only to find her new husband, John Wright, missing. After hours waiting for him to turn up, it's clear something's amiss. There's no message, and no sign of him whatsoever. Fearing he's fallen victim to an accident or been kidnapped,...

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NONFICTION

Popular Fiction

A satirical take on British politics at the top

A satirical take on British politics at the top

Meet the Fitzmaurices, a wealthy, aristocratic British family with more than their share of buried secrets. But, like most secrets, they can't remain hidden forever. And as they come to light, the family unravels. But the roots of their exposure lie far in the past at an elite...

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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 "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," exposing an episode on the dark side of medical history

Exposing the dark side of medical history

Henrietta Lacks was thirty-one years old when she entered Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore early in 1951. She was Catholic, the mother of five children, and African-American. Hopkins was one of the nation's most prestigious medical schools—and the only hospital in the area that admitted Black...
Cover image of "Hillbilly Elegy," a book about hillbilly culture

Hillbilly? Redneck? White trash?

Two recent books set out to paint a picture of working-class culture. One is White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, by Nancy Isenberg. I found the book to be too densely written and couldn't finish reading it. The other is far more accessible. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a...
Cover image of "Revenge Prey,"

A brilliant addition to a long-running thriller series

Leonard Summers; his wife, Martha; and son, Bernard, are moving into a remote cabin in Minnesota. But his name isn't Leonard Summers. It's Leonid Sokolov. And "he was in some kind of enforcement branch of the Russian spy agency," Lucas Davenport explains to fellow US Marshal Shelly White. "He’s...
Cover image of "National Security and Double Government" by Michael J. Glennon, a book about national security decisions

Who makes national security decisions? Not the President!

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes Why does Barack Obama's performance on national security issues in the White House contrast so strongly with his announced intentions as a candidate in 2008? After all, not only has Obama continued most of the Bush policies he decried when he ran for the...
Cover image of "Annihilation," a sci-fi novel that conveys a sense of strangeness

A sense of strangeness without bug-eyed monsters

This book is proof that you don't need bug-eyed monsters or little green men to convey a sense of strangeness. Jeff VanderMeer achieves that in Annihilation, conjuring up a setting that abounds in all the usual terrestrial flora and fauna. The impression of alienness is heightened by a nameless...
Resistant is a doomsday thriller.

Resistant germs threaten humanity in this doomsday thriller

There's no end of doomsday scenarios that threaten the survival of the human race. These days, we talk about the climate crisis. Nuclear war sometimes, too. Pandemics. And of course there are many others: a super-volcano eruption, a meteorite strike, a massive solar flare, and many others. But now...

Nixon, Kissinger, and the genocide history has ignored

When Americans today think of Richard Nixon, four or five episodes in his public life usually come to mind. Watergate. The Cambodia invasion. The opening to China. His TV debates with John F. Kenned. And, perhaps, his kitchen confrontation with Nikita Khrushchev when still Dwight Eisenhower's vice...
Cover image of "In Their Own Hands," about how to work with poor people

The new Bible for work with poor people

In an even reasonably rational world, In Their Own Hands would serve as the Bible for development professionals and the basic textbook for students, philanthropists, faith-based activists, and business executives who aspire to improve the lives of poor people. Though this book advocates a...
Cover image of "Churchill, Master and Commander,"

Winston Churchill, Britain’s warlord for six years

You might expect, if you've read a little about Winston Churchill, that only during World War II did he become deeply engaged with the military. But that's far from true. From the time he enlisted in the British Army as a second lieutenant in 1895, Churchill was almost continuously engaged in...
Cover image of "Desert Star," the fifth book in a Cover image of "Desert Star," the fifth book in a new Harry Bosch detective series

Renée Ballard costars in new Harry Bosch detective series

Most authors of mystery and suspense fiction have long since learned that their only hope to make a living from their craft is to launch a new detective series. The field abounds with them, some numbering in the dozens of novels. Believe it or not, the Remo Williams series of thrillers by Warren...

My Most Popular Reviews

Weekly Reviews Delivered to You!

Mal Warwick - Book Reviews

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Mal Warwick

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