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

The far-reaching and surprising impact of World War II

The far-reaching and surprising impact of World War II

Is it too much to say that World War II "changed everything?" In The Fear and the Freedom, author Keith Lowe makes a strong case to justify the claim. As many as 80 million people died of a global population barely 30 times that number in 1939. Perhaps an equal number became...

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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!

 

A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren speaks truth to power

Finally -- a leading Democrat who understands that elections are won or lost on the basis of personal values. The same person whose gifted leadership led to the creation of the new federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that's beginning to level the playing field between the public and the...
Cover image of "The Envoy,"

This Swedish diplomat saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust

On a hill named Mount Herzl in Jerusalem lies Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. Within this moving memorial to the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust lie a synagogue, a children's museum, and research facilities as well as a garden commemorating the Righteous Among the...
Project Hail Mary

The new Andy Weir novel celebrates engineering—again

In Andy Weir’s blockbuster debut, The Martian, and in the 2015 film of the same name starring Matt Damon, astronaut Mark Watney digs himself out of one hole after another in a frantic effort to survive alone on Mars. Watney’s an engineer, and every problem presents itself as an engineering...
Homer and Langley by E. L. Doctorow

E. L. Doctorow on the legendary Collyer brothers

Homer & Langley may not be the product of E L Doctorow's finest writing, but stacked up against the usual run of popular contemporary fiction it has to be regarded as superior. This tale of the legendary Collyer brothers who perished in old age in their family's once-elegant Fifth Avenue home...
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...
Cover image of "Blood Ties,"

A clever and twisty new thriller from Nordic Noir master Jo Nesbo

Carl Opgard is the King of Os, a village of a thousand souls in the Norwegian mountains. He owns the Michelin-starred hotel and spa that dominates the community. And his older brother, Roy, isn't doing so badly, either. He owns the gas station and convenience store, an auto-repair garage, and...
Cover image of "The Oracle,"

Did the ancient Greeks make First Contact?

We humans are a race of storytellers. Over the course of the 300,000 years that we have commanded the power of speech, we have huddled in caves, sat around campfires, recited epic poems, published books, produced stage-plays, and used modern media to tell our stories. But in fundamental ways even...
The Mormon Candidate by Avraham Azrieli

About that Mormon candidate on his way to the White House (not that one)

A review of The Mormon Candidate, by Avraham Azrieli. @@@ (3 out of 5). A novel about Mormons and Mormonism framed as a thriller about a Mormon candidate for President in 2012.

Netflix's "Versailles" compares unfavorably to this history of Versailles.

History versus fiction: How Netflix’s Versailles distorts the facts

How much of what passes for history comes to us through the pages, and now the screens, of drama? And how much do the creators get wrong? Well, often a great deal, as we might expect. Even William Shakespeare, who read history carefully, distorted the facts as he knew them not just for dramatic...
Cover image of "How Beautiful We Were,"

Ecological catastrophe strikes an African village

Welcome to Kosawa. A village nestled in a lush valley somewhere in West Africa, Kosawa suffers from the singular ill fortune of sitting atop an oil field. For as long as the village elders can remember, ever since independence, an American oil company named Pexton has been tapping the oil. And...

My Most Popular Reviews

Weekly Reviews Delivered to You!

Mal Warwick - Book Reviews

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Mal Warwick

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