All Book Reviews
Author Dani Shapiro grapples with a world remade by a DNA test in 'Inheritance'Shapiro views her parents differently in light of her discovery. And her struggle is growing more common as DNA services like 23andMe become popular.
鈥楰: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches鈥� is 100% in the zoneTyler Kepner loves baseball, and his book will make you love it too. His history of the game uses stories of career-making pitches as the narrative structure.
鈥楽ave Me the Plums鈥� is a tantalizing insider memoirRuth Reichl, the last editor-in-chief of聽Cond茅 Nast's iconic Gourmet magazine, spins a fascinating tale of her time in magazine publishing.
Her mother successfully ran numbers in 1970s DetroitBridgett Davis writes a loving tribute to her mother, a black woman with few job options who found a solution in the numbers game.
鈥楽hakespeare鈥檚 Library鈥� imagines the Bard鈥檚 bookshelvesStuart Kells explores the source materials that would have been necessary to write all those plays and poems.
The boarding school (after)lifeMichael King builds an evocative Southern landscape in his novel 'At Briarwood School for Girls,' but his powers ultimately don't extend to creating fully realized characters.
鈥楲ove Your Enemies鈥� urges readers to meet vitriol with decencyArthur Brooks, a conservative policy analyst who calls the Dalai Lama a mentor, explores how a 鈥榗ulture of contempt鈥� is hurting America and what can be done about it.
'Solid Seasons' delves into Emerson and Thoreau's friendshipJeffrey S. Cramer combs through hundreds of letters to document the highs and lows of the two men's relationship.
鈥楾en Caesars鈥� demystifies the pastBarry Strauss' more or less explicit model is the Roman historian Suetonius, who wrote 2000 years ago and whose book famously profiled 12 caesars instead of 10.
Young adult novel merges Chinese history with 'Snow White' fairy tale'Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix' brims with sorcerers and poisoned apples.
'Say Nothing' casts light on the bloody warfare in Northern IrelandPatrick Radden Keefe's history is packed with true crime, terrorism, grinding poverty, and rampant police and military corruption.
'The Story of Britain' is an eminently readable history of the islesThe book made fine, invigorating reading two decades ago, and it still does (making room, of course, for the addition of the Brexit referendum). Author Roy Strong leads readers smoothly through rulers and epochs, with a narrative style that's happily free of a metahistorical agenda.
Glittering currents of the Ganges RiverLike all great rivers, the Ganges carries important cultural and spiritual meaning. Author Sudipta Sen illuminates the background of this sacred river, connecting it to thousands of years of Indian history.聽
'The Darkest Year' explores how Americans adapted to World War IIThe appeal of William K. Klingaman鈥檚 'The Darkest Year,'聽which uses contemporary sources to survey the national psyche in the tense months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, is in enabling readers to feel the immediacy of well-known historical events as they unfolded.
'From Gutenberg to Google,' how human inquiry became a networked activityAuthor Tom Wheeler chronicles how聽knowledge in the Western world was largely localized, artisanal, and intensely exclusionary until Johannes聽Gutenberg combined a suite of technological innovations to revolutionize the way books were made.
In 'On the Come Up,' an aspiring teen rapper grapples with lifeA street-smart poet-geek navigates challenges pulled from the headlines.聽
'Last Boat Out of Shanghai' has four stories at once personal and universalShanghai residents left in droves as the Communists took power in China.
'Tombland' unearths plots and Tudor-era political intrigueC. J. Sansom's historical mystery series features lawyer Matthew Shardlake 鈥� one of the best-drawn leading characters in the entire genre.聽
'Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him' shows the interplay between the public face and private life of the Tudor monarchTudor historian Tracy Borman evaluates the king through the eyes of his most important advisers.聽
