All Book Reviews
'Green Sun' tells a compelling tale about a Vietnam vet-turned-cop policing the mean streets of OaklandAuthor Kent聽Anderson traffics in archetypes without lapsing into tired storytelling.
'Time Pieces' is author John Banville's tribute to Dublin, the city that helped to shape himAt its best, 'Time Pieces' can be an invitation to wonder, aided by accompanying photographs by Paul Joyce.
'The Cadaver King and The Country Dentist' will shake your faith in the US justice systemThe authors focus on the wrongful convictions of two black men, Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer, each charged in separate murders during the early 1990s in Mississippi.
'Enlightenment Now' says human progress is real, remarkable, and yet often unacknowledgedSteven Pinker聽marshals data from detailed studies that show the stirring extent of progress human beings have achieved since the 18th聽century.
'Without Precedent' brings shrewd legal perspective to the career of Supreme Court justice John MarshallThe book's narrative is especially strong when relating the turbulent legal and political infighting of Marshall's years as chief justice.
'The Future of Humanity' recommends evacuating Earth in order to save the speciesBestselling writer Michio Kaku is a practiced and very effective popularizer of science for a general audience.
'Secrets We Kept' is the wrenching story of the abusive truth behind the marriages in an author's familyThrough her family story, author Krystal Sital examines the widespread nature of domestic violence in Trinidad, where it has traditionally been considered a private family matter.听
'Down and Across' is a lively YA debut starring a self-doubting teen and a crossword-puzzle loverIranian-American teen Saaket 鈥淪cott鈥� Ferdowsi grapples with his own insecurities and struggles to live up to his parents鈥� expectations.
3 intriguing new science fiction titlesThree strong new sci fi releases get 2018 off to an excellent start.
'The Marshall Plan' considers how and why the US became a global superpowerThis is a welcome, timely, and significant addition to what we know about the way that the Marshall Plan shaped the post-World War II landscape.
'Young China' profiles a generation facing a sometimes confusing mix of prosperity and pressureYoung Chinese in their 20s, firmly ensconced in the world's middle class, are their country's first modern generation 'less preoccupied with needs and more involved with wants.'
'The Seabird's Cry' follows the 350 bird species inhabiting the coastlines and open oceans of our planetIt's a completely pitiless world, in which the attrition of natural predation is increased exponentially by the harshness of the environment.
'Directorate S' attempts to unravel the countless complexities of the Afghan warRelentless reporting and fastidious cultivation of sources are the hallmarks of Steve Coll's reporting and this book is no exception.
'The New Negro' explores Alain Locke not only as writer but also as a thinker and a fighterStewart's impressive new book confronts for the whole of its great length the 鈥渢wo-ness鈥� described often by W. E. B. Du Bois in his masterpiece, "The Souls of Black Folk."
'Love, Hate and Other Filters' is 2018鈥檚 most important YA novel so farAs we witness the senior year of Maya Aziz 鈥� the teenage daughter in the only Indian Muslim family in Batavia, Ill. 鈥� we鈥檙e treated to a sliver of an American Muslim bildungsroman.
'Epic City' tells the story of a young expat and his love affair with CalcuttaAuthor Kushanava Choudhury's forte is history, well and freshly told.
'Jefferson's Daughters' tells the story of three of Thomas Jefferson's daughters 鈥� white and black'Jefferson鈥檚 Daughters' brings its period vividly to life, a credit to Kerrison鈥檚 exhaustive research, her passion for her subject, and her elegant writing.
'The Monk of Mokha' follows the true-life adventures of an immigrant turned coffee-entrepreneurIt's yet another example of the uncanny ability of Dave Eggers to transform the long-odds stories of real-life immigrants into poignant page-turners.
'Armed in America' asks exactly what the Founding Fathers intended with the Second AmendmentCharles, a historian and legal scholar, spent almost 10 years digging deeply into the issue of gun rights and he has written a credible record of what he learned.
'Norwich' is the town that grows OlympiansHow valuing development over winning helped a town become an Olympic pipeline.
