All Book Reviews
'Wild is the Wind' explores those things made all the more beautiful because they can鈥檛 lastThe verse of Carl Phillips often seems like an interior monologue on which the reader is casually eavesdropping.
'Greeks Bearing Gifts' will be the penultimate in the popular 'Bernie Gunther' series begun in Nazi GermanyThe 'Bernie Gunther' books were uniformly superb and reflected聽 their hangdog protagonist: tough, cynical, very quotable, and ultimately, even quixotically, idealistic.
'Two Sisters' follows a father trying to bring his two daughters home from jihad in SyriaNorwegian journalist Asne Seierstad follows the true story of an immigrant who left Somaliland for Europe 鈥� only to see his daughters become radicalized and flee to support the Islamic State.
'See What Can Be Done' is a testament to the breadth of Lorrie Moore鈥檚 intellectThere is an edge to Moore鈥檚 vision, sardonic and self-deprecating.
Poet and Iraqi exile Dunya Mikhail's book 'The Beekeeper' serves as testimony for the victims of ISISMikhail聽devotes much of 'The Beekeeper' to transcribing the stories of the Yazidi women of northern Iraq who have been driven from their homes, sold into sexual slavery, and yet, remarkably, survived.
'The Family Medici' vividly and clearly tells the story of one clan's merciless self-aggrandizementThe Medici men and women portrayed by Mary Hollingsworth are generous art patrons, but always with the end goal of burnishing their own reputations and making Florence their sole possession.
'The Last Wild Men of Borneo' is a real-life adventure tale about two expats in the jungleHoffman鈥檚 fascination with and enthusiasm for his topic are readily apparent on every page.
YA novel 'The Poet X' is an elegiac meditation on poesy and religionYoung poet-protagonist Xiomara must dig deep to reclaim her identity and her voice, in spite of her rough circumstances.
'A Long Way From Home' shifts from a lively 1950s travelogue to a darker debate over racial identityIn Booker Prize-winning author Peter Carey鈥檚 latest novel, a 1950s road rally serves as both an entertaining look at the Australian countryside and a plot device.
'Patriot Number One: American Dreams in Chinatown' expertly reveals a hidden immigrant worldThis story of a Chinese activitst's efforts to make a new life in the US is startling but heartening.
'Fisherman's Blues' takes readers to Senegal's coast for an upclose view of a fading lifestyleThis book's prose shimmers, making it a memorably beautiful tribute.
Rania Abouzeid's book 'No Turning Back,' about the Syrian civil war, is eloquent and devastatingAbouzeid gives voice to a handful of the millions of Syrians whose lives were tragically upended by war.
10 best books of March: the Monitor's picksFrom a young Picasso to a Chinese couple seeking new lives in the US to the travails of the Yazidi women of Iraq 鈥� the Monitor's '10 best books of March' list ranges far and wide.
'The Cloister' probes deeply into matters of faith, dogma, complicity, and forgivenessIn James Carroll's latest novel, the protagonists' present lives are deeply affected by their perceptions of past mistakes.
3 compelling new mystery booksReliable names in mystery writing shine in two new mysteries and a biography of the queen of the genre.
'The Woman's Hour' wonderfully recalls the furious fight to ratify the Nineteenth AmendmentElaine Weiss鈥檚 superb book focuses on six key weeks in the suffrage battle.
'Picasso and the Painting that Shocked the World' depicts the heady, hardscrabble Paris yearsThe book culminates in the creation of the radical 1907 masterpiece 'Les Demoiselles d鈥橝vignon.'
'Basketball' is a fast-break compilation that goes from from the beginning to Stephen CurryA new Library of America collection of the best basketball writing offers an embarrassment of riches.
'Camp Austen' is the most delightful Jane Austen book of the season'Camp Austen' is a sharp and wholly affectionate portrait of author-fandom raised to a manic pitch.
'Children of Blood and Bone' is a sweeping epic, perfect for fans of Laini Taylor and 'Black Panther''Children of Blood and Bone' deserves every extraordinary piece of praise lavished upon it.
