All Book Reviews
'Norwich' is the town that grows OlympiansHow valuing development over winning helped a town become an Olympic pipeline.
'Bringing Columbia Home' is a grimly captivating new history of the loss of the space shuttle ColumbiaAuthors Michael Leinbach and Jonathan Ward set their account apart from other 'Columbia' books by following the story from its central tragedy to its almost unthinkably sad immediate aftermath.
'Winter' is Karl Ove Knausgaard's attempt to make you see things anewKnausgaard's essays are naive, charming, and eye-opening.
'Tears of Salt' is a deeply moving, first-hand response to Italy's refugee crisisAs a doctor on Italy's southernmost island, Pietro Bartolo has a front-row seat to one of the world's most horrifying spectacles.
5 new titles to check out in the New YearAmong the flood of 2018 book releases, here are five particularly fine new titles.
'Munich' dramatizes one of the turning points of World War IIRobert Harris's book centers on聽the Munich conference held in September 1938 in which British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Hitler in one last desperate attempt to forestall a general European war.聽
'Fools and Mortals' finds Shakespeare's brother taking center stageAs in all the best historical fiction, readers will come away with a seminar's-worth of historical knowledge without feeling like they did any heavy lifting.
'The Square and the Tower' considers the staggering power of networks'The Square and the Tower' gains in fascination as it tells its stories, considering networks ranging from the Mafia to the Soviet Union of Stalin.
'The Music Shop' celebrates the resilience of ordinary people and the healing power of music'The Music Shop' is less melancholy than Rachel Joyce鈥檚 2012 debut 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry,' but still tends to a minor key.
'The Road Not Taken,' a biography of Edward Lansdale, makes no secret of its belief in its heroThe book is comprehensively researched and insightfully written. Max Boot is, as always, an extremely talented writer.
'Ghosts of the Tsunami' humanizes the survivors of Japan's 2011 catastrophe'Ghosts' is less an analytical or journalistic account than it is a character-driven, novelistic narrative about loss and trauma.
'A Village with My Name' blends family stories with 20th-century Chinese historyAn NPR reporter tracks his family roots and comes to see China in a new way.
'The Newcomers' follows 22 immigrant students as they become AmericansThis deeply affecting book tells the story of young people who've lost everything except the hope for a chance to start over.
'The Extra Woman' is the smart, enjoyable story of the 1930s maverick who embraced singledomAuthor Joanna Scutts elegantly argues that Marjorie Hillis was a trailblazer, calling her sharp, witty writing 'a beacon of social change.'
'I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter' lays out a real and raw worldAt times, this blistering YA book is as messy and unlikable as its protagonist. But it鈥檚 also authentic and deeply moving.
'Renoir: An Intimate Biography' shows an artist scarcely hinted at in the sunny swirl of his paintingsBarbara Ehrlich White's new book goes far beyond her earlier work on Renoir.
'A Hundred Small Lessons' explores the question of home ownership through the lives of two women'Lessons' is an engaging look at the lives of two women who are centered around the home, physically and figuratively.
'Latif Al Ani' portrays Iraq in an era of optimismAfter Ottoman and later British rule, the Iraqi republic was formed in 1958, at a time of great hope.
'No Time to Spare' is an enjoyable visit with literary giant Ursula Le Guin (and her cat)Le Guin reflects on the value of time, when simply living life, visiting with friends and family, grocery shopping, and writing, fills each and every day.
'The Revolution of Marina M.' grounds readers in the sweep of Russian historyThis is 'White Oleander' author Janet Fitch's most powerful narrative, dense with atmosphere and poetics.
