All Book Reviews
'Feast for the Eyes' is a delightful history of food in photographyWhat we eat, and how we consume it, is directly linked to photography鈥檚 evolution.听
'Rooster Bar' author John Grisham sinks his teeth into a juicy target: privately owned, for-profit law schoolsGrisham details the dismal mediocrity and hopelessness engulfing the school and its students.
'Playing with Fire' chronicles 1968 in America, eschewing easy answers to complex questionsThe aftermath of 1968 鈥� seven more years of war, continued social unrest, Watergate, Nixon's resignation, Gerald Ford's pardon 鈥� combined to alter forever the trajectory of American public life.
'The Saboteur' combines heroic World War II history with thriller dramaticsRobert de La Rochefoucauld and his Resistance comrades were guided by an unspoken code of bravery.
'Modern Color' shows how Fred Herzog captured an era in living colorHerzog offers up a body of street photography created before it was a recognized genre.
'La Belle Sauvage' will be like coming home for Philip Pullman fansFor fans of the writer or the series, 'La Belle Sauvage' is essential.
'Nomadland' chronicles Americans on the move with heaps of reportorial detail, narrative flairJournalist Jessica Bruder rents an RV and hits the road to gain access to a new class of Americans on the move.
'Balancing Acts' author Nicholas Hytner looks back at a successful career at London鈥檚 National TheatreBetween the color commentary and all the humorous cameos, this book聽 is a master class in the anatomy of artistic directing.
5 great book picks for gift-giving this holiday season'Inside Animal Hearts and Minds'聽by Belinda Recio and 'Shahnameh' by A. Ferdowsi are two books that would make ideal gifts this year.
'Afghanistan' is a collection of the best of Steve McCurry's images of this rugged, beautiful, tragic landSteve McCurry has been documenting Afghanistan and its story for almost 40 years.
30 best books of 2017The 2017 books listed below are the top choices of the Monitor鈥檚 book critics 鈥� the 30 books that moved, informed, or delighted us most.
'I Can鈥檛 Breathe' is clear-eyed, hard-hitting account of Eric Garner's deathAs a profile of the people closest to Garner, the book proves both empathic and moving.
Now we鈥檙e really cooking: New standout cookbooks include 'America: The Cookbook' and 'Milk Street'Besides deliciousness, what these cookbooks share is a global melting pot mentality that reflects a trend toward increasingly porous culinary borders.
'We Were Eight Years in Power' discusses race with intelligent sobrietyTa-Nehisi Coates聽offers a collection of eight of his most penetrating essays from聽The Atlantic.
'Radio Free Vermont' touts the power of local government and grassroots effortsThis new novel by author, environmentalist, and Vermonter Bill McKibben is heavy on coincidence and light on believability.
'Calder' clearly establishes its subject as a giant of the 20th centuryUp until now, there has never been a full-scale biography to help us understand and appreciate Calder's accomplishments.
'Gold Dust Woman' tells the story of rock icon Stevie NicksDevoted followers won鈥檛 find major new stories in this biography by Stephen Davis, but it鈥檚 certainly an exhaustive account.
'The Thin Light of Freedom' is a Civil War history that explores the forging of modern AmericaSmall towns throughout the Great Appalachian Valley changed hands many times during war, and as complicated a military picture as that presents, it represents an even more complicated political and social picture.
'Black Tudors' reveals a surprising and overlooked chapter of historyHidden in British archives and parish records are the identities of dozens of black people who lived in England during Tudor times.
'Troublemakers' follows the meteoric transformation of Silicon Valley鈥檚 founding generation'Troublemakers'聽transports us to a Silicon Valley before the arrival of internet behemoths the likes of Netflix and Salesforce, when giants such as Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel ruled the day.
