All Book Reviews
'Prairie Fires' author Caroline Fraser offers a substantial biography of Laura Ingalls WilderWe meet here a Wilder who embodied 'a great American drama in three acts': poverty, struggle, and reinvention.
'Lenin' illuminates one of history's most destructive leaders'The regime [Lenin] created was largely聽shaped by his personality,' writes Victor Sebestyen, 'secretive, suspicious, intolerant, ascetic,聽intemperate.'聽
Bumper crop of new US presidents biographies reflects the challenges they all facedFrom John Adams to George H. W. Bush, these seven presidential biographies cover remarkable ground and offer a series of engaging portraits.
'L鈥橝ppart' is a painfully funny story of the joys and pitfalls of making Paris your homeIf you鈥檝e ever dreamed of tossing your return ticket home, David Lebovitz might make you think twice.
'Franklin D. Roosevelt' examines the now-forgotten political opposition FDR faced at every stageRobert Dallek's FDR is a man of great but always complicated drives.
'Friends Divided' explores the remarkable, stormy friendship of Thomas Jefferson and John AdamsRevolutionary-era historian Gordon S. Wood, in his latest book on the period, makes clear just how fragile the American experiment had become once George Washington retired to Mount Vernon.
'Murder, Magic, and What We Wore' is the Diet Sprite of Regency rompsThe young adult novel聽is full of fits and starts, but charming in a way that feels as sweetly ingenuous as its heroine
'Traces of Vermeer' strives to figure out the actual nitty-gritty of Vermeer's craftJelley is a painter in her own right, which allows her to write with authority.
'Greater Gotham' traces New York's transformation into capital of the Western worldIn this big new book, author Mike Wallace posits that 1898 to 1919 were the years in which New York entered the modern era.
'The Misfit鈥檚 Manifesto' argues in favor of compassion, justice, and love for allBased on her 2016 TED Talk, 鈥淭he Beauty of Being a Misfit,鈥� Lidia Yuknavitch argues that life's most difficult moments can be portals to a new experience.
'Blood Brothers' details the strange, history-defying friendship of Buffalo Bill and Sitting BullSitting Bull toured with Buffalo Bill Cody鈥檚 Wild West show for a four-month period in 1885.
'The Second Coming of the KKK' explores the largely forgotten 1920s resurgence of the KlanThe Klan was 'the biggest social movement of the early twentieth century,' one whose 'ideas echo again today,' writes New York University historian Linda Gordon in her startling new book.
'A Disappearance in Damascus' is the story of a journalist鈥檚 hunt for a kidnapped Iraqi colleagueThe thriller, mystery novel-quality of this true story will keep readers turning pages.
'Red Famine' chronicles the ruin wrought upon Ukraine by Joseph Stalin'Gulag' author Anne聽Applebaum gives a chorus of contemporary voices to the tale, and her book is written in the light of later history.
'Devotions' collects five decades of poetry by Mary OliverOliver's work聽charts those moments when the temporal is touched by the transcendental.
'Leonardo da Vinci' may be Walter Isaacson's most unusual subject everIsaacson concludes that Leonardo鈥檚 outsider status helped to feed his development.
'The Gourmands' Way' examines France's powerful, ongoing influence on American dinersAuthor Justin Spring offers profiles of six talented American writers who were also gourmands, including the legendary and luminary Julia Child, essayist M.F.K. Fisher, and artist-turned-culinary savant Richard Olney.
'Code Girls' tells the captivating story of America's female World War II codebreakersLike 'Hidden Figures,' this well-crafted book reveals a remarkable slice of unacknowledged US history.聽
'Sing, Unburied, Sing' is a road novel, a ghost story, a family epicIt鈥檚 easy to see why Ward鈥檚 new novel has been called a 'Beloved' for the incarcerated generation, but there are also echoes of William Faulkner and Eudora Welty.
'Grant' vigorously portrays its subject as a great military leader, champion of rights, honest manBiographer Ron Chernow returns with his latest take on a historical figure, which largely rewrites Grant's legacy.
