All Book Reviews
'The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway' reveals much 鈥� maybe too muchThe inclusion of early drafts of Hemingway stories sometimes detracts from the pleasure of the finished product.
How woolly mammoth bones baffled previous generationsJohn McKay, author of 'Discovering the Mammoth,' talks about the theories that earlier generations developed in their struggle to understand woolly mammoth bones.
'The Arena' explores America's stadiums and their relation to the national character'The Arena' is聽fun because of the author鈥檚 wit and style 鈥� a kind of gonzo/embedded journalism hybrid.
'Notes on a Foreign Country' is an American's struggle to understand her country's relation to the worldJournalist Suzy Hansen wonders how she, an Ivy League-educated journalist, could have been so ignorant of the extent of the US's role in remaking the post-World War II world.
'Grocery' is Michael Ruhlman's exploration of the grocery store as an idea and institutionConsider, says Ruhlman, the most compelling evidence of a civilization's evolutionary leap: the grocery store....
'Sour Heart' author Jenny Zhang illuminates the immigrant's struggles to belongZhang makes her fiction debut with a collection of seven loosely linked stories highlighting the Chinese-American immigrant experience.
'The Cooking Gene' views the African-American experience through its foodCulinary historian Michael W. Twitty manages to document one of America's foundational food cultures in a book that is also moving and deeply personal.
'The Darkening Web' warns of destruction through cyber meansThe implication throughout the book couldn't be clearer: In cyber warfare, there are no civilians.
'The Library of Fates' has clever mythology, delicious languageAditi Khorana's young adult novel聽sets up a stunning premise but falters en route to conclusion.
'When the English Fall' envisions the Amish as society's post-apocalyptic saviorsA gentle concern imbues this contemplative novel which imagines the rest of the society turning to the Amish when the power grid fails.
'The Netanyahu Years' portrays a divisive, oddly compelling world leaderThis is the kind of caustic and extremely topical biography that readers would expect to come from a working journalist rather than a professional historian.
'Refuge' is the story of an Iranian family in search of homeDina Nayeri鈥檚 sophomore novel, 'Refuge,' tells a tale of migration and dislocation.
'The Unwomanly Face of War' records Russian women fighting in WWIISvetlana Alexievich, whose oral histories of Soviet and Russian lives earned her the Nobel Prize for聽Literature, collected the stories of hundreds of Soviet women World War II vets.
'Ants Among Elephants' offers a window into the complexities of IndiaSujatha Gidla's memoir of her mother and uncle is a moving, fascinating story of class struggle in India.
'Modern Gods' is an agile domestic drama, split between Ireland and Papua New GuineaIn Nick Laird's third novel, the everyday drama of a Northern Ireland family is overshadowed by a past that can't quite be left behind.
'Live from Cairo' vividly describes a world where refugees are case numbersIan Bassingthwaighte's debut novel centers on refugees and resettlement officers living in Cairo, as longtime Egyptian president Husni Mubarak steps down.
'White Man's Game' details efforts to save Mozambique's Gorongosa Park海角大神 Science Monitor correspondent Stephanie Hanes profiles Boston philanthropist Greg Carr, who fell in love with Gorongosa and launched a campaign to bring its wildlife back.
'The Ministry of Utmost Happiness' is a sprawling tale in which Kashmir looms largeArundhati Roy's聽first novel in two decades returns to the religious divisions polarizing India.
'Jane Austen at Home' considers where and how Austen lived and why it mattersLucy Worlsey's new biography聽covers familiar ground but also offers some distinct angles.
'Thoreau: A Life' doesn't shy away from the man's myriad contradictionsLaura Dassow Walls's work聽offers a well-crafted biography of Walden鈥檚 most famous resident.听
