All Book Reviews
'The Sun is Also a Star' is a huge YA success and a new classicThe lives of two immigrants teens collide in NYC 鈥� despite impossible odds and with unimaginable potential.
'Bill Clinton' is a balanced assessment of the 42nd president鈥檚 tenure'Bill Clinton,' like the rest of the excellent 'American Presidents' series, offers a quick sketch of early life and career, and then a thoughtful overview of time in office.聽
'The Bear and the Nightingale' charms with a tale set in in 14th-century RusKatherine Arden's debut novel features a clever, stalwart protagonist, determined to forge her own path in a time when women had few choices.
3 new Obama biographies by unabashed supportersAll three books have the same basic story to tell: how the nation's 44th president took office against the most openly stated across-the-board Congressional opposition of a generation.
'Rumi's Secret' offers an expanded view of the 13th-century poet and mysticThe Rumi we know today might never have emerged, if not for three profound friendships.
'The Book that Changed America' tells the deeper story of Darwin in the USDarwin's theories of evolution and natural selection would challenge the racial superiority of slavery and mold the minds of transcendentalists.
'Dorothy Day,' portrayed by her granddaughter, is a hero but not a saintDay's youngest granddaughter Kate Hennessy calls her searching biography 'a quest to find out who I am through her.'
'The Cyclist Who Went Out In the Cold' rides the Iron Curtain TrailThe Iron Curtain Trail is a 10,000-km ride through 20 countries along what was the world鈥檚 most extensive expression of divisive hostility.
'Relentless Spirit' looks beyond fame and glory for the story of Missy FranklinThis memoir told alternately by Franklin and her parents is a pull-up-a-chair-to-the kitchen-table retelling of a remarkable family story.
'How America Lost Its Secrets' depicts a darker, complicated Edward SnowdenThe image of Snowden as a brave idealist takes a pounding in this deeply researched biography.
'The Girl in Green' tells a dark, funny, poetic tale of the US in IraqA Desert Storm vet returns to Iraq 20 years later, this time on a mission of hope.
'The Unbanking of America' asks why banks no longer serve the middle classJournalist Lisa Servon has written an intelligent plea for financial justice.
'Mrs. Sherlock Holmes,' 'Arthur and Sherlock' are worthy tributes to an icon'Mrs. Sherlock Holmes' excellently recounts a true detective story, while 'Arthur and Sherlock' pleasingly revisits the story of Sherlock's creation.
'The New Odyssey' follows the men, women, children streaming to EuropeJournalist Patrick Kingsley deploys first-hand observations, probing interviews, and copious testimony to paint a vivid picture of the human suffering that migrants face during their journeys.
'The Private Lives of the Tudors' captivates with surprising detailHistorian Tracy Borman's new book challenges our perception of the Tudor era.
'The House of the Dead' recalls heroics, horror in Russian penal coloniesHistorian Daniel Beer devotes fine attention to the group of idealistic officers known as the Decembrists, many of whom served decades in Siberian exile.
'Debriefing the President' details the CIA's interrogation of Saddam HusseinJohn Nixon's fascinating new book tells us as much of Saddam as we're ever likely to know.
'The Red Sphinx' sparkles and shines in a new translationThis nearly forgotten sequel to 'The Three Musketeers' races along with pointed humor and broad quips.
'The Egyptians' asks: Is Egypt ready for democracy?Many observers argue that Egypt is back to square one and fated to remain there. Jack Shenker disagrees.聽
'Travels with Henry James' brings together 21 gems of travel writingBefore he became a master of style, the young writer proved himself a genius of observation.
