All Book Reviews
'Krazy Kat 1934' is a year's worth of joyThis wonderful volume is a chance to see an iconic American comic strip as closely as possible to the way it was originally presented in 1934.
'An Iron Wind' is an unsparing, riveting examination of life under HitlerThis is a book about how people behave when a kind of moral plague sweeps through their world.
'The 15:17 to Paris': how three ordinary young men became instant heroesThere's something wonderfully old-fashioned and inspiring about this true story of three regular guys who rose to the occasion and bravely saved an entire train from a terrorist bent on destruction.
'The Tunnels': how brave Berliners tried to dig a path to freedomAt constant risk of structural collapse, discovery, and sabotage, cold war-era Berliners on both sides of the wall made extraordinary efforts to rescue friends, family, and strangers from the East by digging tunnels.
'The Boat Rocker': Nat'l Book Award-winner Ha Jin packs a quiet punchThis outwardly nondescript story about a journalist facing up to the Chinese government has a powerful moral core.
'The Whistler,' John Grisham's 29th novel, offers mostly empty caloriesThe narrative verve Grisham fans usually enjoy seems lacking in 'The Whistler.'
'In Wartime' tells the grim but important story of conflict in Ukraine'In Wartime' is a fast-paced and very topical book, appealingly ambitious in its scope.
'Today Will Be Different' is absolutely delicious black comedyThe latest novel by Maria Semple (author of bestselling 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette?') stars a mom who aspires to getting out of her yoga pants.
'Upstream' places poet Mary Oliver in her 'arena of delight'This collection of essays by Oliver is a testament to a lifetime of paying attention.
'The Trespasser': Tana French scores again in 'Dublin Murder Squad' seriesOnce again, French presents a taut detective drama in which everyone is guilty of something.
'The Conservative Case for Trump': Is there one?Three noted conservatives work hard to paint Trump as a contemporary Ronald Reagan. 聽
'Reputations' tells of a political cartoonist, haunted for decades by the events of a single nightIn聽V谩squez's new novel, the protagonist thinks of Colombia as an 'amnesiac country obsessed with the present, a 'narcissistic country where not even the dead are capable of burying their dead.'
'Hero of the Empire' wonderfully recreates the epic of a young ChurchillCandice Millard's account of Churchill's capture and imprisonment while in Africa covering the Boer War as a journalist is vivid and full of life.
'Napoleon's Island' is a mesmerizing portrait of the deposed emperorThis deft, engaging historic novel makes delightfully good use of Napoleon's six dreary years of final exile.
'Forty Autumns' tells of one family, divided for decades by the Berlin WallAn American intelligence officer dramatizes the dangers and heartbreaks of a divided Germany by telling the story of her family, particularly her grandparents.
'Bolshoi Confidential' weaves history, scandal, art into a compelling surveyMorrison, who is a professor of music at Princeton University, gives the story of the Bolshoi a first-rate historical treatment.
'Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939' is the richest, most convincing portrait yetAfter Ian Kershaw's universally praised similar 1998 biography, do readers really need another Hitler study? The answer is yes.
'The Nix' cleverly mixes politics and a troubled mother-son relationshipNathan Hill's smart, empathetic novel involves an anti-immigrant politician and a disappearing mom.
'A Revolution in Color' fills in the cracks in the life of John Singleton CopleyBiographer Jane Kamensky puts to rest the myth of the great portraitist as an untutored savant.
'American Ulysses' is a game-changing biography of Ulysses S. GrantWe should be grateful to historian Ronald C. White for a thorough and nuanced biography of one of the most consequential figures in American history.
