All Book Reviews
'How I Became a North Korean' follows three teens fleeing a dangerous ChinaKrys Lee combines the stories of three very different characters whose lives intertwine when they ultimately need each other to survive. 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽
'I Shot the Buddah' revisits Siri Paiboun, solving crimes in late 1970s Laos'I Shot the Buddha' has a chewy heft, in the fine tradition of its 10 siblings in the 'Siri Paiboun' series: history, geopolitics, chromatic characters, genus loci, the human condition, and the pilgrim鈥檚 progress.
'Winning Arguments' brings political rhetoric to daily lifeStanley Fish鈥檚 odd little book is not a study of rhetoric so much as a defense of his view that reality聽is聽rhetoric.
'The Return' details Hisham Matar鈥檚 quest to discover his kidnapped fatherIn 2012, Libyan novelist Hisham Matar was finally able to return to his native country to try to learn the fate of his father.
'Outrun the Moon' features a stellar YA heroine set in historic ChinatownMercy Wong, a sharp-eyed, entrepreneurial teenager wants to create a better life for her family. An earthquake crosses her plans.
'Missing, Presumed' launches a promising new detective seriesSusie Steiner describes the search for a young woman of privilege. However, damaged and wary detective Manon Bradshaw is the heart of this novel.聽
'The Drone Eats with Me' chronicles life under bombardment in GazaSaif's diary records life in a place where war has become 'an everyday song, forever聽playing in the background.'
'Homegoing' is a centuries-spanning epic of interlinked short storiesYaa Gyasi鈥檚 powerful debut novel tells the story of two sisters, and their descendants, divided by the slave trade.
'Heroes of the Frontier' is a journey without destinationIn a weirdly affecting new novel by Dave Eggers, single mom Josie takes her kids on a road trip across Alaska, bouncing from near-disaster to complete disappointment to something in between.
'Chance Developments' brings characters to life from old photographsAlexander McCall Smith creates a collection of five short stories each based on an old black-and-white photograph.
'The Mistresses of Cliveden' transports readers into multi-generational dramaNatalie Livingstone has written a marvelously readable story about centuries of life at a stately British mansion, as told through the lives of five women.聽
'Belgravia' transports readers into the classic conflicts of Victorian aristocracyJulian Fellowes's first serial novel 鈥� 'Belgravia' 鈥� isn鈥檛 a book with great emotional depth, but what the story lacks in nuance it makes up for in a crackling plot.
'The Tyrannosaur Chronicles' tracks giant 100 million year-old lizardsDavid Hone's fantastic book is much more than just a celebration of the most charismatic of dinosaurs 鈥� it's also an in-depth look at what we know about them, and how we know it.
'The House of Hidden Mothers' tackles the complex ethics of surrogacyIn Meera Syal's novel, a couple's hope to have a child leads them to international surrogacy, and a host of complications.
'Paul McCartney': Philip Norman takes a closer look at 'the cute one'Philip Norman's big new life of Sir Paul makes the case for a rebellious spirit masked by a showman's charm.
'Coyote America' takes a fresh look at a well known enemyEver since the first settlers arrived in America, the relationship between humans and coyotes has been hostile. Now, author Dan Flores explores the idea of coexistence.
'My Lady Jane' plays delightful games with English historyThis modern comedy novel transforms the tale of Lady Jane Grey into a fictional festival.
'The Imperial Wife' finds shades of Catherine the Great in a NY emigreExploring challenging gender roles, Reyn parallels 18th-century Russia and present day New York City to see contrast and similarities in two wives's marital relationships. 聽
'Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: Volume 1' looks behind the scenesThe Library of American Comics mines some early Disney comic strip gems.
'Underground Airlines' takes readers on a turbulent ride of imaginationAuthor Ben H. Winters creates a fictional US in which slavery has never been abolished.
