All Book Reviews
'Death by Toilet Paper' is a poignant story with just enough bathroom humor to captivate kidsThis heartfelt and thoroughly readable story about a boy coping with the loss of his father is more than just a delightful end-of-summer read.
'A Colder War' features dramatic twists, exotic scenery, and inscrutable charactersFrom Istanbul to Odessa, Charles Cumming's latest spy tale is packed with the classic pleasures of a really good thriller.聽
'Excellent Sheep' calls for colleges to reform their admissions processWilliam Deresiewicz, Ivy League grad and former professor, critiques current standards at colleges, but offers little data to back up his assertions.
'The End of Absence' chronicles one man's quest to pull away from a hyperconnected lifeMichael Harris wishes to gently wake us from the 'swarm of noise' so that we may recall the benefits of silence.
'Panic in a Suitcase' is a story of Odessan 茅migr茅s in Brooklyn, told with humor and catharsisA Brighton Beach family鈥檚 saga bends Russian literary tradition into mordant modern comedy.
'Unruly Places' finds our planet's clandestine, mismapped, abandoned, or repurposed placesSocial geographer Alastair Bonnett explores the challenge 鈥� and delight 鈥� of searching for undiscovered territories in the age of Google Earth.
'Berlin, Now' describes a city that is 'weird,' 'incomplete,' yet ever attractiveGerman author Peter Schneider tries to articulate what Berlin is today, as a community, a quarter century after reunification.
'In the Kingdom of Ice' follows a disaster-ridden journey to the North PoleHampton Sides blends human drama with suspense and engrossing play-by-play descriptions to tell the tragic and triumphant story of the USS Jeannette.
'Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage' is straightfoward and un-Murakami-likeHaruki Murakami's latest novel has its moments, but sometimes falters as it ranges over the less-than-grand terrain of near-middle age.
'Lucky Us' follows two sisters on a chase across 1940s America, in search of fortune and loveAmy Bloom鈥檚 new book is an entertaining, moving, quasi-historical escapade featuring a plucky girl who graduates from the school of hard knocks.
'China's Second Continent' tells the fascinating yet alarming story of China's economic colonization of AfricaJournalist Howard W. French travels through Africa to meet up with some of the one million Chinese migrants now living and working there.
'Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph' is a remarkable portrait of a human being that goes beyond the mythHistorian-composer Jan Swafford tackles one of the most monumental figures in classical music in a biography that presents Ludwig van Beethoven more as a man and less as a legend.
'The Magician's Land' brings Lev Grossman's 'Magician鈥檚 Trilogy' series to an enchanting conclusionWith echoes of C.S. Lewis鈥檚 鈥淭he Last Battle,' Grossman crafts a thoroughly satisfying finale for his 'Magician鈥檚 Trilogy'
'The Invisible Bridge' argues that Reagan succeeded by tapping into voter nostalgiaRick Perlstein deftly sketches American malaise in the mid-1970s and posits that a longing for stability and simplicity paved the way for Ronald Reagan.
'Tigerman' blends parenthood and comic books to create a novel that is hard-edged yet wonderfully sentimentalNick Harkaway's third novel somehow manages to be 鈥� all at once 鈥� a piercing comedy, a suspenseful thriller, a critique of industrial capitalism, and a domestic melodrama about parenthood
'West of the Revolution' takes readers beyond the Thirteen ColoniesClaudio Saunt's provocative new history chronicles events in the dangerous outer limits of America in 1776.
'Tomlinson Hill' tells the parallel stories of two Tomlinson families: one white and one blackWhen Associated Press correspondent Chris Tomlinson began to research the five generations of his Texas family, he found another Tomlinson family: the descendents of his family's slaves.
'My Family and Other Hazards' is a wonderful, witty account of growing up on a mini-golf courseIn a droll, understated voice that recalls Dorothy Parker, June Melby writes of the years her family owned and operated Tom Thumb Miniature Golf in Waupaca, Wis.
'A Spy Among Friends' is an absolutely captivating book about the Kim Philby caseLike Macintyre鈥檚 other books, 'A Spy Among Friends' is extensively researched, well-written, and a terrific read.
'Big Picture Economics' cuts through the jargon and complexity of the American economyAuthors Joel Naroff and Ron Scherer aim to bring some common-sense thinking to the question of why government economic policies so often go awry.
