The Latest

SCIENCE FICTION

Four robots wake up in a restaurant, and they’re in charge

Four robots wake up in a restaurant, and they’re in charge

California's long War of Independence has ended. It's 2064. All of a sudden the new country's many sentient robots, most of them veterans, face an uncertain future. The president has signed legislation declaring them HEEI (pronounced HE-eye), or Human Equivalent Embodied...

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MYSTERIES & THRILLERS

The best Slough House book to date?

The best Slough House book to date?

Some readers compare Mick Herron to John le Carré. But the similarity is puzzling. The 14 books to date in the Slough House series satirize British intelligence rather than celebrate or lament its excesses, as the work of Le Carré has done so ably. Diana Taverner, who is First...

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NONFICTION

Debunking the myths of the Wild West

Debunking the myths of the Wild West

For three seasons early in this century, HBO aired Deadwood, which won more than two dozen Emmy Awards. The series starred Timothy Olyphant as businessman and lawman Seth Bullock and Ian McShane as Al Swearengen, the violent criminal proprietor of a saloon and brothel. Other...

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Popular Fiction

A searing inquiry into life during the Chechnyan War

A searing inquiry into life during the Chechnyan War

American writer Anthony Marra began winning major literary awards when he was still in his 20s. He won seven for A Constellation of Vital Phenomena. But he deserves another one simply for having the guts to write it. The book's setting is the Caucasus, no less, and during the...

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Explore My “BEST OF the category” selections

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE BOOK?

When people ask me that question, I never know what to say. In a lifetime of reading, I’ve read many thousands of books. And I’ve reviewed well over 2,000 of them on this site. Picking just one as a “favorite,” or even a handful of them, makes no sense to me.

The problem is, I read for many different reasons. Perhaps you do, too. And I read many different sorts of books. Mysteries and thrillers. Popular fiction, especially historical fiction. Science fiction.

And nonfiction, history in particular. You’ll find hundreds of reviews in every one of those categories on this site.

Look to the right for a rotating random selection culled from throughout this site.

Happy reading!

 

Cover image of "Last Call at the Hotel Imperial,"

The foreign correspondents who saw World War II coming

They were the media superstars of their time. Millions read their dispatches from overseas, listened to them on the radio, and attended their lectures. In today's atomized media environment, there is no one who compares to the breadth of their influence on public affairs. The closest analogue were...
The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken features India's #1 private detective.

India’s #1 private detective is an unforgettable character

There are several ways to get to know India. Naturally, you can move there and stay for, say, a couple of dozen years. (Anything much shorter won't do the trick.) You could also read all the travel guides ever written about the country, and that might give you a pretty good sense of the place. Or...
Cover image of "Undermajordomo Minor" by Patrick DeWitt, one of the strangest tales I've read in years

The strangest tale I’ve read in years, and it’s not science fiction

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes It's hard to know what to make of this curious little novel by Patrick DeWitt. Undermajordomo Minor is unquestionably the strangest tale I've read in years—and I read a great deal of science fiction, much of which is surpassingly strange. (No, this is...
Cover image of "Cobalt Red," a book about the virtual slavery in the mining of cobalt

How our cell phones and electric cars depend on virtual slavery

You may have come across reports about the violence surrounding the mining of the rare mineral coltan in Central Africa. It's a source of the element tantalum, which is essential in the manufacture of cell phones and laptops. And about eighty percent of the world's supply comes from the Democratic...
Cover image of "The Siege,"

A dramatic hostage crisis in London Americans overlooked

Six months after fanatical Iranian students seized the US Embassy in Tehran, holding 52 Americans hostage, another group invaded the Iranian Embassy in London. This kicked off a tense six-day standoff between London police and hostage-takers that dominated the news in Britain and the Continent....
Cover image of "The Wedding Guest," the latest Alex Delaware mystery.

The latest Alex Delaware mystery is as good as the first one

Jonathan Kellerman launched the Alex Delaware series of mystery novels in 1985 with the publication of When the Bough Breaks. The book won the Edgar and Anthony Awards for Best First Novel the following year. He has added to the series almost every year since then. And now, in 2019, comes The...
Cover image of "The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store," a novel about Jews and African Americans together

Is this the Great American novel?

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes James McBride won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2013 for The Good Lord Bird. It's an often-hilarious novel about the abolitionist John Brown's ill-conceived attack on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. That act is often cited as a triggering...
Cover image of "Flood of Fire," a novel about the Opium War

An outstanding Indian novelist looks at the Opium War

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes Opium is at center stage in Flood of Fire, which traces the consequential history of the British, their Indian allies, and the mandarins ruling China just before and during the First Opium War. Though it occurred nearly two centuries ago, this historical event is...
Cover image of "Hons and Rebels,"

A memoir by one of the greatest wits of the 20th century

Jessica Mitford was one of the greatest wits of the 20th century, and perhaps of any century. Her books, most famously The American Way of Death, eviscerated the American funeral industry, our prison system, and obstetrical care in the United States. But to those in Britain, where she was born in...
barbara kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver writes eloquently about climate change

Here is Barbara Kingsolver, weaving together the themes of climate change, feminist coming-of-age, rural poverty, family relations, and love into a tautly organized, suspenseful, and compelling story. Because of the author's unique qualifications -- she lives on a farm in Appalachia, is the mother...

My Most Popular Reviews

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Mal Warwick - Book Reviews

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Mal Warwick

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