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How the OSS saved the Parthenon and other Greek treasures

How the OSS saved the Parthenon and other Greek treasures

Most of what appears in print today about the OSS in World War II dwells on the heroic men and women it infiltrated into France to sabotage the Nazis or in the China-Burma-India theater. Of course, "Wild Bill" Donovan's brief as head of the Office of Strategic Services was much...

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Popular Fiction

Love, disease, and self-deception: the life of Typhoid Mary

Love, disease, and self-deception: the life of Typhoid Mary

Shortly after the 19th century turned into the 20th, a medical sleuth named George Soper, whom we would today call an epidemiologist, identified a young Irish immigrant cook in New York City as an asymptomatic carrier of the pathogen that causes typhoid fever. Her name was Mary...

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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 "A Man Without Breath," a novel about mass murder in WWII

Mass murder in the Katyn Forest

In the spring of 1940, Josef Stalin's secret police, the NKVD, systematically murdered some 22,000 Poles. Among the victims were half the members of the Polish officer corps, police officers, government representatives, royalty, and leading members of Poland's civilian population. More than 4,000...
Cover image of "Day of Deceit," a book that purports to tell the truth about Pearl Harbor

Uncovering the truth about Pearl Harbor

When you challenge the historical consensus fundamental to our understanding of the past, you'd better be prepared for trouble. And that's exactly what Robert Stinnett got when he published Day of Deceit, purporting to tell the truth about Pearl Harbor. Picking up on a charge long ago rejected by...
Wet Work is a novel about cocaine.

A curious novel from Christopher Buckley about the cocaine trade

Christopher Buckley is best known as the author of bestselling political satire such as Thank You for Smoking and They Eat Puppies, Don't They? But he has written a great deal else. He coauthored God Is My Broker: A Monk-Tycoon Reveals the 7½ Laws of Spiritual and Financial Growth (1998), which is...
Cover image of "Where It Hurts," a novel about police corruption

Police corruption in suburbia

After decades of reading mysteries and thrillers, I still frequently encounter authors whose names are new to me—but are described as "bestselling" and sometimes have dozens of novels to their credit. Reed Farrel Coleman is the latest example. Author of at least 23 books divided among six series...
Cover image of "Red Notice," one of the excellent memoirs reviewed here.

Two dozen excellent memoirs

Far too frequently, memoirs are nakedly self-justifying. Often so much so that even a casual reader can pick up on the author’s agenda without difficulty. This is especially true of memoirs by politicians and entertainers. In fact, a large proportion of those books about politics and entertainment...
Coverr image of "To Shield the Queen," an Elizabethan mystery

Mysteries set in Elizabethan England

Her story is well known. The reign of Elizabeth I (1533-1603) marked the emergence of England onto the world stage. During the forty-five years of her reign, Elizabeth's fleet defeated the world's most powerful navy (albeit by lucky chance) and kept the predatory powers of the Continent at bay...
Timeline

Nonstop action in this time travel thriller

Time travel is impossible. Everyone knows that." So says an executive of a company we know full well is engaged in time travel. He continues, "The very concept of time travel makes no sense, since time doesn't flow. The fact that we think time passes is just an accident of our nervous systems—of...
Cover image of "The Drowned,"

Quirke and Strafford suspect murder, but evidence is lacking

John Banville has captivated English literary critics for decades. He has garnered the Booker Prize as well as many of the top literary awards on the Continent and is considered a contender for the Nobel Prize. Yet mystery fans know him as the pseudonymous author of the Quirke novels set in 1950s...
Cover image of 'Mickey7,"

He has the worst job in the galaxy, and it’s killing him. Often.

So, here's the problem. I picked up Mickey7 because it was an NPR Best book of 2022 and Amazon listed it as #5 in Humorous Science Fiction. Was I wrong to expect to laugh a lot? The premise has potential, because Mickey, the protagonist, volunteers for a job that requires him to die over and over...
Good books about climate change describe these effects.

Good books about climate change

Some call it a hoax. For most of the rest of us, myself assuredly included, it’s the climate emergency or the climate crisis. And no matter what you “believe,” climate change is underway. It’s warming the planet. It’s accelerating. It holds the potential to end the long march of the human race...

My Most Popular Reviews

Weekly Reviews Delivered to You!

Mal Warwick - Book Reviews

Weekly book reviews to match your taste!

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Mal Warwick

The latest mystery
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…includes summaries and links to all the previous week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in any of the other newsletters.

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