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SCIENCE FICTION

MYSTERIES & THRILLERS

US Special Forces and the CIA collide in Cold War Berlin

US Special Forces and the CIA collide in Cold War Berlin

Veterans of intelligence agencies and the special forces crowd the ranks of spy novelists. Some have rightfully been hailed as masters of the craft—John le Carré, for example. Or, more recently, David McCloskey. Others have written worthy and suspenseful novels that illuminate...

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NONFICTION

Were British double agents the key to the Normandy invasion?

Were British double agents the key to the Normandy invasion?

Americans' views of the Second World War have been dominated by films, books, and television specials about the role that U.S. troops played in the fighting. Even today, more than three-quarters of a century after the war ended, we tend to believe that it was our ingenuity and...

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Popular Fiction

A brilliant novel of love, hope, and the Rwanda genocide

A brilliant novel of love, hope, and the Rwanda genocide

Today, Rwanda is one of the brightest lights in Africa. The economy is booming. Corruption is rare. Government delivers services. The streets of Kigali, the capital, are clean. It's even easy to open a business. Thirty years ago the country was in chaos, as this award-winning...

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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 "Black Edge," a book about hedge funds

Hedge funds, insider trading, and the most wanted man on Wall Street

If you want to understand the depth of corruption that prevails on Wall Street, a good place to start is New Yorker staff writer Sheelah Kolhatkar's admirable new book, Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street. A loathsome human...
Cover image of "Crosstalk," a novel about "mental telepathy"

When “too much information” gets all too real

Consider telepathy, or "mental telepathy," if you choose to belabor the obvious. Sounds like a great thing, right? What's not to like about knowing what people think of you—or what they're planning to do? That might stop a lot of fights. Wars, even. But wait. Could it actually cause a war? And do...
Cover image of "Death by His Grace,"

Is the bishop the killer in this African murder mystery?

The title of this African whodunit implies it. The cover illustration for my Kindle edition of Death by His Grace underlines the hint. And there's a lot of evidence to suggest it. But is it true? Is multimillionaire Bishop Clem Howard-Mills of the Power of God Ministry Church the heartless killer...
The Uninhabitable Earth shows how climate change is worse than you think.

Climate change is worse than you think—much, much worse

They've been lying to us. Or, better put, shading the truth. And I'm not referring to the climate deniers in the Trump White House and Congress. We know they're lying. The problem is, the scientists who have been warning us about climate change aren't telling the whole truth. In fact, that bad...
Cover image of "The Tower," a novel about the Catholic martyr, Mary Queen of Scots as a young woman

The Scottish captivity of Mary Queen of Scots

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes The woman history knows as Mary Queen of Scots, the Catholic martyr, became Queen of Scotland six days after her birth in 1542. As a teenager, she was Queen Consort of France for two years. By the time she turned twenty-four, Mary had married three times,...
Cover image of "The Metaverse," a book about the Metaverse

A primer on the Metaverse that raises many questions

Everybody in the world of technology talks about the Metaverse. But no two people among them seem to agree on what it is, how it will be built, who if anyone will control it, and when it will become a reality. Tech investor Matthew Ball sets out to address this problem in The Metaverse: And How It...
Cover image of "Death of a Dissident," a grim murder mystery set in the USSR.

A grim murder mystery set in the USSR

Set in the USSR not long after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Death of a Dissident paints a savage if all too credible picture of life in Moscow early in the final decade of Communist rule. If you enjoy historical fiction and have a hankering to understand the lies, compromises, and...
Cover image of "Artificial Wisdom,"

When the world votes on a dictator, an AI is a candidate

Recent years have seen an increasing volume of science fiction on environmental themes, and no wonder. Of course, the world has known about global warming for decades. But it's only in the past decade that the trend has become obvious to millions. And scientists who have dedicated themselves to...
The Emperor's Codes is about the World War II Japanese codes.

Did the British crack the World War II Japanese codes?

Americans have long believed it was homegrown efforts that succeeded in deciphering the World War II Japanese military and diplomatic codes — and that belief is significant, because otherwise the Battle of Midway and other pivotal events in the Pacific War might have gone differently. But here's...
Netflix's "Versailles" compares unfavorably to this history of Versailles.

History versus fiction: How Netflix’s Versailles distorts the facts

How much of what passes for history comes to us through the pages, and now the screens, of drama? And how much do the creators get wrong? Well, often a great deal, as we might expect. Even William Shakespeare, who read history carefully, distorted the facts as he knew them not just for dramatic...

My Most Popular Reviews

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Mal Warwick - Book Reviews

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Mal Warwick

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