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Ken Follett’s monumental saga of the First World War

Ken Follett’s monumental saga of the First World War

No one is still alive with any adult memory of World War I, which ended a century ago. So when we think of the events that have shaped the world we live in today it's likely World War II looms large. But its antecedent three decades earlier may have had greater long-term...

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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 "The Devil's Novice,"

A medieval mystery opens a window on 12th century England

Reading the Cadfael Chronicles is one of the best ways I've found to open a window on life in medieval Europe. Set on the English-Welsh border in the middle of the twelfth century, these clever little mysteries illuminate life within a Benedictine monastery, in the surrounding town, and in the...
Cover image of "Agent in Berlin,"

A new series about British spies in Nazi Germany

In 2012, former BBC journalist Alex Gerlis brought out the first of four outstanding spy novels set during World War II. That book, The Best of Our Spies, is now in development as a television series. He followed these first four novels with a second and less successful four-book series featuring...
Water Like a Stone explores life along Cheshire's canals.

Two dead bodies, investment fraud, and the life along Cheshire’s canals

It's Christmastime in Cheshire, and the Duncan Kincaid-Gemma James household is relocating from London to visit his parents and his younger sister. 13-year-old Kit (Duncan's son) and 5-year-old Toby (hers) and the boys' two dogs are off to the countryside. There, they'll meet Hugh and Rosemary...
Cover image of "I Escaped from Auschwitz,"

The most important Holocaust memoir

Amazon lists some 2,000 Holocaust memoirs, among them Elie Wiesel’s Night (1958), Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning (1946), and, of course, Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl (1947). But from an historical perspective, the most significant of these...
Cover image of "The King's Justice," an historical legal thriller.

Rough justice prevails in this legal thriller set in 12th century England

Midway through the 12th century, less than 90 years since the Norman Conquest, England's first civil war drew to a close when the exhausted warring parties reached a shaky agreement. King Stephen was aging, and he accepted as his successor the young son of his adversary, variously known as Queen...
Cover image of "A House Between Earth and the Moon,"

When billionaires flee to a private space station

Here's a thought-provoking novel set in the near future about a dozen billionaires who build a private space station in Low Earth Orbit. The architects of this dream project are two Korean-American sisters, Rachel and Katherine Son. They have advanced telephone technology by inserting phones in...
The Afghanistan Papers

The lies they told us about the War in Afghanistan

There was "progress" at every turn, despite abundant evidence to the contrary. And that evidence was well known to the Pentagon and the White House. Every new strategy was a "game-changer" that "turned the corner" toward victory. Yet the facts showed the war growing steadily worse. During the 20...
Cover image of "The Monk of Mokha," a great example of Dave Eggers nonfiction

Another superior example of Dave Eggers nonfiction

In the latest example of Dave Eggers nonfiction, the San Francisco author has struck gold once again with the extraordinary story of the Yemeni-American entrepreneur Mokhtar Alkhanshali, "a poor kid from [San Francisco's] Tenderloin who now has found some significant success as a coffee importer."...
The Power of Unreasonable People by John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan

Changing the world: the power of unreasonable people

A review of The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World, by John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan. @@@@@ (5 out of 5). Provides examples of social enterprises actively at work in virtually every area of interest in development, from healthcare to education to poverty eradication.

Cover image of "Focus," a book about mindfulness

Mindfulness at school, in sports, on the job, and in leadership

Daniel Goleman returned to Berkeley not long ago to speak to a large and enthusiastic audience at International House about the themes in his new book, Focus. Though he'd spent only his junior year as an undergraduate at Cal, his quips and asides quickly showed him to be fully in synch with...

My Most Popular Reviews

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Mal Warwick - Book Reviews

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Mal Warwick

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