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SCIENCE FICTION

MYSTERIES & THRILLERS

Murder at the top of Indian society. Literally.

Murder at the top of Indian society. Literally.

A decade ago Anglo-Indian author Abir Mukherjee broke into a second career as a crime novelist after 20 years working as an accountant. His first effort, A Rising Man, appeared in 2016. An historical detective novel featuring a pair of Calcutta cops shortly after World War I,...

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NONFICTION

Many write about Donald Trump. These authors really know.

Many write about Donald Trump. These authors really know.

Obviously, I'm some kind of masochist. To date I've read and reviewed 25 books about Donald Trump. I'd sworn off subjecting myself to any others until Maggie Haberman's account of Trump's first year back in office. She's been on point on Donald Trump for the New York Times for...

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Popular Fiction

Why do some novels win literary awards?

Why do some novels win literary awards?

Let's see if we can figure out why this paper-thin work of fiction won wide recognition and a literary award for its author. Snow Hunters introduces . . . let's count them: eight characters in 226 pages: Yohan, a North Korean soldier captured by UN forces late in the Korean...

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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!

 

Social Entrepreneurship by David Bornstein and Susan Davis

Social entrepreneurship: what it is, how it works, and where it’s going

A review of Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know, by David Bornstein and Susan Davis. @@@@@ (5 out of 5). What it is, how it works, where it’s going. As an introduction to the field, Social Entrepreneurship is unmatched.

Cover image of "Leaving Everything Most Loved" by Jacqueline Winspear, a novel involving English class dynamics

Maisie Dobbs confronts class dynamics in Depression-era England

London, July 1933: The Great Depression is underway in full force. Adolf Hitler has seized power in Germany, and Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists is striking fear into the hearts of the Establishment. But Maisie Dobbs has problems of her own. Estimated reading time: 4 minutes Now 36,...
Cover image of "The Handsome Man's De Luxe Cafe," a novel that sparkles with humor in abundance

Humor in abundance at the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency

There's humor in abundance in the charming little novels of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, but I have never laughed so much as I did when reading the 15th entry in the series, The Handsome Man's De Luxe Cafe.  Here, for example, is a conversation between Mma Precious...
Cover image of "The Relic Master," one of the satirical novels Christopher Buckley writes

Christopher Buckley writes satirical novels that are very, very funny

It's no accident that Christopher Buckley writes such funny satirical novels. He is, pure and simple, a very funny man. I know this not just because I've read his books, which generally "kept me in stitches" (whatever that means), but also because I actually spent much of an evening with him not...
Cover image of "Autonomous," one of the top dystopian novels reviewed here

The top 10 dystopian novels reviewed here

Dystopian novels figure prominently in the work of some of the world’s best science fiction writers. When Donald Trump entered the White House, and a fearful public began to contemplate the possibility of disastrous consequences from his erratic and authoritarian behavior, dystopian novels such as...
Cover image of "Russka," a novel of Russian history in fiction

A journey through Russian history in fiction

No country on Earth can boast a more tumultuous history than Russia. Born in the clash of marauding nomadic tribes nearly 2,000 years ago, this sprawling Euro-Asiatic nation has witnessed repeated bouts of foreign incursions, ethnic conflict, revolution, and a millennium of autocratic, and often...
Image of Berlin after World War II

Great war novels

You won’t find the best-known war novels here, since I imagine you’re already familiar with them. I’m referring to Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead, Joseph...
Cover image of "The Leopard" by Jo Nesbo, one of the Harry Hole thrillers

The outstanding Harry Hole thrillers from Jo Nesbø

Over the past twenty years, the Norwegian novelist and musician Jo Nesbø has been writing a series of crime thrillers featuring homicide detective Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo police. More than 30 million copies of these novels have been sold worldwide, translated into over 40 languages....
In Axiom's End, aliens have visited Earth.

First Contact is old news in this sci-fi thriller

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes For nearly three-quarters of a century, reports have repeatedly surfaced in news media of UFOs and alien abductions in the United States. The names Roswell and Area 51 have become shorthand for conspiracy theories about "the government's" ongoing suppression of...
The Ghost Army in World War II

An entertaining account of deception in World War II

A headline in a New York Times obituary recently caught my eye. "Gilbert Seltzer, Soldier in Secret Unit That Duped Germans, Is Dead at 106," it read. In scanning the amazing story of Lieutenant Seltzer's World War II experience, I came across a reference to a book about the top-secret unit in...

My Most Popular Reviews

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Mal Warwick - Book Reviews

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Mal Warwick

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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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