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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

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!

 

Phase Six

This future pandemic is worse than COVID-19

Here's a novel about the pandemic COVID-19 might have been and could still become. And something much like the nightmarish scenario it portrays could still come about in any one of innumerable other ways, given the endless resourcefulness of our microscopic foes, who are the world's most populous...
Cover image of "The Soul of Viktor Tronko," a novel about the mole in the CIA

Digging down deep to find the mole in the CIA

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes At the time, few if any inside the Agency would have called him a "mole." That term didn't enter wide use until the publication in 1974 of John le Carré's novel, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. But for a decade in the 1960s and 70s, the CIA's counterintelligence chief,...
Exigency

Scientists explore a planet with two sentient species

For six years they've been in orbit around Epsilon C, a rocky, Earth-like planet that hosts not one but two sentient species. The nine are on a mission of scientific exploration. They've devoted their lives to it. And they've learned a great deal about the local inhabitants. Even—with tiny probes...
Cover image of "The Battle of the Tanks,"

Was this tank battle the turning point of World War II?

If you read a lot about World War II, you'll come across not one but several battles mentioned as the "turning point." Focusing only on Europe, five events surface. Moscow (January 1942). Stalingrad (February 1943). Kursk (August 1943). Operation Bagration (August 1944). And, of course, Normandy...
Cover image of "New Pompeii,"

It’s not time travel. But it looks like it.

Visits to the past or future have figured in English-language literature since the 18th century. And when H. G. Wells' classic novel, The Time Machine, appeared in 1895, the trope made its debut in the science fiction genre. For decades, authors simply created stories around the assumption that...

Life in the maelstrom of Hurricane Katrina

In one remarkable little book, Dave Eggers brings to life both the best and the worst of the USA. Zeitoun is the unlikely story of a Syrian-American immigrant who builds a prosperous life and an enviable reputation for himself and his family and then experiences the full force of Hurricane Katrina...
Cover image of "The Neon Rain" by James Lee Burke, a great example of an outstanding mystery and thriller series:

Top 10 mystery and thriller series

Unless you're a devoted fan of the genre, you may be unaware of the sheer number of mystery and thriller series. I stumble across a new one about every month or two. Over the past ten years, I've read (or at least started reading) more than 100 such series. Over four dozen of them belong in any...
Cover image of "Sovereign," the fourth Matthew Shardlake mystery

A lawyer for the Crown in the time of Henry VIII

Matthew Shardlake practices law in London in the shadow of King Henry VIII's court, and from time to time Thomas Cromwell, the Crown's chief minister, had drafted him with an unwelcome assignment. But it's now 1541, and Cromwell is dead. Instead, Archbishop Cranmer, the king's most trusted...

American history, laughing all the way

Scoot yourself over, Huckleberry Finn! Make room! Here comes Henry Shackleford, aka Henrietta, aka Little Onion, with a tall tale ripped and twisted out of the pages of history that's like to set your britches afire. Yes, here's The Good Lord Bird, courtesy of James McBride, a rollicking,...
Cover image of "Run and Hide," a novel that highlights economic inequality in India today

A compelling novel explores economic inequality in India today

For millennia, the huge peninsula we call India today has been Asia's pivot. South of the central Asian steppes, midway between the European trade routes of the Middle East, the Chinese behemoth, and the East African coast, India has long been one of the most diverse places on the planet. Waves of...

My Most Popular Reviews

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Mal Warwick - Book Reviews

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Mal Warwick

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