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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 "Pines," an example of speculative fiction

A truly original work of speculative fiction

You know the story, or at least you think you do. Our hero arrives in a small, out-of-the-way town in an unfamiliar part of the country . . . and everything seems off, just a little bit. There's something strange going on, but it's deep below the surface. Then the violence starts, and there's no...
Cover image of "Belgravia," a novel set in Victorian england

Keeping a secret in Victorian England

In all six seasons of Downton Abbey on PBS, I don't recall a single upper-class character who could fairly be described as nasty. Julian Fellowes, who created and wrote all of the series, served up aristocratic characters who most reasonable people would call "nice." However, perhaps because of...
Cover image of "The City, Not Long After" the plague

San Francisco after the Plague

Pat Murphy's novel, The City, Not Long After, is a puzzling piece of work. With generous helpings of fantasy, it doesn't quite qualify as science fiction. Sometimes the book is categorized as a dystopian novel. Since the near-future American society Murphy depicts is in shambles because of a...
Spies of No Country is about Israeli spies in the 1940s.

An amazing true story of Israeli spies in the country’s War of Independence

When Americans think of Israeli history, we fasten on a handful of names: Chaim Weizmann. David ben Gurion. Golda Meir. We think of kibbutzim, the Israeli Defense Force, the country's great universities, and its legal system. All these people, and many others whose names are prominent in the...

Join archaeologists at work around the world

To say that Annalee Newitz's interests are eclectic grossly understates the point. They—Newitz's personal pronouns are they/their/theirs—are the author of two science fiction novels and two works of nonfiction that sprawl across a broad swath of issues and preoccupations. Newitz has also edited or...
No Way toTreat a First Lady - Christopher Buckley

Philandering President, long-suffering wife

A review of No Way To Treat a First Lady, by Christopher Buckley. @@@@@ (5 out of 5). The hilarious tale of a philandering President and a long-suffering wife who has, apparently, murdered him in his sleep.

Cover image of "Chaos,"

Counterfeiters threaten to ruin the England of Elizabeth I

Murder mysteries predominate among the countless novels of suspense that crowd the shelves in bookstores and libraries. The stakes are obvious when a murder takes place. Someone has snuffed out a human life. By contrast, a crime such as counterfeiting represents a lower order of threat­­—or at...

Nail-biting suspense in Joseph Finder’s latest thriller

How good is Joseph Finder's latest thriller? Let me put it this way: for the first time in a great while, I literally couldn't put the book down -- I HAD to know who was doing what to whom! Danny Goodman is writing a biography of Jay Gould, the archetypal 19th century Robber Baron, when he...
My Sister the Serial Killer is a tale of two Nigerian sisters and three murders.

Two Nigerian sisters and three murders

This is a tale of two Nigerian sisters. Some time ago, under circumstances unknown to us at the outset, Ayoola has killed their abusive father. Since then, she has murdered two other men for reasons that are at first obscure. She acts unconcerned and unashamed. And when her older sister, Kobede,...
Cover image of "Burn Book,"

Up close and personal with the billionaire boys of tech

Name just about any billionaire in the tech industry, and Kara Swisher is sure to know him. In fact, she's probably interviewed him several times onstage at her events or her podcasts or for her New York Times column, the Wall Street Journal, or one of the other publications she's worked for over...

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

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