The man’s own story—The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin—is one of the most widely read books in American history. The image that comes through in that unfinished account, which Franklin called his Memoirs, is that of a pious, straitlaced striver, ever ready with an admonition to hard work...
Read More
Michael Connolly writes in his introduction to the Kindle edition of this novel that “The Martin Beck books tell us so much more than just how a crime is solved. . . [T]hey tell us how a crime happens and how a city, country, and society can often be complicit. They take us beneath the...
Read More
Most of us who are more than fifty years old tend to look on today’s digital technology with a mixture of puzzlement and dread. But it seems unlikely anyone now living would be comfortable in the world of 2162 portrayed in Alastair Reynolds’ novel, Blue Remembered Earth. While the...
Read More
One of the most spectacular intellectual achievements of recent centuries was the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. The dictionary began in 1857 as a project of Britain’s Philological Society. But it was only in 1884, under the direction of Scottish lexicographer James Murray, when...
Read More
Leon Trotsky, Isaac Deutscher, Robert Service, Stephen Kotkin, Robert Conquest, and Simon Sebag Montefiore have all produced widely-read accounts of Joseph Stalin’s life. They’re among scores of others. In fact, Amazon dredges up more than 1,000 titles in response to the query...
Read More
Mysteries & Thrillers Tuesday includes my latest mystery and thriller book review,
with links to other science fiction content.
Nonfiction Wednesday includes my latest nonfiction book review,
with links to other nonfiction content.
The Weekly 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.
Mysteries & Thrillers Tuesday includes my latest mystery and thriller book review, with links to other science fiction content.
Nonfiction Wednesday includes my latest nonfiction book review, with links to other nonfiction content.
The Weekly 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.