In May 2019, my wife and I spent three days in Rwanda’s charming capital city, Kigali, on a side trip from a visit to Kenya. We were enchanted by the rolling hills and by the spotless, flower-lined streets and sidewalks that conjured up memories of Singapore. At the Kigali Genocide Memorial,...
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The ten Swedish police procedurals in the Martin Beck series launched the genre known today as Nordic or Scandinavian noir. Published from 1965 to 1975, they captured the reality of life in Sweden at a time of momentous change. The authors, a Marxist couple named Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, set...
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He, she, or it, the star of the Murderbot series, doesn’t appear to be gendered. We’ll use the pronoun “it” to be safe, as Martha Wells does. It calls itself Murderbot. It’s a half-human-, half-robot Security Unit, or SecUnit. But Murderbot is an apt name. Because...
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Henrietta Lacks was thirty-one years old when she entered Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore early in 1951. She was Catholic, the mother of five children, and African-American. Hopkins was one of the nation’s most prestigious medical schools—and the only hospital in the area that admitted...
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When Britain’s Crown Prince Edward strode through the Gateway of India in Bombay late in 1921, the subcontinent was seething with unrest. Thousands of loyalists turned out to gain a glimpse of the glamorous royal. But the city as a whole was quiet. Civil disobedience championed by Mohandas...
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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.