So, what could justify writing a detective novel of nearly 1,000 pages? At first glance, the story seems simple enough. An attractive young woman doctor goes missing one evening and is never seen again. Almost forty years later, the doctor’s daughter enlists private detectives Cormoran...
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Since the earliest days of science fiction as an established genre, writers in the field have imagined what has come to be called First Contact with a capital F and a capital C. Most of the early speculation in the so-called Golden Era of Science Fiction (the 1930s and 40s) was laughable. But in...
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In The Bomber Mafia, Malcolm Gladwell departs from the precincts of social psychology he knows so well (The Tipping Point, Talking to Strangers, Outliers) and ventures into the history of World War II. The book, subtitled “A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World...
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Estimated reading time: 6 minutes Espionage fiction offers us a rich array of smoothly written and suspenseful novels set during World War II or in the Cold War era that followed. The classic work of Graham Greene (1904-91), Eric Ambler (1909-98), John le Carré (1931-2020), and Ken Follett...
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In Andy Weir’s blockbuster debut, The Martian, and in the 2015 film of the same name starring Matt Damon, astronaut Mark Watney digs himself out of one hole after another in a frantic effort to survive alone on Mars. Watney’s an engineer, and every problem presents itself as an engineering...
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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.