Your handy guide to the grouped reviews on this site

Once I’ve read and reviewed a number of books that cluster around a particular topic or author, I write what I call a grouped review. Usually, I list each book by title and author, with a link to my review. In many cases, I attach a capsule review, often one paragraph from the full review.

Over the past decade, I’ve written 100 such grouped reviews to date. So it seems time to prepare a guide to them all. This is particularly the case because these grouped reviews invariably prove to be the most popular posts on this site. Here’s hoping this will be useful to you!

Grouped reviews about nonfiction

Grouped reviews about history

13 good books about the Holocaust, including both fiction and nonfiction

5 top nonfiction books about World War II (plus many runners-up)

20 top nonfiction books about history plus more than 80 other good ones

Top 20 popular books for understanding American history

10 great books on Big History: New perspectives on world history

My 10 favorite books about business history (plus dozens of others)

Good books about the French Resistance

Grouped reviews about world affairs

Gaining a global perspective on the world around us

20 top books about Africa, including both fiction and nonfiction

17 good books about India, past and present

Good books about Vladimir Putin, modern Russia and the Russian oligarchy

12 insightful books about China reviewed on this site

10 good books about North Korea

Third World poverty and economic development: a reading list

18 eye-opening books about terrorism

13 good recent books about American foreign policy

Narrowing global inequities: a reading list

A resource list on social enterprise

The top 10 books on the economics of poverty

20 good nonfiction books about espionage

Grouped reviews about politics and domestic affairs

The top 5 books about Donald Trump and his impact on American democracy

5 top nonfiction books about national security reviewed here

Good books about racism reviewed on this site

7 insightful books that explain what caused the Great Recession

10 enlightening books about poverty in America

Top 10 nonfiction books about politics (plus dozens of runners-up)

5 books that explore our broken criminal justice system

Grouped reviews about science and technology

20 good nonfiction books about the future (plus lots of science fiction)

Two dozen good books about artificial intelligence reviewed here

Science explained in 10 excellent popular books (plus dozens of others)

10 best books about innovation

5 best books about Silicon Valley

Good books about space travel, including both nonfiction and fiction

Grouped reviews about other topics

Good books by Berkeley writers reviewed on this site

17 excellent memoirs reviewed here

Great biographies I’ve reviewed: my 10 favorites

More than 25 worthy books about Jewish topics

Grouped reviews about fiction

The decade’s top 10 historical novels, mysteries & thrillers, and science fiction

Grouped reviews about mysteries and thrillers

Top 10 mystery and thriller series

20 excellent standalone mysteries and thrillers

5 top novels about private detectives

Two dozen outstanding detective series from around the world

Top 20 suspenseful detective novels (plus 200 more)

Top 10 historical mysteries and thrillers reviewed here (plus 100 others)

The 10 top espionage novels reviewed on this site

Top 10 mystery and thriller series

Mysteries and thrillers set in Scotland

5 top Los Angeles mysteries and thrillers (plus lots of runners-up)

The best Nordic noir series from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland

Famous people as detectives in fact and fiction

17 fascinating courtroom dramas reviewed

Grouped reviews about science fiction

The ultimate guide to the all-time best science fiction novels

Great sci-fi novels reviewed: my top 10 (plus dozens of runners-up)

The top 10 dystopian novels reviewed here (plus dozens of others)

10 best alternate history novels reviewed here

Grouped reviews about trade fiction

20 most enlightening historical novels (plus dozens of runners-up)

Top 10 great popular novels reviewed on this site

The 10 best novels about World War II (plus 20 runners-up)

My 10 favorite funny novels (plus dozens of runners-up)

Grouped reviews about my favorite authors

Jussi-Adler Olsen’s captivating Department Q thrillers

5 thrilling science fiction novels by Paolo Bacigalupi (and 3 novelettes)

The 12 novels of Alex Berenson’s thrilling John Wells spy series

The Quirke series of Dublin crime novels from Benjamin Black

The outstanding historical fiction of Geraldine Brooks

Christopher Buckley writes satirical novels that are very, very funny

The pleasures of reading the complete Vorkosigan Saga

Charles Cumming’s first-rate spy thrillers

Reviewing the Dublin Murder Squad novels by Tana French

The evocative Night Soldiers series from Alan Furst

Top-notch spy novels from Alex Gerlis

Timothy Hallinan’s Junior Bender series of comic crime novels

The spellbinding thrillers of Robert Harris

Following Mick Herron’s clever British spies at Slough House

Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther novels

The Fjällbacka series of Swedish thrillers from Camilla Läckberg

The magical Lisbeth Salander novels

The outstanding Harry Hole thrillers from Jo Nesbo

Dame Stella Rimington’s Liz Carlyle series of top-notch espionage novels

J. K. Rowling’s thrilling Cormoran Strike detective series

John Sandford’s excellent Virgil Flowers novels

Karin Slaughter’s well-crafted series of Grant County thrillers

Olen Steinhauer’s brilliant Yalta Boulevard cycle set in Eastern Europe

Reviewing Ross Thomas – thrillers that stand the test of time

The Maisie Dobbs novels from Jacqueline Winspear

And you can always find my most popular reviews, and the most recent ones, plus a guide to this whole site, on the Home Page.