Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis by Jared Diamond
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Can 30 pages be enough to do more than skim the surface of any of these epic events?
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Birthday by César Aira
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Aira’s lack of a larger schema ultimately makes Birthday an unsatisfying venture.
Read MoreAuthor interview: Alison Weir
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In Anna of Kleve, Weir crafts an intriguingly multifaceted portrait of this oddest of all English queens. Open Letters asked her some questions about the challenges of this latest installment in the “Six Tudor Queens” series.
Read MoreThe Shadow King: The Life and Death of Henry VI by Lauren Johnson
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An immensely readable popular biography of Henry VI, warmly sympathetic to the tormented figure at its center.
Read MoreIt’s a Mystery: We run away from what scares or hurts us--or from what holds us captive
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A skillfully crafted, beautifully written thriller with an unforgettable heroine.
Read MoreSherlock Holmes: A Scandal in Japan by Keisuke Matsuoka
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Meiji-era Japan is an appealingly exotic setting for a Holmes adventure.
Read MoreGilded Youth: Privilege, Rebellion and the British Public School by James Brooke-Smith
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Gilded Youth is woven through with a sure knack for storytelling and eye for vivifying detail.
Read MoreBored, Lonely, Angry, Stupid by Luke Fernandez and Susan J. Matt
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Are iPhones, iPads, GPS, and the Internet exacerbating negatives and simultaneously eroding the positives?
Read MoreOur Man by George Packer
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The fact that this book captures the man as no book is ever likely to do again is an accomplishment and also a precaution.
Read MoreAmerican Eagle: A Visual History of Our National Emblem by Preston Cook
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Dedicated to the mage that has been synonymous with the United States since before the United States formally existed.
Read MoreGropius: The Man Who Built the Bauhaus by Fiona McCarthy
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McCarthy is a wonderfully sympathetic biographer, and her reading and research in these pages is vast.
Read MoreChaucer: A European Life by Marion Turner
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Turner reminds her readers that the father of English literature was a traveling man.
Read MoreThe Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
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Whitehead constantly plays off optimistic idealism against cynical trickery.
Read MoreThe War for Gaul translated by James O'Donnell
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A fluid, confessional thing unlike any other English-language Caesar.
Read MoreCapitalism in America by Alan Greenspan and Adrian Wooldridge
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A decent summary of capitalism in America with brief but useful biographies of major figures.
Read MoreThe Hill to Die On by Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer
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Even the cynical reader can take from this book the sense that those with the greatest power in Congress still have a coherent set of values.
Read MoreDown from the Mountain by Bryce Andrews
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There will be more books like Down from the Mountain as more bears hit the immovable object of the American farming industry.
Read MoreEric Hobsbawm: A Life in History by Richard J. Evans
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An 800-page biography of a bestselling historian written by another bestselling historian.
Read MoreDelta-v by Daniel Suarez
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Delta-V never falters because it never doubts its own storytelling virtue.
Read MoreThe Pandemic Century by Mark Honigsbaum
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The book is unfailingly fascinating reading, despite its appalling subject matter, with vividly drawn portraits of many of the people at the front lines.
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