Books
418 results
Page 29
Richard Burgin’s 'Don’t Think’
Childhood confusion, grownup fantasies
Richard Burgin’s latest story collection again shows an American master — part Cheever, part Poe — at the height of his form.
Articles
5 minute read
Daniel James Brown’s ‘Boys in the Boat’
The kids who (sort of) beat Hitler
Did an American crew really thrill the world by whipping Hitler’s elite rowers in 1936? Daniel James Brown’s account is long on metaphors and hype but short on persuasive research.
Dave Barry’s 'Live Right and Find Happiness'
High silliness
The temptation is to simply fill up my review of Dave Barry's new book with quotations, but I won’t, even though he is perhaps the only living writer who can make me laugh so hard I weep.
Articles
3 minute read
Theresa Rebeck's ‘I'm Glad About You’
The complicated pursuit of dreams
In I'm Glad about You, Theresa Rebeck isn't so glad about the TV and movie businesses, trashing Lalaland in an engaging new novel about dreamers challenged by harsh realities.
Articles
3 minute read
Harlan Coben’s ‘The Stranger’
Dirty big secrets
In his latest thriller, Harlan Coben builds a taut meditation on privilege, control, and facades. All three concepts revolve around the notion that, even if you feel safe, human things fall apart.
Articles
3 minute read
Jill Leovy's 'Ghettoside'
The killing fields
From Bryant Tennellle’s murder through the trial of his accused killers, Ghettoside unwinds as a superior police procedural. The author's recommendations for solving the epidemic of black-on-black murder, however, are questionable.
'Stan Levey: Jazz Heavyweight' by Frank R. Hayde
Biography of a Philly-born jazz great
Frank R. Hayde’s Stan Levey: Jazz Heavyweight is a sometimes engaging and sometimes colorful account of Levey’s extraordinary career as a drummer, recording artist, studio musician, boxer, and photographer.
Articles
2 minute read
'A Better Goodbye' by John Schulian
Living and dying in L.A.
A Better Goodbye might be typified as “nouveau noir,” a seething portrait of the dirty underbelly of that black magical dreamscape known as Los Angeles.
Articles
3 minute read
Paul Cleave’s ‘Trust No One’
Narrative manipulation as madness
In Trust No One, Paul Cleave moves into interesting territory that involves unfair terrain for the reader, with contradictory versions of the protagonist's interior monologue.
Articles
3 minute read
'The Burglary' by Betty Medsger
Breaking and entering
The extent and nature of J. Edgar Hoover's surveillance of peaceful protesters were unknown until seven antiwar activists broke into the Media FBI office in 1971. The documents the burglars took provided the signposts to investigate Hoover's horrifying subversion of the Constitution.