Book Reviews
CategoryChristmas Audiobook Review: Connie Willis’s “Doomsday Book”
As a time traveler rolls the yule log and puts up with wine-drunk revelry, synthesized bells sound increasingly ominous carols over Oxford’s High Street.
Book Review: Cathy Guisewite, Post-“Cathy,” Lists “Fifty Things That Aren’t My Fault”
Cathy Guisewite’s new book is a moving reflection on art and life, on personal and social progress, on generation and regeneration.
Audiobook Review: “Resistance Reborn” Gets (What’s Left of) the Star Wars Gang Back Together
Author Rebecca Roanhorse had her work cut out for her. To paraphrase Obi-Wan Dylan, they not busy being born are busy dying.
Book Review: “When Reagan Sent In the Marines” Chronicles the Debacle the Gipper Wanted to Forget
Patrick J. Sloyan’s new book “When Reagan Sent in the Marines” chronicles the widely forgotten history of how U.S. forces were so disastrously deployed.
Book Review: “Alien Vault” Cracks the Egg on 40 Years of Xenomorphs
If there’s an “Alien” fan on your holiday shopping list, wrap a copy of “Alien Vault.” For once, finding a facehugger will be a pleasant surprise.
Book Review: Candida Höfer Looks Inside “Libraries”
Paging through revered German photographer Candida Höfer’s new book, you’re reminded of just how vast a scope of institutions “Libraries” encompasses.
Audiobook Review: “Journey” to “Rise of Skywalker” Starts With a “Spark”
Although the audiobook is aimed at ages 8-13, it’s significant for Star Wars fans of all ages if they’re breathlessly anticipating “The Rise of Skywalker.”
Book Review: “An Encyclopedia of Tolkien” is a Treasure Trove for LOTR Fans
Once you start paging through this alphabetical guide, you might just find yourself reading the 544-page volume cover to cover.
Audiobook Review: Gene Roddenberry’s “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” Novelization Gets a Randy Reading For Its 40th Birthday
40 years ago, Star Trek made its theatrical debut with a prismatic, shagadelic, extremely sincere film that survives as an awkward but endearing spectacle.
Book Review: “Why We Love Star Wars” Celebrates the Small Moments of an Epic Series
Ken Napzok’s compendium of “great moments” is completely inessential and yet, for just about any Star Wars fan, compulsively readable.
Book Review: In “Make My Day,” J. Hoberman revisits “Movie Culture in the Age of Reagan”
Ronald Reagan was America’s only movie-star president — a distinction it now seems he’ll hold forever. That fact wasn’t incidental to his presidency.
Audiobook Review: Margaret Atwood’s “Testaments” Brings New Voices to Gilead
The audio edition of “The Testaments” enlists six readers — including the author herself — to bring Margaret Atwood’s multi-vocal manuscript to life.