Book Reviews

Books
Arts

Brush Up Your Shelley With 'Frankenstein: The First Two Hundred Years'

7:00am November 25, 2017

by Genevieve Valentine

Christopher Frayling's new celebration of Frankenstein is half art book, half scholarly study, tracing the famous monster's path from page to stage to screen, just in time for his 200th birthday.

'Creatures of Will and Temper' by Molly Tanzer

Books
Arts

'Creatures Of Will And Temper' Is A Slow-Burn Slide Into Deviltry

7:00am November 22, 2017

by Jason Sheehan

Molly Tanzer gives us a seductive, alternate version of Victorian England in her new novel — by turns smoky and smutty, wondrous and louche. And then, embedded carefully in that world, demons.

Barbara J, King offers some animal book suggestions ahead of the holiday season.

From 'Inky's Great Escape' To Singing Seahorses: Animal Books For The Holidays

6:01am November 22, 2017

by Barbara J. King

From real-life, seaweed-carrying dolphins to fictional singing seahorses, animals in these new books can excite the mind, says anthropologist Barbara J. King.

'Why Bob Dylan Matters' by Richard Thomas

A Classics Professor Explains 'Why Bob Dylan Matters'

2:21pm November 21, 2017

by Jason Heller

Harvard professor Richard F. Thomas teaches a popular class on the importance of Bob Dylan, and now he's turned it into a book, full of stories, personal history and the occasional comparison to Ovid.

Books
Arts

'Dawn Watch' Explores The Life And Legacy Of Joseph Conrad

2:17pm November 20, 2017

by John Powers

Maya Jasanoff weaves together biography, history, literature and her own travels in a new book about the globe-trotting author. Reviewer John Powers says Jasanoff's portrait of Conrad is terrific.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

In 'Body Music,' Love Is Sweet, Sexy And A Touch Sentimental

7:00am November 19, 2017

by Etelka Lehoczky

French graphic novelist Julie Maroh — author of Blue is the Warmest Color — is back with an earnestly sweet collection of vignettes about love, kept from being saccharine by her skill with faces.

'Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News,' By Kevin Young

Books
Arts

'Bunk' Is Encyclopedic, Fascinating — And Frustrating

7:00am November 18, 2017

by Annalisa Quinn

Kevin Young's new book puts forth an instantly convincing pairing of race and hoaxing — both a "fake thing pretending to be real." But he loses readers' trust with knotty, overly aphoristic writing.

Books
Arts

The Troublesome Universe Of 'Valiant Dust'

7:00am November 16, 2017

by Jason Sheehan

Richard Baker is an established voice in military science fiction; his latest, Valiant Dust, kicks off a new space adventure series. But it's hampered by shallow characters and cultural blindness.

Books
Arts

Andy Weir Aims To Duplicate His Martian Success With 'Artemis'

7:00am November 15, 2017

by Tasha Robinson

Weir returns to a successful formula in his new book — action and adventure in space, with a snarky voice and plenty of reader-friendly science — though this time the story moves to a moon colony.

Cover photo of Louise Erdrich's Future Home of a Living God.

Books
Arts

Louise Erdrich Delivers A Dystopian Feminist Thriller In 'Future Home'

1:30pm November 14, 2017

by Maureen Corrigan

In Erdrich's new novel, fetuses seem to be randomly devolving and a new religious government is rounding up pregnant women, forcing them to give birth in prison-like hospitals.