Book Reviews

Aziz Ansari did a lot of demographic research — yes, you read that right — for his new book, and the result is an uneasy but occasionally entertaining hybrid of hard data and too-sparse comedy.

Barbara Gordon gets a perky makeover in the new Batgirl Vol. 1. Critic Etelka Lehoczky says the series is a clever exploration of identity in the digital age, but suffers from occasional cluelessness.

Many of the characters in Mia Alvar's debut story collection are outcasts looking for love and a home — but critic Michael Schaub says it's hard to condense this impressive book into just one theme.

Aziz Ansari's Modern Romance is a good example of an audiobook that finds new ways to play with format and style in a way that builds a separate performance rather than just reading aloud.

Norman Lock's new novel takes readers on a breathlessly-paced tour of the Old West, from the point of view of a former Civil War bugle boy who tags along with some of the era's legendary characters.

Stephen Fry is a world-class wit, a learned fellow and probably a really great guy. Unfortunately, says reviewer Trey Graham, that doesn't come through in More Fool Me, the new volume of his memoirs.

Beth Cato's compact but potent two-book series follows a young healer in a crumbling fantasy empire who must navigate treacherous political waters while balancing questions of faith and technology.

Mike's Place is a real-life beach bar in Tel Aviv that could be Israel's answer to Cheers. But it's no sitcom. A graphic novel recounts the 2003 suicide bombing that left owners and patrons in shock.

In The Stranger, Albert Camus' antihero Meursault famously killed a nameless Arab; Algerian writer Kamel Daoud's new novel reworks Camus from the point of view of the murdered man's brother.