Book Reviews

This trip in the Time Machine, we're looking back at Jacqueline Winspear's well-loved Maisie Dobbs books. Reviewer Bobbi Dumas says there are interesting times ahead for the nurse-turned-sleuth.

This new volume collects some of the uncompromising writer's greatest hits, from her coverage of the march on Selma to Monica Lewinsky, and of course her famous takedown of film critic Pauline Kael.

Jeffrey Rotter's new novel follows a young man searching for connection in a post-apocalyptic America. Critic Jason Heller calls it a "humbling monument to the sorrow, and the power, of loneliness."

Things rarely end well for the people in Luis Alberto Urrea's new story collection, but there are flashes of humor. Critic Michael Schaub calls Urrea "a master storyteller with a rock 'n' roll heart."

New Yorker copy editor Mary Norris' new book is part life story, part grammar guide. Reviewer Heller McAlpin says the book is delightful, and Norris is a "stickler who can't resist schtick."

Ken Liu's debut is an epic saga of gods, kings and rebels, set in an invented world with echoes of pan-Asian myth. Reviewer Amal El-Mohtar calls it "beautiful, nuanced, fierce, original and diverse."

Johnny Dwyer's book tells the amazing, horrifying story of Chucky Taylor, son of the infamous Liberian dictator Charles Taylor. But flat writing and unforthcoming subjects make it a difficult read.

Étienne Davodeau's new graphic novel sounds like it could be laden with chick-flick schmaltz, but critic Etelka Lehoczky says this tale of female self-discovery is fresh, funny and unexpected.

Voyage of the Basilisk is the latest book in Marie Brennan's Memoirs of Lady Trent series; critic Genevieve Valentine says if you love dragons like Lady Trent does, now's the time to get acquainted.