Book Reviews

There are many heroes in Kevin Birmingham's new book about the novel that sparked a revolution, but James Joyce isn't one of them. The strength of The Most Dangerous Book lies in its subtle details.

The stories in Stuart Dybek's latest collection concern themselves with strong feelings, and sometimes with crazed longings. Reviewer Meg Wolitzer finds them "a little alarming, a little wonderful."

The Unwitting by Ellen Feldman is part love story, part mystery and part political thriller set during the Cold War.

The Rise and Fall of Great Powers — the latest from Imperfectionists author Tom Rachman — follows the travels of a young bookstore proprietor. It's a "strange" book that requires a bit of patience.

The famed writer of Westerns uses his first novel in five years to blow a few holes in the myths surrounding the shootout at the OK Corral. Reviewer Alan Cheuse calls it "a peach of a book."

The Essential Ellen Willis focuses on the writer's explicitly feminist culture criticism. It was edited by Willis' daughter, who published an earlier collection of her mother's essays in 2011.

Francine Prose's latest novel was inspired by a 1932 photo of two lesbians, one of whom was in the Gestapo. Critic Maureen Corrigan says it's an ingenious excursion into the Parisian demimonde.

The teenage protagonist in Simpson's novel spies on his parents and learns their secrets. It's a haunting cross between Harriet the Spy and The Catcher in the Rye.

In response to The White House's new report on climate change, author Lev Grossman has some recommended reading. It's a novel called The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi.

Biographer Amanda Vaill's new book delves deeply into the lives of journalists like Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, whose documenting of the war helped shape public perception.