Book Reviews

On the House: A Washington Memoir, John Boehner

Former Speaker John Boehner's Memoir Serves As A Reflection On Life In 'Crazytown'

5:07am April 09, 2021

by Susan Davis

On the House chronicles Boehner's humble rise in national politics and his front-row seat to the revolution within his Republican party that ultimately forced him out of Congress.

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

In The Rise And Fall Of The Sacklers' Opioid Empire, An American Dream Turns Toxic

7:25pm April 08, 2021

by Brian Mann

Patrick Radden Keefe helped expose the Sackler family's role in the deadly opioid epidemic. His new book deepens the narrative, raising questions about the blurring of medicine and capitalism.

Books
Arts

Ambition, Alchemy And Searching For Way To Fit In 'Gold Diggers'

7:00am April 08, 2021

by Ilana Masad

Sanjena Sathian's novel follows a Georgia teenager, son of Indian immigrants, as he struggles with balancing his own ambitions and those of his parents, and finding his own way to be brown in America.

Books
Arts

Too Many 'Peaces' Overload An Otherwise Entertaining Story

10:00am April 07, 2021

by Gabino Iglesias

Helen Oyeyemi's new novel is a no-holds-barred mashup of Agatha Christie-style mystery oddities like mongoose genealogy, kidnapped gaming champions and a woman who chokes on emeralds in her sleep.

Books
Arts

A Daughter Struggles To Escape Her Mother's Shadow In 'Libertie'

7:56pm April 06, 2021

by Maureen Corrigan

What if a child doesn't share a parent's ambition? Kaitlyn Greenidge's novel is inspired by the life of Dr. Susan Smith McKinney-Steward, the third Black woman to earn a medical degree in the U.S.

Queue Listen Now

Stranger Danger: An Economist's Guide To Overcoming Distrust

6:30am April 06, 2021

by Greg Rosalsky

A new book delves into humanity's long march to overcoming distrust.

First Person Singular, by Haruki Murakami

Books
Arts

'First Person Singular' Asks A Lot Of Questions — But Shies Away From Answers

7:00am April 04, 2021

by Heller McAlpin

Haruki Murakami's plain-spoken new story collection features narrators a lot like him — male, middle-aged, recounting inexplicably strange things that have happened to them,

Beautiful Things: A Memoir, by Hunter Biden

Hunter Biden's Memoir 'Beautiful Things' Seeks To Tell Just Where He's Been

6:19pm March 31, 2021

by Ron Elving

The account by the president's younger son is at times a harrowing journey; in the end, if not for forgiveness or sympathy, it may be about making a stand and taking whatever place he can occupy.

A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey, by Jonathan Meiburg

'A Most Remarkable Creature' Introduces The Little-Known, Charismatic Caracara

12:49pm March 31, 2021

by Anna Morris

Through Jonathan Meiburg's inquiring lens, readers will find themselves with a new favorite animal — a bird of prey aptly described as "one of the strangest and most wonderful animals on Earth."

Books
Arts

In 'Girlhood,' A Writer Examines Her Youth For Signs Of The Woman She Would Become

7:35am March 30, 2021

by Ilana Masad

Though author Melissa Febos' essays dip into her adult life, they keep trying to find the child and teenager that she was — how she learned to be, feel, believe, and react.