Book Reviews

Naomi Kritzer's new novel takes off from her award-winning story about an AI that loves cats. It's a wild, rollicking tale with a gritty truth at its core: You never know who you're talking to online.

Kristen Richardson traces the history of the practice, with firsthand accounts from diaries and letters, finding political strife, social upheaval and machinations to keep out so-called undesirables.

Robert Harris' genre-bending new book at first appears to take place in a medieval setting — and then you realize the young priest at its center is holding a cracked, defunct, centuries-old iPhone.

Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch reveal the hows and whys of the whirlwind they uncorked by commissioning Christopher Steele to investigate Donald Trump's activities in Russia.

Lance Rubin's new novel follows an aspiring young comedian as she navigates the rough waters of romance, improv and her father's failing health, with plenty of laughs to light the darker moments.

Dexter Palmer's new novel is based on the strange true story of a woman who confounded the medical and scientific establishments of 18th century England by claiming she'd given birth to rabbits.

Journalist Michael Powell's book is about basketball the same way that Buzz Bissinger's Friday Night Lights is about football — sports are the ostensible focus, but the real interest is the community.

Johannes Anyuru's unusual speculative mystery They Will Drown in Their Mothers' Tears follows two seemingly ordinary (at first) Swedish citizens dealing with the aftermath of a shooting.

Buzzfeed's Heidi Blake fails to support a dubious argument, but the book is worth reading for its recap of more than a dozen murder and suspicious death stories during a two-decade period.

This month, cozy up to a bunch of pro ballplayers who end up solving their relationship hassles by reading romance, a gender-flipped classic rom-com and an intrepid Victorian lady ghostbuster.