You are browsing the archive for July2012
July 11, 2012
TROUBLING TRUE STORY of a South Carolina death row inmate’s conviction on shockingly scanty (at best) evidence.
Grade: SOLID B
ANATOMY OF INJUSTICE: A MURDER CASE GONE WRONG
Knopf Doubleday
2012
Tags: Non-Fiction, Social and Cultural Commentary, Solid B Reviews, True Crime
July 10, 2012
ENTHRALLING RECREATION OF the Nixon administration’s Watergate scandal, with vivid characterizations, detail.
Grade: A MINUS
WATERGATE: A NOVEL
Pantheon
2012
Tags: A Minus Reviews, Historical Fiction, Novels, Politics
July 9, 2012
WRENCHINGLY HONEST, BRUTALLY eloquent, a novelist’s memoir of losing her sight and her way in life astounds.
Grade: A MINUS
WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN WINTER: A MEMOIR IN BLINDNESS
Harper
2012
Tags: A Minus Reviews, Addiction and Recovery, England, Health, Memoirs, Mental Health and Illness, Scotland
July 8, 2012
WHY AND HOW we were the only human species to survive, impeccably explored by a leading paleoanthropologist.
Grade: B PLUS
LONE SURVIVOR: HOW WE CAME TO BE THE ONLY HUMANS ON EARTH
Henry Holt & Company
2012
Tags: B Plus Reviews, History of Science, Non-Fiction, Science
July 7, 2012
TIGHTLY CRAFTED HISTORICAL mystery stars a Sherlock-brilliant detective tracking a serial killer in 1892 Maine.
Grade: B PLUS
THE TRUTH OF ALL THINGS
Crown
2012
Tags: B Plus Reviews, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Novels
July 6, 2012
CHARMING JANE AUSTENESQUE fantasy, set in a world where magic is an art form. Second in a delightful series!
Grade: B PLUS
GLAMOUR IN GLASS
Tom Doherty Associates
2012
Tags: B Plus Reviews, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Novels
July 4, 2012
A CLASSICS PROFESSOR’S SENTIMENTAL journey down the historic Appian Way: delightful, informative travelogue.
Grade: B PLUS
THE APPIAN WAY: GHOST ROAD, QUEEN OF ROADS
University of Chicago Press
2012
Tags: Ancient Rome, B Plus Reviews, History, Italy, Non-Fiction, Travel Writing
July 3, 2012
DELIGHTFUL SUPERNATURAL SPY thriller hits the sweet spot between X-Men and le Carré. Great #beachread!
Grade: B PLUS
THE ROOK: ON HER MAJESTY'S SUPERNATURAL SECRET SERVICE
Little, Brown
2012
Tags: B Plus Reviews, Fantasy, Novels, Thriller
July 2, 2012
A COLLEGE STUDENT’S OCD crisis and recovery is detailed in this admirably candid yet oddly lackluster memoir.
Grade: B MINUS
TRIGGERED: A MEMOIR OF OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER
St. Martin's/Thomas Dunne Books
2012
Tags: B Minus Reviews, Memoirs, Mental Health and Illness, Non-Fiction