The novel Gilead by Marilynne Robinson is a luminous and beautiful novel, for so many reasons. I am afraid that I am not going to be able to adequately express what about this novel resonates so deeply with me, but I am briefly going to try.

This novel is beautiful in how it manages to capture the depth of a father’s love for his son in simple language that does not render love as a simple thing a...

Murder Your Employer is easily the best book I’ve read so far in 2024, and even before I had finished the first half, I had decided it was one of my all-time favorite novels. For so many reasons.

In short, every element of this novel is precisely fine-tuned. The author’s prose is both beautifully descriptive and often hilarious. Truly clever puns abound, and I laughed out loud dozens and doz...

I have read several food-related books and memoirs that I have enjoyed, each for very different reasons. But none of them resonated with me personally as much as My Life in France by Julia Child (and co-author Alex Prud’Homme). I knew very little about Child before reading her memoir, only that she was some kind of famous chef on television. Since I enjoy eating but have had very little interest in learn...

I admit that I picked up Mycroft Holmes out of sheer curiosity to see what kind of mystery novel basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had written. I was more than a little incredulous. Could the record-setting six-time NBA MVP really be a decent author as well? But as I was starting the novel, I googled Abdul-Jabbar and skimmed his Wikipedia page, which further piqued my interest. Prior to publishing his thre...

The first volume of Barack Obama’s presidential memoirs is over 700 pages long, or if you prefer, over 30 hours on audiobook. This memoir is no small time commitment. Much to my amusement, Obama said in multiple interviews that he thinks a better writer could have more concisely told the story that he wanted to tell. Well Mr. President, I respectfully disagree.

A Promised Land is lengthy because t...

I need to state up front that this is a book review of The Ink-Black Heart by J.K. Rowling (aka “Robert Galbraith”) and not a commentary on the book’s author. Any opinions I have of Rowling are not part of this review. Although an author’s opinions, politics, statements, and actions are a part of a reader’s understanding of their work, I believe a book should als...

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue (and the excellent Netflix adaptation of the novel) attempts to unravel a phenomenon based on nearly fifty cases of so-called “Fasting Girls” in the historical record from the 15th to the 20th centuries. In the Middle Ages, the ability to survive without food was attributed to some saints and was regarded as a miracle. But Fasting Girls are cases when local young women and girls...

Walt Disney: the Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler is a very detailed biography of legendary animator and theme-park visionary Walt Disney that I would recommend for readers who are already somewhat familiar with Disney history and are looking for a deep dive. It’s an excellent exploration of one of the most important cultural figures in American history, which is why the book won both the U...

The full title of Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s volume of short essays is World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments. The title drew me to the book like a powerful magnet, as did the gorgeous illustration on the cover of Monarch butterflies, a Flamingo, a Dancing Frog, a cuddly-looking pink Axolotl, a Vampire Squid, and many other beautiful creatures from around the world. I lo...