Book Reviews

Lessons on life and happiness from the perspective of 'Toby,' an inflatable tube guy.

“The World Beneath Their Feet” is the story of the “Great Himalayan Race” to the top of the world, a race punctuated by countless failures authored by little remembered climbers.

On December 23, 1982, the Chamindade University Silverswords defeated Ralph Sampson’s No. 1 ranked Virginia Cavaliers at Blaisdell Arena in what is still considered the most monumental upset in college basketball history.

A further exploration of one of the great unsolved maritime mysteries—the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

A book about the North Carolina coast as the Wright Brothers encountered it in the early 1900s, with photos that allow the reader to visualize what Wilbur and Orville Wright described in their diaries.

Most history books fail to mention the role that Dr. Joseph Warren played in the resistance movement that led to the American Revolution. Christian Di Spigna’s biography gives Dr. Warren his due.

A book-length look at the infamous 1968 Ivy League football game between Harvard and Yale, which ended in a 29-29 tie after Harvard scored 16 points in the final 42 seconds.

An alternative history of art featuring the greatest artworks that have been lost to theft, vandalism and willful or inadvertent destruction, among other misfortune.

“Murder at Small Koppie”—winner of the 2017 Alan Paton Award—is the story of the 3,000 miners who went on strike at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana in the summer of 2012. Before the strike was over, 34 workers would be gunned down by police, in two separate confrontations that occurred 19 minutes apart.

Fred Pearce’s “Fallout” provides a broad overview of humanity’s 73-year-long experience with nuclear technology, covering everything from Hiroshima and Nagasaki to Richland and Ozersk to Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Anyone who shops in brick-and-mortar retail stores can learn something from “The Aisles Have Eyes,” a book which seems particularly apropos in light of the current Facebook-Cambridge Analytica controversy.

“Are we doing everything possible to protect American workers from death and injury? And, if not, why not?” Those are the overarching questions posed by Jonathan Karmel in his book, “Dying to Work: Death and Injury in the American Workplace.”

A collection of 700 statements—assembled by Doreen Chila-Jones—that would have been better left unsaid.

In “The Left Behind,” Robert Wuthnow attempts to relate what rural Americans are thinking and feeling. It’s an important subject, especially in light of the fact that rural voters have a disproportionate influence on state and local politics.

No modern-day artist has realized greater posthumous success than Bob Ross, who is now a pop-culture icon, however unlikely that may have seemed in, say, 1985.

Corinne Caputo’s writer’s guide to Fame! Fortune! Awards!

Feel like every day is like Monday? Then Nick Asbury’s “Perpetual Disappointments Diary” is for you.

Do degrees from for-profit colleges help graduates get the kind of jobs that enable them to improve their lives? In “Lower Ed,” Tressie McMillan Cottom answers that question.

“Delusions of Grammar” is Sharon Eliza Nichols’ follow-up to her hit books, “I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar” (2009) and “More Badder Grammar!” (2011).

“Venezuela can teach us all an important lesson: too much money poorly managed can be worse than not having any money at all.”