About Book Marks
Recent Reviews
Devoney Looser
Positive Booklist Looser plunges into the Porter sisters’ letters and excavates their lives to pull them out of obscurity and restore their legacy.
Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
Rave Booklist ... authoritative and immersive account ... It is Bacon’s complexity and daring that Stevens and Swan illuminate so precisely in this surpassingly literary biography.
William Feaver
Rave Booklist Lucian Freud declared that the purpose of his art was to \'astonish, disturb, seduce, and convince,\' traits also abundant in art critic Feaver’s gleaming second and final biographical volume ... An extremely complicated man, artist, and icon, Freud requires a holistic portrayal, which Feaver, who knew the artist well, powerfully achieves.
Valerie Hansen
Positive Booklist ... [a] meticulous portrayal of the explorers, traders, and rulers who built a complex network which linked a disparate world ... Hansen’s deeply engrossing work of scholarship builds a foundation for understanding our current iteration of globalization.
Amir Ahmadi Arian
Positive Booklist Reminiscent of Camus’ The Stranger, Iranian writer Arian’s first novel published in the U.S. excels in its own right for its sheer literary and moral brilliance ... Yunus’ physical and emotional journey is brought to life through the riveting and extraordinary details in Arian’s intense portrayal ... In this stunning work, Arian accomplishes a rare feat by telling a captivating story of an unforgettable character and by bearing witness to the hard truths endured by political prisoners everywhere.
Jessica Stern
Positive Booklist ... intriguing ... illuminate[s] a larger story about nationalism, fear, separatism, and dissension ... Ultimately, Stern draws chilling parallels between the war criminal and President Trump, including similarities in their tactics of fearmongering and ethnocentrism, and asks us to question our own moral dexterity and susceptibility to such ethical collapses.
Melvin I. Urofsky
Rave Booklist ... scholarly, comprehensive, thoroughly engaging ... Urofsky highlights various Supreme Court cases, seminal moments, and historical individuals to convey a broader view of this consequential mandate. He presents a balanced and nuanced view of the issue on many fronts, delving into affirmation-action controversies, especially in cases involving higher education. Urofsky’s extensively researched account explores the magnitude of affirmative action for the many groups which have faced discrimination.
Gillian Gill
Positive Booklist Gill presents a deft and empathetic portrayal of Woolf, the most famous author in the Bloomsbury group, by providing fascinating personal histories of generations of Pattle and Stephen women (mother, sisters, and aunts), who influenced and inspired her ... Gill makes bold assertions in her analysis of Woolf’s correspondence, writings, and remarks at the Bloomsbury memoir club. Woolf’s mental instability and her claims of sexual abuse by her half-brother are also fervently probed ... Gill rekindles curiosity about the iconic and innovative writer with this enchanting and sweeping account.
Lawrence Lessig
Positive Booklist Lessig offers a thoughtful, illuminating, nonpartisan, and pragmatic analysis of the changes needed to restore power to the public ... In this bold and compelling book, Lessig both scrutinizes the laws and forces that led us to this point and guides us towards visionary changes that can reset and restore our faith in our democracy. Given the complexities of the tasks at hand, this a must-read and a much-needed wake up call.
Thomas Lynch
Positive Booklist In this compelling collection of new and previously published pieces reaching back decades, Lynch explores death as it seizes people in different places and different ways ... These candid, eloquent, and often humorous essays examine the funeral industry and signify in fresh ways the connection between the living and dying ... By delving both into his own life and society’s norms, writer, poet, and small-town funeral director Lynch reminds us to accept the frailties of life and the mystery of death.
Thant Myint-U
Rave Booklist Thant’s bird’s-eye view, long-term scholarship, and deep connection to Burma and its people make for a captivating and engrossing account of a country shifting precariously between possibility and destruction.
Jaquira Diaz
Positive Booklist ... candid and compelling ... Díaz shares her journey of survival without embellishment and is unabashed about the lurid and painful details of her existence ... Díaz’s strength lies in how she can enliven the places she inhabits, from the seedy Miami streets she roams to sordid spaces she occupies. Her skillful weaving-in of several harrowing deaths that made national headlines illuminates some eerie similarities and connections to her life. While the story of a typical displaced girl’s life could have been tragic, Díaz takes charge, changes her trajectory, and tells a tale of an individual who ultimately triumphs.
Richard Stengel
Positive Booklist ... astute ... As a Washington insider and former journalist, Stengel writes from a rare and illuminating double perspective ... fascinating ... Stengel’s recounting of the events and individuals, including Putin and Trump, involved in the surge in and fight against propaganda and misinformation is jarring yet hopeful as he concludes with a blueprint for remedy and change.