MixedAssociated PressSilver compellingly theorizes that humans are in general too risk averse, and that those who can discerningly fight that impulse often benefit greatly in life ... Given his knowledge of and affinity for poker, Silver tends to belabor that lens through which he looks — perhaps to a fault. Those uninterested in stats or strategies may have a hard time getting through this book. But if you don’t mind or are intrigued by the game, Silver eventually broadens his cohort.
Emily Van Duyne
PositiveAssociated PressVan Duyne seeks to subvert Hughes’ narrative of Plath’s life and what drove her to end it. In the wake of #MeToo and cultural conversations about believing women, Van Duyne argues Plath’s story ought to be given a fresh look.
Kliph Nesteroff
PositiveAssociated Pressesteroff artfully seeks to demonstrate how current catchphrases like \'cancel culture\' and \'political correctness\' are just variations of the same generational and ideological divides which have undergirded American society throughout Hollywood’s history ... His arguments are cogent and his histories entertaining.
Laurence Leamer
PositiveAssociated PressLeamer seeks to divert the reader from seeing the female actors through the director’s gaze, constructing instead vignettes that attempt to memorialize these women as more than their captivating beauty ... Though at times meandering, Hitchcock’s Blondes dishes sufficient old Hollywood gossip to keep interested readers entertained.
Michael Finkel
RaveAssociated PressThe level of detail Finkel is able to provide, thanks to extensive reporting and hours of interviews with Breitwieser himself, is uncomfortably gripping, as if the reader is watching these events unfold and working as an accomplice to the French robber’s crimes ... Although the definition of a page-turner, this book will also likely force the reader to consider why details of this kind are so exhilarating to us in the first place.
Patrick MacKie
PositiveAssociated PressIn addition to relying on letters and extant accounts for Mozart in Motion: His Work and His World in Pieces, Mackie also incorporates academic theory and philosophical reflections on how we collectively experience music today into his thematically organized biography. The result is still a familiar portrait of Mozart, but one that is painted in new colors ... Mackie sometimes betrays an overconfidence in his ability to get inside the mind of the famed composer. And his writing style is perhaps more ornate and erudite than readers who are looking for a casual introduction into the composer’s life are looking for.
Laura Dern
PositiveAssociated PressMostly a series of heartwarming personal conversations between a daughter and her sick mom. Even the hardest of hearts might shed a tear or two thanks to the ways in which this book forces the reader to consider their own relationship with their mother ... But it also dishes the occasional Hollywood gossip, even if it is in a wholesome kind of way that one familiar with Dern’s general Southern affect would expect ... And while the intimate stories may seem like a vulnerable glimpse into the lives of these two women, it is difficult to discern, given their cognizance of the fact that their conversations will be made public, how much of that vulnerability is genuine.
