RaveThe Wall Street Journal\"Mr. Kolker has written the biography of a family, making sure that each member is memorialized as a full person before disease enters the picture. Yet even as the siblings lose their sophistication and their self-control to a degree that mortifies their loved ones, Mr. Kolker sees more than tragedy in his subjects’ second selves. \'All people who suffer from dementia . . . remain alive and, in their new way, conscious,\' he writes. They have joys and desires, just not their former ones. Mr. Kolker handles complex neuroscience deftly but also remains attuned to the unique philosophical questions raised by FTD.\
Wade Davis
PositiveThe Wall Street JournalThe author vividly recounts the various civil wars and regional conflicts Colombia has suffered since its independence from Spain in 1810 ... Gabriel García Márquez did not believe, at the time of his death in 2014, that the Magdalena would ever be restored. Mr. Davis’s book makes a compelling case otherwise. If a country’s spirit can be renewed through the grace and resilience of its people, he argues, so too can its river.
Rachel Love Nuwer
PositiveThe Wall Street JournalPoached describes all kinds of heart-wrenching and harrowing moments, but Ms. Nuwer often strikes a lighthearted tone, finding eccentric detail to splash in ... The result is more a frenetic slideshow of the trade than a rigorous, comprehensive analysis. But by focusing on the humans at all points of the trade, Ms. Nuwer is able to offer something rare: a window onto the feelings and beliefs that drive it.
