PositiveNPRThe son does not make excuses for his parents\' youthful devotion to communism. He respects their commitment to equality and free speech, but writes that he and his siblings are \'confounded\' by their parents\' blindness to the brutality of the Soviet regime and their continued allegiance to the party following the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact ... has an unexpectedly lyrical sweep as it moves from Room 740 to biography and history and back again. The \'wheel\' of Maraniss\' Author\'s Note is ultimately a deeply patriotic portrait of the first half of the 20th century, a prose poem to America\'s ideals.
Jason Rezaian
PositiveNPR\"[Rezaian\'s] account of how he learns that he has become an international household name is characteristically wry ... at the airport there is one final drama — told in riveting prose — when Iranian authorities refuse to allow Rezaian\'s wife and mother-in-law to leave with him ... Rezaian is unsparingly intimate throughout, writing of his fears, his insecurities, of the conjugal visits with his wife allowed by the Revolutionary Guard ... Rezaian comes off as a guy one would like to have as a friend, and it seems the Iranians think so, too.\
Nathaniel Philbrick
PositiveNPRIt\'s a startling take on a familiar history that one might expect from this author ... The book is filled with land battles, sea maneuvers, conspiracies, hurricanes ... Along the way Philbrick guides the marine-challenged reader ... There are a lot of troops, ships and engagements to keep track of. The book has helpful battle maps, but this reader could have used more. And my dictionary had to substitute for the publisher\'s failure to provide a glossary of 18th-century nautical and military terminology. But these are minor complaints. Philbrick\'s book is a fascinating fresh take on an old story. As is often the case in war, victory in the American Revolution was won by both genius and luck.
