Book Reviews by Jason Sullivan

A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko

Have you ever thought about hopping into the Grand Canyon and…
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Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present by Fareed Zakaria

If you’re still on the prowl for this summer’s beach read,…
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You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue

Hernán Cortés meeting Moctezuma in 1519 holds some space in…
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Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead

In Crook Manifesto, the always excellent Colson Whitehead takes…
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The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

Just when you think you’ve already heard the most daring of…
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The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

We meet “the girl” as she runs through a land that’s “innocent…
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His Majesty’s Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World’s Largest Flying Machine by S.C. Gwynne

Word association with “airship” probably yields responses…
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Trust by Hernan Diaz

How vast individual wealth is amassed often hits its mark in…
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Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane

There’s a refrain that spans time and distance. When circumstances…
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Rikers: An Oral History by Graham Rayman and Reuven Blau

A perk of landing at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport is the…
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Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe

If you peruse a public library’s nonfiction section, you’ll…
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River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile by Candice Millard

The Victorian era conjures much to mind, and it’s often a word…
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Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Adventures in Philosophy with My Kids by Scott Hershovitz

At the risk of alienating some readers right from the jump, I’ll…
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The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World by Riley Black

It’s something we know without recalling perhaps when and where…
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Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

If you are of a certain age, you may recall Jonathan Franzen,…
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Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages by Dan Jones

Pity the Middle Ages, so often derided as the dreary placeholder…
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Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

Heist tales lend themselves well to a cinematic telling. The…
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Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy and the New Battleground of the Cold War by Jeff Shesol

Shared national narratives matter. They cohere generations around…
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The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

Character-driven versus plot-driven stories: Readers of literary…
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Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Andrea Pitzer

Tales of polar expeditions haunt because we know how they end.…
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Inside Story: A Novel by Martin Amis

A frequently asked question of authors in "The New York Times…
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The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes by Zachary D. Carter

If there's one college course that seems to fall into the "liked…
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The Silence by Don DeLillo

Illusory though it is, there's an endorphin-rush moment when…
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The Standardization of Demoralization Procedures by Jennifer Hofmann

East Berlin, early November 1989. Protestors seeking political…
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The Hardest Job in the World: The American Presidency by John Dickerson

The time is nigh, fellow citizens. This Tuesday, we shall exercise…
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The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States by Walter Johnson

History runs through St. Louis like a current. It’s downtown…
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Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godrfey-Smith

You and I stand on one of evolution’s most privileged branches.…
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