Mark Stevens's Blog

Caroline Fraser, “Murderland”

Microplastics in our bloodstream. Self-combusting rivers. The increase in atmospheric carbon levels. On and on. There were tens of thousands of years when humankind didn’t dig up or burn up or refashion natural resources at a giant scale and then … Continue reading →

Lou Berney, “Crooks”

Sentences come firing like ammo. Crooks is built for speed. The story is a zipping bullet of scams and cons and action and family drama. It’s an All-American saga about a crime family that knows wrong from right and wrong … Continue reading →

William Boyle, “Saint of The Narrows Street”

Risa. Guilia. Fab. Sav. They are all there in the first few pages. The trouble is already sunk deep into the bones of the opening moments. The problem is intractable. The mood is sour. The future, for Risa, looks like … Continue reading →

Neko Case, “The Harder I Fight The More I Love You”

I never thought I’d use the phrase “no spoilers here” when writing a review of a memoir but that’s the case with The Harder I Fight The More I Love. Maybe the moment is explored in other reviews, but I’m … Continue reading →

L. Annette Binder, “Child of Earth and Starry Heaven”

Near the end of Child of Earth and Starry Heaven, L. Annette Binder draws solace from a poem that’s 3,000 years old. The Epic of Gilgamesh. It’s Binder’s husband who thinks there might be something to learn from the moment … Continue reading →

Charlotte McConaghy, “Wild Dark Shore”

Wild, unusual setting—count me in. Underlying theme around climate change—I’m there. Sharply drawn characters—bring it on. Story of survival, intrigue, a kind of dystopian mystery with a dash of adventure, all with a relatively small cast and told through rotating … Continue reading →

Ken Jaworowski, “What About The Bodies”

It’s not called Locksburg for nothing. Carla: “The restaurant is my hope that I can end up differently than how I must have appeared at the starting gate, and at pretty much any time before I hit forty.” Liz: “I had a lot more to say but muttered it mostly inside my head, as I … … Continue reading →

John W. Miller, “The Last Manager”

Longtime Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver career was a “pivot point in baseball history”? He “saw straight into baseball’s future?” And Earl Weaver (wait for it) quoted Shakespeare? John Miller makes an arresting case about the keen baseball insights of … Continue reading →

Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, “Abundance”

It’s possible future historians will look back on the first quarter of the 21st Century—and who knows how much longer the current political intractability will last—and tag it as another kind of dark ages in the United States. The number … Continue reading →

Philip Kerr, “A German Requiem”

Post-war can be as messy and complicated as war itself. It can create a dense fog of confusion that creates the perfect atmosphere for bad guys. Identities can be shed like old snakeskins, crimes can be overlooked as civilizations regain … Continue reading →