cover image
LATEST ISSUE OF
Kirkus Reviews
Check out our interview with Rick Yancey, author of the wildly entertaining YA thriller The 5th Wave.
Kirkus Star
THE KIRKUS STAR
Awarded to Books of Exceptional Merit

BROWSE BOOK REVIEWS



2011 Best of Nonfiction: The Complete List (page 5)

Cover art for WITNESS TO AN EXTREME CENTURY
NONFICTION
Released: June 14, 2011
Kirkus Star WITNESS TO AN EXTREME CENTURY: A MEMOIR
by Robert Jay Lifton
"A call for a moral awakening by a deeply compassionate chronicler of our times."
A memoir by a courageous psychiatrist and National Book Award winner whose life's work has been the study of why fundamentally decent individuals commit evil acts. Read full book review >
Cover art for MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD
NONFICTION
Released: June 14, 2011
Kirkus Star MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD: <I>UNCLE TOM'S CABIN</I> AND THE BATTLE FOR AMERICA
by David S. Reynolds
"A sharp work of cross-disciplinary criticism that gives new power to a diminished novel."
A provocative overview of the life and afterlife of one of American literature's most important texts. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE HONORED DEAD
NONFICTION
Released: June 14, 2011
Kirkus Star THE HONORED DEAD: A STORY OF FRIENDSHIP, MURDER, AND THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH IN THE ARAB WORLD
by Joseph Braude
"Despite the murky title, this is a beautifully composed, deeply felt journey inside Morocco."
An improbable pursuit of a strange murder in Casablanca segues into a moving study of cross-cultural friendship. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE MAN IN THE ROCKEFELLER SUIT
NONFICTION
Released: June 7, 2011
Kirkus Star THE MAN IN THE ROCKEFELLER SUIT: THE ASTONISHING RISE AND SPECTACULAR FALL OF A SERIAL IMPOSTOR
by Mark Seal
"Impossible to put down—Patricia Highsmith couldn't have written a more compelling thriller."
Vanity Fair contributing editor Seal (Wildflower: An Extraordinary Life and Untimely Death in Africa, 2009) unravels the complex case of "Clark Rockefeller," a fiendishly clever con man who, over the course of three decades, insinuated himself into the highest echelons of American society using only his wits and a borrowed name. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE INFLUENCING MACHINE
NONFICTION
Released: June 1, 2011
Kirkus Star THE INFLUENCING MACHINE: BROOKE GLADSTONE ON THE MEDIA
by Brooke Gladstone, illustrated by Josh Neufeld
"While some may see a sign of bias in the author's own media affiliation, this historical analysis of how and why media and society shape each other should prove illuminating for general readers and media practitioners alike."
Though the graphic format employed here is often playful and always reader friendly, this analysis of contemporary journalism is as incisive as it is entertaining, while offering a lesson on good citizenship through savvy media consumption. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE GREATER JOURNEY
NONFICTION
Released: May 24, 2011
Kirkus Star THE GREATER JOURNEY: AMERICANS IN PARIS
by David McCullough
"A gorgeously rich, sparkling patchwork, eliciting stories from diaries and memoirs to create the human drama McCullough depicts so well."
An ambitious, wide-ranging study of how being in Paris helped spark generations of American genius. Read full book review >