Kirkus Star
THE KIRKUS STAR
Awarded to Books of Exceptional Merit

BROWSE BOOK REVIEWS




Top 18 July Nonfiction


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Cover art for OPIUM FIEND
NONFICTION
Released: July 1, 2012

"Ambitious and thoughtful work, successfully fusing the personal and social by raising complex questions about drugs, addiction and contested cultural narratives."
Boldly written, in-depth account of an expatriate aesthete's dalliance with opium. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE GREAT DIVIDE
NONFICTION
Released: July 1, 2012

"Watson makes a fascinating case that while there may be a single human nature, long exposure to dissimilar landscapes, food, animals and climate created two unique approaches to this nature."
An ingenious work about the course of human history. Read full book review >
Cover art for A SHIP WITHOUT A SAIL
NONFICTION
Released: July 3, 2012

""Ev'rything I've got belongs to you," goes one Hart lyric that now, thanks to the author's thorough, affectionate research, holds another, profoundly poignant meaning."
The author of The Label: The Story of Columbia Records (2007) returns with a deeply sympathetic biography of Lorenz Hart (1895–1943), the talented, troubled lyricist of film and Broadway fame. Read full book review >
Cover art for MONKEY MIND
NONFICTION
Released: July 3, 2012

"A true treasure-trove of insight laced with humor and polished prose."
Intimate, compelling memoir exploring the boundaries of the author's severe anxiety. Read full book review >
Cover art for AGENT GARBO
NONFICTION
Released: July 3, 2012

"A lively, rollicking good read."
The exciting, improbable adventures of a young Spanish spy who managed to become Britain's most effective tool in deceiving Hitler. Read full book review >
Cover art for SAVAGE CONTINENT
NONFICTION
Released: July 3, 2012

"Authoritative but never dry, stripping away soothing myths of national unity and victimhood, this is a painful but necessary historical task superbly done."
A breathtaking, numbing account of the physical and moral desolation that plagued Europe in the late 1940s. Read full book review >