The Stacks
All book reviews
115 honest reviews across fiction, non-fiction, mystery, sci-fi, romance, and more.
Showing 49-72 of 115
It
by Stephen King
It by Stephen King 1986 review. Seven friends return to Derry, Maine, to face the shape-shifting evil they fought as children. One of the great American novels about childhood and the past.
The Stand
by Stephen King
The Stand by Stephen King 1978 (and 1990 Complete & Uncut) review. A weaponized plague kills 99 percent of humanity. The survivors are pulled toward Boulder or toward Las Vegas, and the novel that follows is one of the great American epics of its decade.
11/22/63
by Stephen King
11/22/63 by Stephen King 2011 review. An English teacher discovers a portal to 1958 and decides to stop the Kennedy assassination. The single best late-King novel and the rare time-travel book that earns its 849 pages.
Columbia Accident Investigation Report
by Robert Godwin
Columbia Accident Investigation Report 2003 edited by Robert Godwin review. The full text of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) report, the primary-source document on the 2003 Shuttle Columbia loss.
Apollo 12: The Nasa Mission Reports, Volume 2
by Robert Godwin
Apollo 12: The NASA Mission Reports, Volume 2 edited by Robert Godwin 2000 review. The primary-source NASA documentation volume on the second crewed lunar landing.
The Encyclopedia of Fantasy
by John Grant
The Encyclopedia of Fantasy edited by John Clute and John Grant 1997 review. The 1,049-page critical reference work that defined how the field thinks about itself.
Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet
by Katie Hafner
Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet by Katie Hafner 1996 review. The first serious history of ARPANET and the team at BBN that built it, written by reporters who actually talked to the engineers.
First Man : The Life of Neil A. Armstrong
by James R. Hansen
First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James R. Hansen 2005 review. The authorized 769-page biography of Armstrong that became the source for the 2018 Ryan Gosling film, and is meaningfully better than the film remembers.
Make Room Make Room
by Harry Harrison
Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison 1966 review. The 1966 Hugo-nominated overpopulation novel that became the 1973 film Soylent Green, and is meaningfully better than the film remembers.
Rubyfruit Jungle
by Rita Mae Brown
Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown 1973 review. The landmark coming-of-age novel about Molly Bolt, a smart, queer Florida kid who refuses every social script she is handed.
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
by John Clute
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by John Clute review. The canonical SF reference work edited by Clute, Peter Nicholls, and David Langford. The right starting point for serious genre study.
Microserfs
by Douglas Coupland
Microserfs by Douglas Coupland review. The 1995 novel about Microsoft programmers starting a Bay Area startup. The defining Silicon Valley novel of its decade.
Into the Darkest Corner
by Elizabeth Haynes
Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes review. The 2011 debut about a young woman rebuilding her life after escaping a violent partner. Genuinely terrifying domestic suspense.
The Fear Artist
by Timothy Hallinan
The Fear Artist by Timothy Hallinan review. The 5th Poke Rafferty Bangkok thriller. A travel-writer father, a dying CIA contact, and the Thai military police as the antagonist. Genuinely terrifying.
Herbie's Game
by Timothy Hallinan
Herbie's Game by Timothy Hallinan review. The 4th Junior Bender comic-crime novel. Junior's mentor Herbie Mott dies. Hallinan's most emotionally weighty entry yet.
Hey Nostradamus!
by Douglas Coupland
Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland review. A 2003 novel about a 1988 high-school massacre and the people it ruined. Four narrators across decades, devastating.
Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
by Douglas Coupland
Generation X by Douglas Coupland review. The 1991 novel that named a generation. A trio of young Californians, the desert, and one of the genuinely defining literary debuts of the 90s.
The Hours
by Michael Cunningham
The Hours by Michael Cunningham review. The 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that triangulates Virginia Woolf, a 1949 LA housewife, and a contemporary NYC editor. One of the great American literary novels of its decade.
The Fame Thief
by Timothy Hallinan
The Fame Thief by Timothy Hallinan review. The 3rd Junior Bender LA comic-crime novel. A 1950s Hollywood blacklist mystery, an ensemble of nonagenarian Mafia, the series at its absolute peak.
Karen Memory
by Elizabeth Bear
Elizabeth Bear's 2015 steampunk Western. A Pacific Northwest brothel, a young woman protagonist with the strongest first-person voice in recent SF, and one of the most enjoyable SF novels of its decade.
The Encyclopedia of Fantasy
by John Clute
John Clute and John Grant's 1997 reference work. The canonical fantasy encyclopedia. Still the right starting point for serious genre study.
Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth
by Camille Bacon-Smith
Camille Bacon-Smith's 1992 ethnographic study of media fandom. Foundational academic work on fan communities and serious nonfiction worth reading on its own terms.
Human Remains
by Elizabeth Haynes
Elizabeth Haynes's 2013 psychological thriller about an epidemic of solitary deaths. Genuinely terrifying, beautifully written, severely underread.
Little Elvises
by Timothy Hallinan
The second Junior Bender novel. A 70s music-industry investigation, a senior-citizen Mafia kingpin, and Hallinan tightening every dial.