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The Stacks

All book reviews

239 honest reviews across fiction, non-fiction, mystery, sci-fi, romance, and more.

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It

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

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

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.

Mexican Gothic

Mexican Gothic

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 2020 review. Noemi Taboada is summoned to the remote Mexican mountain town of El Triunfo to rescue her cousin from her new husband's family. The canonical contemporary Latin American gothic horror novel and the 2020 Bram Stoker winner.

Circe

Circe

by Madeline Miller

Circe by Madeline Miller 2018 review. The witch-goddess of the Odyssey narrates her own life. Miller's second novel and the canonical contemporary feminist mythic re-telling.

The Song of Achilles

The Song of Achilles

by Madeline Miller

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller 2011 review. The Trojan War retold from Patroclus's perspective, written by a classicist with the patience the source material deserves. The novel that defined the contemporary feminist mythic re-telling subgenre and rebuilt Miller's audience for Circe.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

by Gabrielle Zevin

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin 2022 review. Three decades of creative collaboration between two video-game designers. The breakout literary commercial novel of 2022 and one of the canonical contemporary novels about friendship and work.

Columbia Accident Investigation Report

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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.