Reviews Archive | Los Angeles Review of Books

All Reviews

No Survivors: Women, Violence, and the Brutal Love of Eileen Chang
Fate laughs in all our faces.
Carly J. HallmanJun 3, 2016
- Fiction
Forms of Living and Dying: The Posthumous Essays of “Becoming Earth”
Brenda Miller reviews Eva Saulitis’s posthumous essays that reflect on living and dying with cancer.
Brenda MillerJun 1, 2016
- Memoir & Essay
The Enemy Imaginary
A review of William V. Spanos’s scathing critique of American exceptionalism.
Christian P. HainesJun 1, 2016
- Philosophy & Religion
Algorithms: The Future That Already Happened
In “The Master Algorithm”, Domingos envisions an individually optimized future in which our digital better halves learn everything about us.
Michael S. EvansMay 31, 2016
- Science & Technology
Salvaging the Future
A review of a special journal issue on “The Futures Industry.”
David M. HigginsMay 31, 2016
- SF
Creatures Beyond the Man-Apes
There is no spoon-feeding, and Lydia Millet’s praiseworthy restraint from explaining the inexplicable gives this novel aspects of modern Gothic.
Eden RoyceMay 30, 2016
- Noir
The History of Prestige: Blanche Knopf and Literary Culture
Josh Lambert discusses the history of literary prestige with Alfred and Blanche Knopf.
Josh LambertMay 30, 2016
- Biography & Autobiography
Hyperdistractions
Dominic Pettman’s "Infinite Distraction" is, quite literally, a product of the processes it describes.
Shane DensonMay 29, 2016
- Philosophy & Religion
“The Irretrievable Cent of Fate”: Why We Need Delmore Schwartz Now More Than Ever
“Once and For All: The Best of Delmore Schwartz” is a new collection of his work, assembled as we wrestle with economic uncertainty.
Jason BoogMay 28, 2016
- Politics
A Complicated Canada
In "The Language of Secrets," Ausma Zehanat Khan vividly shares a complicated Canada few of us, with our naïve perceptions, pause to consider.
Désirée ZamoranoMay 27, 2016
- Noir
Theories of Nondomination and Justice
The operations of the modern democratic states may not be riveting — but they remain a bulwark against injustice.
Scott A. LucasMay 26, 2016
- Politics
Children of the Dammed: On the St. Francis Dam Disaster
The deadliest manmade disaster of 20th-century America and the making of modern Los Angeles.
Jeffrey BurbankMay 26, 2016
- History
The Elephant in the Seminar Room: Should the PhD Be Saved?
A review of Leonard Cassuto’s "The Graduate School Mess: What Caused It and How We Can Fix It".
Stephen MilderMay 26, 2016
- Cultural Studies
- Education
The Hidden Dying of Doctors: What the Humanities Can Teach Medicine, and Why We All Need Medicine to Learn It
There is an equally heartbreaking loss of another young doctor in Paul Kalanithi’s book, one especially troubling because it received almost no commentary.
Lois LeveenMay 25, 2016
Architects in the Hands of an Angry God: Charles and Ray Eames on Things
A review of "An Eames Anthology: Articles, Film Scripts, Interviews, Letters, Notes, and Speeches".
Todd CronanMay 25, 2016
- Art & Architecture
Speed Intoxication
When we ask why we don’t have enough time, we make it worse.
Jeffrey L. KoskyMay 24, 2016
- Education
- Philosophy & Religion