One-Minute Book Reviews

Diana, the late Princess of Wales, has had a long afterlife at bookstores. Since her death 27 years ago, we’ve had memoirs by her butler, housekeeper, bodyguard, hairdresser, “alternative hea...

https://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2024/10/27/did-we-really-another-book-about-diana/

As a critic, I’m used to hype from book publicists. It’s their job to sell books, and the best do it with as much integrity as their work allows. What I’m not used to is that so many journa...

https://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2024/10/21/have-the-media-oversold-sally-rooney/

I wanted to have a dependable author on hand when Hurricane Helene threatened recently–ideally, in a print rather than Kindle edition in case of a power outage. With a bit of luck, I found my w...

https://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2024/09/29/ben-macintyre-shows-in-the-siege-why-hes-the-alpha-dog-of-nonfiction-thriller-authors/

Ursula Parrott shocked Jazz Age readers with Ex-Wife, which fictionalized some of her experiences with free love and easier even sex after her separation from her husband in the 1920s. I’ve rev...

https://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2024/09/19/a-novel-that-shocked-readers-in-the-roaring-twenties-with-its-tales-of-easy-sex/

I used to be the book columnist for Glamour magazine and, in that job, acquired a healthy skepticism of claims by the beauty industry. Are any products truly “antiaging”? Can makeup shades be...

https://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2024/08/26/what-beauty-magazines-dont-tell-you-about-overpriced-products-and-painful-treatments/

Does it ever seem to you that the media have no ethics left? That they’re just chasing the latest trends or repeating the hottest gossip? It’s true that standards have declined alarmingly acr...

https://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2024/08/19/how-to-understand-journalists-ethics/

Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend has had a cult following for years, and it’s turned into a stampede. The novel has just been tapped by the editors of the New York Times as the August sel...

https://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2024/08/04/are-we-being-played-by-elena-ferrante/

Ernest Hemingway’s public image involves a lot of macho posturing. He wrote so much about war, hunting, fishing, and other traditionally male pursuits that it’s easy to overlook the question:...

https://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2024/07/24/was-hemingway-fair-to-women/

A question I wrestle with often is: When should you give up on a novel? How much do you have to read to give it a fair try? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. It depends on your tastes, inter...

https://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2024/07/18/when-should-you-give-up-on-a-novel/

This weekend the New York Times ran a profile of Scarlett Johansson so gushing, it bordered on satire. Written by the columnist Maureen Dowd, the story promoted the actress’s new movie “Fly M...

https://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2024/07/14/should-you-live-like-scarlett-johansson-the-new-york-times-thinks-so-but-i-disagree/

I never worshipped the short story writer Alice Munro, as so many did, but I admired her work and saw her 2013 Nobel Prize in literature as defensible. Can Munro’s legacy survive a scandal that...

https://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2024/07/10/can-alice-munros-legacy-survive-the-scandal-that-has-tainted-her-literary-reputation/

Can we all agree that, whatever you think of Biden or Trump, we should leave their wives alone? Or at least not blame them for the faults of the men they married? Apparently not. Since the June 2...

https://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2024/07/06/why-dont-we-treat-first-ladies-better/

Journalists and scholars have a lot of theories about why Donald Trump appeals to voters. But as far as I know, none of them has mentioned a 125-year-old book that was a blockbuster in its day. E...

https://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2024/07/04/does-a-125-year-old-book-explain-the-rise-of-donald-trump/

Most of us have heard since childhood, “You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.” But is it really true? Not in my experience. We judge houses by their curb appeal and online daters by whet...

https://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2024/07/01/the-biggest-myth-about-books-you-should-never-judge-them-by-their-covers/

Your core values may be the most challenging topic to write about in a short piece such as a blog post. They often seem to transcend words, or to affect so many areas of your life, they could fil...

https://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2024/06/20/quick-tips-on-writing-about-your-core-values/