The week between Christmas and the New Year is unlike any other time of year. Hopefully, you have some extra free time to reflect on the past and look forward to the future. Why not take this opportunity to open up a new book? Or better yet, resolve to read more during the New Year. From children’s book authors to global politics, here are eight of our best book reviews from 2023.
Daniel J. Flynn, a senior editor of The American Spectator, reviews American Spectator founder and editor-in-chief R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.’s autobiography: “We meet in How Do We Get Out of Here? a main character who values humor, fun, truth-telling, and loyalty. Three of these four qualities made R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., a fantastic writer. All four of them made him a better friend.”
The Democrat Party Hates America
According to the editor of The American Spectator Paul Kengor, Mark Levin’s book is “the most powerful indictment of the Democrats that I’ve ever read. It’s so scathing, with so much information…You really need to buy the book and read it yourself.”
Roald Dahl: Teller of the Unexpected: A Biography
Matthew Dennison details the unexpectedly tragic life of the beloved children’s author. Leonora Cravotta, director of operations for The American Spectator, reflects on Dahl’s resilience in the face of tragedy, which allowed him to inspire children everywhere.
Untenable: The True Story of White Ethnic Flight from America’s Cities
Seth Forman reviews this book by Jack Cashill, which tells the untold history of “white flight” in 1960s and ’70s Newark, New Jersey. Cashill challenges the idea that this exodus was simply a result of racism and instead tells a story of crime and governmental overreach driving people from their homes.
Racism, Revenge and Ruin: It’s All Obama
The newest book from The American Spectator’s Scott McKay tackles the destructive presidency of Barack Obama’s presidency with the “boldness” that is one of his “strengths as an investigative journalist,” Jack Cashill writes. “[McKay] goes where others fear to tread” in this book that uncovers Obama’s campaign to destroy America.
Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever
Bruce Bawer gives an insightful critique of Matt Singer’s book, which he calls a “charming, well-deserved tribute to those two fellows in the balcony.”
This book tells the story of the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial, a 1925 court case that dealt with a Tennessee law that prohibited teaching evolution in public schools. Contributing editor Jeffrey Lord contends that this story can help us understand free speech issues today.
The Loom of Time: Between Empire and Anarchy from the Mediterranean to China
Francis P. Sempa reviews this book by Roger D. Kaplan, which warns that “U.S. foreign policy needs to deal with the world as it is, not as we want it to be.” Kaplan focuses on the “almost unnoticed” threat of China’s “empire building across Central Asia into the Middle East and Africa to the Mediterranean Sea.”
Donald Devine reviews Robert Luddy’s book detailing Luddy’s educational approach that “could revolutionize American elementary and secondary education and save the nation’s deserving children from today’s failing public schools.”
