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Choose Nonbook Review Finalists 2025
Scott asks readers to help select finalists for the Non-Book Review Contest by rating entries through a provided form, with voting open until June 20.
6 min read 789 words
A thread through the archive
book review
Essays tagged “book review”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Essays on book review
221 essaysACX
Book Review: Selfish Reasons To Have More Kids
Scott reviews Bryan Caplan's book arguing that modern parents can relax their intensive parenting, while wrestling with whether this advice still applies in the age of smartphones and social media.
43 min read 6,596 words
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Everything-Except-Book Review Contest 2025
Scott announces a contest for reviews of anything except books, with prizes ranging from $500 to $2,500, due May 12th.
4 min read 587 words
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Book Review: From Bauhaus To Our House
Scott reviews Tom Wolfe's 'From Bauhaus To Our House', which explains how modernist architecture took over American buildings despite being widely disliked, through a combination of European influence, academic capture, and institutional pressures.
59 min read 9,114 words
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Book Review: The Rise Of Christianity
Scott Alexander reviews Rodney Stark's 'The Rise of Christianity', which examines factors contributing to Christianity's growth from a small cult to a dominant religion in the Roman Empire.
59 min read 9,077 words
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Book Review: Deep Utopia
Scott Alexander reviews Nick Bostrom's 'Deep Utopia', which explores the concept of a technologically perfect utopia and discusses how to maintain meaning and purpose in such a world.
34 min read 5,137 words
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Book Review Contest 2024 Winners
Scott Alexander announces the winners and finalists of the 2024 Book Review Contest, with prizes for the top three reviews.
10 min read 1,500 words
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Vote In The 2024 Book Review Contest
Scott Alexander opens voting for the 2024 Book Review Contest, explaining the approval voting system and listing the finalists.
3 min read 325 words
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Your Book Review: The Ballad of the White Horse
A review of G.K. Chesterton's 'The Ballad of the White Horse', examining its themes of hope, fate, and the need for constant renewal in preserving what is valuable.
40 min read 6,052 words
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Your Book Review: Nine Lives
A review of 'Nine Lives', a memoir by ex-jihadist turned spy Aimen Dean, offering insights into al-Qaeda's operations and the challenges of counterterrorism.
54 min read 8,314 words
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Your Book Review: The Pale King
A review of David Foster Wallace's 'The Pale King', examining its themes, the author's style and personal struggles, and the reviewer's evolving perspective on Wallace's work and legacy.
45 min read 6,959 words
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Your Book Review: The History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe
The review examines W.E.H. Lecky's book on the rise of rationalism in Europe, praising its scholarship and insights into the gradual shift from medieval to rational thinking.
15 min read 2,173 words
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Your Book Review: The Complete Rhyming Dictionary and Poet's Craft Book (1936 Edition)
A review of Clement Wood's 1936 'Complete Rhyming Dictionary and Poet's Craft Book', discussing its historical context and value as a resource for aspiring poets during a transitional period in poetry.
28 min read 4,304 words
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Your Book Review: Silver Age Marvel Comics
This review examines the importance of Silver Age Marvel Comics (1961-1965) as modern mythology, discussing their innovations and impact on comic book history.
82 min read 12,708 words
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Your Book Review: How the War Was Won
A review of 'How the War Was Won' by Phillips Payson O'Brien, which argues that Allied air and sea power, not land battles, were decisive in World War II.
36 min read 5,491 words
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Your Book Review: Two Arms and a Head
A review of 'Two Arms and a Head', a paraplegic's memoir and argument for physician-assisted suicide, exploring the book's content and the broader debate around Medical Assistance in Dying.
63 min read 9,629 words
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Your Book Review: Real Raw News
The review analyzes Real Raw News, a popular conspiracy theory website, examining its content, appeal, and implications in the context of modern media consumption and AI technology.
55 min read 8,377 words
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Your Book Review: How Language Began
The review examines Daniel Everett's 'How Language Began', which challenges Chomsky's linguistic theories and proposes an alternative view of language as a gradual cultural invention.
76 min read 11,773 words
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Your Book Review: The Family That Couldn’t Sleep
A review of 'The Family That Couldn't Sleep' by D. T. Max, discussing its exploration of prion diseases and their impact, with updated perspectives on the book's conclusions.
72 min read 11,039 words
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Your Book Review: Don Juan
A verse review of Lord Byron's 'Don Juan', analyzing its plot, style, and themes while mimicking Byron's poetic form.
24 min read 3,682 words
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Your Book Review: Dominion
In 'Dominion', conservative Christian Matthew Scully makes a comprehensive case for animal welfare, critiquing practices like factory farming and hunting from religious, ethical, and scientific perspectives.
44 min read 6,728 words
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Your Book Review: Autobiography Of Yukichi Fukuzawa
The review examines Yukichi Fukuzawa's autobiography, highlighting his role in modernizing Japan and his humorous, insightful account of 19th century Japanese society.
34 min read 5,202 words
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Book Review: The Others Within Us
Scott Alexander reviews a book on Internal Family Systems therapy that controversially claims some mental health issues are caused by literal demons.
49 min read 7,470 words
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Choose Book Review Finalists 2024
Scott Alexander seeks help in selecting finalists for the 2024 Book Review Contest by asking readers to rate entries from a pool of 150 reviews.
6 min read 889 words
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Book Review: The Origins Of Woke
Scott Alexander reviews 'The Origins of Woke', finding its critique of civil rights law informative but skeptical of its claim that such laws caused wokeness.
50 min read 7,625 words