Ron Charles Book Recommendations & Book Mentions

Ron Charles

Utterly ridiculous and deeply satisfying... Without in any way diminishing the seriousness of the threats we’re facing or the difficulty of restoring moral and political order to the United States, humor remains a powerful weapon to pierce the armor of tyrants and raise the spirits of patriots.

Ron Charles

Unforgettable characters... This astonishing novel, at once so primeval and so sophisticated, pulses with the same hopes and terrors that first pricked our imaginations around a fire as the sun set.

Ron Charles

The plot of his latest book may feel copy-pasted from the risk factors outlined in some hot IPO, but it’s a searching examination of family dynamics and the burdens that no machine will ever lift for us... it presents deep ethical questions about fault and responsibility.

Ron Charles

Prepare to be awed... A mind-blowing reflection on what it means to live on a dying planet... I wasn't prepared for the astonishing resolution that Powers delivers. In the now-vast library of fiction and nonfiction books reminding us of the planet's imperiled condition, I can't think of another novel that treats the Earth's plight with such an expansive and disorienting vision...

Ron Charles

Shteyngart’s new novel, “Vera, or Faith,” tastes at first like a cherry-flavored gumdrop, but it’ll burn a hole in your tongue...But as the comedy seeps out of this story like air from a tire, the novel keeps picking up speed until it’s grinding on its rims.

Ron Charles

Except for one extraordinary scene, everything Newman does takes place within the confines of that grim original story. Somehow, she has stuck her tweezers into Orwell’s bottle and rebuilt the ship pointing the other way.

Out of stock

Ron Charles

Starting off 2025 with a novel this terrific gives me hope for the whole year... A bildungsroman from which anger has been vented, and what's left behind is redolent with insight, tenderness and forgiveness...

Ron Charles

There is, apparently, no statute of limitations on spoilers. Today, a Gentle Reader takes us to task for incidentally revealing the endings of Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” and Leo Tolstoy's “War and Peace.” https://t.co/vDopclahhE

Ron Charles

I haven’t felt quite like this about a book since I was dazzled by Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections... But despite his equally capacious reach, Schaefer is no Franzen wannabe. If anything, he’s looser, confident enough to be sweet... [his] satiric tongue never develops fangs.

Ron Charles

Here is a writer of such intimate and insightful prose that stealing away with him for a few hours in another world feels closer to trespassing than reading ... Great writing: As it crystallizes, it grips slowly, quietly, with crushing impact.