Synopses & Reviews
This collection of reviews and re-evaluations by Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic Jonathan Yardley considers lesser-known works from renowned authors and underappreciated talents, and offers fresh takes on old favorites. Yardley's reviews of sixty titles include fiction by Gabriel Garcia Márquez, John Cheever, and Henry Fielding; the autobiography of Louis Armstrong; essays by Nora Ephron; and Margaret Leach's history of Washington during the Civil War.
Second Readings is also the memoir of a passionate and lifelong reader told through the books that have meant the most to him. Playing the part of both reviewer and bibliophile, Yardley takes on Steinbeck and Salinger, explores the southern fiction of Shirley Ann Grau and Eudora Welty, looks into a darker side of Roald Dahl and praises the pulp fiction of William Bradford Huie and the crime novels of John McDonald.
Review
"The most interesting, intelligent book reviewer published in the English language." Dallas Morning News
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"This is a wonderful book to pick through, looking for authors you know and a lot you probably don't. Jonathan Yardley is like the best sort of librarian." Bookslut
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"A wonderful collection of reviews and essays about books you may have missed....Yardley's writing is forthright and lively, and he makes me want to read books by the authors he touts. Ellen Glasgow? Shirley Ann Grau? William Bradford Huie? Yes, yes, yes!" Minneapolis Star Tribune
About the Author
Jonathan Yardley has been a book critic and columnist at the Washington Post since 1981. He has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism and a Fellowship from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University . He is the author of six books of non-fiction, including Ring: A Biography of Ring Lander (Random House, 1977) and Misfit: The Strange Life of Frederick Exley (Random House, 1997). Yardley lives in Washington DC.