Baum on Books

A young Hungarian man simply flows with the random events that shape his life for him. This profound feeling of detachment guides the main character of the novel Flesh. Author David Szalay won the 2025 Booker Prize for his work. It stood out so far from the other entries that judges of the Prize said they never read anything quite like it. WSHU’s Culture Critic Joan Baum read it, and she agrees.

An older woman learns that her eyesight is waning. That prompts her to start writing letters while she still can. Lots of letters. And these letters make up the novel that’s a sleeper hit this year. WSHU’s Book Critic Joan Baum reviews The Correspondent.

A no-nonsense lawyer takes on a dubious divorce case. Big mistake. He soon becomes embroiled in a Big Pharma scandal and murder. This is not a story from the daily headlines but the latest legal thriller by attorney Jeffrey Stephens. WSHU’s Book Critic Joan Baum says Illusions of Trust reads like 21st-century noir.

Lolita, the novel by Vladimir Nabokov, still stirs controversy seven decades after its first publication. The basic storyline is infamous. WSHU’s Book Critic Joan Baum says what often gets overlooked is Nabokov’s eloquent writing and his examination of how unchecked desire destroys lives.

It’s a vintage hardboiled detective novel, complete with greed, addiction, a mysterious death, and lots of colorful language. But WSHU’s Book Critic, Joan Baum, said Raymond Chandler’s iconic work, The Long Goodbye, and Chandler himself, are so much more.

He didn’t set out to be a philanthropist. But attorney Sandor Frankel’s life took an unanticipated turn, and he found himself managing a multi-billion-dollar trust fund for Leona Helmsley. Frankel writes about his life and career in his memoir, Accidental Philanthropist. WSHU's Book Critic Joan Baum has this review.

In her new memoir, Be Ready When The Luck Happens, Ina Garten reflects on her 77 years of life, love, work, and her creative concoctions from the kitchen. WSHU’s Book Critic Joan Baum read it and said Ina Garten’s life reveals more grit and perseverance than luck.

In Heartwood, Valerie Gill disappears while hiking the Appalachian Trail in Maine. Lost in the woods and her grief, her vanishing raises questions as a tense search unfolds. WSHU’s Culture Critic Joan Baum says it’s a stunning suspense novel.

Two hundred fifty years ago this year, the United States was born. It was written into existence with the Declaration of Independence. A new work by journalist Walter Isaacson focuses on the power of one specific sentence in that historic document and how it shaped a new nation. WSHU’s Culture Critic Joan Baum read it and has this review.

WSHU’s Book Critic Joan Baum was curious about the Nobel Prize-winning author for literature, a Hungarian writer whose work has been described as challenging. Joan read a translation of a recent novel, a 400-plus tome filled with particle physics, Angela Merkel, fearful townspeople, Nazis, and Johan Sebastian Bach. Joan discovered a nuanced story with an unconventional style. Demanding yes! But well worth reading.