Weekend book notes

Borrowing from Ralph Luker this weekend:

Carlin Romano, "Perspectives on the fall of the Berlin Wall," LA Times, 8 November, reviews Stephen Kotkin's Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment, Michael Meyer's The Year That Changed the World: The Untold Story Behind the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Constantine Pleshakov's There Is No Freedom Without Bread!: 1989 and the Civil War That Brought Down Communism, and Jeffrey A. Engel, ed., The Fall of the Berlin Wall: The Revolutionary Legacy of 1989.

Ted Widmer, "Electoral excitement, all over again," Washington Post, 8 November, reviews Dan Balz's and Haynes Johnson's The Battle for America: The Story of an Extraordinary Election.

Gregory Cowles, "Stray Questions for: Woody Holton," Paper Cuts, 6 November, interviews the University of Richmond historian, whose new book on Abigail Adams appeared this week.

Jenna Weissman Joselit, "Founding Father," Tablet, 5 November, reviews Bruce Feiler's America's Prophet: Moses and the American Story.

Melanie Kirkpatrick, "China's Mystery Lady," WSJ, 3 November, reviews Hannah Pakula's The Last Empress: Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the Birth of Modern China.

Tariq Ali, "The life and death of Trotsky," Guardian, 31 October, reviews Bertrand M. Patenaude's Stalin's Nemesis: The Exile and Murder of Leon Trotsky and Robert Service's Trotsky: A Biography.

Harold Bloom, "The Critic's Critic," NYT, 5 November, reviews David Nokes's Samuel Johnson: A Life.