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Simon Maxwell Apter Simon Maxwell Apter is online editor at Lapham's Quarterly. His commentaries and reviews have appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Nation, The Guardian and in other publications. He is also a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post. A former bread baker from Corvallis, Ore., he currently lives in Brooklyn.

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Simon Maxwell Apter

Simon Maxwell Apter

Book Critic

Simon Maxwell Apter is assistant editor at Lapham's Quarterly, where he also runs the Web site. His commentaries and reviews have appeared in The Nation, The Guardian, The American Prospect, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is also a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post.

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Monday November 2, 2009

Review

Book Reviews

'SuperFreakonomics': Forget What You Know (Again)

November 2, 2009 • In the follow-up to their 4-million-selling Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner fire yet another provocative salvo at conventional wisdom.

Friday August 21, 2009

Review

Book Reviews

A Snaking Tale Of Tragedy And Human Trafficking

August 21, 2009 • Patrick Radden Keefe's riveting new work of nonfiction, The Snakehead, explores the underworld of human smuggling that reached from China to New York City.

Friday July 31, 2009

Review

Book Reviews

A Scientist Homes In On Our Sense Of Direction

July 31, 2009 • You Are Here delves into the physiology and folklore of wayfinding. Alternating between scientific experiments and real-world examples, psychologist Colin Ellard bares the brain's algorithms for finding the body's location on the planet.

Tuesday July 7, 2009

Review

Book Reviews

Economics Reporter Becomes Part Of The Story

July 7, 2009 • It's ironic that a New York Times economics reporter found himself drowning under his own subprime mortgage. But if it could happen to him, Edmund L. Andrews argues in Busted, it's no surprise it happened to 8.3 million others.

Monday June 22, 2009

Review

Book Reviews

History Of 'White Power' Shows Hate Is Hard Work

June 22, 2009 • Reporting from Klan rallies and white-power mosh pits — then stepping back to anatomize the vagaries of racist philosophy — Leonard Zeskind's Blood and Politics offers a comprehensive portrait of American xenophobia.

Thursday May 7, 2009

Review

Book Reviews

Battle for MySpace — And The Web's Soul

May 7, 2009 • A startup in 2003, MySpace last year earned almost $1 billion. Julia Angwin chronicles the rise of this colossus, the oddities of its often tawdry Web culture and Rupert Murdoch's 2005 high-stakes battle for ownership.

Wednesday April 15, 2009

Review

Book Reviews

Her Majesty's Secret Service: The First 100 Years

April 15, 2009 • Timed for the centennial of MI5 and MI6, Gordon Thomas' history of British intelligence teems with double agents, whistle-blowers and moles. Drawn from Thomas' many contacts among spooks and spymasters, Secret Wars is a riveting read.

Thursday March 12, 2009

Review

Book Reviews

Bush's Troop Surge, The 'Gamble' That Paid Off

March 12, 2009 • The follow-up to his stingingly critical Iraq war history, Fiasco, Thomas Ricks' The Gamble details the men and maneuvers that made the U.S. troop surge of 2007 successful at reducing violence in Iraq.

Tuesday February 3, 2009

Review

Book Reviews

Colorful Characters, Black Gold In 'The Big Rich'

February 3, 2009 • Oil, ego and economics mix in Bryan Burrough's chronicle of the spectacular rise and often sordid fall of Texas' wealthiest and most powerful families.

Monday January 12, 2009

Review

Book Reviews

In Drug Underworld, Researcher Finds City's 'Soul'

January 12, 2009 • Social scientist Luke Bergmann put himself in the story when he moved to Detroit to study the underground drug economy. The risk was worth it: Getting Ghost provides an eye-opening portrait of a dark, alternative world hidden in plain site.

Wednesday November 26, 2008

Best Books of 2008

Best Political And Current Affairs Books Of 2008

November 26, 2008 • The events of 2008 raised a raft of controversies to national consciousness. These powerful books wrap the issues in compelling narratives — and provide the perspective of history.

Tuesday November 11, 2008

Review

Book Reviews

New Biography, Instant Karma For John Lennon

November 11, 2008 • Philip Norman's exhaustive and artfully sketched new biography of John Lennon explores the split between a man who could be cruel and violent, and the artist who inspired millions.

Tuesday October 14, 2008

Review

Book Reviews

Saving America Through Energy Innovation

October 14, 2008 • Fossil fuels are damaging our economy and national security, in addition to altering the world's climate. A green revolution, says Thomas Friedman, "is not about the whales." It's a competitive necessity.

Friday October 3, 2008

Review

Book Reviews

Bush, Cheney In History's First Drafts

October 3, 2008 • George Bush and Dick Cheney are certain history will justify their actions. But a reading of these two books, The War Within and Angler, suggests that vindication may be a long time coming.

Wednesday September 17, 2008

Review

Book Reviews

Blunt Prose Lays Bare Nightmare Of 'Forever War'

September 17, 2008 • Dexter Filkins' vignettes of life and death in Afghanistan and Iraq are true reports from the field. But these shell-shocked, cool accounts carry the power of literature.

'Forever War' author Dexter Filkins talks to NPR's Steve Inskeep on 'Morning Edition'

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Friday August 22, 2008

Review

Book Reviews

'Dark Side' Details A War On American Ideals

August 22, 2008 • In her new book, journalist Jane Mayer chronicles how the war on terror has undermined the U.S. Constitution. Reviewer Simon Maxwell Apter says that Mayer's exhaustive research and painfully blunt prose set The Dark Side apart from the dozens of other post-9/11 history books.

Friday August 15, 2008

Review

Book Reviews

'First Stop' Captures Lurid, Vibrant Mexico City

August 15, 2008 • Half shantytown, half boomtown, the teeming and complex Mexican capital defies coherent description. David Lida's sharply drawn vignettes are expansive and vivid — like the city itself.

Monday July 21, 2008

Review

Book Reviews

Cool Heads Prevail In 'One Minute To Midnight'

July 21, 2008 • In his thrilling postmortem of the Cuban missile crisis, Michael Dobbs reveals the role of tactical diplomacy — and luck — in ensuring a peaceful resolution to the Cold War standoff.

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