Nonfiction

This biography of the comic strip legend feels written from the inside out, despite the author never having had the opportunity to interview Schulz, who died in 2000. David Michaelis had to depend, instead, on conversations with family members and research into materials at Schulz's California studio. The triumph of the book is that it takes readers inside the mind of a fundamentally solitary man whose simple-looking postwar comic strip became a visual reflection, interpretation of, and guide to the times.

—Michael Kenney / Globe Correspondent

Best of fiction | Best of nonfiction