Book Review: The Fate of Rome
/To the long list of potential explanations for the fall of Rome, a gripping new book adds one more: climate change.
Read MoreIn Paperback: Beyond the Red
/The relationship between an alien queen and a renegade warrior forms the heart of Jae's epic SFF novel set on the desert planet Safara in "Beyond the Red," now in paperback.
Read MoreBook Review: Giannozzo Manetti
/New in the I Tatti series: a tract in praise of Christianity (at the expense of Jews and ancient pagans) by a towering figure of the early Renaissance.
Read MoreBook Review: The First Domestication
/The ancient partnership between humans and canines is the subject of a thorough new volume of research
Read MoreBook Review: Spineless
/A fascinating new book looks at the unendingly odd jellyfish - and some of the unexpected roles it plays in the 21st century world.
Read MoreBook Review: The Friendly Orange Glow
/A tremendously involving narrative history of a forgotten chapter in Internet history
Read MoreBook Review: The Dawn Watch
/A fantastic new biography of Joseph Conrad follows him around in his travels and delves into the heart of his many books.
Read MoreNorman Lebrecht's CD of the Week - Cecilia and Sol
/The present album brings together the super-mezzo Cecilia Bartoli and cellist Sol Gabetta. It is as good as it gets, until you realize that you can get too much of a good thing.
Read MoreMoments of Being: Virginia Woolf's Short Fiction
/Woolf’s short fiction is under-appreciated, but in its outpourings of place and feeling we find the style and rhythm that also created her great experimental novels.
Read MoreBook Review: The Big Book of the Continental Op
/All of Dashiell Hammett's stories and novels featuring the Continental Op, collected in one volume for the first time.
Read MoreNorman Lebrecht's Album of the Week - Late Schubert Sonatas
/Some records grab you by the ears, others take longer to impress. It is in no sense to Krystian Zimerman’s discredit that his first attempt at late Schubert took three spins on my deck before I grasped the originality of his interpretation.
Read MoreBook Review: Cartoon County
/In "Cartoon County," Vanity Fair editor Cullen Murphy recounts his famous cartoonist father's adventures during the heyday of the American pop art industry.
Read MoreBook Review: Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts
/The life stories of twelve incredible medieval manuscripts.
Read MoreBook Review: The Water Will Come
/A powerful new book covers in terrifying detail what happens to the modern world if Earth's ice caps dissolve.
Read MoreNorman Lebrecht's Album of the Week - Les Troyens
/The need for a new-gen recording of Berlioz’s epic opera Les Troyens is pressing. A new release aims for the crown and hits its mark.
Read MoreA World Apart
/The re-introduction of a wolf pack to Yellowstone National Park led to ecological changes even some naturalists didn't foresee - and gave rise to the daily dramas recounted in Nate Blakeslee's new book.
Read MoreFaience and Light
/Vermeer is the name we all know, but a new exhibition demonstrates the charm and beauty of his contemporaries in 17th-century Dutch genre painting.
Read MoreA Bygone Present
/An eerie atmosphere and finely-watched details are among the strange strengths of Fiona Mozley's odd debut novel Elmet - and among its weaknesses.
Read MoreA Sheet of Iron All Night
/The battle of Passchendaele is remembered as one of the most futile and horrific of the First World War. A new history by Nick Lloyd searches for some method behind the mud and madness.
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