Book Review: Snowden
/The life of infamous NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, in comic book form
Read MoreBook Review: Self and Soul
/A spirited defense of humanist intangibles in a culture obsessed with material gain
Read More“I am eager to play chess – I have mastered nine skills”
/At the beginning of the 19th century, a small trove of elaboratedly carved chess pieces was uncovered on a remote beach - a lively new book traces the history and strange charisma of the Lewis chessmen.
Read MoreFosse's Dark Vision
/Director Bob Fosse dreamed that his 1983 movie Star 80 would put him in the front ranks of Hollywood, but what resulted was both stranger and - our reviewer urges - more powerful than it first seemed.
Read MoreKnow Your Name
/Game of Thrones is remarkably faithful to George R. R. Martin’s original epic series, except for one vital element: it transforms his subversive morality into conventional fantasy.
Read MoreKnowledge of the Life
/What are literary biographies good for, anyway? Do they provide insight into the work or just tittle-tattle about the life? Scott Donaldson's The Impossible Craft offers a brief on this endlessly alluring genre.
Read MoreAn Impressionistic Outlier
/Lesser-known - and perhaps just plain lesser? - French Impressionist painter Gustave Caillebotte gets his first major American retrospective.
Read MoreBook Review: Voltaire's Revolution
/For the better part of a century, Voltaire waged a sometimes solitary battle against the iniquities of organized religion. A great new book brings together fresh translations of some of the philosopher's most biting works.
Read More“The Strangest Teens of All”
/The venerable concept of the superhero team dates back to 1940, but in 1975 Marvel Comics introduced a new team of X-Men - and an empire was born.
Read MoreEileen Chang’s Changes: from Love in Redland to Naked Earth
/Eileen Chang would never have written her hot-button anticommunist masterpiece Naked Earth without US Government encouragement and support. What should contemporary readers make of this?
Read MoreInterview: Debut author Geoffrey Storm
/Debut author Geoffrey Storm started down the usual path - writing conferences, agents - but then decided to take the route so many new authors are taking and self-publish his first novel. He talks with Open Letters about that process.
Read MoreAmerican Exceptional
/Adam Begley's long and exhaustive biography of iconic 20th century author John Updike reads like one long string of new books and new love affairs - but does it capture the man?
Read MoreSteep, Bloody Engagements
/The success of the documentary Blackfish has thrown a spotlight on orcas not as the "killer" whales of the ocean but as victims; a dazzling new natural history broadens the picture to show us truly magnificent alien beings.
Read MoreA Moon, A Girl … Romance!
/Sure, we all know Superman, Wonder Woman, and Spider-Man - but what about the also-rans? Who played the Captain and Tennille to the Avengers' Sonny and Cher? Zach Rabiroff looks at the heroes who didn't quite make the prime-time cut.
Read MoreCaved-in and Chopfallen
/The brutal realities of the urban landscape are both indicted and illuminated in the paintings of Jerome Witkin. Brett Busang examines the life and work of this inner city Canaletto.
Read MorePoor People are Like Oysters: The Life of Giovanni Verga
/Most people today know him only from the libretto of one short opera, but in his own day, he was a famous poet, playwright, and scholar - and a compulsive litigant. Luciano Mangiafico looks at the life of Giovanni Verga.
Read MoreBook Review: The World Beyond Your Head
/The "ecologies of attention and action" form the dynamic heart of philosopher Matthew Crawford's new book. Robert Minto reviews.
Read MoreBook Review: Shakespeare and the Countess
/The 1596 battle over Blackfriars Theatre was waged by a strong-willed Puritan woman who had a habit of picking fights, including with the Queen; a terrific new book tells the story at length for the first time
Read MoreFather Knows Best
/He shaped the morals and manners of a vast country and put an indelible stamp on the world's thinking, but he himself couldn't get the job he wanted. Robert Minto reviews a new history of Confucianism.
Read MoreLovin', Touchin', Squeeezin'
/It has three hearts, eight tentacles, and a brain of startling and utterly alien complexity - it's the octopus, and a heartfelt book takes readers inside the cephalopod world.
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