Book Review: Designing Nature
/Japanese Rinpa-style artwork takes center stage in a stunning new book and exhibit from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Read MoreBook Review: Rise to Greatness
/"It was the year in which the Civil War became a cataclysm, the federal government became a colossus, and the Confederacy came nearest to winning its independence ..."
Read MoreNow in Paperback: Forever Rumpole
/A generous collection of stories featuring John Mortimer's immortal creation, wine-swilling judge-taunting criminal-defending barrister, Horace Rumpole of the Old Bailey
Read MoreA conversation with David Abed
/"Inside the Glass Origin" (detail)By David Abed
Read MoreCD of the Week - Vivaldi's Four Seasons Recomposed
/You may wonder if Vivaldi's overexposed Four Seasons needs a new recording, but Max Richter's inspired recomposition gives the hoary old favorite a shot in the arm
Read MoreGuest Movie Review: Cloud Atlas
/Time-bending? Gender-bending? Race-bending? "Cloud Atlas" drifts onto Mr. Anderson's radar.
Read MoreBook Review: Among the Islands
/At the beginning of his career, the great scientist-explorer Tim Flannery literally sailed to the ends of the earth and back - here he sits down to tell some of those stories
Read MoreJacques Barzun
/Jacques Barzun (1907 - 2012)
Read MoreBook Review: The Lion Sleeps Tonight
/The celebrated South African author of "My Traitor's Heart" publishes a collection of his rabble-rousing, fortifying New Journalism pieces
Read MoreCD of the Week - Carl Nielsen
/New for classical music lovers is an invigorating recording of the symphonies of Danish composer Carl Nielsen, as well as a trio of dazzling piano recitals. As always, Norman Lebrecht reviews.
Read MoreComics: The Shadow - Blood & Judgment
/Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows! With some ample assistance from comics legend Howard Chaykin
Read MoreBook Review: Spillover
/The burgeoning human population is encountering new and strange pathogens every day - how long until one of them becomes the next HIV ... or Black Death?
Read MoreGuest Movie Review: Alex Cross
/The best-selling James Patterson novel, featuring his most popular recurring character, gets a big-screen adaptation
Read MoreBook Review: Through the Eye of a Needle
/The new book by the great Peter Brown examines a deep conflict: Christ specifically orders Christians to be poor, but Christians would rather not be, thanks just the same.
Read MoreBook Review: The Founders and Finance
/The newly-born United States was a disorganized and largely bucolic hodge-podge until three clear-eyed financiers - all of them immigrants - worked to create a new and more monetized system
Read MoreBook Review: Joseph Anton
/The great novelist tells the beguiling story of the man he became in order to escape a death sentence
Read MoreCD of the Week - Anu Komsi
/Norman Lebrecht reviews a five-star recording from the extraordinary Finnish soprano Anu Komsi
Read MoreGuest Movie Review: Argo
/Director Ben Affleck's latest, "Argo," is a real Hollywood movie about a fake Hollywood movie way back in the 1970s
Read MoreBook Review: The Ice Castle
/To find their missing cousin, young heroes Daphne and Ivan must return to the magical land of Lexicon and confront yet more of its brain-teasing adventures.
Read MoreComics: Essential Thor Volume 6
/Marvel's resident thunder god-superhero Thor goes through some epic adventures in the latest volume of "Essential" reprints.
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