Book Review: The Real Lives of Roman Britain
/Archeological research has uncovered more than ever about the ordinary men and women who lived in Britain during the centuries of Roman occupation. A lively new book assesses what we know
Read MoreBook Review: The Blooding
/Matthew Hawkwood, James McGee's super-competent soldier-turned-spy, returns in another adventure, this time trapped in America during the War of 1812
Read MoreBook Review: Brothers in Blood
/In the latest Roman historical novel from old pro Simon Scarrow, two heroic legionaries are chasing an infamous local warlord in Britannia - and facing treachery from within their own ranks
Read MoreAlan Cheuse
/Alan Cheuse
Read MoreStarship Captains Do It On Impulse (Unfortunately)
/In fan-favorite Ernest Cline's new book, a young man raised on video games and cheesy sci-fi movies finds that they just might be the key to Earth's salvation. But is the 80's nostalgia of Armada self-defeating?
Read MoreThe Edge of Sin
/Robyn Cadwallader centers her debut novel on a young nun who volunteers to be walled away from all human contact for the rest of her life. Such women existed and, surprisingly, their lives were enormously full.
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 MoreNone of the Above
/Political scientist Ian Bremmer's new book looks at the changing nature of American power in the 21st century, but just how many false premises does the book employ?
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 MoreFirst Told the Myth of Orpheus
/a poem
Read More“A Reputable Outlaw”
/Was the duel at twenty paces a cancer on civil society or a gesture of defiance and an expression of individuality? Touche: The Duel in Literature looks to provide the reader satisfaction on that question.
Read MorePainful to Nice Feelings
/He sailed around Cape Horn and wrote a classic about it, and he fought for the downtrodden in Boston courts for thirty years - he was Richard Henry Dana, Jr., and he's the subject of a thought-provoking new biography.
Read MoreThe Happy Misanthrope
/Milan Kundera's newest and possibly final novel returns to the ideas he's pursued across his career, including his "categorical disagreement with being." Y. Greyman reviews.
Read MoreTHE BRIDGE OF ARTA
/a poem
Read MoreIt’s a Mystery: “It’s not important who fires the shot. It’s who pays for the bullet.”
/From the Perigord region of France to North Yorkshire, England to the Appalachian Trail - the locations of this trio of new mysteries by old hands might be far-flung, but for our mystery maven, crime is a universal language!
Read MoreThe Truth of a Thing
/Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life emphasized the contingency of any single story. In contrast, her new novel focuses on one life lived to the full. But for better or for worse, Atkinson can’t resist the lure of metafiction…
Read MoreBook Review: The Eagle in Splendour
/"How a Court LOOKS," remarked a courtier to one of England's more successful modern-day monarchs, "is at least as important as how a Court WORKS." A re-issued study from Philip Mansel looks at form and function in the court of Napoleon Bonaparte
Read MoreBook Review: For God and Kaiser
/"Austria," quipped Talleyrand, "has the tiresome habit of always being beaten" - but Richard Bassett's vigorous new history of the Imperial Austrian Army begs to differ!
Read MoreBook Review: Braddock's Defeat
/A French army and a British army stumble upon each other in the wilderness of the New World, and their conflict changes the nature of the world's biggest war
Read MoreBook Review: Rome's Revolution
/The epic change in ancient Rome from a Republic to an Empire hinged on one man: Julius Caesar. A new history tells the familiar story.
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