Book Review: Becoming Leonardo
/An unconventional and compulsively readable new biography tries to get at the heart of the quintessential Renaissance Man.
Read MoreThe Outdoor Sculpture of Washington, D.C.
/Our book today is The Outdoor Sculpture of Washington, D. C., a tall, jam-packed 1974 compendium, a “comprehensive historical guide” to all the public works of sculpture on display in the nation’s capital, by James Goode, who was at the time the curator of the Smithsonian Institute’s famous “Castle.” Every time I take the book […]
Read MoreBook Review: Protestants
/A invigorating new history looks at the tumultuous 500-year history of Protestantism
Read MoreRomance Roundup: A Trio of April-Blizzard Regencies!
/Our books today form just the kind of sprightly, colorful, optimistic trio of reading experiences you very much want when your April commences with a blinding blizzard of sodden slop and howling winds: we have three new Regency romances of exactly the type to put a smile on my face regardless of what the […]
Read MoreBook Review: The Imagineers of War
/Famed in pop culture, the unconventional geniuses of DARPA were tasked with developing the technology of the future, today. A big new book delves into the history of the Pentagon's think-tank.
Read MoreLife on Mars!
/Our book today is the latest whimsical masterpiece from the great childrens book writer and illustrator Jon Agee: Life on Mars. The story begins with an intrepid young space explorer arriving on the planet Mars. He leaves his spaceship on a very definite mission, and it’s not just to find life on Mars. It’s also […]
Read MoreLèse-Majesté
/"A Year with the Tudors II" continues with a comprehensive new biography of King Henry VIII's fifth wife, the flighty teenager Catherine Howard.
Read MoreBook Review: Martin Luther, Renegade and Prophet
/A smart and rewarding new biography seeks to portray the very human man underneath the multilayered legend of Martin Luther.
Read MoreBook Review: The Imagineers of War
/For decades, the weirdos and shaggy-haired mad-genius inventors of DARPA have toiled in well-funded obscurity; a new book uses recently-declassified material to tell their story.
Read MoreBook Review: Fallen Glory
/A lavishly-produced new book details humanity's long love-hate relationship with some of its most famous and iconic buildings.
Read MoreA Bittersweet New Era in the Penny Press!
/The latest issue of The New York Review of Books arrived on my doorstep last week, and it quickly became the saddest issue of the NYRB I’ve ever read – because this was the first issue I read after the death of the journal’s legendary editor, Bob Silvers. He’d been there from the beginning, and […]
Read MoreBook Review: A History of Ancient Egypt from the Great Pyramid to the Fall of the Middle Kingdom
/The author's multi-volume history of Ancient Egypt now reaches the high points of that culture's power and refinement.
Read MoreBook Review: Carnivore Minds
/Sharks, bears, rattlesnakes ... these and other infamous apex carnivores long considered mindless killing machines are given a fresh and nuanced re-examination in G. A. Bradshaw's new book.
Read MoreBook Review: The New Neotropical Companion
/A classic nature guide gets an elaborate, beautiful update.
Read MoreComics! Big Red Guys in Capes!
/Both DC and Marvel Comics have always had their flagship Big Guy in a Red Cape – with DC it’s of course been Superman, the strongest and most powerful of all the DC superheroes, and with Marvel it’s been the thunder god Thor, the Asgardian warrior-god sojourning on Earth and adventuring with Earth’s superheroes. And […]
Read MorePenguins on Parade: The Book of Magic
/Some Penguin Classics have to walk a very fine line in order to exist at all. Not all of them manage it, of course: there’s been no Penguin Classic of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, nor will there ever be, it’s unlikely we’ll ever see a Penguin Classic reprint of My Life and Loves, or a nice […]
Read MoreBook Review: Swimmer Among the Stars
/Islands of bright, fable-spinning whimsy dot the debut collection of Kanishk Tharoor
Read MoreBook Review: The Weight of This World
/The sudden death of their drug dealer sends two backwoods friends into a spiral of greed and violence in the new novel from David Joy.
Read MoreBook Review: Spaceman of Bohemia
/A lone Czech astronaut on a deep-space mission confronts his past and his fears in this taut, memorable debut novel
Read MoreBook Review: In This Grave Hour
/Even the declaration of war with Germany doesn't stop mysteries from arriving at the doorstep of the indefatigable Maisie Dobbs.
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