Book Review: He's Got Rhythm
/The legendary hoofer and showman Gene Kelly gets a big, winning new biography
Read MoreThe Wayfarer’s Handbook!
/Our book today is a handy pocket-sized thing from semi-pro ex-pat Evan Rice, The Wayfarer’s Handbook: A Field Guide for the Independent Traveler, new in a pretty blue-lettered hardcover from Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers. Rice is a handsome young Baltimorean who early on in life discovered a deep passion for travel, and according to […]
Read MoreBook Review: How the Zebra Got Its Stripes
/Popular YouTube sensation Léo Grasset imports his brand of easygoing biology lessons to the pages of a slim book.
Read MoreInk Chorus: My Life with Bob
/Our book today is a treat for readers (you can tell by the cascade of poorly-drawn books on the front cover, I guess): My Life with Bob, subtitled “Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues,” and it’s written by the most powerful person in the world of books, Pamela Paul, the editor of the […]
Read MoreRodzilla!
/Our book today is a bone-chilling monster story of the most intimate kind, a story about a monster who’s not only gargantuan and wantonly destructive but … kind of cute. The book is Rodzilla (new from Margaret McElderry Books, a division of Simon & Schuster), with words by Rob Sanders and pictures by Dan Santat, […]
Read MoreBook Review: Salt Houses
/A Palestinian family is driven from one place of exile to another in this memorable debut novel.
Read MoreBook Review: The End of Eddy by Edouard Louis
/The English-language translation of a French novella about the everyday trials and setbacks of growing up gay
Read MoreThe Red Line!
/Our book today is a new paperback original from Penguin, The Red Line, Walt Gragg’s debut novel, which tell the story – in pointillist, gripping detail – of a Russian surprise attack on Germany at the Czech border, an attack that starts with massive tank-companies abandoning their war games and advancing straight at the border […]
Read MoreBook Review: The Dinner Party and Other Stories
/The latest volume from Joshua Ferris collects eleven of his punchy and evocative short stories.
Read MoreThe Face in the Locket
/Margaret Douglas was the niece of Henry VIII - and a tireless, lifelong schemer and rule-breaker. A definitive new biography portrays the life of the woman who was almost Queen Margaret
Read MoreGo Sleep in Your Own Bed!
/Our book today is a children’s title depicting an epidemic of bed-poaching. When night falls on the farm in Go Sleep in Your Own Bed by Candace Fleming and Lori Nichols (new from Penguin Random House), it finds a scene of unfolding chaos that begins when a sleepy pig crosses the barnyard headed for a […]
Read MoreBook Review: Dogs of War
/Killer robot dogs playing fetch with weapons of mass destruction! Killer 'smart' machines the size of a grain of sand! And every last little thing weaponized! It's the latest Joe Ledger novel.
Read MoreBook Review: Hamlet Globe to Globe
/A terrific new book tells the story of what happens when a hardy company takes the world's most famous play to every country on Earth.
Read MoreBook Review: What Algorithms Want
/A cogent, sobering new book looks at the computer conversations that increasingly shape every aspect of our lives.
Read MoreAnniversaries Big and Small in the Penny Press!
/As I’ve mentioned here on Stevereads before, 2017 marks the ten-year anniversary of Open Letters Monthly, the online literary journal where I have the honor to be Managing Editor. It’s naturally been an occasion to look back at those ten years – the hundreds of pieces we’ve published, the thousands of books, the writers, the […]
Read MoreBook Review: The Malmedy Massacre
/One of the most shocking incidents of the Battle of the Bulge was the slaughter of a group of US prisoners by the SS at Malmedy. A gripping new book tells the story of the massacre and its tangled aftermath
Read MoreBook Review: Humanism and the Latin Classics
/The latest addition to the I Tatti Renaissance Library gives readers the letters and prefaces of one of the greatest publishers of his day - Aldus Manutius.
Read MoreBook Review: Birds of Prey
/The savage, beautiful carnivore-birds who fly and hunt by day are the subject of an enthusiastic new book
Read MoreBook Review: The Quarry Fox
/A charming new book takes readers into the fascinating world of Catskills "critters," trees, trails, and even rocks.
Read MoreRing of Steel!
/Our book today is Alexander Watson’s 2014 masterpiece, Ring of Steel, now out in a brick-sized and brick-red paperback from Basic Books. In these thousand pages, Watson departs from the standard outline of most First World War histories, including most of the glut of them that came out in 2014; instead of presenting readers with […]
Read More