Book Review: Patrick Henry
/A lavishly-detailed new biography tells the story of the Virginia plantation-owner and early voice for independence from Great Britain
Read MoreBook Review: The New Annotated Frankenstein
/Mary Shelley's indomitable horror classic gets a sumptuous new annotated edition.
Read MoreBook Review: Warner Bros
/The latest entry in Yale's "Jewish Lives" series is the story of Warner Brothers Studo, by the great film historian David Thomson
Read MoreThe Sooner Disquieted
/What compromises did women in Tudor England face? What joys? What prospects, if any, for fulfillment? A sweeping new history cross-sections the issue.
Read MoreBook Review: The Allies Strike Back
/A vivid new history recounts the resurgence of the Allies against the Germany war machine during the highest pitch of the Second World War
Read MoreFull Wolf Moon!
/Our book today is the latest edge-of-your-seat pot-boiler by Lincoln Child: Full Wolf Moon, whose tag-line is “On the trail of a killer who cannot possibly exist …” – in case you had any lingering doubts about whether or not it is, in fact, summer. Full Wolf Moon – not to be confused with any […]
Read MoreBook Review: Blood Royal
/A sharp new history recounts the pitch-and-tumble fortunes of York and Lancaster during the Wars of the Roses
Read MoreExtinct!
/Our book today is Charles Wilson’s 1997 classic Extinct, in which an intrepid marine biologist finds himself enlisted in the most unlikely contest of all: with the megalodon, a gigantic species of prehistoric shark that could grow to 50 or 60 or even 80 feet but has been considered extinct for millions of years. In […]
Read MorePenguins on Parade: Thoreau!
/Some Penguin Classics are examples of that peculiar sub-species of literary work that somehow always feels pointedly relevant, no matter the age or era: in this case, the great writings of celebrated New England crackpot, Henry David Thoreau – Walden and Civil Disobedience. This is a new edition, with a simple, arresting cover illustration by […]
Read MoreBook Review: The White Road
/The quest for social media click-traffic leads a young video-maker to the heights of the world's deadliest mountain in Sarah Lotz's new thriller.
Read MoreBook Review: Heretics & Believers
/A big, wonderfully readable new history of the sixteenth-century religious upheaval that transformed English life
Read MoreShark Dog!
/Our book today combines the best of both worlds in the animal kingdom: it’s Shark Dog! By Ged Adamson, his fourth and most winning children’s picture book yet, newly released by Harper. The plucky little girl who narrates Shark Dog wastes no time in telling us that her bug-eyed red-bearded father is a world-famous explorer. […]
Read MoreBook Review: The Best Land Under Heaven
/A thorough and searching new book explores not only the tragic fate of the Donner Party but the dreams that motivated them in the first place.
Read MoreThe Penning Press in the Penny Press!
/I opened the latest issue of Esquire with very pleasantly modest expectations. I was looking forward to a helping of the smart-but-mostly-vapid entertainments Esquire tends to serve up so well – glossy spreads of $15,000 wrist watches, listicles on the Top 5 Things Your Sternum-Length Beard Says About You (in reality, it’s only one thing: […]
Read MoreThe Most Happy
/As she did with Katherine of Aragon, Alison Weir gives Anne Boleyn the saintly treatment in her new novel. But does Anne, like Katherine, deserve it?
Read MoreBook Review: Paradise Lost
/The newest biography of the Jazz Age bard tries to get at the man beneath the high-flying legends.
Read MoreBook Review: Ernest Hemingway
/The epic and tortured life of Ernest Hemingway is told with remarkable insight in a powerful new biography
Read MoreBook Review: The Afterlife of John Fitzgerald Kennedy
/An intriguing new book charts the long, complicated, and surprisingly vital JFK memory-industry.
Read MoreBook Review: Jane Austen, The Secret Radical
/A hugely readable new book examines the progressive social thinker behind the most beloved novels of English literature.
Read MoreBook Review: Sting Like a Bee
/The greatest boxer of all time was once involved in a years-long battle ... with the US government. A hugely readable new book tells the story.
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