Articles in OL Weekly
Book Review: Edmund Burke, the First Conservative
The so-called ‘father of conservatism’ gets an aphoristic new biography from a very interested party.
Book Review: All the Glittering Prizes
The great diplomat and statesman John Hay is the subject of a riveting new biography
Book Review: Pliny and the Artistic Culture of the Italian Renaissance
A scrupulously intelligent and lavishly illustrated new book examines the enormous impact one ancient text had on the whole of the Italian Renaissance
Book Review: The 5th Wave
Is Rick Yancey’s latest teen-targeted sci-fi thriller mere filler for fans waiting on the next “Hunger Games” volume, or is there some meat on its bones?
Book Review: The Plantagenets
Using castles and cunning, swords and statesmanship, guile and guts, they ruled England (and big chunks of France) for over two centuries – they were the Plantagenets, and they’re the subject of a boisterous new history
Norman Lebrecht’s CD of the Week – Shostakovich’s 7th Symphony
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic brings forth a dazzling recording of Shostakovich’s “Leningrad Symphony”
Book Review: Global Crisis
The 17th century found itself caught between widespread social upheaval and natural catastrophes unprecedented in human history – an absorbing new history looks at the entire world four centuries ago … and of course glances at our own
Book Review: Europe
That long-standing hotbed of world history, Europe, gets a big new dissection by one of our most engaging historians
Book Review: Tocqueville – The Aristocratic Sources of Liberty
A brilliant French study of Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America” at last has an English translation
Book Review: Alexander Wilson, the Scot Who Founded American Ornithology
He was a young immigrant from Scotland who was inspired by one great man and inspired another, but in between, Alexander Wilson did the pioneering work of creating the American discipline of bird-study. A wonderful new book re-examines his legacy
Norman Lebrecht’s CD of the Week – Valentin Silvestrov
Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov’s enigmatic and disturbing ‘Naive Music’ gets a new recording from pianist Elisaveta Blumina
Book Review: Into the Desert
It has become conventional wisdom to say that the first Gulf War was one of necessity, while the second was one of choice–but a collection of reflections challenges that maxim
Book Review: A California Childhood
The Hollywood actor and star of “Howl” produces a heavily-illustrated book of snippets and short stories, for reasons that are either unclear or all too clear, depending on whose Twitter you follow
Book Review: The Girls of Atomic City
At the heigh of the Second World War, they traveled to a custom-made town in the middle of nowhere and worked jobs they didn’t understand and were forbidden to question – and a year later, the U.S. had a working atom bomb. They were the girls of Atomic City, and their story finally gets told.
Now in Paperback: The World of the Salt Marsh
The southeastern coast of the United States is dotted all over with salt marshes, those magical places forever hovering between land and sea. A captivating new book – now in paperback – sings their praises and recounts their perils.
Norman Lebrecht’s CD of the Week – The Edge of Light
Norman Lebrecht reviews a remarkable recording of little-known piano music by Olivier Messiaen and Kaija Saariaho
Book Review: Wolfhound Century
A killer stalks a dark-fantasy alternate version of the Soviet Union in Peter Higgins’ fantastic debut novel
Book Review: July 1914
A gripping new book examines just what happened in the crucial interval between the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the outbreak of general hostilities – and reaches some unusual conclusions.
Book Review: Hour of the Red God
Hour of the Red God: A Detective Mollel Novel
By Richard Compton
Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013
Journalist Richard Crompton’s dazzlingly good debut mystery novel Hour of the Red God is set in 2007 against the …
Norman Lebrecht’s CD of the Week – Lionel Bringuier & Nelson Freire
In collaboration with Brazilian soloist Nelson Freire, Wunderkind Lionel Bringuier conducts the 2010 BBC Proms concert in a stirring new DVD release
Comics: The Garcia-Lopez Superman
One of the Man of Steel’s legendary illustrators from the 1970s and ’80s gets his work reprinted in a handsome hardcover volume
Book Review: Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles
Ron Currie Jr. is not only the author of the new novel Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles, he is also its protagonist.
Book Review: The Undivided Past
One of our greatest living historians argues that far more unites humanity than divides it – but is anybody listening?
Now in Paperback: Darwin’s Ghosts
‘Darwin’ and ‘evolution’ are permanently linked in our minds, but like all other scientific thinkers, the great man stood on the shoulders of the giants who went before him, as a fascinating new history reminds us.
Jonathan Winters
Open Letters Monthly mourns the death of Jonathan Winters, legendary comedian master of carefully-controlled chaos, and lifelong six-year-old.
Comics: Superman – Secret Identity
An ordinary boy in our real world has a funny name – Clark Kent. Funny, that is, until he starts to develop the exact same superpowers as you-know-who
Guest Movie Review: The Croods
A family of Neanderthals navigate the dangers of the pre-historic world in DreamWorks’ latest animated feature
Norman Lebrecht’s Album of the Week – Béla Bartók: Kossuth
Norman Lebrecht reviews a new recording of Kossuth, a rare and distinctive turn by Béla Bartók into mainstream romanticism.
Book Review: The Borgias
They’re history’s most villainous family, adept at blackmail, poison, murder, and sacrilege – they even have their own TV series! But is it possible there’s more bad press than bad people to the Borgia family? A fascinating new book takes the case back to the basics
Now in Paperback: Heinrich Himmler
The authoritative new biography – now in an enormous paperback – of the architect of Nazi Germany’s “Final Solution”
Classics Reissued: Marcel Proust – A Life
A splendid reissue of the definitive Marcel Proust biography attempts to show readers the jester, the critic, and the energetic editor in addition to the garrulous fop
Book Review: Bolivar
The “George Washington of South America” was far more complex and interesting than his familiar tag-line suggests – as a big, fantastic new biography makes abundantly clear
Book Review: Farside
Science fiction grand master Ben Bova sets his latest novel on the far side of the moon
Book Review: Lover at Last
In her latest bestseller, J. R. Ward’s two most loved (and lusted-after) bad-boy vampires finally get their turn in the spotlight
Roger Ebert
Open Letters Monthly mourns the death of indefatigable everyman movie critic Roger Ebert, who saw everything, mainstreamed a profession, and championed more than a few losing battles – including, ultimately, his own. Rest in peace.
Book Review: Christian Beginnings
A new book by a legendary scholar charts the journey of early Christianity from a charismatic cult to the official religion of an empire
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Open Letters Monthly mourns the death of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, whose exquisite literary adaptations helped give new kinds of immortality to E.M. Forster and Henry James, and whose own fiction, delicate and sometimes dauntingly enigmatic, will …
Book Review: Roses Have Thorns
A young Swedish girl travels to England and becomes a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I herself
Book Review: The Creation of Anne Boleyn
She’s an icon, a cautionary tale, a baleful notoriety – she’s Anne Boleyn, who bewitched a king and drove him to remake a world, all for the sake of a dream she could never give him. A fascinating new book looks at the way all the ways history has made and re-made Henry VIII’s most infamous queen
Book Review: The Chalice
An intelligent, sensitive Dominican novice finds herself at the heart of passionate conspiracies in the England of Henry VIII
Book Review: Edwardian Opulence
The richest denizens of the Edwardian Era swan around in their finest stuff, immortalized by the likes of Sargent and Boldini, and a sumptuous new book from Yale University Press records it all
Book Review: The Tale of Raw Head & Bloody Bones
Jack Wolf’s risk-taking debut explores the boundaries of insanity and rationality
Now in Paperback: Proof of Heaven
A neurosurgeon’s reflections on his time in a coma convince him that it held the secret to the universe.
Book Review: Abide with Me
In a novel that’s not as easy as it looks, a soldier comes home to his small Vermont town from Afghanistan – and to the young woman he left behind there.
Classics Reissued: Shadows and Strongholds
In a welcome reprint, a brave but untried young 12th century knight must learn how to fight – and take a bride
Classics Reissued: Dune
The greatest sci-fi novel of all time is inaugurated into the Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classics library
Back in Paperback: The Unfinished Odyssey of Robert Kennedy
David Halberstam’s 1968 profile of candidate Robert Kennedy gets a new reprint for a new generation
Book Review: Honor
The barbaric custom of ‘honor killing’ is the hinge on which best-selling author Elif Shafak’s complex new novel turns
Book Review: The Sunshine When She’s Gone
With the arrival of a new baby, a young Brooklyn couple say good-bye to sleep … and start making some very strange decisions.
Book Review: Invisible Armies
A big new book looks at the long history of guerrilla warfare and centers its lessons on our own time.
Book Review: All the Light There Was
In this historical novel, the Armenian community of Paris negotiates the arrival of the Nazis – and a young girl navigates her first romance
Book Review: The Library of America Aldo Leopold
The most cherished nature classic since “Walden” gets the sparkling Library of America canonization
Book Review: The Blue Book
A young woman finds herself on a ship at sea with both her fiance and a mysterious man from her past, and it’s all like something you’d find in a book …
Book Review: Adam Ferguson in the Scottish Enlightenment
The greatest enemy of freedom is … democracy? Come get to know Scottish Enlightenment thinker Adam Ferguson, ladies and gentlemen!
Book Review: The Carriage House
A patrician family copes with all kinds of disappointment in Louisa Hall’s not-at-all-disappointing debut novel
Comics: Avengers Versus Thanos
Before the mad demi-titan Thanos arrives to menace movie theaters in 2015, he menaced the good guys in decades of comics – a new anthology collects some of the best of the bad guy
Book Review: After Rome
When Roman troops left Britain forever, the locals were forced to fend for themselves – and in Morgan Llywelyn’s latest historical novel, two cousins take two very different approaches to a world after Rome.
Norman Lebrecht’s CD of the Week – Valentina Lisitsa
Youtube sensation Valentina Lisitsa has put out the finest recording of Rachmaninov’s piano concertos in decades. Norman Lebrecht reviews.
Guest Movie Review: Oz the Great and Powerful
Director Sam Raimi takes on one of the greatest cinematic classics of ‘em all – with decidedly mixed results
Book Review: Britain Begins
Long, long before Canute and the Confessor, England was a fascinating place – the great archaeologist Barry Cunliffe tells the tale!
Book Review: Louis Agassiz
He revolutionized modern science, and then modern science left him behind. Now a glowing new biography introduces him to a new generation.
Guest Movie Review: Jack the Giant Slayer
The old folk tale gets an sfx-laden kid-friendly modern retelling by one of Hollywood’s most successful directors
Book Review: The Murder of Cleopatra
When examining the death of Cleopatra, it’s inevitable: sooner or later, you’re going to have to deal with asp-holes
Book Review: Spartacus
He escaped from slavery, fought Rome, and became an immortal name – but what can we really know about Spartacus?
Book Review: The Praetorian Guard
They guarded emperors, they served emperors, and occasionally they killed emperors – they were the Praetorian Guard
Book Review: The Devil’s Looking Glass
In his latest adventure, Mark Chadbourn’s swashbuckling Elizabethan adventurer Will Swyfte continues his battle against the supernatural forces of the Unseelie Court
Book Review: The Leviathan Effect
A enormous storm is bearing down on Washington D.C., and the President and his staff are confronted with a group of people who say they can stop the hurricane – for a price
Van Cliburn, 1934-2013
His repertoire was small, he was no barnstormer, and he gave up full-time concertizing in 1978. But Van Cliburn, who died yesterday at age 78, is to this day the most famous pianist America has …
Norman Lebrecht’s CD of the Week – Satie & Compagnie
In a hypnotizing new recording from Mirare, pianist Anne Quéffélec performs the soothing chillout music of Frenchman Erik Satie–don’t listen while driving.
Book Review: Blood Sisters
Sarah Gristwood (author of the utterly delightful “Arbella: England’s Lost Queen”) charts the triumphs and tragedies of the seven key women in the Wars of the Roses
Book Review: The Average American Marriage
The horny, feckless narrator of Kultgen’s “The Average American Male” returns: married, with kids – and, of course, lusting after a co-worker
Norman Lebrecht’s CD of the Week – The Coral Sea
Six works by five living British composers for soprano saxophone – you’re shaking your head, but “The Coral Sea” is one of the musical delights of the year
Guest Movie Review: A Good Day to Die Hard
John McClane rides again in the latest chapter of the “Die Hard” franchise
Comics: Thor the Mighty Avenger
A new collection featuring the adventures of a decidedly off-beat version of Marvel’s resident Thunder God
Comics: Marvel First – WWII Superheroes
The Angel – the Silver Scorpion – the Destroyer – the Black Marvel – the Blazing Skull: not exactly household names today, but in the dark days of World War II, they fought the forces of evil for the entertainment of a new kind of reader: comic book fans
Book Review: A Great and Monstrous Thing
“Houses, Churches, mix’d together – Streets, unpleasant in all Weather” – so wrote the poet about resolute, dissolute London, whose 18th century excesses are the subject of a grand new book
Book Review: How Literature Saved My Life
David Shields, author of the ‘manifesto’ “Reality Hunger,” is still unhappy with boring old books. In fact, he’s still writing books about how unhappy he is.
Book Review: A Week in Winter
Unsure of what to do with her life, a woman turns an old stone house into an inn on the coast of Ireland, and strangers begin to gather …
Book Review: I Will Have Vengeance
In 1931 Naples, Commissario Ricciardi pursues the most desperate of criminals, driven by an absolute commitment to justice – and helped by a gift he alone possesses.
Book Review: The Aviator’s Wife
A new novel tells the story of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, famous author and wife of an even more famous jerk.
Book Review: Europe Before Rome
A profusely illustrated you-are-there look at the excavations into European prehistory
Book Review: Furies
The Italian Renaissance of Michelangelo and Raphael was built by – and traumatized by – the constant tramping of hired armies. A provocative new study looks at the birth-price of the modern era
Guest Movie Review: Warm Bodies
“Warm Bodies” is a zombie rom-com: but does boy meet girl, or EAT girl?
Norman Lebrecht’s CD of the Week – Scarlatti Illuminated
Domenico Scarlatti has always been overshadowed by his contemporaries Bach and Handel. A new recording of his solo sonatas brings his gorgeous music front and center.
Book Review: Prosperous Friends
There are delights of both language and story in Christine Schutt’s novel of connubial misery, Prosperous Friends. Greg Gerke reviews.
Book Review: Engineers of Victory
A new history of the Second World War focuses on the mid-level thinkers and technicians whose innovations made the grand strategies work
Book Review: The Best of Youth
In Michael Dahlie’s new novel, an idle young millionaire ghost-writes a book for an arrogant Hollywood star
Norman Lebrecht’s CD of the Week – Andrzej Panufnik
The works of Polish emigre Andrzej Panufnik course with passion and political subtext. Norman Lebrecht reviews a new recording of Symphonies 7 and 8.
Book Review: Money Run
She’s a master thief who wants to rob the world’s richest man; he’s a master assassin who wants to kill the world’s richest man – what happens when they run headlong into each other in a glass-and-steel death-trap?
Guest Movie Review: Hansel & Gretel
The adorable little candy-seeking moppets from the folk tale are all grown up and exceedingly well-armed in “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters”
Book Review: The Making of the First World War
A new history of World War I looks at twelve fragile moments, twelve turning points when small factors determined very large outcomes
Book Review: Antarctica
Earth’s frozen, forbidding continent is the subject of Gabrielle Walker’s latest book
Book Review: The Illicit Happiness of Other People
The death of a talented teenage artist spins his family and friends into turmoil in Manu Joseph’s incredibly accomplished second novel.
Book Review: The Fall of the Stone City
In the latest Ismail Kadare novel to be translated into English, an Albanian doctor invites the invading Nazis to an elaborate dinner at his house – but what exactly happens that night, to the strains of Schubert?
Book Review: The World Until Yesterday
Until comparatively recently, historically speaking, mankind existed in small hunter-gatherer societies without states or agriculture. Best-selling author Jared Diamond’s latest book examines the possible up-side of those primitive edens.
CD of the Week – Dinu Lipatti
Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti died of cancer at age 33, but left behind a treasure trove of adventurous, intellectually satisfying piano music. Norman Lebrecht reviews a new double-CD of Lipatti’s work.
Classics Reissued: The Gil Kane Superman
DC Comics collects the 1980s adventures of the Man of Steel, as drawn by the legendary Gil Kane!
Book Review: Access All Areas
A generous anthology collects the work of one of the greatest travel-writers of our day
Book Review: The Boy
In Lara Santoro’s new novella, an older woman falls head-over-heels into a physical passion for a younger man – with consequences that threaten to tear her life apart
CD of the Week – Elgar, Carter: Cello Concertos
Jacqueline du Pré’s performance of Elgar’s cello concerto is so legendary that few artists have dared to challenge it. Now Alisa Weilerstein does so, in an astonishing new recording. Norman Lebrecht reviews
Guest Movie Review: Zero Dark Thirty
The controversial new movie about the hunt for bin Laden – and the role torture might have played in that hunt
New in Paperback: Rome and Rhetoric
The rhetoric of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar might inflame you, it might make you mad – but does Garry Wills o’ershoot himself in his analysis of it all?
Book Review: A Jew Among Romans
A new – and forgiving? – look at the ancient Jewish historian whose very name has been hated for two thousand years.
Book Review: The Midwife’s Tale
A formidable York midwife must use all her skill and human insight to save the life of a friend accused of murder
Book Review: World War Two
The military crucible of the 20th Century gets a new hardcover history that can be read in one hour and fifteen minutes.
Book Review: Ice Forged
The first volume in a new fantasy series opens on a world where the everyday background magic on which everybody depends is beginning to flicker out …
Classics Reissued: Alexander of Macedon
One of the best – and certainly the most contentious – biographies of Alexander the Great gets an attractive new reprint
Book Review: Scenes from Early Life
A talented novelist writes the story of his husband’s family’s experiences in war-torn Bangladesh – but is it life, or art?
Book Review: The Kassa Gambit
In the future setting of this promising sci-fi debut, world-hopping humanity finds the last thing it expected: aliens!
New in Paperback: The Last Son of Krypton
The revered (and reviled) Superman director Richard Donner co-writes an epic story from the Man of Steel’s past
CD of the Week – Alexandre Tharaud plays Mauricio Kagel
2013 gets off to a smashing start with Alexandre Tharaud’s wild new recording of the works of postmodernist composer Mauricio Kagel. Norman Lebrecht reviews.
Book Review: Perilous Moon
In the night sky over Occupied France, two young men met in combat – this remarkable book tells their stories.
Book Review: Cezanne
“I paint, I work, I am free of thought” said Cezanne, and his thoughtless paintings changed art forever. A cinematic new biography explores the man’s life and art.
Now in Paperback: Icefall
On a lonely icebound fjord, the young daughter of a Viking king must solve a series of crimes – and find her destiny
Guest Movie Review: Jack Reacher
It’s Tom Cruise starring as Lee Child’s super-tall, super-gritty action hero!
2011 in reading: revisitation
As this year winds to a close we take another glance at the still-worthy books that moved us in days of old.
Guest Movie Review: The Hobbit
The first part of director Peter Jackson’s long-awaited movie adaptation of “The Hobbit” is finally here
Book Review: Constantine the Emperor
He put Christianity on the road to world domination – and he did a lot of other horrid things as well. He’s Constantine the Great, and he’s got a new biographer
Charles Rosen, 1927-2012
Open Letters mourns the loss of Charles Rosen, pianist, scholar, teacher and critic.
Book Review: Ships of Oak, Guns of Iron
In a rip-snorting new blood-and-swash history of the War of 1812, the men and their fighting ships take center stage
Norman Lebrecht’s Album of the Year
It’s been a bumper year for vocal recitals, but Norman Lebrecht has selected the best of the bunch–and the best album of 2012
Guest Movie Review: The Sessions
The Oscar race for Best Actor gets a little bit more crowded with the performance of John Hawkes in Ben Lewin’s “The Sessions”
Book Review: Counting One’s Blessings
The official biographer of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother now gives us that most unlikely of things: a collection of her life-long correspondence
Classics Reissued: The Norton Critical English Bible
A new college-use edition of the King James Bible turns out to be that rarest of publishing phenomena: a true must-have masterpiece.
Book Review: A Dangerous Inheritance
Historian Alison Weir’s latest novel features two young heroines, separated by 80 years but united by their fascination with one of history’s mysteries: the fate of the Princes in the Tower
Guest Movie Review: Life of Pi
A boy and a tiger, trapped at sea – the best-selling novel “Life of Pi” gets a movie adaptation by Ang Lee
The Landscapes Through Which We Traveled
Peter Handke turns 70 today. One of his translators and frequent travel companions offers a tribute.
CD of the Week – Voyages-Reisen
A compelling new recording of compositions for the viola da gamba, an ancestor of the cello, is just the antidote to predictable radio classical fare
Book Review: The Big New Yorker Book of Dogs
Perfect for the dog-lover on your gift list: a great big new dog-themed anthology from the vaults of the New Yorker
Book Review: Kafka in Love
Franz Kafka was eternally affianced but never married – maybe more in love with the concept of love than with any particular woman. A new novel intensely dramatizes the writer and his passions.
CD of the Week – Fazil Say
The embattled Turkish composer Fazil Say releases a symphony rooted in the sounds of his homeland. Norman Lebrecht reviews.
Book Review: The Man Who Wouldn’t Stand Up
Trying to mind his own business, a man at a Yankees game refuses to stand for a singing of “God Bless America” – and all Hell breaks loose.
Guest Movie Review: Rise of the Guardians
Santa Claus … the Easter Bunny … the Sandman … the Tooth Fairy … figures out of children’s story-time band together with Jack Frost to fight an evil that threatens childhood itself
Wonders of the Indian Wilderness
The many natural worlds of India – and the variety of striking animals who inhabit those worlds – come alive in this enormous illustrated volume
Now in Paperback: Alibis
The latest volume of travel-writing from novelist and memoirist Andre Aciman takes readers from Paris to Rome to Venice to New York and back
Comics: Nexus Omnibus Volume 1
Fresh from the halcyon 1980s, the avenging murderer of mass murderers gets a fresh new reprint series
New in Paperback: Cry Havoc
Dramatized in the pages of this brilliant book, the Nazi state’s embracing of accelerated war-production set a dark pattern for the entire world
CD of the Week – The Irish Piano
Too little is known about the importance of Irish composer John Field on 19th century music. An exciting new CD brings his wide influence to light.
Book Review: The Pharaoh
The calm-eyed gold-plated absolute rulers of ancient Egypt, the Pharaohs in all their splendor, are brought to life in a revealing new history.
Book Review: Tarzan – The Centennial Celebration
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ legendary Ape Man gets a comprehensive visual tribute fit for the king of the jungle
Book Review: The World of Persian Literary Humanism
The vast tapestry of Persian literary history gets a new – and decidedly problematic – overview from one of the subject’s greatest modern scholars
Comics: Legion – Secret Origin
DC Comics’ fan-favorite super-team gets a definitive re-telling of its origin story – or at least provisionally definitive.
Book Review: The Clone Sedition
The warrior-clones in Steven Kent’s Clone Republic series can handle just about anything on the battlefield – but what if somebody starts tinkering with their programming?
Book Review: Foundation
the irrepressible novelist, lecturer, and historian takes us on a battle-filled, ale-soaked ransacking tour of England’s long pre-Tudor history
Book Review: Dialogues of Pontano
Two witty dialogues by a great Italian Renaissance humanist get a fresh Latin textual overhaul – and their very first English translation.
Book Review: Practically Wicked
An ‘ice maiden’ social nobody accidentally meets a drunken young viscount at a party – and sparks (eventually, complicatedly) fly!
Book Review: Shakespeare’s Common Prayers
The words of Shakespeare have become a common literary language – but whose words did HE know? Why, the words of Thomas Cranmer, of course.
Classics Reprinted: 5001 Nights at the Movies
A thick masterwork of that maddening maven of the movie screen, Pauline Kael, gets a rock-solid reprint from Picador
Book Review: Princess Elizabeth’s Spy
The redoubtable WWII code-breaking sleuth Maggie Hope returns, this time to safeguard the young girl who will one day come to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II
Book Reviews: Boys at War
A new series of paperbacks attempts to bring the boredom and terror of war home to young readers
Guest Movie Review: Wreck-It Ralph
The dynamic of beloved old video games gets a surprisingly nuanced treatment in the latest offering from Disney
CD of the Week – Portuguese Love Songs
An English traveller once described the Portuguese love ballad as ‘the most seducing, the most voluptuous music imaginable.’ A new CD reminds of us its delights.
Elliott Carter
Open Letters Monthly mourns Elliott Carter, whose gentle heart and endless good humor made him a warm glow of firelight in any room, and whose music was the brilliant, tangled sonogram of the 20th Century.
Comics: X-Men – The Hidden Years, Volume 2
The ‘lost’ adventures of Marvel Comics’ original team of mutant superheroes, the X-Men
Book Review: Designing Nature
Japanese Rinpa-style artwork takes center stage in a stunning new book and exhibit from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Book 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 …”
Now 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
Guest Movie Review: Cloud Atlas
Time-bending? Gender-bending? Race-bending? “Cloud Atlas” drifts onto Mr. Anderson’s radar.
Book 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
Book Review: London Eye
In the opening volume of the “Toxic City” series, London is cut off from the rest of the world and filling up with super-powered mutants – two things which have been true on YouTube for some time now.
Book 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
CD 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.
Comics: 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
Book 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?
Guest Movie Review: Alex Cross
The best-selling James Patterson novel, featuring his most popular recurring character, gets a big-screen adaptation
Book 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.
Book 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
Book Review: Joseph Anton
The great novelist tells the beguiling story of the man he became in order to escape a death sentence
CD of the Week – Anu Komsi
Norman Lebrecht reviews a five-star recording from the extraordinary Finnish soprano Anu Komsi
Guest Movie Review: Argo
Director Ben Affleck’s latest, “Argo,” is a real Hollywood movie about a fake Hollywood movie way back in the 1970s
Book 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.
Comics: Essential Thor Volume 6
Marvel’s resident thunder god-superhero Thor goes through some epic adventures in the latest volume of “Essential” reprints.
Book Review: Listening In
A new book authorized by the Kennedy Library provides some slices of living history: tapes and transcripts of President John F. Kennedy at work in the White House.
CD of the Week – Miklós Rózsa
Hungarian Miklós Rózsa was one of the century’s greatest composers for film, but he also wrote the fine concertos given new life on this recording
Book Review: Commentaries on Plato
Marsilio Ficino’s enormous commentary on the Parmenides of Plato receives a fantastic scholarly edition from – who else? – Harvard’s I Tatti Renaissance Library
Comics: Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut
Vultures, black cats, and a gigantic, unbeatable foe: it’s a week in the life of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!
Book Review: The Iliad
Homer’s Iliad gets a new and unconventional translation into sometimes very familiar language
Now in Paperback: The Paperboy
Pete Dexter’s lean, harrowing novel of murder and ambition is coming to the big screen with a full complement of movie stars – and a new paperback edition of the book is a happy by-product.
CD of the Week – Glenn Gould: The Schwarzkopf Tapes
The deeply unlikely pairing of pianist Glenn Gould and soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was deemed a flop when it took place in 1966–now some of the never-before-published recordings have come out, and they’re well worth the wait.
Guest Movie Review: The Master
Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, featuring a thinly-veiled take on L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology
Now in Paperback: Bloodlands
A stark and powerful account of the killing regimes of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia – and of the blood-soaked stretch of middle Europe where those regimes did their work.
Book Review: Who Wrote Shakespeare’s Plays?
A slim, engaging new book tries to take an objective look at the popular question of Shakespearean authorship – if such objectivity is even possible.
Guest Movie Review: Dredd
The two Judge Dredds: For fans, Dredd is the hero of his own comic series; a futuristic lawbringer whose stories have been told in the weekly British comic anthology 2000 A.D. since 1977. In the …
Book Review: The Christmas Carol Murders
A Dickens-obsessed little Oregon town plays unwilling host to – what else? – a Dickens-themed murder in this captivating mystery debut
Book Review: Beyond Rosie the Riveter
During World War Two, thousands of men left U.S. jobs in order to join the military – and thousands of women stepped in to fill those jobs … and in some cases join the military too. A fascinating new book looks at what magazine cartoons had to say about all this.
Book Review: The Life of George Eliot
A careful and discerning new biography tackles that most daunting of all great Victorian novelists, George Eliot – with largely praiseworthy results.
CD of the Week – Jon Lord
Jon Lord, the founder of Deep Purple, brings out a concerto that fuses elements of classical music, rock, and ballad singing. Norman Lebrecht reviews the results.
Book Review: Blood Eye (Raven, Book One)
Now in the U.S.: an epic, gore-spattered series about a roving band of Viking warriors!
Guest Movie Review: Resident Evil – Retribution
Paul Anderson returns to the director’s chair for the new “Resident Evil” chapter – but does he still have that old zombie-fighting magic?
Blu-Ray Review: Titanic
James Cameron’s ultimate twist on a shipboard-romance gets the luxury-liner treatment in a lavish new Blu-Ray set from Paramount
Book Review: The Unfaithful Queen
Young, vain, unfaithful Catherine Howard, Henry VIII’s fifth wife, regularly draws writers intent on finding heroism in her brief life & times; Carolly Erickson is the latest aspirant.
Book Review: I, Jane
The meek and dutiful Jane Seymour, mother of Henry VIII’s long-sought male heir, takes center stage in a new historical novel about her life and times.
Book Review: Mistress of Mourning
Tragedy haunted the earliest years of the new Tudor dynasty, and in this atmospheric new novel, a candle-maker and a courier are tasked with finding out why.
Now in Paperback: Song of Wrath
The ancient Greek historian Thucydides is virtually synonymous with the Peloponnesian War, but a new history gives the master a much-needed makeover
Comics: Namor Visionaries, Vol. 2
From the glory days of the late 1980s comes this new reprint-volume of the adventures of Marvel Comics’ imperious, headstrong super-merman, Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner!
CD of the Week – Stephen Hough
A CD of piano recitals dubbed “The French Album” stars an English pianist and includes pieces by Bach and Liszt. Norman Lebrecht sorts out the confusion.
Emma: An Annotated Edition
Belknap Press produces a big, attractive, and lovingly annotated edition of Jane Austen’s peak-of-her-career novel “Emma” – perfect for newcomers and those who know every line by heart.
Guest Movie Review: Branded
A visually surrealistic new movie about the evils of marketing and advertising run amok.
Book Review: The Poems of Jesus Christ
In a slim new volume, one of our greatest masters of vibrant exegesis gives is the collected poetry of “the invisible poet of the world” – Jesus Christ.
Book Review: The Caliph’s Splendor
One of our best popular historians sheds light on the caliphate of Harun al-Rashid, where learning and culture flourished at a time when the West was mired in filth and chaos.
Book Review: Kiss of Steel
The melodramatic first novel in a series set in a vampire-ridden steampunk version of Victorian London
Now in Paperback: King Stephen
Now in paperback: the most comprehensive, opinionated, and even-handed biography poor unlucky oath-breaking King Stephen is ever likely to get – or deserve.
CD of the Week: Bononcini
Norman Lebrecht reviews a new recording of the music of Handel’s contemporary Bononcini–but which Bononcini are we talking about? In addition are three notable CDs for John Cage’s centenary.
Book Review: Reaper
A fast-paced teen fiction re-imagining of Peter Pan and Wendy and the Lost Boys and Neverland, with a few side-helpings of goth, “Buffy,” and a certain boy wizard
Guest Movie Review: Lawless
Hollywood Next Big Things – past, present, and future? – share screen-time in a gritty tale of the Prohibition-era South.
Book Review: Legions of Rome
A comprehensive – and visually stunning – overview of the mighty Roman legions and the world they helped to shape.
Book Review: Master and God
An ambitious historical novel about the dark days of the emperor Domitian by the popular mystery author Lindsey Davis.
Now in Paperback: Hadrian
A lavishly illustrated biography of the Roman emperor Hadrian – now in bookstores in paperback – takes readers inside the world of an empire (and its ruler) undergoing one long identity crisis
Now in Paperback: Arguably
Now in a bright yellow paperback: a generous helping of essays, provocations, and tirades by the late Christopher Hitchens.
Book Review: Venice from the Water
Before the advent of modern times, every visitor to Venice approached the city slowly, from the water – and according to a visually-stunning new book, Venetians very much wanted it that way.
Book Review: Venice & Vitruvius
The ancient Roman architect Vitruvius influenced the Renaissance architect Alberti, who in turn influenced the architect Palladio and the humanist Barbaro – a strong new book traces the genealogy.
CD of the Week – Homage to Glenn Gould
Glenn Gould would have turned 80 next month; his legacy is celebrated with a diverse and sometimes instrumentally daring homage
Book Review: Venice – History of the Floating City
A new social history of Venice takes readers well beyond the myth and delves into the lives of the people – princes, merchants, women, immigrants – who brought the city to life
Guest Movie Review: The Apparition
The Twilight film series will finally be coming to a close this fall, and with it the free rides of many of the young actors and actresses who made names for themselves in their roles …
Book Review: The Men Who Would Be King
Elizabeth I’s radical decision to remain unmarried gave hope to every aspiring suitor in the Western world – a new reprint marches us quickly through the usual suspects.
Book Review: Dialectical Disputations
Lorenzo Valla, whose exposure of the “Donation of Constantine” was the opening salvo of modern humanism, spent years writing one long argument with Aristotle, now fully translated for the first time.
Now in Paperback: Fear Itself
In one of Marvel Comics’ grandest recent story-arcs, the Avengers square off against the Norse god of fear and his mind-controlled hammer-wielding henchmen
From the Archives: DC Comics Classics Library
DC Comics Classics Library
The Legion of Super-Heroes: The Life and Death of Ferro Lad
Jim Shooter (script)
Curt Swan (art)
Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore
Denny O’Neil (script)
Curt Swan (art)
DC Comics, 2009
The most common misconception about comic books is that they’re …
Book Review: The Lucky Ones
An emotionally stunning memoir about Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary, where animals once fated for the slaughterhouse are given normal, happy lives
From the Archives: Buffalo in the House
A Buffalo in the House, The Extraordinary story of Charlie and His Family
R. D. Rosen
Random House, 2007
Now out in paperback is R.D. Rosen’s entertaining and enormously moving A Buffalo in the House, the story of …
CD of the Week – Nicola Benedetti
Wunderkind violinist Nicola Benedetti delivers her best album to date with this thoughtful selection of concertos and film themes
Guest Movie Review: ParaNorman
A creepy, touching stop-motion masterpiece from the creators of “Coraline”
Book Review: The Kingmaker’s Daughter
Best-selling author Philippa Gregory’s new novel tells the story of Anne and Isabel Neville, the Wars of the Roses … and a certain misunderstood bad boy.
Book Review: Terrible Swift Sword
An engaging – perhaps a touch too engaging – new biography of fourth four-star general in U.S. history: Phil Sheridan
Classics Reissued: The Brontes
The passionate, complicated Bronte family is the subject of Juliet Barker’s massive, definitive biography, now given a sumptuous new edition
Book Review: James Madison
An accessible, well-researched new biography takes a largely approving look at America’s fourth president, James Madison.
Guest Blu-Ray Review: The Lorax
Dr Seuss’ beloved children’s classic about environmentalism gets a less-than-lovable Hollywood remake
Guest Movie Review: The Bourne Legacy
Jeremy Renner steps into Matt Damon’s action-shoes in the latest instalment of the “Bourne” series!
Book Review: The Oxford Handbook of Thomas Middleton
A magnificent multi-voiced celebration of the weird and wild career of that Jacobean jack-of-all-trades, Thomas Middleton
Book Review: Fatal Colours
A lively new account of the bloodbath of Towton, one of the key battles of the Wars of the Roses
Book Review: Spartacus – Morituri
In the latest spin-off novel from the hit “Spartacus” TV series, a spectre of death is haunting our gladiators even when they’re not at work!
Book Review: The Spymaster’s Daughter
The daughter of Queen Elizabeth I’s chief of espionage has a mind of her own, and in addition to being a dutiful wife to Sir Philip Sidney, she has the makings of an intrepid intelligencer.
Book Review: Star Trek: Forgotten History
All the time-jaunts of the legendary U.S.S. Enterprise, contained – and explained – in one novel? Inconceivable!
Book Review: Jack 1939
The improbable star of Francine Mathews’ new WWII-era spy thriller: a thin, frail, relatively obscure ambassador’s son from Brookline, Massachusetts named Jack Kennedy.
CD of the Week – Clifford Curzon
A teeming new multi-volume box-set from Decca showcases the magisterial piano performances of Clifford Curzon
Now in Paperback: Demon Fish
Now in paperback: Juliet Eilperin’s gripping and personality-filled study of sharks and the people who study them
Guest Movie Review: Total Recall
Critics tend to scoff at remakes. To many, these copies represent the worst that Hollywood has to offer, blatantly repeating stories that were successful in the past, rather than risk trying anything new. As movie …
Comics: Legion of Super-Heroes – Hostile World
Legion of Super-Heroes: Hostile World
Paul Levitz (script)
Francis Portela (art)
DC Comics, 2012
The company-wide “New 52″ reboot that DC Comics has used to re-envision (and, they hope, revitalize) their comic book line is nearly a year old. …
CD of the Week – Arnold Schoenberg’s Songs
Who knew that the avant-garde Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg wrote so many songs? They’re brought together in a revealing new four-disc collection.
Maeve Binchy
Open Letters Monthly mourns Maeve Binchy, teacher, talker, gentle seanchai.
Codladh samh, old friend.
Anthology Review: London – A History in Verse
A sprawling new celebration of London in six centuries of verse!
Book Review: The Black Rhinos of Namibia
A gorgeously-written new book on the vanishing black rhinos of south-western Africa
Classics Reissued: Fevre Dream
A new reprint delivers George R. R. Martin’s science fiction novel about 19th century American vampires!
Book Review: Conquest
For thirty hard-fought years, the King of England was also the King of France – new in US bookstores is a thrilling account of those years
CD of the Week – Beethoven’s Viola
Violas are the most overlooked of instruments, but not by Beethoven–an intriguing new release brings together his music for the violin’s deeper-voiced sibling
Book Review: The Nineteenth-Century Novel
The novel’s greatest age gets a stunning, multi-voiced celebration
Book Review: Three A.M.
In a fog-enshrouded city, a tough PI takes on a case that changes everything.
Century 16, Aurora
In the wake of today’s news from Connecticut, we are reposting a note written by our Executive Editor following the shootings in Aurora earlier this year.
CD of the Week – Ernest Bloch’s Hebrew Rhapsody
Natalie Clein delivers an extraordinary performance of Ernest Bloch’s Schelomo, in a disc featuring other classic Jewish music. Norman Lebrecht reviews.
Guest Movie Review: Beasts of the Southern Wild
Aurochs run amok in “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” John C. Anderson reviews.
Now in Paperback: The Last Divine Office
The bishops of Durham Cathedral were also secular princes who could settle legal disputes – and raise armies. A study now out in paperback gives the mighty cathedral and priory the history they deserve.
Book Review: Wake of the Bloody Angel
The latest adventure featuring freelance ‘sword jockey’ Eddie LaCrosse is – avast! – a rollicking pirate-yarn!
Now in Paperback: The Storm of War
A new one-volume history of the Second World War ends with the big question: could the bad guys have won?
Book Review: Wellington’s Wars
A new – and sometimes unforgiving – military history of the Iron Duke!
Anthology Review: The Year’s Best Science Fiction 29
The latest edition of the venerable science fiction anthology series!
On Blu-Ray: 21 Jump Street
The raucous 21st century update of the old TV series gets its Blu-Ray release!
Roberts Saves POTUS and SCOTUS
We may never know with certainty what brought Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to cast the deciding vote to uphold the Affordable Care Act and salvage the chief accomplishment of Barack Obama’s presidency. But …
Book Review: The Take-Charge Patient
A thorough new book aims to give patients more power over their hospital experience
CD of the Week: Sounds of the 30s
The amazing duo of Stefano Bollani and Riccardo Chailly return with the inter-war music of Ravel, Stravinsky, Kurt Weill, and Victor de Sabata.
Guest Movie Review: Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter
Mash-up fiction come to the big screen in “Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter”!
Blu-Ray Review: Evita
Now on Blu Ray: the 15th Anniversary edition of the award-winning Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Evita”!
Book Review: The Last Lost World
A wonderful new book explores not only the Pleistocene era but the IDEA of the Pleistocene
Book Review: Life Everlasting
A slim, fantastic new book on dead bodies, decay, road kill, and circling vultures! Happy summer!
CD of the Week – Arias for Guadagni
In his CD of the Week recommendation, Norman Lebrecht discovers the brilliant exception to a rule, an aria recital disc worth buying
Book Review: At the Mercy of the Queen
A heartfelt debut novel about an innocent young woman who comes to the court of Henry VIII – except she’s Anne Boleyn’s cousin, so innocence isn’t going to last very long!
Book Review: Hitler’s Berlin
Now in English: a richly researched and deeply moving history of the capital of the Third Reich.
Book Review: Capital
In John Lanchester’s new novel, a posh London street is hit hard when the housing bubble bursts
Book Review: The Laws of the Ring
“Ultimate Fighter” Urijah Faber talks about life and goals in a new book
CD of the Week — Vivaldi’s Chamber Sonatas
Against all expectations arrives a fantastic new recording of Vivaldi’s sonatas, courtesy of L’Estravagante. Norman Lebrecht reviews.
Book Review: Her Highness the Traitor
A new novel tells the story of two women who played a very dangerous game for the biggest prize of all: the throne of England
Book Review: Elusive Victories
A stunning and insightful new book about the ways modern American presidents go to war, stay at war, and exit war.
Comics: The Court of Owls
DC Comics re-creates its entire line of superheroes – including the Caped Crusader himself, Batman
Book Review: The Last Full Measure
A sharp new work seeks to get at the gory reality behind the Hollywood images of warfare.
CD of the Week — Nikolai Medtner
These rare recordings illuminate the valuable contributions of the Russian composer (and contemporary of Rachmaninov’s) Nikolai Medtner
Book Review: The Family Corleone
Veteran writer Ed Falco pens a prequel to “The Godfather,” featuring the rise of a crime family – and the story of a vicious strongman named Luca Brasi.
Guest Movie Review: Snow White and the Huntsman
Can the Peter Jackson/Lord of the Rings approach work with the Brothers Grimm? Mr. Anderson tells the tale!
Comics: The Legion Archive, Vol. 13
The long-awaited next volume in the ongoing Legion of Super-Heroes reprint line is finally here!
Guest Movie Review: The Chernobyl Diaries
Disaster movie or disaster of a movie? Horror movie or horrible movie? Mr. Anderson disambiguates!
The Non-Event of the Month
Last week on NBC’s Meet the Press, Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, was asked to give his opinion about an advertisement the Obama campaign has been running. It was a cover story for days. It was a complete waste of everyone’s time.
CD of the Week: Schubert String Quartets
The Artemis Quartet brings forth a brilliant recording of Schubert’s string quartets 13, 14, and 15 — that plus three notable new releases of the music of Shostakovich
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