Reviews & Essays

Displaying articles for: February 2010

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March 1, 2010

The Man from Beijing

By HENNING MANKELL
Reviewed by Anna Mundow

The creator of the Kurt Wallender novels crafts a sly crime story that reaches back a century and around the globe. Read more...

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February 26, 2010

The Lost Books of the Odyssey

By ZACHARY MASON
Reviewed by Tess Taylor

One of the most well-known stories of European literature is shattered, and re-made anew. Read more...

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February 26, 2010

Beyond Ideology

By FRANCES LEE
Reviewed by Ezra Klein

A new book grapples with the question of why our legislative branch has been so frequently gridlocked. Read more...

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February 25, 2010

The Devil and Mr. Casement

By JORDAN GOODMAN
Reviewed by Melissa H. Pierson

The global odyssey of one of the founders of the modern human rights movement. Read more...

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February 24, 2010

The Infinities

By JOHN BANVILLE
Reviewed by Christopher Byrd

In the new novel from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea, a dying man's family is subject to a peculiarly divine conspiracy. Read more...

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February 23, 2010

The Case for Books

By ROBERT DARNTON
Reviewed by Matthew Battles

Essays from a celebrated historian of the book attempt to chart the past and future of an endangered species.

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February 22, 2010

Catching Up with Tardi

Essay by Paul Di Filippo

The French comics artist Jacques Tardi appears freshly for American readers, adapting works of existentialist crime and wild surrealism. Read more...

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February 17, 2010

The Three Weissmanns of Westport

By CATHLEEN SCHINE
Reviewed by Heller McAlpin

A suburban Connecticut town is the setting for an update of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.

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February 16, 2010

The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People who Read Them

By ELIF BATUMAN
Reviewed by Jessica Allen

What is it about Russian literature that seems to warp the lives of those who fall under its spell? Read more...

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February 12, 2010

Shadow Tag

By LOUISE ERDRICH
Reviewed by David Abrams

A spouse’s revenge through a false diary is at the heart of a tale of psychological suspense. Read more...

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February 11, 2010

Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power

By JAMES McGRATH MORRIS
Commentary by Steve Weinberg

A new biography puts the spotlight on the legendary publisher's understanding of the true value of the news media in ordinary lives. Read more...

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February 10, 2010

A Dark Matter

By PETER STRAUB
Reviewed by Jeff VanderMeer

Peter Straub's new novel turns on a moment of 1960s mystical experimentation gone wrong.

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February 9, 2010

Union Atlantic

By ADAM HASLETT
Reviewed by Sarah L. Courteau

The award-winning author of You Are Not a Stranger Here returns with a poignant novel, set in the new age of financial fiasco.

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February 8, 2010

Conspirata

By ROBERT HARRIS
Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers

Robert Harris returns readers to Rome to witness the twilight of the Republic and the rise of a guileful young Caesar.

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February 5, 2010

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

By REBECCA SKLOOT
Reviewed by Jerry Coyne

The fascinating and moving story of a woman’s biological legacy raises painful questions. Read more...

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February 5, 2010

True Confections

By KATHARINE WEBER
Reviewed by Jane Ciabattari

A candy company’s rise and fall provides the backdrop to Katherine Weber’s mouth-watering comedy. Read more...

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February 3, 2010

Where the God of Love Hangs Out

By AMY BLOOM
Reviewed by Heller McAlpin

Amy Bloom's new novel of short stories puts the spotlight on cupid's paradoxical heartlessness. Read more...

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February 3, 2010

Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and The National Security State

By GARRY WILLS
Reviewed by Richard Pious

Did the creation of the nuclear bomb turn the Executive Branch into a dictatorship?

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Daybook

May 18: Parade, the "first modern ballet," premiered in Paris on this day in 1917. The production was a collaboration of some of modernism's most famous -- music by Erik Satie, scenario by Jean Cocteau, costumes by Picasso,…

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Previously in Daybook
In the Margin

Ethan Rutherford and Matt Burgess (Dogfight: A Love Story) on the writing of Rutherford's surreal and fiercely funny story collection The Peripatetic Coffin. 

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Earlier Posts
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The Long List
Books, CDs, DVDs to know about now
The Innocence Game

Three Chicago journalism students attend an “innocence” seminar that will teach them how to release the wrongfully accused from prison. But as innocents are jailed, a killer roams free, and the students are next on the hit list.

Little Green

Walter Mosley's suave detective Easy Rawlins is back among the living after a literal cliffhanger of a car crash, in pursuit of a  LSD-addled boxer roaming Los Angeles, 1967.

The Peripatetic Coffin

A Russian ship trapped in ice, the first Confederate submarine, and the world's worst summer camp are just three of the settings for Ethan Rutherford's tales of expeditions gone awry.  A Discover Great New Writers selection.