Politics
AMERICA IS IN DECLINE: SIGNS, CAUSES, AND IMPLICATIONS FOR GLOBAL POLITICS
Culture and Heritage
What coronavirus costs to the Italian cultural heritage.
June 16, 2026Given that Italy’s is generally considered the world’s richest cultural heritage, maintenance of its historic monuments...
Fiction Reviews
The Flawless Skin of Ugly People by Doug Crandell
June 16, 2026Hobbie suffers from acne vulgaris, which has forced him into a retreat from life. ‘Other than...
Performing Arts
Daniel Barenboim at La Scala
June 15, 2026Drama number three was the presence on the podium of Daniel Barenboim, the child prodigy born...
Fiction Reviews
My Thousand & One Nights by Raja Alem and Tom McDonough
June 15, 2026In Alem’s world-view, one might expect to see objects morph into people, animals writhe in henna...
Fiction Reviews
The Tin Roof Blowdown By James Lee Burke
June 15, 2026Because he’s a damn good writer James Lee Burke knows how to keep a plot going...
Non-Fiction Reviews
Daughter of Heaven by Nigel Cawthorne
June 14, 2026In a shocking and vaguely incestuous move, she seduced T’ai-tsung’s son, the Emperor Kao-tsung, and from...
Non-Fiction Reviews
A Place for Three Seasons: Crested Butte
June 14, 2026Let us be clear on one thing: physically fit people tend to get more out of...
Books
Murdering Miss Austen
June 14, 2026Jane Austen, whose sharp tongue barely left her cheek during her short lifetime, and, whose caustic...
Nature
The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
June 14, 2026The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, informally known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is a span...
Non-Fiction Reviews
Notes From Italy: Some Old Envoys
June 13, 2026Counts who stank of garlic–as did the whole country–had sponged on him for seats in his...
Fiction Reviews
City of Fire By Robert Ellis
June 13, 2026There are red herrings aplenty, but once finished reading the novel I’m left with a sense...
Fiction Reviews
The Headmaster’s Dilemma by Louis Auchincloss
June 13, 2026There is another criticism that Auchincloss has had to counter in his long and illustrious career...
Fiction Reviews
Gentlemen and Players
June 13, 2026Yet it is the amateur, the eccentric and the outsider who plays the hero in the...
History
The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson
June 12, 2026This long, well documented book by Rick Atkinson is one of the best accounts of any...
Non-Fiction Reviews
Notes From Italy: The Oversized Embassy
June 12, 2026Nor, it seems, do Americans get out of their diplomatic fortress the way they used to....
Fiction Reviews
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
June 12, 2026There is also something conversational about the way he writes, a straightforwardness, and a beguiling, gentle...
Fiction Reviews
Exit Ghost by Philip Roth
June 12, 2026Though the notorious Roth voice is often manic and crude, we assume that coming from a...
Fiction Reviews
Trashed by Alison Gaylin
June 11, 2026These driven individuals scour celebrity garbage cans, pose as anyone but themselves, lie as though the...
Caribbean
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
June 11, 2026This book isn’t a book, it’s a jazz piece, a series of improvisations on Díaz’s country,...
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Movies & TV
100 Greatest Gangster Films: The Godfather, #1
December 20, 2025The Godfather made careers, most notably those of Francis Ford Coppola and Al Pacino, despite the...
Movies
In Defense of The Social Network: Movie demonizes sexism, doesn’t glamorize it.
October 16, 2026Fiction vs. reality: Eisenberg and Zuckerberg. First things first: I’m in the business of paying close...
Fiction Reviews
Book Review: Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
October 18, 2026Pasternak ranges the individualism of Zhivago against the heartless society that is being erected by the...
Movies
Catching Up With 2010: Marmaduke
October 9, 2026A scant few minutes into Marmaduke there’s a fart joke. Right after this fart joke Marmaduke...
Movies
All Of This Will Happen Again: Step Up 2 The Streets Revisited!
October 5, 2026Earlier this week we took a look at the first Step Up, the hit machine that...
Art
Larry Rivers, NYU, and Child Pornography
September 27, 2026How should we respond, however, when sexual abuse is the subject of a piece and a...
Art
Art Review: Chaos and Classicism: Art in France, Italy and Germany, 1918-1936
October 14, 2026Chaos and Classicism tells the story of good intentions that went terribly wrong. After the carnage...
Movies
Movie Review: Step Up 3D
October 3, 2026Step Up 3D is a good movie. Not an instant classic, but a genuine celebration of...
Video Games
Video Game Review: Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
October 22, 2026Oddly enough, it’s this great multiplayer mode that most throws the rest of the game into...
Literary Themes
The Weekly Listicle: Misleading Movie Titles
October 25, 2026Sometimes a movie's title appears to be a secret known only to the writer. Sometimes it...
The Fourth Wall
Mad (wo)Men: The Complexity of Womanhood in “Mad Men”
October 11, 2026The cast of AMC’s “Mad Men:” Vincent Kartheiser, Elisabeth Moss, John Slattery, Jon Hamm, January Jones,...
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