Book Review: Spineless
/A fascinating new book looks at the unendingly odd jellyfish - and some of the unexpected roles it plays in the 21st century world.
Read MoreA fascinating new book looks at the unendingly odd jellyfish - and some of the unexpected roles it plays in the 21st century world.
Read MorePoor innocent Lady Jane Grey has been an ostentatious martyr to the Protestant cause for centuries; a new book tells her brief but familiar life story as continues.
Read MoreA new book on the famous Tudor dynasty promises that most alluring of all perspectives on royalty: the back-stage details. But can it succeed? A Year with the Tudors continues.
Read MoreJane Seymour is in many ways the most elusive of all the wives of King Henry VIII, dying just weeks after giving the king his longed-for male heir. A new novel delves into the human connection between Henry and his third wife.
Read MoreHe's forever linked in history with his punning nickname, but a new biography shows there was more to Æthelred than being "Unready"
Read MoreThe serial killer who stalked the streets of London in 1888 and became immortal under the name Jack the Ripper is the subject of a sumptuous new collection of fact and fiction.
Read MoreFor a century, humans have been searching for any sign of extraterrestrial life, intelligent or otherwise. A new book tells the story of that quest - and keeps its geeky hope alive.
Read MoreAccording to a new book, not only did God design life, but deep down inside, we all know it. Steve Donoghue remains unconverted.
Read MoreEver since Mary Shelley wrote her weird masterpiece two centuries ago, it's been impossible to keep a good monster down. In the Shadow of Frankenstein gives readers two dozen pastiches that keep the Creature alive.
Read MoreA thorough and even-handed new book gives readers a tour of the "Creation Museum" in Kentucky - and warns not to dismiss its dangers too readily.
Read MoreA sumptuous new book lays a vast roll call of frogs before the reader and opens a window onto the strange world of the world's most popular amphibian.
Read MoreA new book studies the history of copyright and the life and legacy of Aaron Swartz, one of copyright's groundbreaking interpreters for the new century.
Read MoreThe only reverse-canonization ever performed was by Pius II in 1462, against his hated enemy Sigismondo Malatesta. A new book tells the fascinating story of this "precursor of the Antichrist."
Read MoreYears after the "New Atheism" heyday, a new book by an old hand takes up the atheist cause with renewed urgency.
Read MoreLate in 1944, the defeated Nazis staked everything on one last throw of the dice, a massive assault on the Allied forces in Belgium. Antony Beevor's latest book tells the famous story of the Battle of the Bulge.
Read MoreAt the beginning of the 19th century, a small trove of elaboratedly carved chess pieces was uncovered on a remote beach - a lively new book traces the history and strange charisma of the Lewis chessmen.
Read MoreHe sailed around Cape Horn and wrote a classic about it, and he fought for the downtrodden in Boston courts for thirty years - he was Richard Henry Dana, Jr., and he's the subject of a thought-provoking new biography.
Read MoreA thousand years ago, a refined lady at the Japanese Court wrote the first and one of the greatest novels of all time, The Tale of Genji; Dennis Washburn does the latest translation of this immense work, with stunning results.
Read MoreCelebrated biographer H. W. Brands has written the first full-dress of Ronald Reagan since the former president's death in 2004 - but does Reagan elude him, as he has so many biographers? Steve Donoghue reviews.
Read MoreAuthor Jacob Silverman contends in his new book that the intrusions of social media into our private lives has reached sometimes intolerable extents. But what does he mean by "intolerable"? And who is he counting as "our"?
Read MoreThis is a place for all of my writing about books.