Steve Donoghue’s posts from the original Open Letters Monthly Archives.
Well, obviously our mighty Year’s Best – and Worst – Books cataclysm wraps up my book-blogging for 2013, but I couldn’t fade into the sunset for the next few days without extending my heartfelt thanks to all of you out there reading Stevereads, whether you’ve been checking in for a few months or a few years [...]
Read MoreTouching photos and essays testify to the wonder of old dogs
Read MoreIn a fantasy version of LA where sorcerous captains of industry wage war against the gods, a conflicted young 'risk manager' works to prevent a dark plot from poisoning millions of people
Read MoreA sultry medium in 1920s San Francisco meets an alluring scapegrace laboring under a malicious hex
Read MoreA princess without a country makes the audacious decision to take a lover, despite anything society might think.
Read MoreAn elite secret black ops team must mobilize to find one of their own in Stephanie Tyler's latest "Section 8" novel
Read MoreFrom Hercules to Theseus to Odysseus to Socrates, the heroes of ancient Greek mythology bring an entire lost world to vivid life. A new book goes to great - even heroic - lengths to decode those heroes
Read MoreThat age-old happy nostrum - the inherent superiority of human beings over all other life in the universe - gets its scientific Sunday best polished and pressed
Read MoreFeel like starting up a literary magazine? Why the hell not!
Read MoreOne of the biggest success stories among the world's language gets a genial history
Read MoreA vivid look at the culture and politics that led to Japan's ill-fated attack on Pearl Harbor
Read MoreThe controversial historian returns with a new alarm-call about the rise of international antisemitism
Read MoreA group of extra-dimensional retainers must protect their exiled prince - but he doesn't know who he is, and they don't either.
Read MoreTwo professors - with oceanside views - take readers on a hundred-year history of the world's coolest sport
Read MoreA prickly-smart new analysis contends that we too easily simplify the great World War I battle of Verdun
Read MoreOne of the 20th Century's greatest poets finally gets her definitive biography
Read MoreThe whole category of “nonfiction” is necessarily an evil enough hodge-podge (in bookstores, a special sneer is reserved for those customers clueless enough to come in asking for “the nonfiction section”), and I’m perfectly aware that some of the books on this list could migrate to other lists without too much cognitive dissonance. Nevertheless, the [...]
Read MoreAfter fifteen years, the fantastic "Anno Dracula" series continues
Read MoreA quarter-century after its first appearance, a beloved popular-science classic gets a new reprint
Read MoreA new volume from the mighty Abbeville Press will warm your cold, withered heart if anything still can!
Read MoreThis is a place for all of my writing about books.