Steve Donoghue’s posts from the original Open Letters Monthly Archives.
Our book today goes by a title Stevereads has already anointed as alluring: To Wake the Mangog! (I added the exclamation point that the book’s own packagers shamefully omitted) – it’s a thick volume in Marvel Comics’ ongoing “Epic Collection” series of color reprints from the archives. This is the fourth “Epic Collection” of Thor […]
Read MoreUnder the direction of Oliver Cromwell, dozens of men deliberated to execute the captive King Charles I, and when Charles II came to power a decade later, those men were suddenly in the gravest danger. A fascinating new book tells their stories.
Read MoreIn the second volume of Will Elliott's fantastic "Pendulum" trilogy, a large and engaging cast of characters fight to survive in a world drastically out of balance
Read MoreA new book takes an intense look at the presidency of Ronald Reagan
Read MoreDriven into hiding by the victorious forces of William the Conqueror, the heroic Hereward the Wake and his band of freedom fighters must struggle to survive
Read MoreA gripping new book takes readers inside the fabled - and troubled - land of Tibet
Read MoreA harrowing new book looks at the many spaces the Vietnam Was has occupied in the American mental landscape
Read MoreSome Penguin Classics were custom-made to be very handy for traveling, which makes them extra-poignant in the Boston of February 2015, in which nobody packs bags or quick satchels because travel of any kind is impossible and has been for many, many weeks. All flights into or out of Logan Airport have been cancelled, and […]
Read MoreA strong-willed Bavarian princess captures the eye of the young Austro-Hungarian emperor in Allison Pataki's opulent new historical novel. Steve Donoghue reviews.
Read MoreNearly 40 years ago, the Voyager spacecraft left Earth bearing cameras to photograph the solar system - and messages of greetings to the wider galaxy. A terrific new book tells the story of a great human adventure
Read MoreOur books today comprise a small Stevereads landmark: my very first book-haul from Book Outlet! As some of you will know, I’m delighted to spend time watching all the enthusiastic young people (and a few old enough to know better!) over in the nerdy, inordinately friendly corner of YouTube known as “BookTube.” I love the […]
Read MoreThe clashes of the Cold War weren't just matters of missiles and border guards; they also enlisted honey-voiced broadcasters, drunken novelists, and bookish magazine editors, as a fascinating new book makes clear
Read MoreNothing warms up the icy snowbound ventricles quite like a burst of outrage, and I got one of those recently when I encountered a block of pure editorial cowardice in the Penny Press. Specifically, it was in the 5 February 2015 issue of the London Review of Books (although the cover is misprinted […]
Read MoreIn Dewey Lambdin's latest rousing Alan Lewrie adventure, our dashing hero sees action off the coast of a Spain imperiled by Napoleon
Read MoreIn 1944 a contentious group of delegates gathered in New Hampshire in order to lay out a blueprint for the postwar world economy; a great new history tells the story of Bretton Woods
Read MoreIn V. E. Schwab's new fantasy novel, a young man can travel between a string of alternate-reality Londons
Read MoreAn engaging new book looks at that perennial fascination for biographers, Niccolo Machiavelli
Read MoreOur book today is one we turn to with some bitterness: The Poetic Edda, or Elder Edda, that medieval treasure-house of Norse mythology. After a week of fawningly propitiating a certain Deity Who shall remain nameless, and after having it amount to squat as a vicious “snow hurricane” struck poor, shivering Boston just the same, […]
Read MoreSometimes, when it comes to propitiating the Deity, circumstances warrant going right to the top – and with poor wretched Boston staring wide-eyed at the latest ferocious oncoming “monster storm,” today seemed like one of those times. So with fear and trembling, I crept to my bookshelves and assembled the proverbial stack of Bibles on […]
Read MoreTwo-time National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft kept a low profile (and a negligible paper trail) throughout a lifetime in Washington power-dealing; a compelling new book profiles the ultimate Oval Office insider
Read MoreThis is a place for all of my writing about books.