Steve Donoghue’s posts from the original Open Letters Monthly Archives.
Victorian historical painting and Victorian historical fiction met in a glorious collaboration of national mythology. Andrew Sanders, in a magnificent new study from Yale University Press, gives that collaboration a delightfully thorough questioning.
Read MoreOur book today is Sarah Stewart’s merry, winsome 1995 Caldecott-winning children’s book The Library, about a little girl named Elizabeth Brown who starts reading as soon as she can and then continues doing it ‘at an incredible rate’ for the rest of her life. She reads under the covers at night. She reads on the [...]
Read MoreIn bestselling author David Levithan's new novel, two boys try to set a world's record for the longest kiss - and their adventure is cheered on by the most unlikely chorus
Read MoreOur book today is Cape Cod by William Berchen and Monica Dickens, a slim, brimmingly illustrated vacation volume from 1972. As I’ve noted before, the end of summer always makes me think of all the time I’ve spent at the Cape over the years, and although Boston is still panting under the fat hand of [...]
Read MoreKing and Woolman's new book Assassination of the Archduke, boasts new sources, very close to Franz Ferdinand and his wife -- too close?
Read MoreThis is a place for all of my writing about books.