Horace in the Afternoon
/He was everybody’s friend, and his poetry breathes with life even today. He was Horace, and “A Year with the Romans” makes his acquaintance.
Read More#10
/In our second annual Fiction Bestseller List feature, our writers temporarily put aside their dogeared copies of Hume and Mann, roll up their sleeves, and dig into the ten bestselling novels in the land as of September 6, 2009 – in the tranquil days before a certain Dan Brown novel began tromping all over that list like Godzilla in downtown Tokyo. Before you spend your hard-earned money at the bookstore, join us in a tour of the way we read now.
Read MoreThe Grace of Seduction
/Steve Donoghue’s “A Year with the Romans” continues with a look at the obscure Roman poet Persius – and the great new book about him.
Read MorePrince of a Lost Realm
/He ruled the world of Sunday comics with a singing sword and a grin. He was Prince Valiant, and Fantagraphics lets him fight again. Steve Donoghue goes blow-by-blow.
Read MoreVerissimus
/Statesmen, philosophers, and serial killers turn to the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, but what was the emperor himself like? Frank McLynn’s Marcus Aurelius tells, and in this month’s “A Year with the Romans,” Steve Donoghue assesses.
Read MoreBook Review: How I Became a Famous Novelist
/Steve Hely's How I Became a Famous Novelist tells the tale of a writer/'content manager'. Steve Donoghue reviews.
Read MoreChurch and State collided in Henry VIII’s England, and Durham Cathedral was caught in the middle. Steve Donoghue returns to his Tudor beat to review Geoffrey Moorhouse’s The Last Divine Office.
Read MoreAlexander the Grating
/The only surviving full-length biography of Alexander the Great was written by a Roman. Steve Donoghue looks at Quintus Curtius Rufus as “A Year with the Romans” continues.
Read MoreMiss Hamilton Disposes
/No one had ever written about love - in its infinite and profane variety - the way the Roman poet Catullus did; its explication by a scholarly schoolmistress might seem paradoxical - but Edith Hamilton knew something about love herself.
Read MoreReview of Heros & Villians: Inside the Minds of the Greatest Warriors in History
/Steve Donoghue explores why eminent historian Frank McLynn's "Heroes & Villains is easily the most frustrating book he’s ever written."
Read MoreReview of BoneMan's Daughters
/In his review of BoneMan's Daughters, Steve Donoghue takes Ted Dekker to task, writing, "the experience is constantly given an extra-gummy sheen by carrying a freight of Biblical and quasi-Biblical double meanings."
Read MoreReview of Before I Lose My Style
/Steve Donoghue reviews the structurally bold gay novel "Before I Lose My Style".
Read MoreReview of The Great Perhaps
/Steve Donoghue review "The Great Perhaps," "Joe Meno’s best book to date by several orders of magnitude."
Read MoreReview of Meriwether Lewis
/Find out more about Danisi and Jackson's biography of Meriwether Lewis by reading Steve Donoghue's informing review: "but we know what kind of a book Danisi and Jackson have written: meaty, entertaining, and best of all, definitive."
Read MoreReview of Into the Beautiful North
/Into the Beautiful North, writes Steve Donoghue, is "a strong, sensitive, wonderful novel, one richly deserving of wide success."
Read MoreStrange New Worlds
/J.J. Abrams’ long-awaited Star Trek reboot has hit theaters, and Steve Donoghue looks into whether it carries on a proud legacy, or else overturns it.
Read MoreTen Questions for Sarah Ruden
/Sarah Ruden, the latest and greatest translator of Vergil’s Aeneid, offers a funny and fascinating glimpse inside the classicist’s world in this Open Letters interview.
Read MoreUncle Livy
/Steve Donoghue’s “Year with the Romans” turns its eye upon Titus Livius, who either wrote poetical history or historical poetry, depending on who you ask.
Read MoreReview of You Are Here
/Steve Donoghue digs into Donald Breckenridge's stylistically arresting "You Are Here"
Read MoreReview of Patient Zero
/"Patient Zero is full of sharp dialogue, rapid-fire action, fascinating (and, the author somewhat disturbingly promises us, entirely fact-based) patho-science, and a wide array of deftly drawn characters."
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