Over the Top
/An ambitious new novel joins a long and illustrious parade of writers in telling the story of WWI as a tale of innocence lost.
Read MoreNorman Lebrecht's Album of the Week - Verdi's Requiem
/The London Symphony Orchestra has released a marvelous, exhilarating liver performance of Verdi's Requiem, one only slightly let down by its recording methods.
Read MoreBook Review: Martin Luther, Renegade and Prophet
/A smart and rewarding new biography seeks to portray the very human man underneath the multilayered legend of Martin Luther.
Read MoreBook Review: The Imagineers of War
/For decades, the weirdos and shaggy-haired mad-genius inventors of DARPA have toiled in well-funded obscurity; a new book uses recently-declassified material to tell their story.
Read MoreBook Review: Fallen Glory
/A lavishly-produced new book details humanity's long love-hate relationship with some of its most famous and iconic buildings.
Read MoreBook Review: A History of Ancient Egypt from the Great Pyramid to the Fall of the Middle Kingdom
/The author's multi-volume history of Ancient Egypt now reaches the high points of that culture's power and refinement.
Read MoreNorman Lebrecht's Album of the Week - Bach Trios
/It's hard to evaluate an album of Bach for trio, including Yo-Yo Ma, that is so expertly played yet so flagrantly inoffensive.
Read MoreBook Review: Carnivore Minds
/Sharks, bears, rattlesnakes ... these and other infamous apex carnivores long considered mindless killing machines are given a fresh and nuanced re-examination in G. A. Bradshaw's new book.
Read MoreBook Review: The New Neotropical Companion
/A classic nature guide gets an elaborate, beautiful update.
Read MoreBob Silvers
/Bob Silvers
Read MoreNorman Lebrecht's Album of the Week - Das Lied von der Erde
/A new recording of Mahler's vocal masterpiece is made with the best of intentions but has imperfect results.
Read MoreBook Review: Swimmer Among the Stars
/Islands of bright, fable-spinning whimsy dot the debut collection of Kanishk Tharoor
Read MoreBook Review: The Weight of This World
/The sudden death of their drug dealer sends two backwoods friends into a spiral of greed and violence in the new novel from David Joy.
Read MoreBook Review: Spaceman of Bohemia
/A lone Czech astronaut on a deep-space mission confronts his past and his fears in this taut, memorable debut novel
Read MoreBook Review: In This Grave Hour
/Even the declaration of war with Germany doesn't stop mysteries from arriving at the doorstep of the indefatigable Maisie Dobbs.
Read MoreNorman Lebrecht's Album of the Week - Hanns Eisler
/A beautifully played album illuminates the expressive film scores of the unjustly overlooked Hanns Eisler.
Read MoreBook Review: Sex and the Constitution
/A richly rewarding new book narrates the long and complicated history of the American quest for - and fight against - life, liberty, and the pursuit of sex.
Read MoreBook Review: A Rabble of Dead Money
/Long before the Great Recession shook the modern world to its financial foundations, there was the Great Depression, the subject of a gripping new history.
Read MoreBook Review: Cnut the Great
/A taut, gripping new biography presents the life of the great warlord-monarch King Cnut
Read MoreNorman Lebrecht's Album of the Week - Nadia Boulanger
/Nadia Boulanger deferred to the music of her short-lived sister Lily and barely spoke of herself as a composer. Two releases, newly landed, may help to adjust that misperception.
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