December 2013 Issue
January
January 4: Superman: Last Son of Krypton, by Richard Donner, Geoff Johns (script) & Adam Kubert, Gary Frank (art)January 5: The Kassa Gambit, by M. C. PlanckJanuary 6: Scenes from Early Life, by Philip HensherJanuary 7: Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography, by Peter Green (foreward by Eugene N. Borza)January 8: Ice Forged (The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, Book 1), by Gail Z. MartinJanuary 9: World War Two, by Norman StoneJanuary 10: The Midwife’s Tale, by Sam ThomasJanuary 11: A Memory of Light, by Robert Jordan & Brandon SandersonJanuary 12: A Jew Among Romans: The Life and Legacy of Flavius Josephus, by Frederic RaphaelJanuary 13: Rome and Rhetoric: Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, by Garry WillsJanuary 17: The Boy, by Lara SantoroJanuary 18: Essential X-Men, volume 11, by Chris Claremont et al. (script) & Jim Lee et al. (art)January 19: Access All Areas: Selected Writings 1990-2010, by Sara WheelerJanuary 20: Adventures of Superman: Gil Kane, by Bob Rozakis, Martin Pasko, Marv Wolfman, et al. (script) & Gil Kane (art)January 24: The World Until Yesterday, by Jared DiamondJanuary 26: The Fall of the Stone City, by Ismail Kadare (translated by John Hodgson)January 27: The Illicit Happiness of Other People, by Manu JosephJanuary 28: Antarctica: An Intimate Portrait of a Mysterious Continent, by Gabrielle WalkerJanuary 29: The Making of the First World War, by Ian F. W. BeckettJanuary 30: Money Run, by Jack HeathJanuary 31: The Best of Youth, by Michael Dahlie
February
February 1: Engineers of Victory: The Problem Solvers Who Turned the Tide in the Second World War, by Paul KennedyFebruary 2: Ways of Going Home, by Alejandro ZambraFebruary 4: West with the Night, by Beryl MarkhamFebruary 7: Furies: War in Europe, 1450-1700, by Lauro MartinesFebruary 8: Europe Before Rome: A Site-by-Site Tour of the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages, by T. Douglas PriceFebruary 9: The Aviator’s Wife, by Melanie BenjaminFebruary 10: I Will Have Vengeance: The Winter of Commissario Ricciardi, by Maurizio de GiovanniFebruary 11: A Week in Winter, by Maeve BinchyFebruary 13: How Literature Saved My Life, by David ShieldsFebruary 14: A Great and Monstrous Thing: London in the Eighteenth Century, by Jerry WhiteFebruary 15: Marvel Firsts: WWII Superheroes, Marvel ComicsFebruary 16: Thor the Might Avenger: the Complete Edition, by Roger Langridge (scripts) & Chris Samnee (art)February 21: The Average American Marriage, by Chad KultgenFebruary 23: Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses, by Sarah GristwoodFebruary 28: The Leviathan Effect, by James Lilliefors
March
March 2: Swords of Albion: The Devil’s Looking Glass, by Mark ChadbournMarch 4: The Praetorian Guard: A History of Rome’s Elite Special Forces, by Sandra BinghamMarch 5: Spartacus, by Aldo Schiavone, translated from the Italian by Jeremy CardenMarch 6: The Murder of Cleopatra: History’s Greatest Cold Case, by Pat BrownMarch 8: Louis Agassiz: Creator of American Science, by Christoph IrmscherMarch 9: Britain Begins, by Barry CunliffeMarch 14: After Rome: A Novel of Celtic Britain, by Morgan LlewelynMarch 15: Avengers Versus Thanos, by Jim Starlin, Mike Friedrich, et al (scripts) & Jim Starlin et al (art)March 16: The Carriage House, by Lousia HallMarch 17: Adam Ferguson in the Scottish Enlightenment, by Iain McDanielMarch 18: The Blue Book, by A.L. KennedyMarch 19: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Ecology and Conservation, by Aldo LeopoldMarch 20: All the Light There Was, by Nancy KricorianMarch 21: Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present, by Max BootMarch 22: The Sunshine When She’s Gone, by Thea GoodmanMarch 23: Honor, by Elif ShafakMarch 24: The Unfinished Odyssey of Robert Kennedy, by David HalberstamMarch 25: Dune, by Frank HerbertMarch 26: Shadows and Strongholds, by Elizabeth ChadwickMarch 27: Abide with Me, by Sabin WillettMarch 28: Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife, by Eben AlexanderMarch 30: The Tale of Raw Head & Bloody Bones, by Jack WolfMarch 31: Edwardian Opulence: British Art at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century, by Angus Trumble & Andrea Wolk Rager
April
April 1: The Chalice, by Nancy BilyeauApril 2: The Creation of Anne Boleyn, by Susan BordoApril 3: Roses Have Thorns, by Sandra ByrdApril 4: Christian Beginnings: From Nazareth to Nicaea, by Geza VermesApril 5: Lover at Last (a novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood), by J. R. WardApril 7: Bolivar: American Liberator, by Marie AranaApril 8: Marcel Proust: A Life, by William C. CarterApril 9: Heinrich Himmler, by Peter LongerichApril 10: The Borgias: The Hidden History, by G. J. MeyerApril 12: Superman: Secret Identity, by Kurt Busiek (script) & Stuart Immonen (art)April 13: Darwin’s Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution, by Rebecca StottApril 14: The Undivided Past: Humanity Beyond Our Differences, by David CannadineApril 17: The Adventures of Superman, by Gerry Conway, et al (scripts) & Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (art)April 20: Hour of the Red God: A Detective Mollel Novel, by Richard ComptonApril 21: July 1914: Countdown to War, by Sean McMeekinApril 25: The World of the Salt Marsh: Appreciating and Protecting the Tidal Marshes of the Southeastern Atlantic Coast, by Charles SeabrookApril 26: The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II, by Denise KiernanApril 28: A California Childhood, by James Franco
May
May 2: Alexander Wilson: The Scot Who Founded American Ornithology, by Edward H. Burtt, Jr. & William E. Davis, Jr.May 3: Tocqueville: The Aristocratic Sources of Liberty, by Lucien JaumeMay 4: Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy from 1453 to the Present, by Brendan SimmsMay 5: Global Crisis: War, Climate Change & Catastrophe In the Seventeenth Century, by Geoffrey ParkerMay 10: The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England, by Dan JonesMay 14: Pliny and the Artistic Culture of the Italian Renaissance, by Sarah Blake McHamMay 16: All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay from Lincoln to Roosevelt, by John TaliaferroMay 18: Edmund Burke: The First Conservative, by Jesse NormanMay 20: Sacred Games, by Gary CorbyMay 24: The Guns at Last Light, by Rick AtkinsonMay 28: Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction, by Annalee Newitz
June
June 1: World War Z, by Max BrooksJune 2: Ancient Israel – The Former Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, by Robert AlterJune 3: Alexander the Great: The Anabasis and the Indica, by Arrian, translated by Martin HammondJune 8: Through the Perilous Fight: Six Weeks That Saved the Nation, by Steve VogelJune 9: Francesco Filelfo: On Exile, Jeroen De Keyser (editor), W. Scott Blanchard (translator)June 10: The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths, by John GrayJune 11: The Ides of April: A Flavia Albia Mystery, by Lindsey DavisJune 16: Narwhals: Arctic Whales in a Melting World, by Todd McLeishJune 17: Horace and Me: Life Lessons From an Ancient Roman Poet, by Harry EyresJune 20: The Malice of Fortune, by Michael EnnisJune 23: Disraeli: The Romance of Politics, by Robert O’KellJune 26: 2312, by Kim Stanley RobinsonJune 29: The Long Road to Antietam: How the Civil War Became a Revolution, by Richard Slotkin
July
July 2: Deprivation, or, Benedetto furioso: an oneiromancy, by Alex JeffersJuly 5: Our Lives, Our Fortunes & Our Sacred Honor: The Forging of American Independence, 1774-1776, by Richard R. BeemanJuly 6: Gettysburg: The Last Invasion, by Allen C. GuelzoJuly 9: Nelson: The Sword of Albion, by John SugdenJuly 13: 1940: FDR, Wilkie, Lindbergh, Hitler – The Election Amid the Storm, by Susan DunnJuly 14: The Shadow King: The Bizarre Afterlife of King Tut’s Mummy, by Jo MarchantJuly 15: Weird Detectives: Recent Investigations, edited by Paula GuranJuly 16: The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P., by Adelle WaldmanJuly 18: Hidden Order, by Brad ThorJuly 19: Kafka: The Poet of Shame and Guilt, by Saul FriedlanderJuly 20: Kafka: The Decisive Years, by Reiner StachJuly 21: Kafka: The Years of Insight, by Reiner StachJuly 22: Summertime, All the Cats are Bored, by Philippe Georget, translated from the French by Steven RendallJuly 27: Take, Burn or Destroy, by S. Thomas RussellJuly 28: Night Pilgrims, by Chelsea Quinn YarbroJuly 29: Signatures of Life: Science Searches the Universe, by Edward AshpoleJuly 30: The Anglo-Saxon World, by Nicholas J. Higham and Martin J. RyanJuly 31: The Men Who Lost America, by Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy
August
August 1: The White Princess, by Philippa GregoryAugust 2: The Warbler Guide, by Tom Stephenson and Scott WhittleAugust 3: Long, Obstinate, and Bloody: The Battle of Guilford Courthouse, by Lawrence E. Babits & Joshua B. HowardAugust 4: Extra Sensory: The Science and Pseudoscience of Telepathy and Other Powers of the Mind, by Brian CleggAugust 5: Essays of Henry D. Thoreau, an annotated edition by Jeffrey S. CramerAugust 7: Benjamin Britten: A Life for Music, by Neil PowellAugust 9: The Letters of T. S. Eliot, Volume 4: 1928-1929, edited by Valerie Eliot & John HaffendenAugust 15: The Twelve Caesars: The Dramatic Lives of the Emperors of Rome, by Matthew DennisonAugust 17: The Selected Letters of Anthony Hecht, edited by Jonathan F. S. PostAugust 19: The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection, edited by Gardner DozoisAugust 20: Life in a Shell: A Physiologist’s View of a Turtle, by Donald C. JacksonAugust 21: Trash Animals: How We Live With Nature’s Filthy, Feral, Invasive, and Unwanted Species, edited by Kelsi Nagy and Phillip David Johnson IIAugust 23: Planet Without Apes, by Craig B. StanfordAugust 27: I’d Know You Anywhere, My Love, by Nancy TillmanAugust 30: Armor and Blood: The Battle of Kursk – The Turning Point of World War II, by Dennis E. ShowalterAugust 31: Ninety Percent of Everything Inside Shipping, The Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, And Food on Your Plate, by Rose George
September
September 1: Two Boys Kissing, by David LevithanSeptember 4: In the Olden Time: Victorians and the British Past, by Andrew SandersSeptember 7: Royal Inheritance, by Kate EmersonSeptember 8: Fatal Rivalry: Flodden 1513 – Henry VIII, James IV and the Battle for Renaissance Britain, by George GoodwinSeptember 9: Shakespeare’s Prince: The Interpretation of “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth”, by Guy Story BrownSeptember 10: A History of Ancient Egypt, from the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid, by John RomerSeptember 11: Confronting the Classics: Traditions, Adventures and Innovations, by Mary BeardSeptember 12: Star Trek: The Art of Juan Ortiz, Titan BooksSeptember 15: Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise, 1848 – 1877, by Brenda WineappleSeptember 20: Graphic the Valley, by Peter Brown HoffmeisterSeptember 22: William Kent: Designing Georgian Britain, edited by Susan WeberSeptember 27: Forbidden Music: The Jewish Composers Banned by the Nazis, by Michael HaasSeptember 28: Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?, By Alan WeismanSeptember 29: The Mighty Thor Omnibus, Vol. 2, by Stan Lee (scripts) & Jack Kirby (art)
October
October 1: Dirty Words in Deadwood: Literature and the Postwestern, edited by Melody Graulich & Nicholas S. WitschiOctober 4: Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation, by John FerlingOctober 6: The Kraus Project, by Jonathan Franzen, et alOctober 7: The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean, by David AbulafiaOctober 10: Longbourn, by Jo BakerOctober 12: My 1980s & Other Essays, by Wayne KoestenbaumOctober 13: Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War, by Max HastingsOctober 14: My Crazy Century: A Memoir, by Ivan KlimaOctober 15: Jack London: An American Life, by Earle LaborOctober 18: Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion, by Anne SomersetOctober 19: Tudors: The History of England from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, by Peter AckroydOctober 22: Henry VIII: The Life and Rule of England’s Nero, by John MatusiakOctober 24: Jonathan Swift: His Life and World, by Leo DamroschOctober 26: Naturalists at Sea, by Glyn WilliamsOctober 27: The Urban Bestiary, by Lyanda Lynne HauptOctober 29: The Spanish Queen, by Carolly EricksonOctober 30: Octopus! The Most Mysterious Creature in the Sea, by Katherine Harmon CourageOctober 31: Nefertiti in the Flak Tower, by Clive James
November
November 1: “Mr. President”: George Washington and the Making of the Nation’s Highest Office, by Harlow Giles UngerNovember 2: The Governor’s Lady, by Robert InmanNovember 3: Churchill and the King: The Wartime Alliance of Winston Churchill and George VI, by Kenneth WeisbrodeNovember 4: Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven, by John Eliot GardinerNovember 7: Barksdale’s Charge: The True High Tide of the Confederacy, by Phillip Thomas TuckerNovember 9: Divine Fury: A History of Genius, by Darrin M. McMahonNovember 10: George Washington: Gentleman Warrior, by Stephen BrumwellNovember 12: Citizen Emperor: Napoleon in Power, by Philip DwyerNovember 15: The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, by Brad StoneNovember 16: American Statecraft: The Story of the U.S. Foreign Service, by J. Robert MoskinNovember 18: Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It, by Jennifer Michael HechtNovember 23: Slow Reading in a Hurried Age, by David MikicsNovember 29: Musorgsky & His Circle: A Russian Musical Adventure, by Stephen Walsh
December
December 1: Heir to the Empire City: New York and the Making of Theodore Roosevelt, by Edward P. KohnDecember 3: Marvel Epic Collection: Thor – War of the Pantheons, by Tom DeFalco, Roger Stern (scripts) & Ron Frenz (art)December 7: Wellington: The Path to Victory, 1769-1814, by Rory MuirDecember 8: My Mistake: A Memoir, by Daniel MenakerDecember 10: The Iliad, by Homer, translated by Barry PowellDecember 12: The Venetians – A New History: from Marco Polo to Casanova,by Paul StrathernDecember 13: 21st Century Science Fiction, edited by David Hartwell and Patrick Nielsen HaydenDecember 14: The Libertine: The Art of Love in Eighteenth-Century France, edited by Michel DolenDecember 15: Cosmos, by Carl Sagan, introduction by Anne Druyan, foreword by Neil deGrasse TysonDecember 16: Johnny Alucard, by Kim NewmanDecember 17: Holding on Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore, by Linda LeavellDecember 18: Verdun: The Lost History of the Most Important Battle of World War I, 1914-1918, by John MosierDecember 19: The World of the Curl: An Unconventional History of Surfing, by Peter Westwick and Peter NeushulDecember 20: The Lost Prince, by Edward LazellariDecember 21: The Devil That Never Dies: The Rise and Threat of Global Antisemitism, by Daniel Jonah GoldhagenDecember 22: Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy, by Eri HottaDecember 23: Latin: Story of a World Language, by Jurgen Leonhardt, translated by Kenneth Kronenberg___Steve Donoghue is a writer and reader living in Boston with his dogs. He’s recently reviewed books for The Washington Post, The National, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Historical Novel Review Online, and The Quarterly Conversation. He is the Managing Editor of Open Letters Monthly, and hosts one of its blogs, Stevereads.