Category: Europe

May 2, 2017

SPQR by Mary Beard *** (of 4)

It is no simple task to recount the thousand year history of the Ancient Roman empire. It isn’t even easy to determine when the empire...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

March 31, 2017

Regeneration by Pat Barker **** (of 4)

Most of the action takes place away from the European trenches of World War I. Instead, Dr. Rivers uses the new field of psychoanalysis to...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

March 7, 2017

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman **** (of 4)

Ove awakens at the same hour every morning and sees no reason to change any part of his routine that begins with close inspection of...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

February 27, 2017

Hero of the Empire by Candace Millard *** (of 4)

Almost from the day he was born into privilege, Winston Churchill was ambitious. Searching for an opportunity to demonstrate his talents and value to the...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

February 16, 2017

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley ** (of 4)

In late Victorian England, a telegraphist discovers a watch in his flat. The watch is exquisitely expensive but does not open to tell the time...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

January 12, 2017

A Spy Among Friends *** (of 4) By Ben MacIntyre

Kim Philby joined the British spy services and the Russian KGB as a young man fresh from university. The Second World War had not yet...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

December 27, 2016

The Girl from Venice by Martin Cruz Smith *** (of 4)

In the closing days of WWII, as the Allies are conquering northward up the Italian peninsula, the Germans are beginning to retreat, and their Italian...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

December 1, 2016

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George **** (of 4)

It seems to me that even mediocre authors can write tragedies. As long as a protagonist is reasonably sympathetic and something awful occurs, the reader...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

November 22, 2016