#WhatImReadingNow: Heretics and Heroes

The high spirits of Renaissance Italy spilled over into other European lands, though the waves set off by so much gaiety sometimes landed elsewhere with a shock and might even be received with contempt. The Renaissance, as it appeared elsewhere, could at times look...

#WhatImReadingNow: These Old Shades

‘Done!’ said my lady. ‘Oh, Rupert! I lost my big emerald at play last week! I could have cried my eyes out, and Edward could only say that it must be a lesson to me!’ ‘That’s Edward all over,’ nodded Rupert. ‘Don’t I know it!’ ‘No, you do not, tiresome boy! He will...

#WhatImReadingNow : A Gentleman in Moscow

Five days later, the Count was pleased to accept a formal invitation to tea from his new acquaintance, Nina Kulikova. The engagement was for three o’clock in the hotel’s coffeehouse at the northwest corner of the ground floor. Arriving at a quarter till, the Count...

Let Us Now Quote Famous Men

Your Editor spends a lot of time checking facts. Particularly the sorts of facts that can be stated in the form of a question: Really? Are you sure? Did Abraham Lincoln really say that? Because yes, I spend a lot of time researching (ahem) famous quotes. More than I’d...

Short Saturday: Watch Those Quotes!

I recently pushed an author to do better with the epigraphs he was using at the beginning of his chapters. Some I couldn’t verify—although I have a sixth sense about veracity, I’ll give any quote the benefit of the doubt until I prove it false—but a few of them were,...