A New Dracula

A New Dracula

A Bloody Habit: A Novel by Eleanor Bourg Nicholson. Ignatius Press, 2018. Paperback, 435 pages, $19. Reviewed by Matthew M. Robare Stop me if you’ve heard this one: while traveling through central Europe, a modern English lawyer gets entangled in the machinations of a...
The Habit of Being a Catholic Writer

The Habit of Being a Catholic Writer

The Letters of Flannery O’Connor and Caroline Gordon, edited by Christine Flanagan. The University of Georgia Press, 2018. Hardcover, 254 pages, $32.95 Reviewed by Emina Melonic “This girl is a real novelist,” said Caroline Gordon in a letter to Robert...
All the History That Fits a Narrative

All the History That Fits a Narrative

The Final Act: The Helsinki Accords and the Transformation of the Cold War by Michael Cotey Morgan, Princeton University Press, 2018. Hardcover, 424 pages, $35. Reviewed by Francis P. Sempa People have a tendency, when they expend much time and energy working on a...
A District in Play

A District in Play

Spitalfields: The History of a Nation in a Handful of Streets by Dan Cruickshank. Random House, (2016) 2018. Paperback, 763 pages, $24 Reviewed by Derek Turner Every morning, I would be awakened by the cockerel across the road, and open the curtains to see an array of...
The Doctor as Moralist

The Doctor as Moralist

The Proper Procedure and Other Stories by Theodore Dalrymple. New English Review Press, 2017. Paperback, 162 pages, $19. Reviewed by Scott Beauchamp The phenomenon of the literary doctor presents an interesting case in reading biography into a literary oeuvre. They...
The Doctor as Amoralist

The Doctor as Amoralist

Under the Knife: A History of Surgery in 28 Remarkable Operations by Arnold van de Laar, translated by Andy Brown. St. Martin’s Press, 2018. Hardcover, 357 pages, $30. Reviewed by Karl C. Schaffenburg In his entertaining and readable review of the history of surgery,...