September 18, 2026
Subscribe
Browse Category

Books- Page 26

Book reviews and literary criticism from Standpoint, from 2008 to the present.
Two new books about reading are polar opposites.

The Bibliophile and the Bore

Two new books about reading are polar opposites. Alexander McCall Smith's musings are platitudinous while Nick Hornby reads like someone you’d love to chat with until the sun came up
November 25, 2013
·
Will the real Angela Merkel please stand up?

What Makes Her Tick?

Will the real Angela Merkel please stand up? After reading Stefan Kornelius’s official biography the German Chancellor remains a mystery
October 30, 2013
·
Walter Bagehot got it right.

Beware the Sanguine Banker

Iain Martin’s message in his excellent Making it Happen: Fred Goodwin, RBS and the Men Who Blew Up the British Economy is that a proper sense of fear is good for bankers.
October 30, 2013
·
McBrideshead Revisited

McBrideshead Revisited

In the spin doctor’s memoirs the similarities between Evelyn Waugh’s protagonist Charles Ryder and Gordon Brown’s antagonist Damian McBride are several and eerie
October 30, 2013
A London Fairytale

A London Fairytale

Characterisation and a sense of place have been sacrificed for a magical realist atmosphere in Peter Ackroyd’s latest novel, Three Brothers
October 30, 2013
·
Whodunnit? Who Cares?

Whodunnit? Who Cares?

Perhaps the Booker judges awarded Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries the prize to ensure that their getting through all 836 exhausting pages of her frustrating novel wasn’t in vain
October 29, 2013
·
Feud Of The Cold Warriors

Feud Of The Cold Warriors

Isaiah Berlin and Isaac Deutscher were the best of foes, as David Caute’s compelling presentation of a decades-long intellectual sparring match shows
September 25, 2013
·
The Making of the Mahatma

The Making of the Mahatma

Dubious racial attitudes, an obsession with excrement and sexual eccentricities: Gandhi Before India reveals the unsavoury sides of the statesman’s character
September 25, 2013
··
1 … 24 25 26 27 28 … 47
Go toTop
Secret Link