Seabiscuit: An American Legend – Laura Hillenbrand, 2001 ★★★★

Somebody Bet on the Bay

First-time author Laura Hillenbrand put on a master class in popular-history writing with this improbable tale of an ungainly little red racehorse that could.

Luminously written, with deep appreciation for the culture of the racetrack and the colorful personalities that lived and died around it, Seabiscuit is the sort of history book that not only edifies and entertains but asks us to ponder how amazing a thing life can be.

Red Rackham's Treasure – Hergé, 1943-44 ★★★

Let’s Hear It for the Deaf Man

You’ve spent the last year pursuing bad guys, getting knocked out and kidnapped, escaping, dodging an attack dog, and putting aside whatever it is you supposedly do for a living. Now it’s time to collect your reward: Some old guy who can’t make out a word you say.

At least there’s quality time on a tropical island. Look out for sharks!

The Secret Of The Unicorn – Hergé, 1942-43 ★★★½

Embarking on a Model Mystery

There is nothing as satisfying as a long-running adventure series settling into full hum. That’s exactly what you get with The Secret Of The Unicorn, 11^th installment of “The Adventures Of Tintin.”

Our hero is now completely established in his signature role of adventurer-detective, “a real Sherlock Holmes” as his dog-buddy Snowy dubs him. His new best friend Captain Haddock gets his biggest part yet, a double role in fact.

Catch-22 – Joseph Heller, 1961 ★½

The Catch Was I Didn’t Care

They say war is hell; maybe it just gets bad press. Catch-22 performs the feat of devising an alternate World War II even worse than the real one.

Catch-22 isn’t a novel anymore. It isn’t a movie or a miniseries, either. It’s a phrase, a catchphrase if you will, often used by people who never read the book. Many may not realize there even is a book.

Miss Julie – August Strindberg, 1888 [Translated by Elizabeth Sprigge] ★★★½

Cupid Is a Ruthless Hunter

Love is nice, but what really counts in this life is power. That cold lesson is transformed into a classic play about what happens when a servant gets too involved with the mistress of the house.

If there is an anti-Ibsen when it comes to preaching the gospels of naturalism and humanism in 19^th-century drama, it is his near-countryman August Strindberg, an ornery Swede who sneered at audiences and critics discoursing upon mankind’s hopeless condition.

The River War: An Account Of The Reconquest Of The Sudan [Second Edition] – Winston Churchill, 1902 ★★★

Vying for the Nile

History’s ability to keep on repeating itself is frightening. Settling down to read Winston Churchill’s second book, an episode of colonial ambition along the Nile at the end of the 1800s, one expects dusty Victorian drama under the palms. What one gets instead is a sneak preview of the 21^st Century, equal parts western adventurism and Arab unrest.

The Alienist – Caleb Carr, 1994 ★½

Murder and Psychiatry at the Turn of the Century

Welcome to 1896. The art of police investigation means knowing how much to club a suspect until he talks. Moving through Manhattan boulevards requires a keen eye for pools of urine and horse manure. Psychiatrists are so sinister in the public consciousness they are known as “alienists” and regarded with fear and loathing.

It is a bleak and dangerous time, even more so when New York City discovers its own version of London’s Jack the Ripper on the loose.