
Endgame
Ask not for whom the bell tolls. After all, you're reading this online.

Urban wild
Spring, summer, winter, fall, Rome's burgeoning youth movement doesn't sleep.

The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front
Mark Thompson's history of Italy's World War I follies should be required reading.

The Invention of Curried Sausage
Uwe Timm's modest recollection of post-war German life is gritty and charming.

Gladiator meals
To really sample classic Roman fare, you have to dig deeper than you might like.

Gran Torino
Though Eastwood's latest flirts with the maudlin, underneath it's all heart.

Bitches brew
The cuisine of cultural 'contamination' is also that of excellence.

Moonless
Francis Fukuyama rightly warned history was ending. He didn't foresee so much narcissism.

Revolutionary Road
Sam Medes' account of 1950s marital fraying is both vivid and flawed.

The White Tiger
Despite the hype, Dostoyevsky is not at risk from Aravind Adiga's Man Booker winner.

Live Free or Die Hard
Willis is fun as always, but the "Die Hard" franchise has turned into a video game.