Deborah Baker, "The Subject Talks Back," Paris Review, 7 July, considers the reactions of a biographer's living subject.

Michael Dirda reviews Christopher B. Krebs's A Most Dangerous Book: Tacitus's Germania from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich for the Washington Post, 6 July.

Holland Cotter, "Basking in the Presence of an Ever-Changing God," NYT, 7 July, reviews "Vishnu: Hinduism's Blue-Skinned Savior," an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum.

Maurice Keene, "O My Chevalier," Literary Review, July, reviews Nigel Saul's For Honour and Fame: Chivalry in England, 1066-1500. Tim Richardson, "Stag Parties," Literary Review, July, reviews John Fletcher's Gardens of Earthly Delight: The History of Deer Parks. Hillel Ofek, "Why the Arabic World Turned Away from Science," New Atlantis, Winter, offers an explanation.

Claire Harman, "Island Records," Literary Review, July, reviews Katherine Frank's Crusoe: Daniel Defoe, Robert Knox and the Creation of a Myth.

Jonathan Yardley reviews Preston Lauterbach's The Chitlin' Circuit: And the Road to Rock 'n' Roll for the Washington Post, 8 July.

Patrick Porter, "Fingers Crossed," Literary Review, July, reviews Mohamed ElBaradei's The Age of Deception: Nuclear Diplomacy in Treacherous Times and Ron Rosenbaum's How the End Begins: The Road to Nuclear World War III.