Caroline O'Donovan, "Back to Utopia," The Book, 24 August, reviews Brook Wilensky-Lanford's Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden.

Dava Sobel, "The World's Waistband," Literary Review, August, reviews Larrie D Ferreiro's Measure of the Earth: The Enlightenment Expedition that Reshaped Our World.

Jan Morris, "In Potemkin's Steps," Literary Review, August, reviews Charles King's Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams.

Matthew Lasar, "Mad about metered billing? They were in 1886, too," ars technica, ca 15 August, looks at the early history of American telecommunications.

James Polchin, "Tiny Dancer: What did Toulouse-Lautrec see in Jane Avril's face?" Smart Set, 17 August, reviews "Toulouse-Lautrec and Jane Avril: Beyond the Moulin Rouge," an exhibit at London's Courtauld Gallery.

Rodric Braithwaite, "Dog Days of the Soviet Union," Open Democracy -- Russia, 18-22 August, is the diary of the British ambassador to the Soviet Union during the crisis leading to its collapse: the coup, 18 August; the plot thickens, 19 August; and the plot fails, 22 August. Braitwaite is the recent author of Afghansty: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-89.