RaveBookPageA tender, comic chronicle of the author’s upbringing ... O’Reilly...who has a knack for crafting uproarious anecdotes, is attuned to the extraordinary—and somewhat absurd—nature of his childhood. He takes a jovial approach in the narrative, and the result is a rousing tale of family fellowship ... Indeed, finding comedy in tragedy seems to be an operative instinct for the author. Stylistically, O’Reilly is an unabashed maximalist, packing his sentences with adverbs and consistently minting fresh figures of speech. Throughout the book, as he sifts through memories of his boisterous upbringing, he never fails to find cause for joy or a good joke. As a result, Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?—title aside—feels bracingly alive.
Jessica P. Pryde
RaveBookPage...editor Jessica P. Pryde enlisted a stellar lineup of essayists to share their perspectives on Black love and the ways it’s portrayed in popular media ... From astute cultural critiques to introspective first-person essays, these 14 pieces form a revealing mosaic that will fundamentally change how readers engage with love stories.
Scott Eyman
PositiveBookPageEyman takes a fresh look at a movie legend in the sparkling biography ... Eyman’s consideration of the inner conflicts that drove Grant results in a wonderfully nuanced study of his life. Along with the star’s many marriages and bitter divorces, Eyman explores the rumors surrounding his sexuality and his LSD use, recounting it all in clean, unaffected prose. He mixes Grant’s personal story with several decades’ worth of Hollywood history, and his film analyses are eye-opening. Grant was \'a man for all movie seasons.\' They don’t make ’em like that anymore.
Sarah Stewart Taylor
PositiveBookPageTaylor takes her time in unspooling the strands of the mystery, keeping the reader on edge all the while. Through transportive details of Dublin pubs and the Wicklow wilderness and a wonderful command of Irish history, she fashions an immersive setting for the narrative, which moves nimbly through the decade ... Featuring a memorable cast that includes cheeky Irish Gardaí, sinister suspects and a not-to-be-messed-with female lead, The Mountains Wild makes for perfect summer reading. Maggie is a first-class protagonist—an ace investigator and appealing everywoman with smarts and heart. Suspense fans will welcome her to the crime scene.
Ragnar Jonasson
RaveBookPageJónasson turns the tension up to a nearly unendurable degree as the novel unfolds. His complete—and complex—narrative design isn’t revealed until late in the book, when the story’s multiple threads coalesce in a surprising conclusion. With this no-frills thriller, he continues to map Iceland’s outlying regions and to develop Hulda’s character, adding a new chapter to her story that followers of the series will savor. Masterfully plotted and paced, The Mist is atmospheric, haunting and not for the faint of heart.
Mary Gaitskill
RaveBook Page...a heady, hallucinatory narrative—another walk on the wild side from a writer who has never shied from tackling potentially contentious topics ... The narrative spans only a single day, but it covers a great deal of ground, moving in and out of the present as the 46-year-old Allison looks back on her life ... Gaitskill’s lively portrayal of the carefree ’70s and affluent ’80s, her superlative powers of description and delicate handling of sensitive topic matter have resulted in a profound narrative about beauty and mortality, loss and redemption.
Allison Dickson
RaveBookPageFans of Paula Hawkins will be thrilled ... With an impossible-to-predict plot and a very unexpected murder, Dickson’s book is required reading for suspense addicts.
Lydia Millet
RaveBookPage...[a] masterful collection ... The undercurrent of friction that results lends a quiet force to stories that explore the challenges of communication and the meaning of home ... in a phenomenal feat of plot-spinning, Millet links the lives of this disparate group of characters ... richly realized stories.
T.C. Boyle
RaveBookPageHis bemused yet compassionate view of the human condition is on full display in The Relive Box and Other Stories ... A few of the narratives (the tale of an ant invasion, for instance) seem to come straight from The Twilight Zone, but Boyle balances these strange situations with poignant portrayals of the people caught up in them. Boyle is a master mood-mixer, and this funny-scary-sad collection is filled with stories to be savored.
