Han Kang’s We Do Not Part, Edmund White’s The Loves of My Life, Adam Ross’ Mothers and Sons, and Liz Pelly’s Mood Machine all feature among January’s best reviewed books.
1. We Do Not Part by Han Kang, trans. by E Yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris
(Hogarth)
12 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed
“Lushly poetic … While narratively the novel comprises just two voices, the memories and spirits of many thousands occupy its pages, and especially in its latter half, the voices feel as if they emanate from an almost ethereal plane of existence … [A] masterpiece.”
–Cory Oldweiler (The Boston Globe)
2. Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett
(Little Brown and Company)
8 Rave • 1 Positive
Read a craft essay by Adam Haslett here
“Masterful … Adam Haslett’s storytelling skill…is on quietly magnificent display as Peter, slowly then more precipitously, begins to come undone … The momentum of the novel builds as long-held misunderstandings and resentments come to the surface, illuminating the meaning of what it means to be a mother, and a son, and culminating with a great sense of a weight lifted, of lightness and air.”
–Marion Winik (The Boston Globe)
3. Going Home by Tom Lamont
(Knopf)
6 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed
“Lamont crafts a wholly engaging and frequently affecting tale about friendship, fatherhood, family ties, and finding the ability to love unconditionally … A sure-footed first novel but it is not without the odd misstep. Some of Lamont’s scene-setting descriptions are overlong … Fortunately, these quibbles are few and far between. Lamont…impresses on various levels. There are sharp observations on everything from London life to the relentless grind of child care … Lamont shows himself to be a writer of great promise.”
–Malcolm Forbes (The Boston Globe)
4. The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan
(Atria Books)
6 Rave • 1 Positive
“Entrancing … Packs an emotional punch as Fagan thoughtfully explores complex topics including identity, sexuality, ambition and female friendships.”
–Stephanie Harrison (BookPage)
5. Playworld by Adam Ross
(Knopf)
3 Rave • 4 Positive • 3 Mixed
Read an interview with Adam Ross here
“Starting off 2025 with a novel this terrific gives me hope for the whole year … It’s not a survivor’s memoir disguised in a wrestler’s too-revealing singlet. This is a bildungsroman from which anger has been vented, and what’s left behind is redolent with insight, tenderness and forgiveness … Nothing baffles Ross as a narrator. His powers of observation and sensation seem to invade every nook of these lives like the tentacles of some giant octopus with consciousness in every sucker … Whatever past rough experiences Ross may be mining here, they’ve been compressed under the pressure of time and genius into a cluster of literary gems.”
–Ron Charles (The Washington Post)
**
1. The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir by Edmund White
(Bloomsbury)
7 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed
Read an excerpt from The Loves of My Life here
“His witty details are always buffed to high polish. It’s a briny pleasure to read about outré sex in sentences as baroque as peonies, as smooth as eggnog. Gossamer prose and ramrod honesty are White’s dual credos, and each is made peculiar and fresh by the presence of the other … This self-deprecation oils the gears of White’s wit, but it also works as an invitation, gathering beneath its ribs everyone who feels inadequate to some concocted mirage of what sex should be. Look how pathetic I am, and yet how horny! I’ll take my pleasure, and you should too.”
–Sasha Archibald (4Columns)
2. Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About the End of the World by Dorian Lynskey
(Pantheon)
6 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed
“This is a book that would have lost none of its erudition or energy had it been 25 percent shorter. But Lynskey also happens to be a terrifically entertaining writer, with a requisite sense of gallows humor.”
–Jennifer Szalai (The New York Times)
3. The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story by Pagan Kennedy
(Knopf)
5 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Mixed
“Kennedy follows Goddard’s trajectory, which is a fascinating story in and of itself, but she goes beyond the inventor as well. She writes about just how broken the system for reporting sexual assault remains, and how victims were and still are often undermined, deemed untrustworthy or incapable of making sound judgments … a relatively slender book, but it packs a punch. It’s an important investigation of a complex inventor, her flawed but revolutionary technology, and how it has never been allowed to live up to her hopes for it.”
–Ilana Masad (The Washington Post)
4. Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist by Liz Pelly
(Atria)
4 Rave • 5 Positive • 1 Mixed
“A provocative, insightful, disturbing, and well-researched indictment of Spotify, the music industry, and streaming platforms, which daily mine billions of data bits from users to maximize profits and churn out musical formulas. Highly recommended.”
–Dr. Dave Szatmary (Library Journal)
5. Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything (Essays on the Future That Never Was) by Colette Shade
(Day Street Books)
6 Rave • 1 Positive
“Shade’s approach oscillates between her personal experiences, narratives about contemporaneous brands and fads and figures, and her trenchant commentary, resulting in essays on subjects that range from the rise of the internet to globalization, climate change, fashion, Starbucks and hip-hop … Shade renders her personal struggles as well, which show admirable fortitude … Shade is a deft and dexterous writer, emotionally intelligent and authoritative. Y2K is her first book, but I hope, for literature’s future at least, that it won’t be her last.”
–Jonathan Russell Clark (The Washington Post)
