Claire Messud’s This Strange Eventful History, Colm Tóibín’s Long Island, Adam Higginbotham’s Challenger, and Miranda July’s All Fours all feature among May’s best reviewed books.
1. This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud
(W. W. Norton & Company)
17 Rave • 2 Positive
Read an interview with Claire Messud here
“This monumental novel, which is a work of salvage and salvation … Quilted from scraps of memory treasured in the author’s attic for decades … Regardless of how much Messud may have drawn from biographical details, though, this novel grips our interest only because of how expertly she shapes these incidents for dramatic effect … A novel of such cavernous depth, such relentless exploration, that it can’t help but make one realize how much we know and how little we confess about our own families. I strove to withhold judgment, to exercise a little skeptical decorum, but I couldn’t help finishing each chapter in a flush of awe.”
–Ron Charles (The Washington Post)
2. Long Island by Colm Tóibín
(Scribner)
12 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed
“The characters in Long Island are constantly cautioning themselves not to say anything, for fear of upsetting that fine balance that exists in intimacy as much as in community. But not saying is an act with consequences, too—one that Tóibín, a master of his art, exploits to exquisite effect at the end, leaving us to wonder, yet again, what’s next.”
–Ellen Akins (The Los Angeles Times)
3. All Fours by Miranda July
(Riverhead)
7 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed
Read an interview with Miranda July here
“About the binary of heterosexual love and the claustrophobia inherent in being a mother in a heteronormative family. More broadly, it’s a book about straddling two worlds … In a move that rejects the traditional arc of the hero’s journey, she never even leaves California. But transformation happens anyway. The narrator rediscovers herself not by driving across state lines, but by standing a shadow’s length away.”
–Jenessa Abrams (The Los Angeles Review of Books)
4. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
(Avid Reader Press)
5 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed
“[Bradley’s] utterly winning book is a result of violating not so much the laws of physics as the boundaries of genre … Gradually, as the novel’s carbonated humor fizzes away, sharper elements protrude … Admittedly, Bradley is not a tidy writer. This plot eventually starts to shake like a Radio Flyer wagon traveling at DeLorean speeds. But by then nothing matters but the fate of this asynchronous couple brought together across cultures and eras.”
–Ron Charles (The Washington Post)
5. Whale Fall by Elizabeth O’Connor
(Pantheon)
4 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed
Read an excerpt from Whale Fall here
“Blunt and exquisite … Brief but complete, the book is an example of precisely observed writing that makes a character’s specific existence glimmer with verisimilitude … New and thrilling.”
–Maggie Shipstead (The New York Times Book Review)
**
1. Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham
(Avid Reader Press)
7 Rave
“Adam Higginbotham provides the most definitive account of the explosion that took the lives of the seven-person crew. He also meticulously explores the missteps and negligence that allowed the tragedy to occur … The pace is so brisk that readers will be surprised when they realize the vivid account of the Challenger launch doesn’t occur until well after halfway through the book … Compelling, comprehensive.”
–Andrew DeMillo (Associated Press)
2. Empireworld: How British Imperialism Shaped the Globe by Sathnam Sanghera
(Public Affairs)
3 Rave • 6 Positive • 1 Mixed
“A nuanced, complicated account of the British empire’s impact on the world as we know it … The raking light that Sanghera throws across the contradictions at the heart of the story of empire doesn’t come without some trepidation for the author … But his larger response is to spell out the complexity of historical assessment with painstaking clarity, showing, repeatedly, the deep entwinement of the positive and negative contributions of empire.”
–Nandini Das (The Guardian)
=3. And Then? and Then? What Else? by Daniel Handler
(Liveright)
4 Rave • 3 Postitive
“And Then? And Then? What Else? is a bit of a grab bag, starting in the middle and ending in the middle, while telling a series of stories that both connect and overlap … Handler is skilled and nuanced as a writer, with a developed voice and point of view. He has never fit the categories, so why would we expect him to start here? … He is frank without being overly revealing and always seeks out some larger integration, a place where thought and feeling might intersect.”
–David L. Ulin (The Los Angeles Times)
=3. Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk by Kathleen Hanna
(Ecco)
4 Rave • 3 Positive
“…a timely refresher in resilience, the power of protest art and the tender humanity that we must not lose … By illustrating how you grew, you can show others how to do the same. With Rebel Girl, Hanna intentionally busts open her feminist idol identity, liberating herself from our perceptions and serving some hard-won wisdom.”
–Anna Spydell (BookPage)
5. Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in Post-Roe America by Shefali Luthra
(Doubleday)
5 Rave • 1 Positive
“Undue Burden isn’t the first book about abortion rights and it certainly won’t be the last. But one quality that sets it apart is that it offers accounts from all types of people in all types of circumstances … Some of the most affecting sections are those in which Luthra details some of the struggles marginalized patients are going through to access essential reproductive care.”
–Alexis Burling (The San Francisco Chronicle)
