Gary Shteyngart’s Vera, or Faith, Sophie Elmhirst’s A Marriage at Sea, Michael Clune’s Pan, and Tim Weiner’s The Mission all feature among July’s best reviewed books.
1. Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart
(Random House)
10 Rave • 5 Positive • 1 Mixed
Read an excerpt from Vera, or Faith here
“Times like these demand great comic novels and thank God we have Gary Shteyngart to provide. His shortest, sweetest and most perfectly constructed novel ever, Vera, or Faith is here to save the day … This is probably the most endearing book about anxiety ever written … More heart, but as funny as ever.”
–Marion Winik (The Star Tribune)
2. Pan by Michael Clune
(Penguin Press)
6 Rave • 6 Positive • 1 Pan
Read an excerpt from Pan here
“I am protective enough of the strange, idiosyncratic beauty of this book to worry in turn that some readers might not be up to the challenge of following his more baroque trains of thought … A testament to the novel’s powers of enchantment; it seduces you into thinking like a child again … Clune has achieved a remarkable sleight of genre, threading realism’s dull needle with a semi-magical thread.”
–Jessi Jezewska Stevens (Bookforum)
3. An Oral History of Atlantic by Ed Park
(Random House)
6 Rave • 2 Positive
Read an interview with Ed Park here
“After the ornate sprawl of the novel, he revels in the shorter form, a palpable joy on the page. Irony has never had it so good … What are we to make of Park’s fusion of comedy and danger, his puns and wordplay and arcane theories? He’s testing our patience for excellent reasons: We’re complicit in his fiction, perpetrators at the scene of a crime, the act of reading a jumble of synapses in our brains, spinning in all directions like a spray of bullets.”
–Hamilton Cain (The Los Angeles Times)
4. Bring the House Down by Charlotte Runcie
(Doubleday)
6 Rave • 1 Positive • 2 Mixed
Read an essay by Charlotte Runcie here
“This is a smart, sharp and compulsively readable first novel that provides food for thought on a variety of complex topics … A novel isn’t carried by its big ideas alone. It needs strong characters to convey them and react to them. Fortunately, Runcie’s creations are forceful presences, all the more so because they are intriguingly multifaceted and resist cut-and-dried classification … All of which sounds serious and thought-provoking. This is only partly true, for the novel is also fun and frequently witty.”
–Malcolm Forbes (The Washington Post)
5. Girl, 1983 by Linn Ullmann
(W. W. Norton and Company)
6 Rave • 1 Postive • 1 Mixed
“Beautiful … Elegantly spare and precise language heightens and underscores the woman’s anxiety and unease. A quietly absorbing portrait.”
–Anne Foley (Booklist)
**
1. A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst
(Riverhead)
11 Rave • 2 Positive
“When Elmhirst comes close to breaking the fourth wall, that contribute to the pleasure of this exciting book. You know as a reader that you are in very capable hands … A fascinating narrative … She doles out the adventures, such as they were, and tells them vividly … So much more than a shipwreck tale. It’s a story of love and strength, a portrait of a marriage that—for all its oddities—is a true partnership.”
–Laurie Hertzel (The Boston Globe)
2. The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage That Made an American Iconby Laurie Gwen Shapiro
(Viking)
5 Rave • 3 Positive • 2 Mixed
“Enticing…vibrant … Shapiro dexterously untangles the Gordian knot of their entwined passions, shared ambitions and business bottom lines … Shapiro’s tone is conversational, luring us into a rich story about American media … Shapiro captures the thrill of a leap into the unknown.”
–Hamilton Cain (The Los Angeles Times)
3. A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children by Haley Cohen Gilliland
(Avid Reader Press)
7 Rave
“An enthralling history of a human rights movement whose mission remains as urgent as ever … Reads like a Cold War thriller, replete with betrayals, intrigue, and elaborate schemes … Cathartic, even exultant … Lays bare the limits of truth and reconciliation.”
–Jacob Sugarman (The Atlantic)
4. The Roma: A Traveling History by Madeline Potter
(Harper)
5 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed
Read an excerpt from The Roma here
“One of the book’s strengths is Potter’s skill for intertwining personal anecdotes with historical context, providing a rich tapestry of Romani culture and its struggles … A powerful contribution … A compelling blend of personal storytelling and historical insight, making it a valuable read for those interested in Romani studies and cultural identity … The book’s clarity, style, and originality in presenting Romani perspectives make it a strong candidate for any library.”
–Lawrence Mello (Library Journal)
5. The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century by Tim Weiner
(Mariner)
5 Rave • 3 Positive
“Weiner is clear in his condemnation…but inclined to give the CIA the benefit of the doubt … The book contains many essential new details … There are all sorts of…important and fascinating revelations … This is a journalist’s book, and bears the marks of it. But no one has opened up the CIA to us like Weiner has, and The Mission deserves to win Weiner a second Pulitzer.”
–John Simpson (The Guardian)
