Al Pacino’s Sonny Boy, Mark Haddon’s Dogs and Monsters, and Bob Woodward’s War all feature among the best reviewed books of the week.
1. Dogs and Monsters by Mark Haddon
(Doubleday)
7 Rave • 3 Positive • 2 Mixed
“The stories in this splendid new collection are inspired by an eclectic variety of sources … The work of a consummate storyteller, the brilliantly conceived Dogs and Monsters illuminates a variety of species, both real and mythical, including our own.”
–Hilma Wolitzer (The New York Times Book Review)
2. Blood Test by Charles Baxter
(Pantheon)
5 Rave • 4 Positive
“Billed as a comedy, and it is a comedy mostly in that it is not a tragedy. Is it funny? Yes, but darkly so; its humor, which is delightful, is wrapped around truths and drama and so, while we laugh, we also feel a shot of anxiety. It is a wonderfully crafted book, more complicated than it first might seem … The humor in the book—and there is plenty, including a nod to slapstick involving a banana peel — comes from the absurdity of the situation and from the narrator’s droll asides … A novel about family—the way they love each other and protect each other and look out for each other.”
–Laurie Hertzel (The Star Tribune)
3. Women’s Hotel by Daniel M. Lavery
(HarperVia)
3 Rave • 4 Positive
Read an essay by Daniel M. Lavery here
“A gently humorous episodic work … While Lavery’s witty, at times flippant tone encourages such a casual approach, reading each chapter as its own character sketch could undermine the subtle connections underlying even the lightest parts of this debut … [A] little jewel of a novel.”
–Clea Simon (The Boston Globe)
**
1. Sonny Boy by Al Pacino
(Penguin Press)
1 Rave • 8 Positive
“Discursively soulful … The eccentricity of Sonny Boy is part of its charm, and the book’s distinctive voice speaks to a fruitful collaboration between Pacino and Itzkoff … Shot through with what certainly feels like self-deprecating honesty to go with the well-worn Pacino swagger.”
–Chris Vognar (The Los Angeles Times)
2. War by Bob Woodward
(Simon & Schuster)
4 Positive
“This is harrowing, riveting stuff, even if you know how it will play out. The problem, though, is that we don’t really know. Since the book’s completion, Russia has been on the offensive again in Ukraine. The Middle East conflict has widened to include Hezbollah and Iran, an outcome that Biden and his team spend many pages working to prevent. Meanwhile, the election campaigns of Trump and Harris hurtle forward. Three weeks after War is published on Oct. 15, voters will provide raw material for the sequel. Though he specializes in real-time suspense, Woodward doesn’t write cliffhangers. His impulse—his talent—is to impose an arc and a moral on the mess and sprawl of very recent history. This time around, his stated conclusions are unambiguous: ‘Donald Trump is not only the wrong man for the presidency,’ he writes, ‘he is unfit to lead the country.’ In contrast, ‘Biden and his team will be largely studied in history as an example of steady and purposeful leadership.’ Those judgments sound authoritative. They also sound wishful.”
–A.O. Scott (The New York Times Book Review)
3. Valley So Low: One Lawyer’s Fight for Justice in the Wake of America’s Great Coal Catastrophe by Jared Sullivan
(Knopf)
1 Rave • 1 Positive • 1 Mixed
“Horrifying details and anecdotes pile up as the story unfolds, and it’s easy to understand how righteous anger could fuel a lengthy legal quest with no promise of financial reward. Propulsive and written with flair, Valley So Low is a valuable addition to the pantheon of legal thrillers.”
–Stephen Elliott (BookPage)
