Fiction
1. The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott
(10 Rave, 1 Positive)
“There are so many ways to read this beautiful novel: as a Greek tragedy with its narrative chorus and the sins of the fathers; as a Faulknerian tale out to prove once more that the ‘past is not even past’; as a gothic tale wrestling with faith, punishment and redemption à la Flannery O’Connor; or as an Irish novel in the tradition of Anne Enright and Colm Tóibín, whose sentences, like hers, burn on the page. But The Ninth Hour is also a love story, told at a languid, desultory pace and fulfilled most satisfyingly at the end.”
–Lily King (The Washington Post)
*
2. Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin
(6 Rave, 1 Positive)
“It’s brilliant and hilarious, and it makes you wince in recognition — for the double-standard that relegates scandalized women to a life of shame even as their married lovers continue with their careers (and often their marriages), for the insatiable appetite we have for every last detail, for the ease and speed with which we stop seeing people as multilayered humans … The five main characters are among my favorite of any recent novel I’ve read. Each is resilient, brave, intelligent, witty and flawed — human, in other words.”
–Heidi Stevens (The Chicago Tribune)
*
3. The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
(5 Rave, 4 Positive, 1 Pan)
“Some of the ghosts of the past are appeased, but it is the sorrows of those ghosts that dominate the novel and cannot be woven into a fabric of restitution or hope. Boyne’s enraged vision is his great strength in The Heart’s Invisible Furies. The appalling comedy of Cyril’s childhood and youth, the vigour, the mess, the stir and life and horror of it all form the heart of a substantial achievement.”
–Helen Dunmore (The Guardian)
*
4. Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
(4 Rave, 1 Positive)
“Attica Locke pens a poignant love letter to the lazy red-dirt roads and Piney Woods that serve as a backdrop to a noir thriller as murky as the bayous and bloodlines that thread through the region … Locke stitches a tale of murder and bloodlust, forbidden love, family ties and a violent racial history that bleed into the narrative of East Texas like the mournful moan of a Lightnin’ Hopkins song.”
–Jaundréa Clay (The Houston Chronicle)
Read an interview with Attica Locke here
*
5. A Column of Fire by Ken Follett
(3 Rave, 2 Positive, 1 Mixed)
“What Follett does best he does again in A Column of Fire: Introduce a sizable and memorable cast, have them intermingle with historical figures and somehow hang on to just enough verisimilitude so that the Dickensian coincidences and callbacks captivate without distraction … A Column of Fire burns bright throughout.”
–Erik Spanberg (The Christian Science Monitor)
**
Non Fiction
1. An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn
(6 Rave, 4 Positive)
“On one level, An Odyssey elegantly retells the story of that course, complete with all the gags, competition, and good cheer of an intragenerational bromance … a remarkable feat of narration that such a forbiddingly erudite writer can show us how necessary this education is, how provisional, how frightening, how comforting.”
–John Freeman (The Boston Globe)
*
2. Afterglow (a dog memoir) by Eileen Myles
(6 Rave, 3 Positive)
“Afterglow portrays a complex and often hilarious relationship between two animals, characterized by love and a deep interrogation of power, creativity, and point of view … Of all the human foibles examined in the book, it is our inability to live in a moment—for the moment—that is most profoundly explored … Afterglow celebrates that rare authorial ability to get out of one’s own way and show us a singular and limber mind roaming free.”
–Melissa Broder (Bookforum)
Read an interview with Eileen Myles here
*
3. The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve by Stephen Greenblatt
(7 Rave, 1 Positive, 1 Mixed)
“Greenblatt’s particular genius is in synthesizing a vast array of knowledge, connecting the dots between anthropology, archaeology, biology, theology, history, philosophy, art and literature … In The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve he does this brilliantly, creating a compelling and nuanced account of the way this little story ‘has over centuries decisively shaped conceptions of human origins and human destiny”
–Patricia L. Hagen (The Minneapolis Star Tribune)
*
4. Gorbachev: His Life and Times by William Taubman
(6 Rave, 2 Positive)
“Gorbachev lived then, as now, in a dual reality — admired and feted in Washington, London and Berlin, reviled and ostracized in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Vladivostok. William Taubman grapples with this dichotomy in his masterly new biography, Gorbachev: His Life and Times, which will surely stand as the definitive English-language chronicle of this most intriguing figure for many years to come.”
–Peter Baker (The New York Times Book Review)
*
5. Ranger Games by Ben Blum
(2 Rave, 3 Positive)
“Ranger Games raises bedeviling questions about the nature of human agency, and reminds us that we send everyday, messy people with everyday, messy hearts to fight our wars … Ranger Games is in part a family story, about the unlikely bond between two very different cousins. It is also a fascinating tutorial on the psychology of modern warfare and social coercion.”
–Jennifer Senior (The New York Times)
***
