1. Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg
(7 Rave)
“Thanks to Eliza Marciniak’s crisp translation, it brings freshness even to the crowded genre of the novella-sized bildungsroman, and can be devoured alongside the best coming-of-age translations of recent years … Swallowing Mercury is a richly textured portrait of a culture now lost: rural life under one of the milder communist regimes.”
–Kapka Kassabova (The Guardian)
Read an excerpt from Swallowing Mercury here
*
2. Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls
(6 Rave)
“…[a] slim surrealist masterpiece … There are many familiar things on which it draws (B-grade monster movies, suburban malaise, romance tropes), and it has been justly compared to cultural touchstones from David Lynch and Richard Yates to The Wizard of Oz and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, but there is nothing else out there that is ‘like’ it, or even close.”
–Justin Taylor (The Los Angeles Times)
Read an excerpt from Mrs. Caliban here
*
3. Improvement by Joan Silber
(5 Rave, 1 Mixed)
“In keeping with the Berger-esque philosophy, Silber writes her new novel, Improvement, as a series of interlinked stories, a generous structural decision that both allows characters to fully inhabit their own narratives and gives space to the lives that intersect or run parallel to them … This is a novel of richness and wisdom and huge pleasure. Silber knows, and reveals, how close we live to the abyss, but she also revels in joy, particularly the joy that comes from intimate relationships.”
–Kamila Shamsie (The New York Times Book Review)
*
4. Spy of the First Person by Sam Shepard
(3 Rave, 5 Positive, 1 Mixed)
“…[a] remarkable, quietly devastating last book … Spy of the First Personis, among other things, a paean to family … This slim posthumous volume is a more coherent, urgent, and moving work of autobiographical fiction [than The One Inside]. It packs a punch, and not just because we know the circumstances under which it was written, or that it’s his last.”
–Heller McAlpin (The Barnes & Noble Review)
Read a selection of Sam Shepard’s letters here
*
5. Elmet by Fiona Mozley
(3 Rave, 2 Positive)
“This is geopolitics played out on a small but no less powerful stage … Elmet is a rich and earthy tale of family life, sibling relationships, identity, how we define community and the power struggles inherent to so many different dynamics. Above all, it is a meditation on ownership—of people, animals and places—and the fact that these notions, however seemingly fixed, are all in a constant state of flux.”
–Zoë Apostolides (The Financial Times)
**
1. Improv Nation by Sam Wasson
(5 Rave, 3 Positive, 1 Mixed)
“Mr. Wasson is not the first to chronicle the innovative comedians of the period (see Gerald Nachman’s Seriously Funny from 2003), but he makes fine use of improv as a prism for understanding the development of American comedy, and it’s a pleasure to encounter his acute characterizations.”
–Daniel Akst (The Wall Street Journal)
*
2. Calder: The Conquest of Time by Jed Perl
(4 Rave, 4 Positive, 2 Mixed)
“Jed Perl, one of America’s most insightful and thoughtful art critics, has written a comprehensive and marvelous biography that clearly establishes Calder as one of the artistic giants of the 20th century. A gifted writer and a meticulous researcher, Perl’s rich prose brings Calder alive, both as an artist and person.”
–Terry Hartle (The Christian Science Monitor)
*
3. Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times by Kenneth Whyte
(5 Rave, 2 Positive)
“Whyte summons us to see Hoover as a human personality, more than just a walking embodiment of Great Depression studies. Hoover’s personality was the product of origins and early career that Whyte attentively details … Among the great services of Ken Whyte’s elegant, lively, and witty biography is its unceasing reminder of this other Hoover … To understand Hoover’s life, career, and his legacy in full, this rich new biography will certainly prove indispensable.”
–David Frum (The Atlantic)
Read an excerpt from Hoover here
*
4. Spineless by Juli Berwald
(5 Rave, 1 Positive)
“…a thoroughly delightful and entertaining new book on jellyfish … Berwald isn’t writing a lean-in manifesto. Instead, she’s doing something more universal, yet subtle. This is the story of looking back from a certain age and a certain place and assessing how you got there, how your life turned out the way it did, and finding peace in that — but also motivation to return to the passions of youth.”
–Brian Castner (NPR)
Read an excerpt from Spineless here
*
4. The Doomsday Machine by Daniel Ellsberg
(5 Rave, 1 Positive)
“…one of the best books ever written on the subject—certainly the most honest and revealing account by an insider who plunged deep into the nuclear rabbit hole’s mad logic and came out the other side … it’s rare to get the history laid out in such human detail by someone who was so immersed in the scene.”
–Fred Kaplan (Slate)
***
