Fiction
1. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
(6 Rave, 2 Positive)
“… irresistible … an absorbing story told in a style that’s antique without being dated, rich but never pretentious … Perry creates that delicate illusion of the best historical fiction: an authentic sense of the past — its manners, ideals and speech — that feels simultaneously distant and relevant to us.”
–Ron Charles (The Washington Post)
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2. The Answers by Catherine Lacey
(5 Rave, 3 Positive)
“The Answers is in part a sparkling satire of our era of big data, sending up the all-too-believable idea that, by optimizing human emotions, technology can be put to use ‘solving love.’ But the novel is also a poignant spiritual lament … not just one of the most ingenious novels of 2017 but also one of the most moving.”
–Sam Sacks (The Wall Street Journal)
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3. Grief Cottage by Gail Godwin
(3 Rave, 1 Positive, 1 Mixed)
“With intriguingly eccentric supporting characters and a dramatic setting, Godwin’s riveting and wise story of the slow coalescence of trust and love between a stoic artist and a grieving boy, and of nature’s glory and indifference, subtly and insightfully explores different forms of haunting and vulnerability, strength and survival … [a] tender and spellbinding supernatural novel.”
–Donna Seaman (Booklist)
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4. Touch by Courtney Maum
(2 Rave, 1 Positive, 1 Mixed)
“Maum has such a incisive grasp of where tech and culture meet that she could add sociologist to her resume. The book also captures the mid-life crisis of a woman at the top of her game, resulting in a perceptive, thought-provoking read.”
Read an excerpt from Touch here
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5. Chemistry by Weike Wang
(1 Rave, 3 Positive, 1 Mixed)
“…one of the year’s most winningly original debuts … a voice so fresh and intimate and mordantly funny that she feels less like fiction than a friend you’ve known forever — even if she hasn’t met you yet.”
–Leah Greenblatt (Entertainment Weekly)
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Non-Fiction
1.The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying by Nina Riggs
(5 Rave, 1 Positive)
“…beautiful and haunting … a thoughtful and heartbreaking exploration of what makes life meaningful in a person’s remaining days.”
–Matt McCarthy (USA Today)
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2. The Mighty Franks by Michael Frank
(4 Rave, 1 Mixed)
“Frank brings Proustian acuity and razor-sharp prose to family dramas as primal, and eccentrically insular, as they come … Frank’s eye and ear, his words and wit—the voice in these pages has such style. Better yet, the style is utterly his own.”
–Ann Hulbert (The Atlantic)
Listen to an interview with Michael Frank here
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3. Hue 1968 by Mark Bowden
(4 Rave)
“Hu? 1968 is expertly researched military history … One reason I call this book an extraordinary feat of journalism is that Mr. Bowden makes events vivid and easy to understand for a reader with no military experience and only limited knowledge of the Vietnam War.”
–Karl Marlantes (The Wall Street Journal)
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4. Fear City by Kim Phillips-Fein
(2 Rave, 2 Positive, 1 Mixed)
“Kim Phillips-Fein’s excellent new book vividly depicts a period when New York was seen — not always positively — as an archetypal example of urban liberalism … Much of the emergency that defined New York’s mid-1970s character revolved around debt, accounting practices, and municipal bonds, but in Phillips-Fein’s hands it is not only exciting but extremely relevant, too.”
–Barbara Spindel (The Barnes & Noble Review)
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5. Kingdom of Olives and Ash, Ed. by Michael Chabon & Ayelet Waldman
(2 Rave, 2 Mixed)
“Their dramatic testimonies are radiant with telling details, vital portraits, and explosive facts … This sensitive, galvanizing, and landmark gathering brings the occupation into sharp focus as a tragedy of fear and tyranny, a monumental failure of compassion and justice, a horrific obstacle to world peace.”
–Donna Seaman (Booklist)
Read an essay from Kingdom of Olives and Ash here
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