Lawrence Wright’s Redemption, Walter Mosley’s Hanging & Burning, Lisa Hanawalt’s I Can’t Stop Thinking About Horses and Sex, and Blake J. Harris’s Emperor of Nothing: The Making of Larry David all feature among the best reviewed books of the week.
Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s home for book reviews.
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Fiction
1. Hanging & Burning by Walter Mosley
(Little Brown and Company)
5 Rave
“Mosley, witty and incisive, is in the zone in the fourth King Oliver novel…lingering over the fashion choices, build, and temperament of each intriguing character; choreographing match-point dialogue and down-to-the-wire showdowns, paying tribute to the transporting beauty of jazz, relishing the absurd, and exploring the interplay of family and crime.”
–Donna Seaman (Booklist)
2. Doppelgänger by Sam Riviere
(Catapult)
2 Rave • 2 Positive
“Beyond Riviere’s genius dismantling of capital C ‘Culture’, there are also more general observations about society that you feel compelled to underline … The danger with writing a book like Doppelgänger is that you end up perpetuating the very thing you’re warning against. But Riviere pulls it off; he has succeeded in making Doppelgänger undeniably singular.”
–Matthew Janney (The Financial Times)
3. Paradise Burns by Pol Guasch
(FSG Originals)
2 Rave • 1 Positive
Read an excerpt from Paradise Burns here
“Guasch portrays the relationship between Líton and Rita with real tenderness; their bond is steadfast, and perhaps the only thing keeping both of them from absolute despair. This seems certain to go down as one of the greatest, most perceptive novels about friendship to be published in recent years. Heartbreaking and true: a major achievement from a young writer.”
–Kirkus
4. Queen of Lombard Street by Lisa Kleypas
(Avon Books)
1 Rave • 2 Positive
“Clever and well-researched … Compelling historical fiction with as much romance as economics. No matter how you describe it, it’s a delight.”
–Kirkus
5. The Turning of Sally-Mae by Nuzo Onoh
(Titan Books)
1 Positive • 2 Mixed
“Libraries with patrons who enjoyed The Queen of the Cicadas by V. Castro or When The Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen should consider this title from an award-winning author for their shelves.”
–Lila Dening (Library Journal)
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Nonfiction
1. Sleuth-Hound: The Case of the Real Sherlock Holmes by Lindsey Fitzharris
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
2 Rave • 4 Positive
“Fitzharris rescues Bell from the periphery of the Holmes story and restores him to his rightful position as the inspiration and model for the great consulting detective.”
–David Pitt (Booklist)
2. Redemption: Faith, Justice, and Sisterhood on Death Row by Lawrence Wright
(Knopf)
3 Rave • 1 Positive • 1 Mixed
“This may be Wright’s most intimate piece of journalism yet, a deeply moving and thoughtful work that challenges readers’ preconceptions about guilt, justice, and transformation … It’s ideal for leisurely reading and pausing to reflect. Profiles of individual inmates and nuns feel richly observed and elegantly rendered.”
–Kate Tuttle (The Boston Globe)
3. I Can’t Stop Thinking about Horses and Sex by Lisa Hanawalt
(Drawn and Quarterly)
3 Rave • 1 Positive
“Hanawalt’s jokey vignettes and vibrant animal drawings conceal a remarkably precise narrative core … If these concerns aren’t brand-new, it’s a relief to read them in such vivid, contemporary, and occasionally gory detail, rather than as a preface to some broad philosophical treatise. Hanawalt uses her formidable talents to reveal parts of herself she might wish to keep hidden.”
–Sam Thielman (The New York Times Book Review)
4. Our Arab: On Longing, Belonging, and Hope by Zaina Arafat
(Little Brown and Company)
2 Rave • 1 Positive
“Clarifying and powerful, this work dives into the wounded hearts of Palestinians in exile.”
–Publishers Weekly
5. Emperor of Nothing: The Making of Larry David by Blake J. Harris
(Dey Street Books)
3 Positive • 1 Mixed
“A lively, intimate, and occasionally surprising glimpse into how Mr. David’s two landmark television comedies were conceived and developed … Harris…doesn’t entirely avoid hagiography. He presents Mr. David, despite the comedian’s notable idiosyncrasies, as an undeniable comic genius, a loving father and a loyal friend … By concentrating on Mr. David’s career, Emperor of Nothing gives comparatively little attention to Mr. David’s love life.”
–Julia M. Klein (The Wall Street Journal)
