Judi Dench’s Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, Ian Rankin’s The Heights, Louise Kennedy’s Stations, and Simon Garfield’s The Pen: A Human History all appear among the week’s most highly regarded titles.
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Fiction
1. Stations by Louise Kennedy
(Riverhead)
9 Rave
“Extraordinary—and indeed bittersweet … Kennedy’s work carries a lived-in restraint that lingers after the final page. Kennedy has earned a place among modern Irish voices like Eimear McBride and Sally Rooney, authors whose next work I’ll sprint to read, no matter the topic.”
–Cory Oldweiler (The Boston Globe)
2. West of Loveland by Tom Drury
(Grove Press)
5 Rave • 1 Positive
“Richly imagined … The novel’s measured tempo and cumulative strength offer a deeply humane meditation on fate, belonging, and the unseen threads that weave seemingly ordinary lives.”
–Bill Kelly (Booklist)
3. The Heights by Ian Rankin
(Cardinal)
3 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed
“Even if moving the setting away from Edinburgh concerns some readers, The Heights embodies the very qualities that have made the Rebus saga so compelling, proving the author still has plenty to give after four decades at the summit.”
–Chris Connor (Crime Fiction Lover)
4. Sweet Pea by Kit de Waal
(St. Martin’s)
4 Rave • 1 Positive
“De Waal’s prose sings with quiet humor and poignant details, such as Paulette peppering her speech with Caribbean expressions when she grumbles about her friends. It narrates a story of radical forgiveness, made all the more moving by its unpretentious honesty.”
–Enobong Tommelleo (Booklist)
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Nonfiction
1. The King Under the Mountain: In Search of J. R. R. Tolkien by D. J. Taylor
(Pegasus)
5 Rave • 1 Positive • 3 Mixed
Read an excerpt from The King Under the Mountain here
“Released from the constraints of a straightforward biography, Taylor presents a sharper, brisker, and more irreverent portrait that charts Tolkien’s life while wrestling with the enigmas and tensions of his nature and accomplishments … Thorough, insightful and well-sourced, The King Under the Mountain balances affection for Tolkien’s oddities with homage to his undeniable talent.”
–Marcel Theroux (The Financial Times)
2. Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It? by Judi Dench
(St. Martin’s)
5 Rave
“Despite the playful chatter and the imperfect structure, there are enough witty anecdotes and odd facts to keep the narrative moving briskly … The project is buoyed by Dench’s typical humor and warmth, qualities that have long elevated her status to a national treasure.”
–Fiona Sturges (The Guardian)
3. Castles: A Fortified History of the World by Dan Jones
(Viking)
4 Rave • 1 Positive
“A charming tour through time … The book is richer and more substantial than a mere pitch deck. At its best, Castles deftly shows how myth, scholarship, and tangible history interweave.”
–Spencer Strub (The New York Times Book Review)
4. The Pen: A Human History by Simon Garfield
(Crown)
3 Rave • 2 Positive
“Compelling … Demonstrates that a writing instrument is more than its form. Fundamentally, The Pen explores values and, in particular, how we interpret this tool of writing in our digital era.”
–Lillian Liao (Booklist)
5. Just a Shot Away: Martin Scorsese’s Life in Film by Mark Binelli
(Metropolitan)
4 Rave
“Though Scorsese is widely known as a rapid-fire movie mind, Binelli presents him in a calmer light—a devoted artist who brings precision and insight to every project. Consider this portrait as the view of the Martin Scorsese that lies beyond the public face.”
–David Pitt (Booklist)
