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Helen Phillips’s Hum, Eliza Griswold’s Circle of Hope, and Jane Alison’s Villa E 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. Hum by Helen Phillips
(Mary Sue Rucci Books)
4 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed
Read an interview with Helen Phillips here
“Intense and propulsive … Reads like a work of beautifully observed contemporary realism, an intimate and tender portrait of one mother’s day-to-day struggles to keep her children safe, and to find a little joy, in a damaged and dangerous world … This sleek ride of a novel further cements Phillips’s position as one of our most profound writers of speculative fiction.”
–Karen Thompson Walker (The New York Times Book Review)
2. Villa E by Jane Alison
(Liveright)
3 Rave • 1 Positive
Read an essay by Jane Alison here
“Jazzy, experimental … Alison’s loose lyricism relies on syncopated rhythms and fluid punctuation; she stays on point even as she plays with Joycean techniques. Villa E is both paean to the legacies of modernism—from Gray and Le Corbusier to Joyce—and a beautiful book from a writer who boldly tacks against the winds of literary realism.”
–Hamilton Cain (The Boston Globe)
3. So I Roar by Abi Daré
(Dutton)
1 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed
“Daré’s work embraces contemporary ideas and stylistic choices while honoring the foundation they are built on … Daré delivers a gut-wrenching reminder that every woman has a lion inside her waiting to break free.”
–Enobong Tommelleo (Booklist)
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Nonfiction
1. The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss
(Viking)
6 Rave
“A spirited defense … Friss’s book is organized like the best of such literary emporiums: a little higgledy-piggledy, with surprise diversions here and there … Considers how little overhead is required to nourish the fundamental human hunger for knowledge.”
–Alexandra Jacobs (The New York Times)
2. Paris 1944: Occupation, Resistance, Liberation by Patrick Bishop
(Pegasus Books)
3 Rave • 3 Positive
“The story of Paris during the Second World War has been told many times, but Bishop is such a skilful writer, with a fine sense of nuance and an eye for memorable anecdotes, that even readers familiar with the story will enjoy his book enormously … History, like life, is complicated, and Bishop’s admirable book treats it with the respect and care it deserves.”
–Dominic Sandbrook (The Times)
3. Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church by Eliza Griswold
4 Rave • 2 Mixed
“What makes Griswold’s book so valuable is the way in which every combatant in the church’s internal culture war is treated with humanity and empathy … It’s very much worth reading Griswold’s book, examining our own hearts and asking ourselves a vital question: Are our differences so great that they justify destroying relationships or institutions that are truly good?”
–David French (The New York Times Book Review)
