Helen Phillips SumsEliza Griswold’s Circle of Hopeand Jane Alison’s Villa E They are all among the best-reviewed books of the week.
fiction
1. Sums by Helen Phillips
(Books by Mary Sue Rucci)
4 enthusiastic • 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 a mother’s daily struggle to protect her children and find some joy in a broken and dangerous world… This supple novel 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
(right to life)
3 enthusiastic • 1 positive
Read an essay by Jane Alison here
“Jazzy, experimental… Alison’s loose poetry relies on syncopated rhythms and fluid punctuation; she stays on topic even as she plays with Joycean techniques. Villa E is both a paean to the legacy of modernism – from Gray and Le Corbusier to Joyce – and a beautiful book by an author who bravely fights against the winds of literary realism.”
–Hamilton Cain (The Boston Globe)
3. So I scream by Abi Daré
(Dutton)
1 enthusiastic • 2 positive • 1 mixed
“Daré’s work embraces contemporary ideas and stylistic choices, while respecting the foundation on which it is built… Daré provides a heartbreaking reminder that inside every woman there is a lion waiting to be released.”
–Enobong Tommelleo (Booklist)
**
Non-fiction
1. The Bookstore: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss
(Vikings)
6 Raves
“A spirited defense… Friss’s book is structured like the best of these literary centers: a little chaotic, with surprising digressions here and there… Consider how little effort is needed to satisfy the basic human thirst for knowledge.”
–Alexandra Jacobs (The New York Times)
2. Paris 1944: Occupation, resistance, liberation by Patrick Bishop
(Pegasus Books)
3 enthusiastic • 3 positive
“The story of Paris during World War II has been told many times, but Bishop is such a skillful writer, with a fine sense of nuance and an eye for memorable anecdotes, that even readers familiar with history 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 it treats each combatant in the church’s internal culture war with humanity and empathy… It is very worthwhile to read Griswold’s book, to go into our own hearts and ask ourselves an important question: Are our differences so great that they justify the destruction of relationships or institutions that are truly good?”
–David French (The New York Times Book Review)
