Sigrid Nunez, Wilmington’s White Supremacist Coup, featuring Julie Buntin and others
Sigrid Nunez’s it will come back to youLauren Collins’s they stole a cityand Julie Buntin’s famous men All of these are among the best reviewed books of the week.
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1. It Will Come Back to You: Collected Stories by Sigrid Nunez
(Riverhead)
9 rave
Read Sigrid Nunez’s profile here
“it will come back to you You should be inspired to absorb every word Núñez writes. In a publishing landscape ravaged by the cult of celebrity and algorithmic chaos, the fact that such a profound, quirky writer still garners so much praise, not to mention a large readership, is a source of hope.
-Harsh Sahni (Times Literary Supplement)
2. famous men by Julie Buntin
(random House)
6 rave • 1 positive
“Brilliant, provocative… there are many ways to characterize this brilliant novel. It is a bildungsroman that explores the dynamics of power, ambition and sexuality with the pulse and complexity of a complex thriller in exquisite prose. Each sentence is like a diamond… Buntin has outdone herself… leashing and prodding from every vantage point, but what is particularly remarkable is Buntin’s audacity, her daring choices and her frankness. He’s waving his fist in the air, and we can hear him roaring.”
-Leigh Haber (boston globe)
3. cloud thief by nathaniel rich
(MCD)
4 rev • 2 positive • 2 mixed
“(A) fiery, thoroughly entertaining heist novel… Daddy issues go hand in hand with the surveillance state, and they provide a welcome boost cloud thief‘s friend comedy.
-Dan Piepenbring (Harper’s)
4. i want to be happy by jame calder
(Farrar, Staus and Giroux)
3 rev • 4 positive • 1 mixed • 1 pan
read an excerpt from i want to be happy Here
“What’s refreshing about it is that the book pays precise attention to the environment in which such a story takes place … In some ways, beneath the surface, it is a warm and quite old-fashioned thing: a proper novel. Its heroes have interior lives; their feelings are important to them and to us. The alternating third-person narration allows Calder to unobtrusively make clear how they see each other and how they see themselves, and where in the digital world We live, look at their efforts to mediate their personalities, man, you’ll find yourself thinking: It’s hard for single people out there.
-Sam Leith (Guardian)
5. please do not touch the body by Emily Doyle
(Bloomsbury)
4 rave
“11 stories from Emily Doyle’s first collection, please do not touch the bodyVibrating with undercurrents of guilty desire, delicious anger and the bewildering mysteries of the underworld… Doyle’s writing, elegant and spellbinding, results in a curious, fascinating combination of high drama and supernatural mystery… Spanning an impressively diverse demographic range, Doyle’s characters seek and often find relief from the demands of life by turning inward, succumbing to the seductive allure of their own shockingly active imaginations.
-Shaheena Piyarali (Library Journal)
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1. They Stole a City: Wilmington’s White Supremacist Coup and Families Living with Its Legacy By Lauren Collins
(Penguin Press)
6 rave
“Remarkably successful in its scope and depth, they stole a city Taking history into account is an essential argument for understanding the current reaction and rising white nationalism.
-Laura Chanoux (book list)
2. The Renoir Girls: A Hidden History of Art, War, and Betrayal By Katherine Osler
(Atria Books)
3. Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception and Injustice on the Gulf Coast By Pamela Colloff
(knopf)
3 rave • 2 positive
“One of the attractions here is Skalnik’s mental makeup… In the absence of genuine cooperation, Koloff instead deploys his prodigious investigative reporting skills… This makes for an unusual villain catch the devil An entertaining read; The public policy implications make this important.”
-Ted Conover (New York Times Book Review)
