April’s Best Reviewed Nonfiction

Patrick Radden Keefe’s London Falling, Antony Beevor’s Rasputin, and Lena Dunham’s Famesick all number among the best reviewed nonfiction books of the month.

Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s home for book reviews.

*

1. London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth by Patrick Radden Keefe
(Doubleday)

20 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed • 1 Pan

“Like all of Keefe’s work, the book makes for propulsive reading.”
–Mia Levitin (The Irish Times)

2. Rasputin: The Downfall of the Romanovs by Antony Beevor
(Viking)

11 Rave • 1 Positive • 1 Mixed

“A meditation on history as well as a masterclass in smooth, judicious prose.”
–Dan Jones (The Sunday Times)

3. Famesick: A Memoir by Lena Dunham
(Random House)

8 Rave • 6 Positive • 2 Mixed • 1 Pan

“An ideal celebrity memoir with the added bonus of being written by someone who can actually write.”
–Scaachi Koul (Slate)

4. Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed by Quinn Slobodian & Ben Tarnoff
(Harper)

6 Rave • 5 Positive • 3 Mixed

“A well-researched account of how we have arrived at a point where so many resources are concentrated in the hands of just one man, and how this fact alone will inevitably shape the future.”
–Christopher Webb (The Guardian)

=5. Small Town Girls: A Writer’s Memoir by Jayne Anne Phillips
(Knopf)

9 Rave

“Phillips brings to this memoir the kind of resonant details and sharp insights that have enriched her fiction.”
–Heller McAlpin (Christian Science Monitor)

=5. Attention: Writing on Life, Art, and the World by Anne Enright
(W. W. Norton)

9 Rave

“Enright’s exhilarating mixture of analysis and autobiography compels continuous assent.”
–Patricia Craig (Times Literary Supplement)