October’s Best Reviewed Nonfiction

Safiya Sinclair’s How to Say Babylon, Nathan Thrall’s A Day in the Life of Abed Salama, and Hilary Mantel’s A Memoir of My Former Self all feature among this month’s best reviewed nonfiction titles.

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

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1. How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
(37 Ink)

8 Rave • 3 Positive
Listen to an interview with Safiya Sinclair here

“Astounding … a personal story so fierce, honest and utterly absorbing that it’s impossible to put down. In How to Say Babylon, Sinclair uses that fire she found so long ago to pen a powerful portrait of a young woman cleaving her way out of hardship to wield a mighty voice all her own. … Boundless and beautiful and all the rest, How to Say Babylon is, in a word, a triumph.”

–Alexis Burling (The San Francisco Chronicle)

2. The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes Who Created the Oxford English Dictionary by Sarah Ogilvie
(Knopf)

8 Rave • 2 Positive

“Ogilvie has provided a sprightly, elegant tribute to the ordinary readers…who made up the bulk of the O.E.D.’s work force, largely unpaid and unsung, filling in millions of slips in their spare time … An engrossing survey … The real joy of The Dictionary People is to be reminded that any group of people pinned at its intersection will still burst forth every which way, a tapestry of contradictions, noble and ignoble, wild and banal.”

–Dennis Duncan (The New York Times Book Review)

3. A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy by Nathan Thrall
(Metropolitan Books)

7 Rave • 3 Positive 

“A penetrating, wide-ranging, heart-wrenching exploration of life in Palestine under Israeli occupation. I know of no other writing on Israel and Palestine that reaches this depth of perception and understanding.”

–David Schulman (The New York Review of Books)

4. A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing by Hilary Mantel
(Henry Holt & Company)

6 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Mantel…left behind a literary legacy that also includes a wide range of her right-handed writing. A Memoir of My Former Self gathers together the best of it. Spanning four decades, and comprising work that originally appeared in various outlets, this bravura collection of articles, essays, reviews and talks showcases the inquiring mind, fierce intelligence and shrewd way with words of a dexterous — and indeed, ambidextrous — prose stylist … Mantel impresses with her sharp wit, informed opinions and keen observations.”

–Malcolm Forbes (The Washington Post)

5. Emperor of Rome by Mary Beard
(Liveright)

6 Rave • 2 Positive

“An erudite and entertaining new book by the redoubtable classics scholar and feminist Mary Beard … Beard, a consummate storyteller, finds ‘ancient gossip’ understandably hard to resist. Such stories also free her up to pursue her subject thematically instead chronologically, pointing not just to differences among the emperors but also similarities … As a writer, Beard is so appealing and approachable that even the recalcitrant reader who previously gave not a single thought to the Roman Empire will warm to her subject.”

–Jennifer Szalai (The New York Times)