What Should You Read Next? Here Are the Best Reviewed Books of the Week

Anjet Daanje’s The Song of Stork and Dromedary, Joby Warrick’s The Jackal, and Dorthe Nors’ Range 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. The Song of Stork and Dromedary by Anjet Daanje
(FSG)

4 Rave • 1 Positive

“Daanje’s variations never become schematic or predictable. The novel’s length is daunting, but the writing is swift and eventful, often expressed in coursing run-on sentences. The reader advances across Mr. McKay’s superb translation as though compelled by a fierce highland wind. In the book’s telling, the Drayden sisters’ imaginative visions are so powerful that they reshape the way people experience reality. Readers, too, will finish this vast, teeming novel with a sense of a world transformed.”

–Sam Sacks (The Wall Street Journal)

2. The Maltese Version by Katy Simpson Smith
(FSG)

3 Rave • 2 Positive
Read an excerpt from The Maltese Version here

“Philosophical and disarmingly dishy … The meringue-light surface of The Maltese Version, which had thus far presented itself as a caper about two female friends trying to make it in the dying travel-guide industry, might conceal unforeseen depths … Smith is an observant and dexterous writer … A steely exploration of novelistic form and what said form can and cannot reveal. It’s a book that—for both its inventiveness and its many linguistic sleights of hand—can renew our faith in the playful joys and critical capacity of fiction.”

–Lucy Ives (The New York Times Book Review)

3. The Book of Chuck by Latoya Watkins
(Tiny Reparations Books)

4 Rave

“Lyrical … Feels like a poetic allegory for both generational trauma and generational healing … We may yearn for the acceptance of others while neglecting to spare enough respect for ourselves. The story of Chuck’s troubled family suggests there is room for that self-regard to blossom.”

–Charmaine Wilkerson (The New York Times Book Review)

4. Range by Dorthe Nors
(Graywolf)

2 Rave • 3 Positive
Read an excerpt from Range here

“In an era when all language is subject to relentless algorithmic flattening, when books are so often rewarded for easy comprehension and bland sentiment, Range is a rebellious celebration of the singularity, and mystery, of humankind. We need more fiction like Nors’s. Let the weird children come.”

–Charlotte Wood (The New York Times Book Review)

5. Unprecedented Times by Malavika Kannan
(Henry Holt)

2 Rave • 1 Positive
Read an excerpt from Unprecedented Times here

“Rishi’s relationship with her mother and how it evolves over the course of the novel was one of the most moving parts of the book … Another impressive feat of Unprecedented Times: Kannan’s ability to manage so many characters while developing them all sufficiently to feel vivid and real … The ending has lingered in my mind long after the final page. Her story is compelling because of her contradictions and how we watch them play out over the course of the novel.”

–Mia Arias Tsang (Autostraddle)

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Nonfiction

1. Togetherness: Symbiosis and the Hidden Story of Life’s Greatest Collaborations by Rowan Hooper
(Knopf)

3 Rave • 1 Positive • 2 Mixed

“Not an attempt to make evolution cuddlier and more palatable; rather, it is a corrective deeply informed by what we have learned since Darwin about how nature works. Written with immense charm and passion, and packed with eye-popping facts, it is also a paean to the wonders of nature and the value and urgency of preserving them.”

–Philip Ball (The Guardian)

2. The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World’s First Super-Terrorist by Joby Warrick
(Scribner)

3 Rave • 1 Positive

“Authoritative and acutely readable … Warrick acknowledges his many predecessors. He persuasively notes, fighting through the cliché, that new information has come to light.”

–Dwight Garner (The New York Times)

3. The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy by Gil Durán
(Avid Reader Press)

2 Rave • 2 Positive

“Stunning … Gloriously titled … Thoughtful, well researched and a vigorous call to act before our collective humanity is sacrificed to increasing the vast wealth of tech millionaires and billionaires.”

–Karlin Lillington (The Irish Times)

4. Finding Renée Richards: The Groundbreaking Story of Tennis’s Trans Pioneer by Julie Kliegman
(HarperOne)

2 Rave • 1 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Kliegman is a compassionate and thoughtful interviewer, and their conversations with Richards are enlightening. Richards may be a complicated person, but her contribution to the advancement of transgender rights can’t be overstated. Not to be missed.”

–Stephanie Howes (Booklist)

5. The Next Journalism: How the Press Must Change to Serve Democracy by Tom Rosenstiel
(Crown)

1 Positive • 2 Mixed

“Although its focus is clearly aimed at serious students of journalism and industry professionals, Rosenstiel’s thoughtful analysis will resonate with anyone concerned with the future of the press.”

–Carol Haggas (Booklist)