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

Gloria Steinem’s An Unexpected Life, Naomi Alderman’s The Strangers, Chuck Klosterman’s Rock*, and Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s Said the Dead all feature among the best reviewed books of the week.

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

*

Fiction

1. Said the Dead by Doireann Ní Ghríofa
(Biblioasis)

7 Rave • 1 Positive
Read an excerpt from Said the Dead here

“[An] emotionally charged, genre-bending work of history and fiction … Blending documented history with imaginative reconstruction, Ní Ghríofa reverently portrays women deprived of freedom and agency, caught between a burgeoning women’s rights movement and the quagmire of paternalism.”

–Joelle Egan (Booklist)

2. The Strangers by Naomi Alderman
(Little Brown and Company)

5 Rave • 1 Mixed • 1 Pan

“A remarkably successful evocation of loss … Alderman handles the fairly obvious political allegories with a lightness of touch that prevents them from collapsing into polemic … A deeply moving and wise book.”

–Keiran Goddard (The Guardian)

3. Avalon, Rise by Madeline ffitch
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

3 Rave • 2 Positive

“Biting yet stirring … As ffitch movingly shows, people discover their love for each other once they’re forced to fight. It’s a triumph.”

–Publishers Weekly

4. Hollywood, Ending by John Green
(Dutton)

3 Rave • 1 Positive

“Has the remarkable warmth that made his young-adult books…beloved contemporary classics … Hilariously frank and profane … Has moments that come as close as Green has every gotten to savage. At heart, though, he’s a tender writer whose abiding concern through all his work is what it takes to remain decent in a ruthless and impersonal world.”

–Laura Miller (Slate)

5. Cloud Six by Amy Fusselman
(Catapult)

3 Rave • 1 Mixed

“These high-wire tricks, which in a lesser work might cause the novel to collapse under the weight of its own shtick, are successful here because the absurdity has a purpose. Fusselman wants us as hopelessly disoriented as the new arrivals to Widdershins’s realm so she can remind us of what she told us at the book’s outset: she is here for us … If heaven is an author who understands humanity, in all its flaws and its beauty, and still has mercy, then here, Fusselman has proven herself divine.”

–Zachary Smolar (Los Angeles Review of Books)

**

Nonfiction

1. An Unexpected Life: A Memoir by Gloria Steinem
(Random House)

4 Rave • 1 Positive • 1 Mixed

“It’s a cracking backstory … These periods of her life are well documented. What I found interesting in the book were Steinem’s asides about the cost of pursuing the life she chose … As we enter the post-Steinem era – a statement that seems outlandish, given the length and ardour of her service – it’s a pleasure, simply, to spend time in her company, and her role as an elder is one she takes seriously.”

–Emma Brockes (The Guardian)

2. Shadow Before the Flame: The Hindenburg Disaster and the Prelude to War by Catherine Grace Katz
(Viking)

3 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed

“By the time the narrative reaches that night, Katz has introduced readers to many of the passengers, so their final moments come across as remarkably poignant. A well-researched title certain to thrill fans of WWII and aviation history.”

–Coleen Mondor (Booklist)

3. Valley of Death: How Big Tech Is Fueling the Future of War by Sharon Weinberger
(Little Brown and Company)

3 Rave • 2 Positive

“Wonderfully terrifying … Extensively detailed and exquisitely sourced and all the more impressive given that Weinberger wrote it while recovering from spinal cancer, Valley of Death is a crucial read for everyone concerned about our national security in this uncertain age.”

–James Pekoll (Booklist)

4. Rock*: A Mainstream Alternative History of Alternative Mainstream Music by Chuck Klosterman
(Da Capo)

2 Rave • 2 Positive

“This is the great pleasure of Rock*. Klosterman isn’t asking whether a song is inherently rebellious or conservative … Chuck Klosterman’s treatment of punk is especially revealing … The best thing about Rock* is that its seriousness never quite overwhelms Chuck Klosterman’s humor. It is an elaborate joke about the history of music that gradually becomes a joke about our confidence in history itself.”

–Jeremy McDonagh (PopMatters)

5. Swan Song: Diana, my Sister by Charles Spencer
(Penguin)

2 Rave • 1 Positive • 2 Mixed

“Elegant and reproving … Most compelling as a postcard from the siblings’ nursery, where their bond was solidified … Even with all its bitterness toward bad actors, like the deceptive Diana interviewer Martin Bashir, this is a lyrical book that delights in moments of the British absurd.”

–Alexandra Jacobs (The New York Times)