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

Cristina Rivera Garza’s Autobiography of Cotton, Yi-Ling Liu’s The Wall Dancers, and Sarah Bruni’s Mass Mothering 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. Mass Mothering by Sarah Bruni
(Henry Holt)

5 Rave

“Dark, richly layered … That is what reading Mass Mothering is like, using storytelling as the equivalent of fetching lemonade, preparing dinner, singing lullabies.”

–Marion Winik (The Boston Globe)

=1. Autobiography of Cotton by Cristina Rivera Garza
(Graywolf)

4 Rave

“A fusion of fiction and nonfiction that excavates both national and family history. On a broad and somewhat scholarly level, Autobiography of Cotton details Mexico’s postindependence labor movements and land reforms … Gripping … This book is one of restless movement and passionate hope.”

–Sam Sacks (The Wall Street Journal)

3. Good People by Patmeena Sabit
(Crown)

4 Rave • 1 Positive

“A month into the year, the first great novel of 2026 is here … It’s riveting stuff, in part because the picture of the Sharafs is so complex as readers try to assemble the dozens of narrators’ accounts into a whole picture.”

–Chris Hewitt (The Star Tribune)

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Nonfiction

1. The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet by Yi-Ling Liu
(Knopf)

5 Rave

“Eye-opening … A portrait of nonconformists who, by feeling out the walls the regime has built, turn that maneuvering into a kind of limited freedom. They do not escape the system; they improvise within it. They dance.”

–Jimmy So (The New Republic)

2. Second Skin: Inside the Worlds of Fetish, Kink, and Deviant Desire by Anastasiia Fedorova
(Catapult)

2 Rave • 1 Positive

“Meticulously researched, passionately penned … Second Skin is more sociological than sexy; more anthropological than animalistic. Its raison d’etre is not simply to convey the history, the mechanics, the meaning or even the sexual pleasures of fetishism. More significantly, in this American era, with basic human rights being violated in our legislature and on our streets; when being ‘different’ and/or challenging the powers that be is punishable by death, this British-born book advocates for a person’s right to like what they like and to get it consensually.”

–Meredith Maran (The Los Angeles Times)

3. Empire of Madness: Reimagining Western Mental Health Care for Everyone by Khameer Kidia
(Crown)

1 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Deeply researched … Current treatments rely on medication and talk therapy, which the author asserts are sometimes helpful but largely insufficient. It’s a complex story to tell, and it requires patience and an open mind in the reader. Every time you think the author is going off on a tangent, he succeeds in connecting things back to mental health. An ambitious take on the diagnosis and treatment of mental health issues viewed through a cross-cultural lens”

–Kirkus