What Should You Read Next? Here Are the Best Reviewed Books of the Week
Featuring Vanessa Hua, Isaac Fitzgerald, Christina Baker Kline, and More
Vanessa Hua’s Coyoteland, Isaac Fitzgerald’s American Rambler, and Christina Baker Kline’s The Foursome 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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1. Coyoteland by Vanessa Hua
(Flatiron)
6 Rave
Read an excerpt from Coyoteland here
“Peers deeply into the confounding asymmetries of American life … Hua’s novel winds suspensefully from suburban complacency to its fiery consummation. Her style is breezy, with slang and tech talk galore, but at its base it is coolly literary and illuminating, with well-drawn characters, especially the girls, the women, and the Jin father figure.”
–Barbara Conaty (Library Journal)
2. The Foursome by Christina Baker Kline
(Mariner)
4 Rave • 1 Positive
“A daring and deeply empathetic tale of the sisters who married conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker … Avoiding sensationalism and hewing closely to the historical record, Kline subtly and often poetically documents the small, daily choices that shape these lives. It’s remarkable.”
3. Nerve Damage by Annakeara Stinson
(Knopf)
4 Rave
“Heady, harrowing and darkly funny … There is an appropriately claustrophobic quality to Nerve Damage … And Stinson’s chameleon-like ability to shift without warning between quippy text-speak and breathtaking, lyrical passages heightens the book’s overall jitteriness … Beneath the novel’s acerbic, madcap humor is a sobering narrative about the emotional cost of surviving abuse.”
–Violet Kupersmith (The New York Times Book Review)
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1. Mighty Real: A History of LGBTQ Music, 1969-2000 Cover by Barry Walters
(Viking)
5 Rave • 1 Positive
“Meticulously researched and entertainingly written … Walters has written a wide-ranging, somewhat idiosyncratic—but thoroughly readable—slice of Americana that is absolutely not to be missed by pop culture mavens, LGBTQ+ readers, or anyone who wants to know how the music business finally came out of the closet.”
–Thane Tierney (BookPage)
2. American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed by Isaac Fitzgerald
(Knopf)
4 Rave • 1 Positive
“Bouncing between the larger-than-life mythology of Appleseed and the idiosyncratic but human foibles of Chapman, Fitzgerald builds a nuanced portrait of the man and the places he traveled … Claiming no legendary status himself, Fitzgerald is a most excellent tour guide, mixing history with anecdote, Chapman’s tangled story with his own somewhat tortured but always fascinating tale.”
–Sara Beth West (BookPage)
3. Lady C: The Long, Sensational Life of Lady Chatterley’s Lover by Guy Cuthbertson
(Yale University Press)
1 Rave • 2 Postive
“Guy Cuthbertson has been a diligent researcher, spending many hours trawling through archives and cuttings. He has even looked through the trial judge’s copy of the book, with its highlighting of rude words. If he underplays the significance of Kate Millett’s attack on the novel’s phallocentrism, that’s because he’s keeping things light. After all the heavy moralizing that went with the book, it’s the right way to go. He has produced an enjoyable piece of social history, less earnest Leavisite sermonizing than saucy Ealing Studios comedy.”
–Blake Morrison (The Guardian)
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