What Should You Read Next? Here Are the Best Reviewed Books of the Week
Featuring James Baldwin, Elaine Hsieh Chou, Arson, and More
Nicholas Boggs’ Baldwin: A Love Story, Elaine Hsieh Chou’s Where Are You Really From, and Bench Ansfield’s Born in Flames 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. Where Are You Really From by Elaine Hsieh Chou
(Penguin Press)
6 Rave • 1 Positive
“Clever and beguiling … She flips stereotypes on their ears … Audacious … While humorously unpacking stereotypes about identity, Chou never condescends to her characters. The stories can become surprisingly tender or melancholic and wistful or even furious.”
–May-Lee Chai (The Star Tribune)
2. Ruth by Kate Riley
(Riverhead)
4 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed
Read an excerpt from Ruth here
“It would never work out, but I’m in love with Ruth … Ruth doesn’t speak to us directly, but Riley’s narration is calibrated to reflect her protagonist’s evolving mind. That dynamic fidelity is all the more impressive for being almost imperceptible. In the early sections, the author’s wry voice never flattens the meringue tips of Ruth’s childlike wonder. And later, as Ruth feels increasingly cramped in the little church, Riley maintains ironic distance, careful to avoid collapsing into the character inspired by her own experience. Her epigraphic style, informed by decades of sermons, aphorisms and comic retorts, ensures the novel’s delightful buoyancy.”
–Ron Charles (The Washington Post)
3. Dominion by Addie E. Citchens
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
4 Rave • 1 Mixed
“Nothing in the book is sensationalized: Citchens treats the subject matter with the seriousness it requires, and she sensitively handles the trauma that some of her characters endure. This is an important novel that deftly tackles misogyny and hypocrisy. A stunning debut.”
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1. Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
8 Rave • 1 Positive
“Sensational … Boggs handles all of this with a commanding, sure-footed authority and comprehensiveness, subtle and solemn at once, that dazzles and awes. The churn and swirl of Baldwin’s life is rendered emotionally rational as Boggs expertly details how Baldwin’s personal life pervades his work.”
–Charles M. Blow (The New York Times Book Review)
2. The Quiet Ear: An Investigation of Missing Sound by Raymond Antrobus
(Hogarth Press)
4 Rave • 3 Positive
Read an excerpt from The Quiet Ear here
“An insightful, bighearted memoir that skillfully interrogates his own experience—and the experience of a multitude of others—of being deaf in today’s world. Both expansive and precise … Lucidly braids all of this into an effortless, often lyrical account … A transformative story for all readers, offering an opportunity to discover the missing sounds and misunderstandings of their own experience—and begin to comprehend what it means to truly listen.”
–S Kirk Walsh (The New York Times Book Review)
3. Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City by Bench Ansfield
(W. W. Norton & Company)
4 Rave • 1 Positive
“Formidable … When Ansfield filed their dissertation on this topic, in 2021, the response was rapturous. Prizes were heaped at their feet: best dissertation in American studies, in American history, at Yale (co-won), and so on. Reading their book, which is even sharper, you can see why. It’s a deft, at times brilliant history … Ansfield’s great achievement is following the money … Ansfield discusses these phenomena with admirable sensitivity.”
–Daniel Immerwahr (The New Yorker)
