• The Hub

    News, Notes, Talk

    Your Favorite Books This Week

    Katie Yee

    May 24, 2019, 2:39pm

    Hello from Book Marks, Lit Hub’s “rotten tomatoes for books!”

    How It Works: Every day, our staff scours the most important and active outlets of literary journalism—from established national broadsheets to regional weeklies and alternative litblogs—and logs their book reviews. Each of those reviews is assigned an individual rating (Rave, Positive, Mixed or Pan) and then averaged. In this way, we hope to offer a glimpse at the conversation happening around a new title and give our readers an accessible doorway to the world of literary criticism.

    In case you’re curious, here are the books people clicked on most this week!

    What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About ed. by Michele Filgate

    Fifteen writers—including Alexander Chee, Carmen Maria Machado, Kiese Laymon, Brandon Taylor, Leslie Jamison, and more—explore what we don’t talk to our mothers about, and how it affects us, for better or for worse.

    Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

    For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl.

    Tara Westover, Educated, cover illustration by Patrik Svensson

    Educated by Tara Westover

    A memoir about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her Mormon anti-government survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University.

    The Guest Book_Sarah Blake

    The Guest Book by Sarah Blake

    After a tragedy befalls the Milton family, Ogden Milton tries to console his wife by purchasing an island in Maine. That island, and its house, come to define and burnish the Milton family for three generations.

    the pioneers_david mccullough

    The Pioneers by David McCullough

    Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David McCullough rediscovers a chapter in the American story—the settling of the Northwest Territory by pioneers who overcame incredible hardships to build a community.

    Richard Powers, The Overstory

    The Overstory by Richard Powers

    National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Powers offers an ode to trees, which in this novel can communicate not only with one another but with humans, nine of whom have special arboreal ties that lead to their campaign to save North America’s few remaining acres of virgin forest.

    Furious Hours_Casey Cep

    Furious Hours by Casey Cep

    The untold story of an Alabama serial killer and the true-crime book that Harper Lee worked on obsessively in the years after To Kill a Mockingbird.

    The Farm_Joanne Ramos

    The Farm by Joanne Ramos

    Nestled in New York’s Hudson Valley is a luxury retreat boasting every amenity—and all of it for free. The catch? For nine months, you cannot leave the grounds, your movements are monitored, and you are cut off from your former life while you dedicate yourself to the task of producing the perfect baby. For someone else.

    exhalation_ted chiang

    Exhalation by Ted Chiang

    A portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances, an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal, and more in Ted Chiang’s collection of short stories.

    dutch girl_robert matzen

    Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II by Robert Matzen

    A Hollywood biographer delves into the little-known World War II experiences of the star of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Roman Holiday, whose early adolescence was spent as part of the Dutch Resistance during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

    Happy reading!

  • Become a Lit Hub Supporting Member: Because Books Matter

    For the past decade, Literary Hub has brought you the best of the book world for free—no paywall. But our future relies on you. In return for a donation, you’ll get an ad-free reading experience, exclusive editors’ picks, book giveaways, and our coveted Joan Didion Lit Hub tote bag. Most importantly, you’ll keep independent book coverage alive and thriving on the internet.

    x
    %d bloggers like this: