Talty’s prose is flawless throughout; he writes with a straightforward leanness that will likely appeal to admirers of Thom Jones or Denis Johnson. But his style is all his own, as is his immense sense of compassion. Night of the Living Rez is a stunning look at a family navigating their lives through crisis — it’s a shockingly strong debut, sure, but it’s also a masterwork by a major talent. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
The book’s real strength is its ability to evocatively raise profound questions about humanity’s relationship with and responsibility to animals and the larger environment in the course of its often (darkly) comic action … A dire warning, sick joke, and perceptive critique of a species of very questionable intelligence: humanity. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Thrust is many things: a speculative history of the United States, a recognition of forgotten classes, a fluid song about the power of love, a celebration of the power of language and storytelling. It is an intricate novel in its interconnections, plotlines twisting away and back together again, but readers’ attention will be well rewarded by profound, thought-provoking and deeply beautiful observations about humanity in an ever-changing world. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Most of Nevada’s land — almost 86 percent — is uninhabited by people, covered in sagebrush, and managed by the federal government. That leaves plenty of room for the imagination. Green corporations envision wind farms. Red politicians see a dumping grounds for the nation’s nuclear waste. Even for those who have driven one of those two-lane highways stretching across high desert, it is still easy to assume that there is nothing, and no one, out there. John M. Glionna sets out to prove the opposite in Outback Nevada: Real Stories from the Silver State… Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
From lemurs to spiders, this gleeful exploration of female sexuality in the animal world overturns a host of outdated assumptions. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Offutt has fashioned a mystery plot that’s fast-paced, efficiently plotted, atmospheric, and compelling, but what again distinguishes the book is the author’s command of and affection for the setting and the people who live there. Come for the thriller, by all means; it delivers nicely. But stay for, and linger in, the marvelous incidentals and atmospherics: arguments about mall names; lore about snakes and birds and mushrooms; descriptions of a local shade-tree tinkerer’s Slinky-like version of a perpetual motion machine … Terrific characters; taut suspense. Another winner from Offutt. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
The 12 essays in this superlative collection from New Yorker staff writer Keefe reflect, as he says in his preface, his abiding preoccupations: “crime and corruption, secrets and lies, the permeable membrane separating licit and illicit worlds, the bonds of family, the power of denial.” … Every one of these selections is a journalistic gem. Immensely enjoyable writing married with fascinating subjects makes this a must-read. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Nagendra makes her fiction debut with an exceptional series launch … By placing her intelligent and clear-eyed protagonists in the multilayered and multicultural milieu of colonial India, Nagendra, a university professor in Bangalore, imbues this mystery with a rich, edifying, and authentic feel. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
“This is a masterwork in which Lehman’s encyclopedic knowledge of film, literature, and cultural history is synthesized by way of lively exegesis, quotes, poems (his own), catalogs, mini-biographies, and eclectic, brilliantly illuminated byways, both classical and pulp. His vivid, chromatic style is what one expects from a poet and critic of Lehman’s stature. The Mysterious Romance of Murder must take a prominent place, stylistically and critically, alongside Luc Sante’s Low Life, Julian Symons’s Bloody Murder, and Cyril Connolly’s The Unquiet Grave. As with the very best mysteries—of the heart and the intellect—you can’t put it down.” – Nicholas Christopher
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
For all its elegant complexity and brilliant construction, Diaz’s novel is compulsively readable, and despite taking place in the early 1900s, the plot reads like an indictment of the start of the twenty-first century with its obsession with obscure financial instruments and unhinged capital accumulation. A captivating tour de force that will astound readers with its formal invention and contemporary relevance. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
