Hip, Hippo Hooray For 'River Of Teeth'
Sarah Gailey's alternate-history romp takes place in a United States that went ahead with a wild plan to farm hippos for meat. It's a delightful read that suffers only from being too short.
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Love, Money And Betrayal Make For Great Storytelling In 'The Heirs'
Susan Rieger's new book follows an upper-crust, Upper West Side family whose certainties are thrown into doubt after their father dies and an unknown Other Woman sues his estate for child support.
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'The End Of Eddy' Tells Of Growing Up Poor And Gay In Working-Class France
Édouard Louis' autobiographical novel is the story of a young man coming of age in a downtrodden French village. Critic John Powers calls it a "bulletin from the enraged heart of Le Pen country."
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Fiction: Irish Sisters Take Different Paths, but Not the Ones That They Expected
J. Courtney Sullivan’s novel “Saints for All Occasions” covers five decades in the lives of a pair of immigrants and their descendants in America.
A Dancer Is Unstrung By Grief In 'Isadora'
The great American dancer Isadora Duncan led a tragic life, and her worst year — just after the deaths of her first two children in an accident, forms the core of Amelia Gray's powerful new novel.
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Searching For A Summer Escape? These 6 Books Will Carry You Away
Journeys, near and far, into the past and even into near space, are the subject of the novels, memoirs and narrative histories that make up book critic Maureen Corrigan's early summer reading list.
The Power Of Music Is At The Heart Of 'Black Mad Wheel'
Detroit garage-rocker Josh Malerman's second novel follows a fictional 1950s rock bad recruited by the government to find the source of a mysterious, ominous sound emanating from the Namib Desert.
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Second Thoughts About A Second Marriage In 'Standard Deviation'
Katherine Heiny's first novel for adults is a warmhearted and funny — if overly long — portrait of a man who begins to doubt his chaotic, talkative second wife after 12 years of marriage.
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Nonfiction: Critical Thinkers: The Ties That Bind Orwell and Churchill
Apparently they never met. But the common cause of George Orwell and Winston Churchill resonates powerfully today, Thomas Ricks writes in this dual biography.
In 'A King's Obsession,' Anne Boleyn's True Love Is Power
Alison Weir takes a fresh look at familiar territory in this retelling of the story of Anne Boleyn. Weir's version of Anne is fiercely smart and guilty only of craving power that was hers by right.
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We Have Always Been Bored — 'Yawn' Wonders Why
Mary Mann's new book digs into a phenomenon as old as humanity: boredom. Why do we get bored? Is there a cure? Yawn is a thoughtful read, but its mix of autobiography and scholarship doesn't jell.
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An American Abroad Searches For Self In 'Florence In Ecstasy'
Jessie Chaffee's novel about a troubled young American woman in Florence is beautiful and exhausting; stick with it, and you'll find a thoughtful reexamination of a classic trope, the American abroad.
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It's The Nuggets That Shine In 'The Golden Cockerel'
The title piece in Mexican master Juan Rulfo's The Golden Cockerel is a good story with a simple point: Life is short and then you die. It's the sketches and fragments that come after that amaze.
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In 'Bad Dreams,' Tessa Hadley Serves Up Satisfying Short Stories
There are plenty of story collections out now to start your summer with, but Tessa Hadley tops the pile with Bad Dreams, ten richly complex tales of characters pushing the boundaries of their lives.
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The Free-Wheeling Style Of Art Ensemble of Chicago Shines In 'Message to Our Folks'
Paul Steinbeck's new book chronicles the antics, both on and off stage, of the storied jazz ensemble. Critic Kevin Whitehead says Message to Our Folks celebrates the band's success on their own terms.
4 Romances To Kick Off Your Summer
The weather is warming, the flowers are blooming, and our fancies turn lightly to thoughts of ... well, some really good romance novels. Here are four delicious reads to make your Maytime merry.
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'A Face Like Glass' Is A Magical, Perfectly Ticking Machine Of A Tale
Frances Hardinge's new novel is set in a wondrous underground city where crafts can be magic and the people are born with faces like blank canvas; they must purchase each new expression at great cost.
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'Based On A True Story' May Not Be True — But It's Still Scary
French novelist Delphine De Vigan follows up her tell-all 2012 memoir with a creepy tale of a blocked novelist — also named Delphine — who falls under the sway of an elegant, menacing ghostwriter.
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'Seeing People Off' Is A Short, Strange Trip
Slovak author Jana Beňová's English language debut is a bizarre, oblique — but beautiful — series of vignettes about a couple who spend their time drinking and smoking in Bratislava coffee shops.
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'No One Can Pronounce My Name' Is A Charming Take On Loneliness And Connection
Set in an Indian-American community in suburban Cleveland, Rakesh Satyal's new novel uses intertwined plots to explore the comedy of everyday life. Critic Maureen Corrigan says readers will be amused.
(Image credit: Claire Harbage/NPR)
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