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Rumaan Alam’s Entitlement, Connie Chung’s Connie, and Richard Osman’s We Solve Murders 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. Entitlement by Rumaan Alam
(Riverhead)
7 Rave • 5 Positive • 1 Pan
Read an interview with Rumaan Alam here
“Alam’s observation of the attitudes and trappings of contemporary upper-middle-class American life has a delicious precision … The tone of this novel grows darker and more claustrophobic than that of any of his previous work … Alam chronicles Brooke’s slow poisoning so deftly it almost seems possible that she’ll turn positive thinking and fearless self-assertion into some version of the American Dream.”
–Laura Miller (The New Yorker)
2. We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
(Pamela Dorman Books)
8 Rave • 1 Positive
“A more ambitious series … Not that Osman has deviated entirely from his winning formula. While offering more in scale and scope, the British author continues to play to his considerable strengths by serving up a fiendish mystery and rollicking adventure suffused with warmth and wit … A busy book … As the cast grows and one plot strand gives way to another, we begin to worry that the book will sag under its own weight. But Osman knows exactly what he is doing. His multiple characters and many layers lend variety and vivacity to the proceedings … Both an auspicious start to an entertaining new series and a perfect stopgap to tide us over until Joyce and her friends beguile us all over again.”
–Malcolm Forbes (The Washington Post)
3. Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte
(William Morrow)
6 Rave • 1 Positive
Read an interview with Tony Tulathimutte here
“Could be the year’s feel-bad book, but Tulathimutte’s inventiveness, his intellect, his sense of humor, and his precise style make his characters’ mortifications a pleasure to read … Caustic, clever, funny, and humane.”
–Matthew Keeley (The Boston Globe)
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1. Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue by Sonia Purnell
(Viking)
3 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed
“Rigorous but rollicking … Purnell seeks nobly to highlight Harriman’s involvement in public as well as private affairs … The majority of biographies lose steam as the subject ages; Kingmaker gets a strong second wind with Harriman’s early talent spotting of Bill Clinton … If Purnell’s prose sometimes lapses into breathlessness, who can blame her? Like her beloved horses, Harriman went through her days at full gallop, and it would be hard for even the most devoted stable mistress to keep up.”
–Alexandra Jacobs (The New York Times)
2. She-Wolves: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street by Paulina Bren
(W. W. Norton & Company)
3 Rave • 2 Mixed
“She-Wolves is structured as interwoven biographies. Through a combination of original interviews and research, its protagonists are shown in all their complexities. Bren has an instinct for memorable, demonstrative detail … There are flaws with the organizing principle of historical firsts, which can, as teaching professor William L. Smith has argued, suggest that disparities have been overcome, while elevating the story of the individual achiever over the collective whole. But She-Wolves uses the trap of firsts to destroy the trap. Bren’s interested in the work it took to get there, to stay there, and how it all felt.”
–Maggie Lange (The Washington Post)
3. Connie: A Memoir by Connie Chung
(Grand Central Publishing)
2 Rave • 4 Positive
“Chung’s writing about her upbringing and family life are fascinating, but those coming to this memoir more for some media gossip won’t be disappointed … Chung’s memoir, often enchanting and enlightening, serves as a historical account of broadcast news during its most powerful, competitive and sometimes most absurd era.”
–Karen Heller (The Washington Post)