book review recommendations

Books We Love

Great reads, thoughtfully curated by npr, what would you like to read.

Mix and match the filters below and the years above to explore more than 3,600 recommendations from NPR staff and trusted critics.

Selected books ( ) Clear filters

• Member Login
• Library Patron Login

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR

FREE NEWSLETTERS

Search: Title Author Article Search String:

Ordinarily, upon sitting down to write a review of a guide to English language usage, I'd get myself pretty worked up, nervous about ensuring I didn't end a sentence with a preposition or forget what ...

Beyond the Book

The American Heritage Dictionary Usage Panel

Anne Curzan, author of Says Who?, has some compelling bona fides when it comes to remarking upon English grammar and usage. Not only is she a linguistics professor, she was also for many years a ...

The Demon of Unrest

In the aftermath of the 1860 presidential election, the divided United States began to collapse as South Carolina seceded from the Union, followed by another six Southern states. Among the countless ...

Fort Sumter Today

As Erik Larson recounts in The Demon of Unrest, the first shots of the American Civil War were fired on Fort Sumter, off the coast of South Carolina, at 4:30 a.m. on April 12th, 1861. Thirty-six hours...

The Oscar-nominated film American Fiction (2023) and the Percival Everett novel it was based on, Erasure (2001), are about whose voices are heard and in what context. In the movie, Jeffrey Wright and ...

Reimagining the Classics from a New Perspective

Percival Everett's James is a reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Huck's enslaved companion Jim. This kind of reconfiguration is a common source of inspiration ...

I Cheerfully Refuse

Set around Lake Superior in the Upper Midwest, I Cheerfully Refuse depicts a near-future America that has collapsed to the point where it more closely resembles the past. The coasts are the domain of ...

Lake Superior as Dystopian Setting

'The setting is a character in itself' is a moth-eaten critical insight about any book (or film, or TV show), but I Cheerfully Refuse stops just short of literally making Lake Superior a character. As...

Alien Earths

"We are living in an incredible time of exploration," says Alien Earths author Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger, and after reading her new book it's impossible to argue. Only in recent years have we developed the...

Star Trek & Space Exploration

From the 17th century on, Johannes Kepler, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, HG Wells, and Edgar Rice Burroughs were just a few artists who contributed to a burgeoning awakening of the ...

The Familiar

Luzia, the heroine of Leigh Bardugo's novel The Familiar , is a young woman employed as a scullion in the home of the decidedly middle-class Marius and Valentina Ordoño. Although she appears to be...

Lucrecia the Dreamer

The fictional heroine of Leigh Bardugo's novel The Familiar interacts with several characters based on people who really did live in Spain during the 16th century. One of these is a young woman ...

Join BookBrowse

for a year of great reading about exceptional books!

Genres and Themes

Read-alikes, young adults, members recommend.

The Stolen Child by Ann Hood

An unlikely duo ventures through France and Italy to solve the mystery of a child’s fate.

The Flower Sisters by Michelle Collins Anderson

From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.

The Book Club

Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner A heartrending story about a young mother’s fight to keep her daughter, and the terrible injustice that tears them apart.

New In Paperback

Solve this clue:

and be entered to win...

• Reading Guides

Who Said...

From the moment I picked your book up...

See who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

• IBPA rebrands annual book award, adds DEI categories
• Paul Auster dies at 77
• Biographies
• Author Read-Alikes
• Name Pronunication Guide
• The Most Popular Book Club Historical Fiction of 2023
• The Most Popular Book Club Books of 2023

Your guide to exceptional           books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

Subscribe to receive some of our best reviews, "beyond the book" articles, book club info and giveaways by email.

May the Books Be With You: 10 New SFF Books Out May 2024

The Most Read Books on Goodreads This Week

Book Riot’s 2024 Read Harder Challenge

Win the Complete KINGS OF SIN Series by Ana Huang!

Win a Year of Reading!

Book riot's daily deals.

All The Books

Book Riot: The Podcast

Read or Dead

Are Librarians Criminals? These Bills Would Make Them So: Book Censorship News, May 3, 2024

Your weekly roundup of book ban news across the U.S., plus a look at the bills seeking to criminalize librarians.

Exploring Cognitive Biases and Modern Irrationality

Why do humans have such strange ways of thinking?

10 New Nonfiction Book Releases For May 2024

These 10 new books hitting shelves in May 2024 will have something for every kind of reader.

10 of the Best New Children’s Books Out May 2024

May children's book releases include phenomenal new books by Traci Sorell, Hena Khan, Vera Brosgol, Kat Zhang, and more!

The Best Book Club Books Out in May

The best book club books out in May have time-traveling romance, more Crazy Rich Asians, genre-bending memoir, and lots more.

Solve A Mystery: 8 New Mystery Thriller Books For May 2024

In May's new mystery and thriller books, there's a revenge-only serial killer, an accidentally time-traveling detective, and more. Which ones are you adding to the TBR?

10 of the Best Bookish Gifts for Grads

Whether your graduates want something to wear, sip from, or hang on their wall, these bookish gifts for grads will be perfect.

New Horror Books: May You Be Scared This May? Yes, You May

The new horror books out in May 2024 have a little bit of everything to dig its claws into your heart and chill you to the bone.

Join Discovery, the new community for book lovers

Trust book recommendations from real people, not robots 🤓

Blog – Posted on Friday, Mar 29

17 book review examples to help you write the perfect review.

It’s an exciting time to be a book reviewer. Once confined to print newspapers and journals, reviews now dot many corridors of the Internet — forever helping others discover their next great read. That said, every book reviewer will face a familiar panic: how can you do justice to a great book in just a thousand words?

As you know, the best way to learn how to do something is by immersing yourself in it. Luckily, the Internet (i.e. Goodreads and other review sites , in particular) has made book reviews more accessible than ever — which means that there are a lot of book reviews examples out there for you to view!

In this post, we compiled 17 prototypical book review examples in multiple genres to help you figure out how to write the perfect review . If you want to jump straight to the examples, you can skip the next section. Otherwise, let’s first check out what makes up a good review.

Are you interested in becoming a book reviewer? We recommend you check out Reedsy Discovery , where you can earn money for writing reviews — and are guaranteed people will read your reviews! To register as a book reviewer, sign up here.

Pro-tip : But wait! How are you sure if you should become a book reviewer in the first place? If you're on the fence, or curious about your match with a book reviewing career, take our quick quiz:

Should you become a book reviewer?

Find out the answer. Takes 30 seconds!

What must a book review contain?

Like all works of art, no two book reviews will be identical. But fear not: there are a few guidelines for any aspiring book reviewer to follow. Most book reviews, for instance, are less than 1,500 words long, with the sweet spot hitting somewhere around the 1,000-word mark. (However, this may vary depending on the platform on which you’re writing, as we’ll see later.)

In addition, all reviews share some universal elements, as shown in our book review templates . These include:

• A review will offer a concise plot summary of the book. 
• A book review will offer an evaluation of the work. 
• A book review will offer a recommendation for the audience. 

If these are the basic ingredients that make up a book review, it’s the tone and style with which the book reviewer writes that brings the extra panache. This will differ from platform to platform, of course. A book review on Goodreads, for instance, will be much more informal and personal than a book review on Kirkus Reviews, as it is catering to a different audience. However, at the end of the day, the goal of all book reviews is to give the audience the tools to determine whether or not they’d like to read the book themselves.

Keeping that in mind, let’s proceed to some book review examples to put all of this in action.

How much of a book nerd are you, really?

Find out here, once and for all. Takes 30 seconds!

Book review examples for fiction books

Since story is king in the world of fiction, it probably won’t come as any surprise to learn that a book review for a novel will concentrate on how well the story was told .

That said, book reviews in all genres follow the same basic formula that we discussed earlier. In these examples, you’ll be able to see how book reviewers on different platforms expertly intertwine the plot summary and their personal opinions of the book to produce a clear, informative, and concise review.

Note: Some of the book review examples run very long. If a book review is truncated in this post, we’ve indicated by including a […] at the end, but you can always read the entire review if you click on the link provided.

Examples of literary fiction book reviews

Kirkus Reviews reviews Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man :

An extremely powerful story of a young Southern Negro, from his late high school days through three years of college to his life in Harlem.

His early training prepared him for a life of humility before white men, but through injustices- large and small, he came to realize that he was an "invisible man". People saw in him only a reflection of their preconceived ideas of what he was, denied his individuality, and ultimately did not see him at all. This theme, which has implications far beyond the obvious racial parallel, is skillfully handled. The incidents of the story are wholly absorbing. The boy's dismissal from college because of an innocent mistake, his shocked reaction to the anonymity of the North and to Harlem, his nightmare experiences on a one-day job in a paint factory and in the hospital, his lightning success as the Harlem leader of a communistic organization known as the Brotherhood, his involvement in black versus white and black versus black clashes and his disillusion and understanding of his invisibility- all climax naturally in scenes of violence and riot, followed by a retreat which is both literal and figurative. Parts of this experience may have been told before, but never with such freshness, intensity and power.

This is Ellison's first novel, but he has complete control of his story and his style. Watch it.

Lyndsey reviews George Orwell’s 1984 on Goodreads:

YOU. ARE. THE. DEAD. Oh my God. I got the chills so many times toward the end of this book. It completely blew my mind. It managed to surpass my high expectations AND be nothing at all like I expected. Or in Newspeak "Double Plus Good." Let me preface this with an apology. If I sound stunningly inarticulate at times in this review, I can't help it. My mind is completely fried.

This book is like the dystopian Lord of the Rings, with its richly developed culture and economics, not to mention a fully developed language called Newspeak, or rather more of the anti-language, whose purpose is to limit speech and understanding instead of to enhance and expand it. The world-building is so fully fleshed out and spine-tinglingly terrifying that it's almost as if George travelled to such a place, escaped from it, and then just wrote it all down.

I read Fahrenheit 451 over ten years ago in my early teens. At the time, I remember really wanting to read 1984, although I never managed to get my hands on it. I'm almost glad I didn't. Though I would not have admitted it at the time, it would have gone over my head. Or at the very least, I wouldn't have been able to appreciate it fully. […]

The New York Times reviews Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry :

Three-quarters of the way through Lisa Halliday’s debut novel, “Asymmetry,” a British foreign correspondent named Alistair is spending Christmas on a compound outside of Baghdad. His fellow revelers include cameramen, defense contractors, United Nations employees and aid workers. Someone’s mother has FedExed a HoneyBaked ham from Maine; people are smoking by the swimming pool. It is 2003, just days after Saddam Hussein’s capture, and though the mood is optimistic, Alistair is worrying aloud about the ethics of his chosen profession, wondering if reporting on violence doesn’t indirectly abet violence and questioning why he’d rather be in a combat zone than reading a picture book to his son. But every time he returns to London, he begins to “spin out.” He can’t go home. “You observe what people do with their freedom — what they don’t do — and it’s impossible not to judge them for it,” he says.

The line, embedded unceremoniously in the middle of a page-long paragraph, doubles, like so many others in “Asymmetry,” as literary criticism. Halliday’s novel is so strange and startlingly smart that its mere existence seems like commentary on the state of fiction. One finishes “Asymmetry” for the first or second (or like this reader, third) time and is left wondering what other writers are not doing with their freedom — and, like Alistair, judging them for it.

Despite its title, “Asymmetry” comprises two seemingly unrelated sections of equal length, appended by a slim and quietly shocking coda. Halliday’s prose is clean and lean, almost reportorial in the style of W. G. Sebald, and like the murmurings of a shy person at a cocktail party, often comic only in single clauses. It’s a first novel that reads like the work of an author who has published many books over many years. […]

Emily W. Thompson reviews Michael Doane's The Crossing on Reedsy Discovery :

In Doane’s debut novel, a young man embarks on a journey of self-discovery with surprising results.

An unnamed protagonist (The Narrator) is dealing with heartbreak. His love, determined to see the world, sets out for Portland, Oregon. But he’s a small-town boy who hasn’t traveled much. So, the Narrator mourns her loss and hides from life, throwing himself into rehabbing an old motorcycle. Until one day, he takes a leap; he packs his bike and a few belongings and heads out to find the Girl.

Following in the footsteps of Jack Kerouac and William Least Heat-Moon, Doane offers a coming of age story about a man finding himself on the backroads of America. Doane’s a gifted writer with fluid prose and insightful observations, using The Narrator’s personal interactions to illuminate the diversity of the United States.

The Narrator initially sticks to the highways, trying to make it to the West Coast as quickly as possible. But a hitchhiker named Duke convinces him to get off the beaten path and enjoy the ride. “There’s not a place that’s like any other,” [39] Dukes contends, and The Narrator realizes he’s right. Suddenly, the trip is about the journey, not just the destination. The Narrator ditches his truck and traverses the deserts and mountains on his bike. He destroys his phone, cutting off ties with his past and living only in the moment.

As he crosses the country, The Narrator connects with several unique personalities whose experiences and views deeply impact his own. Duke, the complicated cowboy and drifter, who opens The Narrator’s eyes to a larger world. Zooey, the waitress in Colorado who opens his heart and reminds him that love can be found in this big world. And Rosie, The Narrator’s sweet landlady in Portland, who helps piece him back together both physically and emotionally.

This supporting cast of characters is excellent. Duke, in particular, is wonderfully nuanced and complicated. He’s a throwback to another time, a man without a cell phone who reads Sartre and sleeps under the stars. Yet he’s also a grifter with a “love ‘em and leave ‘em” attitude that harms those around him. It’s fascinating to watch The Narrator wrestle with Duke’s behavior, trying to determine which to model and which to discard.

Doane creates a relatable protagonist in The Narrator, whose personal growth doesn’t erase his faults. His willingness to hit the road with few resources is admirable, and he’s prescient enough to recognize the jealousy of those who cannot or will not take the leap. His encounters with new foods, places, and people broaden his horizons. Yet his immaturity and selfishness persist. He tells Rosie she’s been a good mother to him but chooses to ignore the continuing concern from his own parents as he effectively disappears from his old life.

Despite his flaws, it’s a pleasure to accompany The Narrator on his physical and emotional journey. The unexpected ending is a fitting denouement to an epic and memorable road trip.

The Book Smugglers review Anissa Gray’s The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls :

I am still dipping my toes into the literally fiction pool, finding what works for me and what doesn’t. Books like The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray are definitely my cup of tea.

Althea and Proctor Cochran had been pillars of their economically disadvantaged community for years – with their local restaurant/small market and their charity drives. Until they are found guilty of fraud for stealing and keeping most of the money they raised and sent to jail. Now disgraced, their entire family is suffering the consequences, specially their twin teenage daughters Baby Vi and Kim.  To complicate matters even more: Kim was actually the one to call the police on her parents after yet another fight with her mother. […]

Examples of children’s and YA fiction book reviews

The Book Hookup reviews Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give :

♥ Quick Thoughts and Rating: 5 stars! I can’t imagine how challenging it would be to tackle the voice of a movement like Black Lives Matter, but I do know that Thomas did it with a finesse only a talented author like herself possibly could. With an unapologetically realistic delivery packed with emotion, The Hate U Give is a crucially important portrayal of the difficulties minorities face in our country every single day. I have no doubt that this book will be met with resistance by some (possibly many) and slapped with a “controversial” label, but if you’ve ever wondered what it was like to walk in a POC’s shoes, then I feel like this is an unflinchingly honest place to start.

In Angie Thomas’s debut novel, Starr Carter bursts on to the YA scene with both heart-wrecking and heartwarming sincerity. This author is definitely one to watch.

♥ Review: The hype around this book has been unquestionable and, admittedly, that made me both eager to get my hands on it and terrified to read it. I mean, what if I was to be the one person that didn’t love it as much as others? (That seems silly now because of how truly mesmerizing THUG was in the most heartbreakingly realistic way.) However, with the relevancy of its summary in regards to the unjust predicaments POC currently face in the US, I knew this one was a must-read, so I was ready to set my fears aside and dive in. That said, I had an altogether more personal, ulterior motive for wanting to read this book. […]

The New York Times reviews Melissa Albert’s The Hazel Wood :

Alice Crewe (a last name she’s chosen for herself) is a fairy tale legacy: the granddaughter of Althea Proserpine, author of a collection of dark-as-night fairy tales called “Tales From the Hinterland.” The book has a cult following, and though Alice has never met her grandmother, she’s learned a little about her through internet research. She hasn’t read the stories, because her mother, Ella Proserpine, forbids it.

Alice and Ella have moved from place to place in an attempt to avoid the “bad luck” that seems to follow them. Weird things have happened. As a child, Alice was kidnapped by a man who took her on a road trip to find her grandmother; he was stopped by the police before they did so. When at 17 she sees that man again, unchanged despite the years, Alice panics. Then Ella goes missing, and Alice turns to Ellery Finch, a schoolmate who’s an Althea Proserpine superfan, for help in tracking down her mother. Not only has Finch read every fairy tale in the collection, but handily, he remembers them, sharing them with Alice as they journey to the mysterious Hazel Wood, the estate of her now-dead grandmother, where they hope to find Ella.

“The Hazel Wood” starts out strange and gets stranger, in the best way possible. (The fairy stories Finch relays, which Albert includes as their own chapters, are as creepy and evocative as you’d hope.) Albert seamlessly combines contemporary realism with fantasy, blurring the edges in a way that highlights that place where stories and real life convene, where magic contains truth and the world as it appears is false, where just about anything can happen, particularly in the pages of a very good book. It’s a captivating debut. […]

James reviews Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight, Moon on Goodreads:

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown is one of the books that followers of my blog voted as a must-read for our Children's Book August 2018 Readathon. Come check it out and join the next few weeks!

This picture book was such a delight. I hadn't remembered reading it when I was a child, but it might have been read to me... either way, it was like a whole new experience! It's always so difficult to convince a child to fall asleep at night. I don't have kids, but I do have a 5-month-old puppy who whines for 5 minutes every night when he goes in his cage/crate (hopefully he'll be fully housebroken soon so he can roam around when he wants). I can only imagine! I babysat a lot as a teenager and I have tons of younger cousins, nieces, and nephews, so I've been through it before, too. This was a believable experience, and it really helps show kids how to relax and just let go when it's time to sleep.

The bunny's are adorable. The rhymes are exquisite. I found it pretty fun, but possibly a little dated given many of those things aren't normal routines anymore. But the lessons to take from it are still powerful. Loved it! I want to sample some more books by this fine author and her illustrators.

Publishers Weekly reviews Elizabeth Lilly’s Geraldine :

This funny, thoroughly accomplished debut opens with two words: “I’m moving.” They’re spoken by the title character while she swoons across her family’s ottoman, and because Geraldine is a giraffe, her full-on melancholy mode is quite a spectacle. But while Geraldine may be a drama queen (even her mother says so), it won’t take readers long to warm up to her. The move takes Geraldine from Giraffe City, where everyone is like her, to a new school, where everyone else is human. Suddenly, the former extrovert becomes “That Giraffe Girl,” and all she wants to do is hide, which is pretty much impossible. “Even my voice tries to hide,” she says, in the book’s most poignant moment. “It’s gotten quiet and whispery.” Then she meets Cassie, who, though human, is also an outlier (“I’m that girl who wears glasses and likes MATH and always organizes her food”), and things begin to look up.

Lilly’s watercolor-and-ink drawings are as vividly comic and emotionally astute as her writing; just when readers think there are no more ways for Geraldine to contort her long neck, this highly promising talent comes up with something new.

Examples of genre fiction book reviews

Karlyn P reviews Nora Roberts’ Dark Witch , a paranormal romance novel , on Goodreads:

4 stars. Great world-building, weak romance, but still worth the read.

I hesitate to describe this book as a 'romance' novel simply because the book spent little time actually exploring the romance between Iona and Boyle. Sure, there IS a romance in this novel. Sprinkled throughout the book are a few scenes where Iona and Boyle meet, chat, wink at each, flirt some more, sleep together, have a misunderstanding, make up, and then profess their undying love. Very formulaic stuff, and all woven around the more important parts of this book.

The meat of this book is far more focused on the story of the Dark witch and her magically-gifted descendants living in Ireland. Despite being weak on the romance, I really enjoyed it. I think the book is probably better for it, because the romance itself was pretty lackluster stuff.

I absolutely plan to stick with this series as I enjoyed the world building, loved the Ireland setting, and was intrigued by all of the secondary characters. However, If you read Nora Roberts strictly for the romance scenes, this one might disappoint. But if you enjoy a solid background story with some dark magic and prophesies, you might enjoy it as much as I did.

I listened to this one on audio, and felt the narration was excellent.

Emily May reviews R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy Wars , an epic fantasy novel , on Goodreads:

“But I warn you, little warrior. The price of power is pain.”

Holy hell, what did I just read??

➽ A fantasy military school

➽ A rich world based on modern Chinese history

➽ Shamans and gods

➽ Detailed characterization leading to unforgettable characters

➽ Adorable, opium-smoking mentors

That's a basic list, but this book is all of that and SO MUCH MORE. I know 100% that The Poppy War will be one of my best reads of 2018.

Isn't it just so great when you find one of those books that completely drags you in, makes you fall in love with the characters, and demands that you sit on the edge of your seat for every horrific, nail-biting moment of it? This is one of those books for me. And I must issue a serious content warning: this book explores some very dark themes. Proceed with caution (or not at all) if you are particularly sensitive to scenes of war, drug use and addiction, genocide, racism, sexism, ableism, self-harm, torture, and rape (off-page but extremely horrific).

Because, despite the fairly innocuous first 200 pages, the title speaks the truth: this is a book about war. All of its horrors and atrocities. It is not sugar-coated, and it is often graphic. The "poppy" aspect refers to opium, which is a big part of this book. It is a fantasy, but the book draws inspiration from the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Rape of Nanking.

Crime Fiction Lover reviews Jessica Barry’s Freefall , a crime novel:

In some crime novels, the wrongdoing hits you between the eyes from page one. With others it’s a more subtle process, and that’s OK too. So where does Freefall fit into the sliding scale?

In truth, it’s not clear. This is a novel with a thrilling concept at its core. A woman survives plane crash, then runs for her life. However, it is the subtleties at play that will draw you in like a spider beckoning to an unwitting fly.

Like the heroine in Sharon Bolton’s Dead Woman Walking, Allison is lucky to be alive. She was the only passenger in a private plane, belonging to her fiancé, Ben, who was piloting the expensive aircraft, when it came down in woodlands in the Colorado Rockies. Ally is also the only survivor, but rather than sitting back and waiting for rescue, she is soon pulling together items that may help her survive a little longer – first aid kit, energy bars, warm clothes, trainers – before fleeing the scene. If you’re hearing the faint sound of alarm bells ringing, get used to it. There’s much, much more to learn about Ally before this tale is over.

Kirkus Reviews reviews Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One , a science-fiction novel :

Video-game players embrace the quest of a lifetime in a virtual world; screenwriter Cline’s first novel is old wine in new bottles.

The real world, in 2045, is the usual dystopian horror story. So who can blame Wade, our narrator, if he spends most of his time in a virtual world? The 18-year-old, orphaned at 11, has no friends in his vertical trailer park in Oklahoma City, while the OASIS has captivating bells and whistles, and it’s free. Its creator, the legendary billionaire James Halliday, left a curious will. He had devised an elaborate online game, a hunt for a hidden Easter egg. The finder would inherit his estate. Old-fashioned riddles lead to three keys and three gates. Wade, or rather his avatar Parzival, is the first gunter (egg-hunter) to win the Copper Key, first of three.

Halliday was obsessed with the pop culture of the 1980s, primarily the arcade games, so the novel is as much retro as futurist. Parzival’s great strength is that he has absorbed all Halliday’s obsessions; he knows by heart three essential movies, crossing the line from geek to freak. His most formidable competitors are the Sixers, contract gunters working for the evil conglomerate IOI, whose goal is to acquire the OASIS. Cline’s narrative is straightforward but loaded with exposition. It takes a while to reach a scene that crackles with excitement: the meeting between Parzival (now world famous as the lead contender) and Sorrento, the head of IOI. The latter tries to recruit Parzival; when he fails, he issues and executes a death threat. Wade’s trailer is demolished, his relatives killed; luckily Wade was not at home. Too bad this is the dramatic high point. Parzival threads his way between more ’80s games and movies to gain the other keys; it’s clever but not exciting. Even a romance with another avatar and the ultimate “epic throwdown” fail to stir the blood.

Too much puzzle-solving, not enough suspense.

Book review examples for non-fiction books

Nonfiction books are generally written to inform readers about a certain topic. As such, the focus of a nonfiction book review will be on the clarity and effectiveness of this communication . In carrying this out, a book review may analyze the author’s source materials and assess the thesis in order to determine whether or not the book meets expectations.

Again, we’ve included abbreviated versions of long reviews here, so feel free to click on the link to read the entire piece!

The Washington Post reviews David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon :

The arc of David Grann’s career reminds one of a software whiz-kid or a latest-thing talk-show host — certainly not an investigative reporter, even if he is one of the best in the business. The newly released movie of his first book, “The Lost City of Z,” is generating all kinds of Oscar talk, and now comes the release of his second book, “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” the film rights to which have already been sold for $5 million in what one industry journal called the “biggest and wildest book rights auction in memory.”

Grann deserves the attention. He’s canny about the stories he chases, he’s willing to go anywhere to chase them, and he’s a maestro in his ability to parcel out information at just the right clip: a hint here, a shading of meaning there, a smartly paced buildup of multiple possibilities followed by an inevitable reversal of readerly expectations or, in some cases, by a thrilling and dislocating pull of the entire narrative rug.

All of these strengths are on display in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Around the turn of the 20th century, oil was discovered underneath Osage lands in the Oklahoma Territory, lands that were soon to become part of the state of Oklahoma. Through foresight and legal maneuvering, the Osage found a way to permanently attach that oil to themselves and shield it from the prying hands of white interlopers; this mechanism was known as “headrights,” which forbade the outright sale of oil rights and granted each full member of the tribe — and, supposedly, no one else — a share in the proceeds from any lease arrangement. For a while, the fail-safes did their job, and the Osage got rich — diamond-ring and chauffeured-car and imported-French-fashion rich — following which quite a large group of white men started to work like devils to separate the Osage from their money. And soon enough, and predictably enough, this work involved murder. Here in Jazz Age America’s most isolated of locales, dozens or even hundreds of Osage in possession of great fortunes — and of the potential for even greater fortunes in the future — were dispatched by poison, by gunshot and by dynamite. […]

Stacked Books reviews Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers :

I’ve heard a lot of great things about Malcolm Gladwell’s writing. Friends and co-workers tell me that his subjects are interesting and his writing style is easy to follow without talking down to the reader. I wasn’t disappointed with Outliers. In it, Gladwell tackles the subject of success – how people obtain it and what contributes to extraordinary success as opposed to everyday success.

The thesis – that our success depends much more on circumstances out of our control than any effort we put forth – isn’t exactly revolutionary. Most of us know it to be true. However, I don’t think I’m lying when I say that most of us also believe that we if we just try that much harder and develop our talent that much further, it will be enough to become wildly successful, despite bad or just mediocre beginnings. Not so, says Gladwell.

Most of the evidence Gladwell gives us is anecdotal, which is my favorite kind to read. I can’t really speak to how scientifically valid it is, but it sure makes for engrossing listening. For example, did you know that successful hockey players are almost all born in January, February, or March? Kids born during these months are older than the others kids when they start playing in the youth leagues, which means they’re already better at the game (because they’re bigger). Thus, they get more play time, which means their skill increases at a faster rate, and it compounds as time goes by. Within a few years, they’re much, much better than the kids born just a few months later in the year. Basically, these kids’ birthdates are a huge factor in their success as adults – and it’s nothing they can do anything about. If anyone could make hockey interesting to a Texan who only grudgingly admits the sport even exists, it’s Gladwell. […]

Quill and Quire reviews Rick Prashaw’s Soar, Adam, Soar :

Ten years ago, I read a book called Almost Perfect. The young-adult novel by Brian Katcher won some awards and was held up as a powerful, nuanced portrayal of a young trans person. But the reality did not live up to the book’s billing. Instead, it turned out to be a one-dimensional and highly fetishized portrait of a trans person’s life, one that was nevertheless repeatedly dubbed “realistic” and “affecting” by non-transgender readers possessing only a vague, mass-market understanding of trans experiences.

In the intervening decade, trans narratives have emerged further into the literary spotlight, but those authored by trans people ourselves – and by trans men in particular – have seemed to fall under the shadow of cisgender sensationalized imaginings. Two current Canadian releases – Soar, Adam, Soar and This One Looks Like a Boy – provide a pointed object lesson into why trans-authored work about transgender experiences remains critical.

To be fair, Soar, Adam, Soar isn’t just a story about a trans man. It’s also a story about epilepsy, the medical establishment, and coming of age as seen through a grieving father’s eyes. Adam, Prashaw’s trans son, died unexpectedly at age 22. Woven through the elder Prashaw’s narrative are excerpts from Adam’s social media posts, giving us glimpses into the young man’s interior life as he traverses his late teens and early 20s. […]

Book Geeks reviews Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love :

WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5

SUBJECT: 4/5

CANDIDNESS: 4.5/5

RELEVANCE: 3.5/5

ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5

“Eat Pray Love” is so popular that it is almost impossible to not read it. Having felt ashamed many times on my not having read this book, I quietly ordered the book (before I saw the movie) from amazon.in and sat down to read it. I don’t remember what I expected it to be – maybe more like a chick lit thing but it turned out quite different. The book is a real story and is a short journal from the time when its writer went travelling to three different countries in pursuit of three different things – Italy (Pleasure), India (Spirituality), Bali (Balance) and this is what corresponds to the book’s name – EAT (in Italy), PRAY (in India) and LOVE (in Bali, Indonesia). These are also the three Is – ITALY, INDIA, INDONESIA.

Though she had everything a middle-aged American woman can aspire for – MONEY, CAREER, FRIENDS, HUSBAND; Elizabeth was not happy in her life, she wasn’t happy in her marriage. Having suffered a terrible divorce and terrible breakup soon after, Elizabeth was shattered. She didn’t know where to go and what to do – all she knew was that she wanted to run away. So she set out on a weird adventure – she will go to three countries in a year and see if she can find out what she was looking for in life. This book is about that life changing journey that she takes for one whole year. […]

Emily May reviews Michelle Obama’s Becoming on Goodreads:

Look, I'm not a happy crier. I might cry at songs about leaving and missing someone; I might cry at books where things don't work out; I might cry at movies where someone dies. I've just never really understood why people get all choked up over happy, inspirational things. But Michelle Obama's kindness and empathy changed that. This book had me in tears for all the right reasons.

This is not really a book about politics, though political experiences obviously do come into it. It's a shame that some will dismiss this book because of a difference in political opinion, when it is really about a woman's life. About growing up poor and black on the South Side of Chicago; about getting married and struggling to maintain that marriage; about motherhood; about being thrown into an amazing and terrifying position.

I hate words like "inspirational" because they've become so overdone and cheesy, but I just have to say it-- Michelle Obama is an inspiration. I had the privilege of seeing her speak at The Forum in Inglewood, and she is one of the warmest, funniest, smartest, down-to-earth people I have ever seen in this world.

And yes, I know we present what we want the world to see, but I truly do think it's genuine. I think she is someone who really cares about people - especially kids - and wants to give them better lives and opportunities.

She's obviously intelligent, but she also doesn't gussy up her words. She talks straight, with an openness and honesty rarely seen. She's been one of the most powerful women in the world, she's been a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, she's had her own successful career, and yet she has remained throughout that same girl - Michelle Robinson - from a working class family in Chicago.

I don't think there's anyone who wouldn't benefit from reading this book.

Hopefully, this post has given you a better idea of how to write a book review. You might be wondering how to put all of this knowledge into action now! Many book reviewers start out by setting up a book blog. If you don’t have time to research the intricacies of HTML, check out Reedsy Discovery — where you can read indie books for free and review them without going through the hassle of creating a blog. To register as a book reviewer , go here .

And if you’d like to see even more book review examples, simply go to this directory of book review blogs and click on any one of them to see a wealth of good book reviews. Beyond that, it's up to you to pick up a book and pen — and start reviewing!

Continue reading

More posts from across the blog.

100 Best (and Scariest) Horror Books of All Time

The definition of scary changes from person to person. For some, it might be ghosts and haunted houses. For others, serial killers. For still others, the most frightening things are the ones that go bump in the night, unseen. Despite the w...

25 Best Psychology Books to Read in 2024

In this post, we’ve put together a list of the 25 best psychology books you’ll want to read to understand the workings of the human mind. Whether you’re a beginner with a newfound interest in psychology or a seasoned psychology expert looking to branch out, we’ve got you cover...

How to get ARCs and Read Books for Free!

Looking for a way to fund your passion for reading? Or maybe you’ve got a Bookstagram or book review blog that you want to take to the next level? Let us introduce you to the wonderful world of ARCs. Advanced Reader Copies, or ARCs for short, are copies of unpublished books...

Heard about Reedsy Discovery?

Trust real people, not robots, to give you book recommendations.

Or sign up with an

Or sign up with your social account

• Submit your book
• Reviewer directory

Want to be a book reviewer?

Review new books and start building your portfolio.

The 13 Best Book Review Sites and Book Rating Sites

Knowing where to buy books can be challenging. So, here are the best book review sites to help you avoid buying books that you'll regret reading.

Nobody likes to spend money on a new book only to face that overwhelming feeling of disappointment when it doesn't live up to your expectations. The solution is to check out a few book review sites before you hit the shops. The greater the diversity of opinions you can gather, the more confidence you can have that you'll enjoy the title.

Which book review and book rating sites are worth considering? Here are the best ones.

1. Goodreads

Goodreads is arguably the leading online community for book lovers. If you want some inspiration for which novel or biography to read next, this is the book review site to visit.

There's an endless number of user-generated reading lists to explore, and Goodreads itself publishes dozens of "best of" lists across a number of categories. You can do a book search by plot or subject , or join book discussions and reading groups with thousands of members.

You can participate in the community by adding your own rankings to books you've read and leaving reviews for other people to check out. Occasionally, there are even bonus events like question and answer sessions with authors.

2. LibraryThing

LibraryThing is the self-proclaimed largest book club in the world. It has more than 2.3 million members and is one of the best social networking platforms for book lovers .

With a free account, you can add up to 200 books to your library and share them with other users. But it's in the other areas where LibraryThing can claim to be one of the best book review sites.

Naturally, there are ratings, user reviews, and tags. But be sure to click on the Zeitgeist tab at the top of the page. It contains masses of information, including the top books by rating, by the number of reviews, by authors, and loads more.

3. Book Riot

Book Riot is a blog. It publishes listicles on dozens of different topics, many of which review the best books in a certain genre. To give you an idea, some recent articles include Keeping Hoping Alive: 11 Thrilling YA Survival Stories and The Best Historical Fiction Books You’ve Never Heard Of .

Of course, there's also plenty of non-reading list content. If you have a general affinity for literature, Book Riot is definitely worth adding to the list of websites you browse every day.

Bookish is a site that all members of book clubs should know about. It helps you prep for your next meeting with discussion guides, book quizzes, and book games. There are even food and drink suggestions, as well as playlist recommendations.

But the site is more than just book club meetings. It also offers lots of editorial content. That comes in the form of author interviews, opinion essays, book reviews and recommendations, reading challenges, and giveaways.

Be sure to look at the Must-Reads section of the site regularly to get the latest book reviews. Also, it goes without saying that the people behind Bookish are book lovers, too. To get a glimpse of what they’re reading, check out their Staff Reads articles.

5. Booklist

Booklist is a print magazine that also offers an online portal. Trusted experts from the American Library Association write all the book reviews.

You can see snippets of reviews for different books. However, to read them in full, you will need to subscribe. An annual plan for this book review site costs $184.95 per year.

6. Fantasy Book Review

Fantasy Book Review should be high on the list for anyone who is a fan of fantasy works. The book review site publishes reviews for both children's books and adults' books.

It has a section on the top fantasy books of all time and a continually updated list of must-read books for each year. You can also search through the recommended books by sub-genres such as Sword and Sorcery, Parallel Worlds, and Epic Fantasy.

7. LoveReading

LoveReading is one of the most popular book review sites in the UK, but American audiences will find it to be equally useful.

The site is divided into fiction and non-fiction works. In each area, it publishes weekly staff picks, books of the month, debuts of the month, ebooks of the month, audiobooks of the month, and the nationwide bestsellers. Each book on every list has a full review that you can read for free.

Make sure you also check out their Highlights tab to get book reviews for selected titles of the month. In Collections , you'll also find themed reading lists such as World War One Literature and Green Reads .

Kirkus has been involved in producing book reviews since the 1930s. This book review site looks at the week's bestselling books, and provides lengthy critiques for each one.

As you'd expect, you'll also find dozens of "best of" lists and individual book reviews across many categories and genres.

And while you're on the site, make sure you click on the Kirkus Prize section. You can look at all the past winners and finalists, complete with the accompanying reviews of their books.

Although Reddit is a social media site, you can use it to get book reviews of famous books, or almost any other book for that matter! Reddit has a Subreddit, r/books, that is dedicated to book reviews and reading lists.

The subreddit has weekly scheduled threads about a particular topic or genre. Anyone can then chip in with their opinions about which books are recommendable. Several new threads are published every day, with people discussing their latest discovery with an accompanying book rating or review.

You'll also discover a weekly recommendation thread. Recent threads have included subjects such as Favorite Books About Climate Science , Literature of Indigenous Peoples , and Books Set in the Desert . There’s also a weekly What are you Reading? discussion and frequent AMAs.

For more social media-like platforms, check out these must-have apps for book lovers .

10. YouTube

YouTube is not the type of place that immediately springs to mind when you think of the best book review sites online.

Nonetheless, there are several engaging YouTube channels that frequently offer opinions on books they've read. You’ll easily find book reviews of famous books here.

Some of the most notable book review YouTube channels include Better Than Food: Book Reviews , Little Book Owl , PolandBananasBooks , and Rincey Reads .

Amazon is probably one of your go-to site when you want to buy something. If you don’t mind used copies, it’s also one of the best websites to buy second-hand books .

Now, to get book reviews, just search and click on a title, then scroll down to see the ratings and what others who have bought the book are saying. It’s a quick way to have an overview of the book’s rating. If you spot the words Look Inside above the book cover, it means you get to preview the first few pages of the book, too!

Regardless of the praises or criticisms you have heard from other book review sites, reading a sample is the most direct way to help you gauge the content’s potential and see whether the author’s writing style suits your tastes.

12. StoryGraph

StoryGraph is another good book review site that's worth checking out. The book rating is determined by the site's large community of readers. Key in the title of a book you're interested in and click on it in StoryGraph's search results to have an overall view of its rating.

Each book review provides information on the moods and pacing of the story. It also indicates whether the tale is plot or character-driven, what readers feel about the extent of character development, how lovable the characters generally are, and the diversity of the cast.

13. London Review of Books

The London Review of Books is a magazine that covers a range of subjects such as culture, literature, and philosophy. Part of its content includes amazingly detailed book reviews. If you feel that most modern book reviews are too brief for your liking, the London Review of Books should suit you best.

You'll gain insight into the flow and themes of the story, as well as a more thorough picture of the events taking place in the book.

Read Book Reviews Before You Buy

The book review sites we've discussed will appeal to different types of readers. Some people will be more comfortable with the easy-to-interpret book rating systems; others will prefer extensive reviews written by experienced professionals.

Although it’s easy to be tempted by a gorgeous book cover, it’s always best to have a quick look at the book reviews before actually buying a copy. This way, you can save your money and spend it on the books that you’ll be proud to display on your shelves for a long time. And check out recommendations, as well, to help you find what's worth reading.

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Book Reviews

12 books that npr critics and staff were excited to share with you in 2023.

I've worked on Books We Love — NPR's annual, year-end books guide — for a decade, and one of my favorite parts of the process each year is getting a sneak peek at what my co-workers read in their free time. Who's into poetry? Who reads tons of YA? Who's all nonfiction all the time? It's fun to spot trends and see which books get nominated over and over again. Here are a dozen titles pared down from a list that our staffers and critics were particularly eager to tell you about in 2023. To see the full list, head over to Books We Love .

Biography of X by Catherine Lacey How well can anyone really know their spouse? When an enigmatic artist — who goes by the name X — dies suddenly, her wife, CM, quickly learns how little she actually knew about the woman she had spent years with. Biography of X is CM's metafictional attempt to write, well, a biography of X, an artist with multiple personas who'd become famous for her transgressive, controversial work. Set against the backdrop of an alternate-universe United States that's recovering from a post-World War II schism between the North and South, the book documents CM's journey to untangle the true history of her wife's life by interviewing people who each knew a completely different version of her. And what she uncovers, revealed in the book's final act, left me breathless. — Natalie Escobar, editor, Newshub

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese The doctor and novelist (how can you really be that multitalented?!) Abraham Verghese returns to the literary scene with an epic family drama that has been years in the making. The result — one of the best books I've read about South Asia in years. On its surface, this story set in South India chronicles three generations of a family that suffers from a medical mystery of drownings. But the storyline is much deeper — a complex plot with lessons about love, pain and human understanding. Don't be discouraged by the 700+ pages: The book is a page-turner that miraculously gives you a way to find hope in the face of repeated tragedy (though I still found myself crying). — Asma Khalid, White House correspondent, co-host of The NPR Politics Podcast

Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo Flor can tell when someone's going to die. It's her gift, her little bit of magic. Her three sisters have their own gifts, as do her two nieces — a magical ability to tell when someone's lying. But when Flor announces she's having a living wake, the family wonders whether she has foretold her own demise. This multigenerational story of secrets, survival and self-discovery artfully weaves together touches of magic with the reality of what it is to be a woman — daughter, sister, mother, tía . Whether you come for the chisme , the magic or the desire to read something real, you'll leave having devoured a lyrical family saga that touches so many real, tender parts of what it means to be human. — Christina Cala, senior producer, Code Switch

The Guest by Emma Cline A romp of epic proportions — Alex, our adrift protagonist, swims and eats her way through the private pools and stainless steel kitchens of the Hamptons' elite. Broke and without a home to return to, she extends her summer stay by weaseling her way into the lives of various seasonal residents. After puzzling through all the actually difficult parts of infiltrating the world, her demise is her own once she's in. Alex's self-destructive impulses land her in increasingly anxiety-inducing, thriller-like scenarios and interactions that become harder to unravel as she leaves a trail of mess with every exit. She simply must scratch the itch — steal the watch, kiss the boy, jump in the pool. — Clare Marie Schneider, producer, Life Kit

Happy Place by Emily Henry Harriet and Wyn were the perfect couple with the perfect friend group — until they weren't. Now, on their annual friend vacation, they must keep the truth from the people closest to them. Together, they will pretend to be the happily engaged couple everyone believes them to be. Happy Place by Emily Henry highlights the highs and lows of love, friendship and communication while on the ceaseless journey to find yourself. Told out of chronological order, this book pulled at my heartstrings and, as Emily Henry always manages to do, helped me learn more about myself along the way. Sometimes our happy place isn't a location, it is a group of people. — Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez, audio engineer

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride James McBride is so talented — as a jazz musician, memoirist and novelist — it's almost annoying! But this book is so good and so special you have to forgive him. It's set among fictionalized Black and Jewish residents in Pottstown, Pa., in the 1920s and '30s, where a Jewish couple runs a theater and grocery store and a Black couple who works for them asks their help to care for a young deaf boy whom the authorities want to institutionalize. McBride somehow intertwines their stories in a way that is intricate and heartwarming without ever being cloying, and that still manages to be hilarious too. At a time when there is so much tension and hatred in the world, this story is a reminder of how love, respect and courage really can overcome evil. — Michel Martin, host, Morning Edition

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai The stories we tell ourselves about our childhoods are often only partially true — tales we invent to make our youthful experiences make sense. But what happens when you revisit a foundational story and begin to unpack it? What happens when you realize that the people you once trusted were inventing tales of their own? This book follows a woman who travels back to teach a class at the boarding school she once attended — and to revisit the circumstances under which her former roommate died while they were at school. It's an eerie look at how race and gender and youth shape our perceptions of guilt and innocence, and a story that reminds us that it takes more than one bad guy to get away with murder. — Leah Donnella, senior editor, Code Switch

The Postcard by Anne Berest, translated by Tina Kover An unsigned postcard with the names of relatives killed in the Holocaust arrives at her mother's home; finding out who sent it and why leads the author to learn about her family history and her own identity. Anne Berest describes this as a "true novel" because all of the events in it are true — a result of her meticulous investigation into her family history — but she wrote it like fiction, changing the names of people who harmed her family so their descendants don't suffer today and imagining characters' thoughts. Berest's story is specific, but there are themes in this book anyone can identify with — that history and bias are ever-present when we dig just a little, that how people see us may be so different from how we see ourselves, and that even relatives we never met influence the way we are. — Isabel Lara, chief communications officer

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due It's hard to dream up something more terrifying than real history, and Tananarive Due doesn't try. Instead, she uses elements of the spiritual and supernatural to enhance a setting already dripping with horror — a reform school (based on a real place) where young boys are sent to repent for their youthful misdeeds. The book takes place in 1950s Florida, and the protagonist is Robbie, a young Black boy navigating racism and ghosts alike. But though the world he inhabits is often cruel and terrifying, Robbie's story is also propelled by community, persistence, creativity and love. — Leah Donnella, senior editor, Code Switch

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff In 17th century Colonial Virginia, a young servant girl escapes a famine-torn settlement to flee into the sprawling, punishing wilderness beyond. In her fifth novel, Lauren Groff, an author whose prose imbues even the most mundane with magic, crafts a tale that transcends genre. Part historical, part horror, part breathless thriller, part wilderness survival tale, The Vaster Wilds is a story about the lengths to which we will go to stay alive. — Emma Choi, social media coordinator and producer, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann The Wager is an exhaustively researched and thrilling account of a long-forgotten, 18th century calamity at sea. Unlike Herman Melville's or Patrick O'Brian's nautical adventures, which I also love, this historical narrative isn't just based on a true story — it really is one, despite extremes of psychology and nature that make the recounted events almost unbelievable. That's part of why reading it felt like getting swept away by a hurricane-force gale, as journalist David Grann laid out the stunning facts and surprises in his deceptively simple and spare writing. — Nell Greenfieldboyce, correspondent, Science Desk

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang "Nail-biting thriller about the world of book publishing" is not a phrase I ever expected to use. But that's what this book is, with the added dimension of a toxic friendship, an identity thief and, of course, some racebending. The story is glossy and fun but tackles some very serious ideas — like who owns history, what it means to grieve and where the line is between appreciation, appropriation and outright thievery. This one is hard to put down — as baffling and often pernicious as the narrator's decisions sometimes are, I found myself unable to stop hoping, desperately, that she would eventually find the light. — Leah Donnella, senior editor, Code Switch

This is just a fraction of the 380+ titles we included in Books We Love this year. Click here to check out this year's titles, or browse over 3,600 books from the last 11 years.

10 Books to Read: The Best Reviews of April

Ascent to power: how truman emerged from roosevelt’s shadow and remade the world.

By David L. Roll | Dutton

With little preparation after FDR’s death, Truman found himself leading the nation with World War II still to be won. Review by Robert W. Merry

Read the review

A Body Made of Glass: A Cultural History of Hypochondria

By Caroline Crampton | Ecco

When it comes to health and sickness, what is real and what is imaginary? More importantly, who decides? Review by Brandy Schillace

A Chance to Harmonize: How FDR’s Hidden Music Unit Sought to Save America From the Great Depression—One Song at a Time

By Sheryl Kaskowitz | Pegasus

As part of the New Deal, FDR sent archivists into the field to record traditional folk music. Review by Eddie Dean

Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life

By Jason Roberts | Random House

The Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus devised the system that we still use to categorize life on Earth. He had detractors. Review by Dominic Green

Henrietta Szold: Hadassah and the Zionist Dream

By Francine Klagsbrun | Yale

Henrietta Szold was born in Baltimore, right before the U.S. Civil War. She made her name doing charitable works in another divided land. Review by Diane Cole

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder

By Salman Rushdie | Random House

The novelist delivers a stoic reflection on the gruesome attack he suffered in August 2022. Review by Tunku Varadarajan

Native Nations: A Millennium in North America

By Kathleen DuVal | Random House

Long before the arrival of Europeans in North America, indigenous communities built complex urban areas linked by diplomatic and trading networks. Review by Gerard Helferich

Never Say You’ve Had a Lucky Life: Especially If You’ve Had a Lucky Life

By Joseph Epstein | Free Press

The critic charts his transformation from a kid with no interest in books or reading to a man who makes his living by the written word. Review by Matthew Continetti

The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City

By Kevin Baker | Knopf

New York was where the curveball, the bunt and the stolen base were perfected. And where a Yankees slugger popularized the home run. Review by Ben Yagoda

Silk: A World History

By Aarathi Prasad |  William Morrow

For thousands of years, moth larvae have been farmed for silk. Industries and economies still rely on the precious fibers. Review by Laura Jacobs

Get great reading recommendations delivered to your inbox. Sign up for the weekly Books newsletter.

• ADMIN AREA MY BOOKSHELF MY DASHBOARD MY PROFILE SIGN OUT SIGN IN

Discover Books

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all. - Oscar Wilde

• Select Genre BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR BUSINESS CHILDREN'S CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES FICTION GRAPHIC NOVELS & COMICS HISTORY MYSTERY & DETECTIVE NONFICTION ROMANCE SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY TEENS & YOUNG ADULT THRILLER & SUSPENSE

• Genre BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR BUSINESS CHILDREN'S CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES FICTION GRAPHIC NOVELS & COMICS HISTORY MYSTERY & DETECTIVE NONFICTION ROMANCE SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY TEENS & YOUNG ADULT THRILLER & SUSPENSE

Filter results by

FILTERED RESULTS

• Popularity Release Date (Coming Soon) Release Date (Available Now)

• Discover Books Fiction Thriller & Suspense Mystery & Detective Romance Science Fiction & Fantasy Nonfiction Biography & Memoir Teens & Young Adult Children's
• News & Features Bestsellers Book Lists Profiles Perspectives Awards Seen & Heard Book to Screen Kirkus TV videos In the News
• Kirkus Prize Winners & Finalists About the Kirkus Prize Kirkus Prize Judges
• Magazine Current Issue All Issues Manage My Subscription Subscribe
• Writers’ Center Hire a Professional Book Editor Get Your Book Reviewed Advertise Your Book Launch a Pro Connect Author Page Learn About The Book Industry
• More Kirkus Diversity Collections Kirkus Pro Connect My Account/Login
• About Kirkus History Our Team Contest FAQ Press Center Info For Publishers
• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Reprints, Permission & Excerpting Policy

© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Popular in this Genre

Hey there, book lover.

We’re glad you found a book that interests you!

Please select an existing bookshelf

Create a new bookshelf.

We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!

Please sign up to continue.

It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!

Already have an account? Log in.

Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.

Almost there!

• Industry Professional

Welcome Back!

Sign in using your Kirkus account

Contact us: 1-800-316-9361 or email [email protected].

Don’t fret. We’ll find you.

Magazine Subscribers ( How to Find Your Reader Number )

If You’ve Purchased Author Services

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up.

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

The 24 Best Book Club Books for Your Next Group Read

We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site.

There are competing theories about how to pick the best book club book. When I nobly started a book club in my early 20s, I had grand ambitions of filling in the holes in my undergrad education. I think we started with Confessions of Zeno . Years later, I joined what had been dubbed the “high-low club,” a group that used the gathering as an excuse to read some of the mass-market fiction that was dominating the bestseller lists. I think the first book that group read was Fifty Shades of Grey. A decade later, that’s the group I still meet with every month, and it’s solidified allegiances with some people I now consider my closest friends.

There is really no answer to what makes the best book club book, so I asked a few trusted reader friends, including Kate Slotover, who is so obsessed with the matter that she started The Book Club Review Podcast , as well as my favorite local independent book-sellers, Briana Parker and Davi Marra of Brooklyn’s Lofty Pigeon Books . As Kate puts it, it all comes down to the reaction the book provokes: “What you want is a great read, but also, ideally, a book that generates lots of different opinions—then the fun is in the debate, and seeing if you can all meet in the middle.” Below, find some of our choices.

Acts of Service by Lillian Fishman

The protagonist of Acts of Service by Lillian Fishman is feeling impulsive and maybe a little stuck when she decides to post nudes online, leading to a relationship with another couple. But it's her obsessive questioning and chronicling of the dynamics of gender, sex, sexuality, and personality among the three of them (and her girlfriend) that will have you overthinking along with her, and looking for someone to talk it all over with, perhaps mining and divulging your own personal experiences and revelations along the way. Plus, it's pretty sexy. —Briana Parker, co-owner, Lofty Pigeon Books

The Bees by Laline Paull

The Bees: A Novel

Bookshop.org

The Bees , Laline Paull’s compulsively readable novel set in a beehive, is a bit of a wildcard. I know it will divide people. It tells the story of Flora, a lowly sanitation worker bee, who uncovers a dark secret at the heart of her hive. The social hierarchy is unbending, but Flora knows she is destined for something greater, even though this puts her at odds with her superiors. There is no speech, everyone communicates by pheromones, and Tarantino-esque levels of danger and violence are never far away. Wildly inventive, written with great dramatic flair and ultimately a strong ecological message that will stay with you, your book club will either love it or loathe it, and you’ll have fun finding out which. —Kate Slotover, host of The Book Club Review podcast

The Book of Night Women by Marlon James

The Book of Night Women by Marlon James is so uniquely devastating, it's ideal to have a support system in the form of a book club to read with. Exploring the particularly cruel form of slavery that existed on Jamaican sugar plantations, James brings up thorny issues of consent, desire, love, class, and power without resorting to clichés, presenting a story of such depth and humanity that you'll want to spend hours picking apart the nuances even as you recover emotionally from this wrenching read. —B.P.

Evicted by Matthew Desmond

After hearing the low-grade but long-running buzz about how amazing this book was, I “made” my book club read it. It falls into the category of something I would never pick up on my own, and needed a bit of peer pressure to complete. But I was so glad I did. For those of us who have never confronted the trauma of eviction, it can seem like one of those problems on the periphery. But by deeply embedding himself with his subjects, Desmond shows how thoroughly housing insecurity is entwined with all other corollary effects of poverty. If you don’t have a reliable place to call home (to send mail, to register for school, etc., etc.), it is almost impossible to obtain the modicum of stability that is necessary to begin to escape poverty. This is an incredibly sobering text that reads like a novel. It shook our book club, and years later I still think about it. — Chloe Schama

Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Fleishman Is in Trouble

My book club read this book for one of (maybe the) last gatherings before the pandemic, and when I polled my books club members about their favorites, this one was nominated. (Full disclosure: We are a group of New York City women who undoubtedly share some zip codes with Brodesser-Akner’s characters.) This is one of those books that puts its finger very precisely and somewhat uncomfortably on the material concerns of a certain milieu. Did it cut close to home? It certainly made for a good discussion. —C.S.

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History

Another can’t-fail book club choice is Free , Lea Ypi’s memoir of her childhood in Albania, a country ruled by the hardline Communist party and largely closed to the countries beyond its borders. Everything changed once Albania opened up to the West in the late 1980s, and Ypi was finally able to understand the truth behind lies she had been brought up with all her life. Today Ypi is a Professor of Political Theory at the London School of Economics, and reading her story you understand why, for her, politics and economics could never be abstract—she shows the dramatic way in which they affected a whole nation of people, and some of the good that was lost along with the bad. It’s a fantastic book, vivid, relatable and surprisingly enjoyable, despite the fact that there is some heartbreaking material contained within. It will lead to rich discussions afterwards, I guarantee it. (Also-ran: Border by Kapka Kassabova.) —K.S.

Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman

Help Wanted

Many a 20-something Brooklyn dweller saw themselves reflected in Adelle Waldman’s debut novel, The Love Affairs of Nathanial P . That is likely not true of her second novel, which is set in a big box store, but has none of the voyeuristic distance that the premise might imply. This is a caper told with such sensitivity and nuance that it might just alter the way you think of the workplace novel. Set against the ruins (or triumphs?) of late-stage capitalism, Help Wanted gave my book club a huge amount to chew over in terms of—and this isn’t much of an overstatement!—what America is. All that, and it’s a great read that every member of my group finished. (While we have the best of intents, but I can’t recall the last time that happened.) —C.S.

How I Won a Nobel Prize by Julius Taranto

How I Won a Nobel Prize

Sometimes you read something new and immediately think how brilliant it would be for book club. How I Won a Nobel Prize by Julius Taranto has all the hallmarks of a book that will set sparks flying, an of-the-moment campus novel that deftly explores moral relativism. The protagonist is Helen, a brilliant physicist working on superconductors, who is forced to move to a new academic institution brought into existence by a reclusive billionaire (his face smoothed away by wealth) that exists to provide a haven for academics and cultural figures who have been “canceled” elsewhere. Unwillingly along for the ride is Helen’s partner, Hew, who disapproves of the whole enterprise. Enjoy the fascinating and surprisingly accessible dive into theoretical physics, appreciate the accumulating tension of the psychological drama, and laugh out loud at the one-liners. (Also-ran: When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut, trans. Adrian Nathan West.) —K.S.

How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard

How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read

The more serious you and your book club become about reading, the more hopeless you may end up feeling about all the books you will never, even with the best of intentions, have time for. How to Talk About Books you Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard will make you feel much better about this and, indeed, let you beautifully off the hook if you haven’t managed to finish your book club read in time. That’s ok, you can skim, flip through, read the end, or even just hold the book, unopened in your hands, all are fine with Bayard and he makes a compelling case for why you might be better able to discuss the book if you haven’t actually read it. Although Bayard’s credentials as a reader and academic are serious, his book is delightfully mischievous and funny. Give it a try and see if you agree with him or not. You might want to adopt his notation system for future reference: UB: book unknown to me; SB: book I have skimmed; HB: book I have heard about; and FB: book I have forgotten. —K.S.

Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott

Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott should be required reading for every New Yorker, as it details, with extraordinary compassion and acuity, a side of the city not often written about or shown. In a monumental feat of immersive journalism, Andrea Elliott spends years  with a Black unhoused family, and the reader comes to know them like their own family. It's a book with the power to change the way you see the world, and what better way to experience that than with others in conversation. —Davi Marra, co-owner, Lofty Pigeon Books

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab vibrates with beautiful melancholy. In eighteenth-century France, Addie makes a Faustian bargain to live forever, but she is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. The book goes back and forth in time between the first desperate days of her curse and present-day New York where she's figured out how to push up against its limits and carve out a life—until one day, everything changes. Like the show Russian Doll, the book similarly sparks an intense interest to pick apart the nuances of the plot and the decisions of the main character and to consider what you'd do in her unique circumstances. —B.P.

Little Library cookbooks by Kate Young

A tangential thought: If you like to gather friends and serve food at your book club Kate Young’s fabulous series of Little Library cookbooks may be the literary inspiration you need. From a Sebastian-Flyte inspired picnic to a loving recreation of Babette’s Feast (minus the turtle), Young offers a go-to list of crowd pleasers drawing on her expertise as a cook and as a lifelong reader. Pick a recipe: try the Väserbottenostpaj (Swedish cheese tart) inspired by The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, read the text, share the meal, and discuss; the perfect recipe for book club. —K.S.

Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt

Loved and Missed

It’s no secret that I adore this book , but I promise I wasn’t just seeking new opportunities to plug it when I put it on this list. This nomination comes via my very own book club. When I asked the group chat what book from our readings stayed with them, this was the first response that came back. This delightful little novel (that is immense in its emotional scope) is the kind of quiet-seeming book that might pass you by. But our conversation ranged widely when we discussed it, and while everyone had quite a strong response, the reactions varied and brought up all kinds of questions about parenting, emotional inheritance, and familial responsibility. I have said it before, but this is a really stunning read. —C.S.

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov is one of those books where its history is just as interesting to discuss as its contents. A too-often-overlooked classic of Russian literature, it presented such a devastating send-up of the Soviet regime that it couldn’t be published until after the author’s death. It's also uproariously funny, original, and weird, so you feel both like you're reading capital L Literature but also having a grand old time. The devil and his entourage visit Moscow, and Soviet Russia and generations of readers were never the same again. —B.P.

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Middlemarch

In the depths of COVID winter my best friend, her sister, her dad and I started a book club and kicked it off with Middlemarch . It changed my life! I read the book and listened to the audio book and fell in love with Dorothea and felt I’d moved to the Midlands for a couple of months. I bought the book in January 2021 and the manager at Shakespeare and Co. told me, masked, “I wish it was the middle of March, then we’d have a vaccine available.” Thanks to George Eliot, the next two months flew by and soon enough it was mid-March. —Chloe Malle

A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr

Book club can be just the nudge you need to read a classic from the past. A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr is a slim little novel that was recommended to me by a friend who cited it as his all-time favorite read. It tells the story of Tom Birkin, a traumatized World War I veteran who takes a job in a tiny village in the North of England restoring a medieval mural in the parish church. Over the course of the summer, he comes to know the locals and one other interloper, a young archaeologist excavating a field. Not much happens as slowly, slowly the mural is revealed, and yet Carr’s prose is weaving its spell. At the end you will find yourself reflecting on the nature of time and lived experience and with any luck come away with something that you will carry in your heart for the rest of your days. But at the very least there’s plenty to be charmed by and discuss. Richard Osman says he’s never met a person who didn’t love it! If you buy the Penguin modern classic edition you get the double whammy of the perfect introduction by Penelope Fitzgerald. (Also-ran: The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald.) —K.S.

Random Family by Adrien Nicole LeBlanc

Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx

This was another book where the lore preceded my book club’s reading—and probably would have influenced it were the book anything less than a truly astounding tour de force. I first read it about 10 years after it came out, but two decades later, I am sure it still holds up as one of the most amazing feats of embedded journalism. (Davi’s excellent pick, above, Andrea Elliot’s amazing Invisible Child , is a definite heir to the approach.) Another work of non-fiction that is every bit as compelling as a novel, it was a harsh but rewarding read that left us with tons to talk about. —C.S.

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe is one of the many deeply human stories to be told about the Irish Troubles. It reads like a thriller and culminates in the probable resolution of a decades-long mystery about the identity of the people who kidnapped and murdered a mother of 10 accused of passing sensitive information on to the British. It’s an extraordinary piece of journalism that raises as many questions as it answers, and therefore it’s the perfect pick for a nonfiction book club. —Davi Marra, co-owner, Lofty Pigeon Books

Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama

Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama is an extraordinary thriller steeped in a genuine sense of mystery and suspense. Readers are rewarded with a fascinating deep dive into Japanese journalism and policing, all while an urgent procedural unfolds to locate a killer who may be related to a cold case that haunts the novel’s protagonists. Whether you picked up on or missed the clues which point to the unforgettable climax, you absolutely must talk to somebody else who read the book as soon as you finish. —D.M.

Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us by Rachel Aviv

Sometimes a book club is all about the text, and sometimes it’s all about what people are bringing to it. This book, which has plenty to discuss between its covers, fell into the latter category when my group discussed it. The book is, loosely, an examination of the mental health industry, and in the opening essay, Aviv, a New Yorker journalist, discloses her own experience being deemed the youngest anorexia patient in America at the age of six—a diagnosis that was partly about a certain kind of medicine, but also about labels and stories, as is so much of the class of care that falls under mental health. Read this one to question the way we interact, categorize, and deal with people whose neurology isn’t quite “normal,” and also to (maybe) learn things about your fellow book club members that you never knew. —C.S.

Super Infinite by Katherine Rundell

Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne

Non-fiction can be great for book club, with the caveat that ideally you want a page-turner. (Our book club is still reeling from the time we attempted Adam Feinstein’s exhaustive biography of Pablo Neruda .) With this in mind I recommend Super Infinite , Katherine Rundell’s prize-winning biography of the poet John Donne. The lines of poetry themselves might not immediately light you up, but Rundell’s analysis will, and to read this book is to walk with her through time. (If you’ve ever read Helene Hanff’s 84 Charing Cross Road —a book club classic, by the way—and wondered why she was so obsessed with Donne’s sermons, this will put that mystery to rest.) Super Infinite is a fantastic read and made for brilliant book club discussion. If you try it I’d encourage you to go a step further and get everyone to bring a poem they love to share. Trust me, good things will come of this. (Also-rans: The Poetry Pharmacy by William Sieghart, Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa, and Pearl by Sian Hughes.) —K.S.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

I ran my post-college book club like a little tyrant, and if it had lasted longer than two books I certainly would’ve made everyone read Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Coming in at 400-plus pages, it appears intimidating, but Zevin’s vivid writing and gripping storytelling had me totally spellbound. Tomorrow seems like it was engineered to be a book club read—squabbling over the polarizing main characters, Sam and Sadie, is the perfect low-stakes book-club fodder. —Hannah Jackson

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

The Vegetarian

One of the first books we ever read for the show was a fantastic book club read: The Vegetarian by Han Kang (trans. Deborah Smith). Winner of the 2016 International Booker Prize, this is a psychologically intense short novel structured in three parts. The protagonist, Yeong-Hye, is a young woman who decides she will stop eating meat, without reckoning on the lengths her family will go to in order to get her to conform to South Korean social norms. Beautifully written, surprisingly erotic and ultimately quite strange (but in a good way), this is a novel guaranteed to provoke questions. (A side-benefit of reading any Booker shortlisted novel is that you can avail yourself of the excellent reading guides and extra material on the Booker website, a boon to those who like to have plenty of background.) (Also-rans: The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa and Love by Hanne Orstavik.) —K.S.

A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter

A Woman In the Polar Night

One of our favorite discoveries on the pod was A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter (trans. Jane Degras). In 1934 Ritter joined her fur-trapper husband to spend the winter living in an isolated hut on Spitzbergen, a remote island north of Norway. She had hoped it would be an opportunity to “read thick books in the remote quiet and, not least, sleep to my heart’s content” —and who doesn’t want to do that, but of course life rarely works out as we expect it to. Funny, dry and relatable, it’s impossible not to be charmed by Ritter, or to share her dismay in discovering that there will be another, previously unknown to her, man sharing their cramped living quarters. Read it for the sense of adventure, the beauty of the Arctic, and the profound appreciation of regeneration and rebirth once the sun returns. Discuss Ritter’s extraordinary talent, and collectively lament the fact that she never wrote another book. —K.S.

By Lorena Meouchi

By Leah Faye Cooper

By Hannah Coates

Get updates on the Met Gala

By signing up you agree to our User Agreement (including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions ), our Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement and to receive marketing and account-related emails from Vogue. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

• Skip to main content
• Skip to secondary menu
• Skip to primary sidebar

Good e-Reader

7 Best Psychology Books Everyone Should Read

2 May 2024 By Navkiran Dhaliwal Leave a Comment

Psychology is a field that uncovers the mysteries of human nature and the strange workings of our minds. Reading psychology books can help you gain solutions to everyday problems. We have listed 7 helpful psychology books that everyone should read. Let’s see what they are.

Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman

Daniel Kahneman wrote this book based on research done during his career. According to it, humans think in two ways: System 1 and System 2. This book can help you determine your thinking and how it applies to your life. In System 1, our thoughts are impulsive and intuitive without any conscious effort. In System 2, our thoughts are calculative and require a deliberate effort.

Emotional Intelligence – Daniel Goleman

This book is super helpful in understanding emotions. Daniel Goldman talks about IQ (how smart you are) and EQ (how well you handle emotions). This book shows how they affect our lives. He uses amazing research to explain why some really smart people struggle and why some not-so-smart people do great. He also talks about how we can better handle emotions as we grow up.

The Invisible Gorilla – Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons

This is an entertaining book by Daniel Simons that shows us the focusing power of our brain. According to this book, we neglect everything else when focusing on one thing. This book shows that people could not notice a man dressed as a gorilla during an experiment. They were tasked with counting the number of times the players passed the ball. Surprisingly, the people only noticed the ball, as if the gorilla were invisible to them.

Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely

In “Predictably Irrational,” Ariely, a behavioural economist, challenges the notion of human rationality. He explores factors like expectations, emotions, and social norms. This helps reveal predictably irrational behaviours, such as overeating at buffets. The book offers insights into recognizing and overcoming these behaviours.

Influence: Science and Practice – Robert B. Cialdini

Cialdini’s book on persuasion is like the Bible, explaining how people influence each other. It’s easy to understand, with lots of simple examples. He also explains why these studies matter. Moreover, in this book, he teaches you how to protect yourself from bad persuasion tactics like scams and dishonest sales tricks.” It is a must-read if you are gullible.

The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language – Steven Pinker

In this book, Steven Pinker talks about how humans naturally learn language to talk with each other. He says our ability to speak is something we’re born with, not something we learn. Pinker uses stories and ideas to show how our brains work when we talk. This book can help you improve your communication skills and understand how our brains work.

The Happiness Hypothesis – Jonathan Haidt

Jonathan Haidt explores ancient wisdom with modern science, testing ideas about living meaningfully. He uses psychological studies to discuss biases, beliefs, morality, and consciousness. Moreover, this book challenges famous sayings like “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” helping you understand human behaviour.

In conclusion, reading psychological books can help you understand how your brain works and use it to your advantage. So, which one of these psychology books are you reading?

Navkiran Dhaliwal

Navkiran Dhaliwal is a seasoned content writer with 10+ years of experience. When she's not writing, she can be found cooking up a storm or spending time with her dog, Rain.

Advertisement

Supported by

Editors' Choice

12 New Books We Recommend This Week

• Share full article

This week’s recommended books include a couple of memoirs by writers better known for their fiction, Jami Attenberg and Bernardine Evaristo, as well as a tall helping of straight-up novels by the likes of Jenni Fagan, John Darnielle, Renée Branum and more. In nonfiction, besides those memoirs we also recommend a therapist’s look at how Zen Buddhism informs his practice, a timely exposé of high-stakes policy disagreements inside the Federal Reserve and a heartening account of the local Republican officials who resisted fierce pressure to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Gregory Cowles Senior Editor, Books Twitter: @GregoryCowles

DEVIL HOUSE , by John Darnielle. (MCD/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $28.) Darnielle is best known as the singer-songwriter behind the indie band the Mountain Goats, but since 2008, he’s also published fiction. “Quietly, as if stealing in on cat’s paws, he’s become, as a novelist, unignorable,” our critic Dwight Garner writes. His third novel, “Devil House,” is about a true-crime writer who moves into a house in California where a pair of notorious murders occurred in the late 1980s. “Devil House” is about the nature of crime writing, tabloid and otherwise. What follows is “confident, creepy, a powerful and soulful page-turner,” Garner says. “I had no idea where it was going, in the best possible sense.”

THE LORDS OF EASY MONEY: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy , by Christopher Leonard. (Simon & Schuster, $30.) A business reporter, Leonard has written a fascinating and propulsive story about, of all things, the Federal Reserve. The book filters an argument about the Fed through the experience and worldview of a retired central banker named Thomas Hoenig, an inflation hawk who was keen to limit the Fed’s reach from inside the institution. “Leonard, in the tradition of Michael Lewis, has taken an arcane subject, rife with the risk of incomprehensibility (or boredom), and built a riveting narrative in which the stakes couldn’t be any clearer,” our critic Jennifer Szalai writes.

LAST RESORT , by Andrew Lipstein. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $27.) This entertaining debut novel is about Caleb, an aspiring author in his 20s who lacks a compelling subject until he reunites with a college buddy named Avi, who recounts a set of remarkable recent events — Greek island, doomed affair, group sex with repressed married couple, death. Without telling Avi, Caleb expands this anecdote into a full-length novel that meets with great success. “If Lipstein had written a less cunning book, he might have contrasted Caleb with a character who represented artistic purity, whatever that is,” our critic Molly Young writes. “But everyone here sits somewhere on the grifter spectrum.”

THE ZEN OF THERAPY: Uncovering a Hidden Kindness in Life , by Mark Epstein. (Penguin Press, $27.) A warm, profound memoir of a year in the consulting room of Epstein, a psychiatrist and practicing Buddhist. He probes the fundamental wisdom that psychotherapy and Buddhism share, to show how it might help us on the road to fulfillment. “The unifying stance Epstein identifies in Buddhism and in therapy at its best,” Oliver Burkeman writes in his review, “is the willingness to pay attention, while letting people and feelings be as they are.”

SMALL WORLD , by Jonathan Evison. (Dutton, $28.) Evison’s expansive new novel explores the lives of several passengers on a fateful train bound for Seattle, as well as the lives of their 19th-century ancestors. He weaves together a tale of the West, examining injustices and inequities across generations and cultures while maintaining a steady belief in humanity’s capacity for benevolence. “The novel is easy to love in part because it deals in generosity and hope,” TaraShea Nesbit writes in her review. “‘Small World’ is ambitious, showing our interconnectedness across time, place and cultures. … The final pages, earnest and direct, chance the sentimental, which might be the riskiest move of all.”

THE FINAL CASE , by David Guterson. (Knopf, $27.) Guterson, perhaps best known for “Snow Falling on Cedars,” returns with a tender, closely observed and often surprising father-son novel centered on a criminal trial. The verdict in this case is not just about the people in the courtroom, but about family love and its silent, complicated passions. “Guterson is the kind of writer about whom people used to say, when there were such things, ‘I’d read him, even if he wrote the phone book,’” Scott Turow writes, reviewing the novel. “Every sentence has a graceful weight and meter and is illumined by a subtle intelligence that makes his descriptions arresting but never showy.”

MANIFESTO: On Never Giving Up , by Bernardine Evaristo. (Grove, $27.) The debut memoir by the Booker Prize-winning author of “Girl, Woman, Other” recalls her upbringing in an interracial, Catholic household in London, and her long, hard path to literary stardom — and the romantic trials and youthful abandon along the way. “A lighter work than her novels, and more straightforwardly told, ‘Manifesto’ is a behind-the-scenes companion text that goes down smoothly,” our reviewer, Quiara Alegría Hudes, writes. The book “offers an irresistibly paradoxical invitation to writers: Create a literature of those left behind, by letting your heart run free.”

THE STEAL: The Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election and the People Who Stopped It , by Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague. (Atlantic Monthly, $28.) The authors commemorate mostly unknown Republican officials in local politics who resisted their party’s pressures to overturn the 2020 election — and played a key role in preserving American democracy. In his review, Luke Broadwater calls it a “lean, fast-paced and important account of the chaotic final weeks of the Trump administration” that offers “a view of the election through the eyes of state- and county-level officials.”

I CAME ALL THIS WAY TO MEET YOU: Writing Myself Home , by Jami Attenberg. (Ecco, $27.99.) “I was born a writer,” Attenberg declares in her plain-spoken, honest and affecting memoir of growing into her destiny. But this is not just a book about craft — it’s also one about looking for a place to belong and building a life of one’s own. “She brings to the subject her gifts as a novelist: a fierce impulse toward honesty, a companionably cranky voice and an interest in the complicated, bobbing and weaving ways in which people navigate their desires,” Claire Dederer writes in her review. “Attenberg’s objectives, her pride and her desire fill every page of this book. I, for one, found it a relief.”

LUCKENBOOTH , by Jenni Fagan. (Pegasus, $26.) In this remarkable haunted house of a novel, Fagan tells the stories of nine residents of an Edinburgh tenement over nine decades. From a teenage Nazi assassin to a richly drawn William Burroughs, the characters are all outsiders, all broken in their own ways, reflecting the troubled history of both the building and the world around it. “Despite its darkness, the novel is carried by jagged delight and optimism, a bright hope coming through the walls and a fundamental belief in people,” Lauren Beukes writes in her review. “Filled with blistering social critique, ‘Luckenbooth’ is an ambitious and ravishing novel that will haunt me long after.”

DEFENESTRATE , by Renée Branum. (Bloomsbury, $26.) Twenty-something Czech American twins are beset by a generations-old curse in which their family members plunge from high places, in this hypnotic and philosophical debut novel that opens at a hospital bedside after one of the twins has taken a fall. “Branum is a taut storyteller who reveals and confides with great skill, in a narrative composed of addictive passages rather than conventional chapters,” Lauren LeBlanc writes, reviewing the book alongside three other novels of heartache and loss. “Through the lens of memory, Branum refracts the layers of truth, tragedy and faith that break a cycle of lives most at home in free fall.”

BRIGHT BURNING THINGS , by Lisa Harding. (HarperVia, $26.99.) The Irish writer’s propulsive American debut follows an alcoholic former actress as she is forced to enter rehab in order to keep custody of her 4-year-old son. “The stakes,” Lauren LeBlanc writes in her review of four novels about loss, “are stark and terrifying.” LeBlanc quotes a nun in the novel who calls prayer “a bridge between longing and belonging,” and says that “Harding straddles that gulf, making a well-worn narrative shine with a heroine whose dogged triumphs accumulate over the course of this fast-paced and intensely lucid novel.”

Follow New York Times Books on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram , s ign up for our newsletter or our literary calendar . And listen to us on the Book Review podcast .

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

The complicated, generous life  of Paul Auster, who died on April 30 , yielded a body of work of staggering scope and variety .

“Real Americans,” a new novel by Rachel Khong , follows three generations of Chinese Americans as they all fight for self-determination in their own way .

“The Chocolate War,” published 50 years ago, became one of the most challenged books in the United States. Its author, Robert Cormier, spent years fighting attempts to ban it .

Joan Didion’s distinctive prose and sharp eye were tuned to an outsider’s frequency, telling us about ourselves in essays that are almost reflexively skeptical. Here are her essential works .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .