{"id":44646,"date":"2025-09-26T13:12:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T13:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/44646\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T13:12:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T13:12:13","slug":"the-best-reviewed-books-of-the-month-book-marks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/44646\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2039 The Best Reviewed Books of the Month Book Marks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ian McEwan\u2019s What We Can Know, Arundhati Roy\u2019s Mother Mary Comes to Me, Kiran Desai\u2019s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, and Stephen Greenblatt\u2019s Dark Renaissance all feature among September\u2019s best reviewed books.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fiction<\/a><\/p>\n

\"What<\/p>\n

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1. What We Can Know<\/a> by Ian McEwan
(Knopf)<\/p>\n

10 Rave \u2022 \u00a06 Positive \u2022 \u00a03 Mixed<\/p>\n

\u201cBrash and busy \u2026 It\u2019s a piece of late-career showmanship\u2026from an old master. It gave me so much pleasure I sometimes felt like laughing \u2026 I\u2019m hesitant to call What We Can Know\u00a0a masterpiece. But at its best it\u2019s gorgeous and awful, the way the lurid sunsets must have seemed after Krakatau, while also being funny and alive. It\u2019s the best thing McEwan has written in ages. It\u2019s a sophisticated entertainment of a high order.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Dwight Garner (The New York Times<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

2. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny<\/a> by Kiran Desai
(Hogarth)<\/p>\n

9 Rave \u2022 1 Positive \u2022 2 Mixed<\/p>\n

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\u201cNot so much a novel as a marvel \u2026 Here is sweet validation of the idea that to create something truly transcendent\u2014a work of art depicting love, family, nature and culture in all their fullness\u2014might take time \u2026 Where to begin analyzing these close-to-700 pages, not one extraneous or boring? \u2026 One of the many miracles of Desai\u2019s writing is the attention she gives to secondary and even minor characters \u2026 Among those most rarefied books: better company than real-life people. Feel the tingle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Alexandra Jacobs (The New York Times<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Good<\/a><\/p>\n

3. Good and Evil and Other Stories<\/a> by Samanta Schweblin
(Knopf)<\/p>\n

8 Rave \u2022 1 Mixed<\/p>\n

\u201cMasterly \u2026 Quiet, devastating lucidity is a hallmark of Schweblin\u2019s prose, captured with magnificent precision in a long-standing collaboration with translator Megan McDowell \u2026 We have the impression of a writer absolutely and entirely in control, as Schweblin\u2019s meticulous clarity is never compromised by the horror of her subjects. But if we trust her to take us to the bottom, almost always she will reward us with a glimmer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Francesca Segal (The Financial Times<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

4. The Wilderness<\/a> by\u00a0Angela Flournoy
(Mariner Books)<\/p>\n

6 Rave \u2022 3 Positive \u2022 1 Mixed
Read an excerpt from The Wilderness here<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cExpansive and intimate \u2026 This is not your generic book club selection, celebrating four friends living, laughing, loving. But if you want a ruminating, clear-eyed look at friendship as a means of survival, this is it \u2026 The rigorous work of authentic friendship asks us if we\u2019re doing all we can for ourselves and the world we live in. Flournoy holds this mirror up to her characters and shows how modern life distorts those images despite everybody\u2019s best intentions \u2026 Galvanizing and sustaining.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Lauren LeBlanc (The Boston Globe<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a><\/p>\n

5. One of Us<\/a> by Dan Chaon
(Henry Holt & Company)<\/p>\n

7 Rave<\/p>\n

\u201cIt works! As One of Us gleefully samples multiple registers\u2014comic, tragic, satiric, elegiac, poetic\u2014its mesh of archaic and contemporary styles becomes something quite arresting, a joy to read \u2026 Chaon\u2019s beautiful novel insists on answers. We must not look away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Hamilton Cain (The New York Times Book Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

Nonfiction<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mother<\/a><\/p>\n

1. Mother Mary Comes to Me<\/a> by Arundhati Roy
(Scribner)<\/p>\n

8 Rave \u2022 4 Positive \u2022 1 Mixed<\/p>\n

\u201cRoy\u2019s stunning, dramatic, funny, far-ranging, and complexly illuminating chronicle portraying two strong-willed women fighting for justice and truth is incandescent in its fury, courage, and love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Donna Seaman (Booklist<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Dark<\/p>\n

2. Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare\u2019s Greatest Rival<\/a> by Stephen Greenblatt
(W. W. Norton & Company)<\/p>\n

9 Rave \u2022 2 Positive<\/p>\n

\u201cThe book teems with the erudition and wonder that permeates Greenblatt\u2019s Will in the World and The Swerve \u2026 Less a straightforward biography, more an evocation of Marlowe\u2019s milieu, swimming in lush detail, immersing us in England\u2019s social ferment at a hinge moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Hamilton Cain (The Boston Globe<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Electric<\/a><\/p>\n

3. Electric Spark: The Enigma of Dame Muriel<\/a> by Frances Wilson
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)<\/p>\n

6 Rave \u2022 4 Positive \u2022 \u00a01 Mixed
Read an excerpt from Electric Spark here<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cA deeply intelligent, captivating and passionate work that reminds us of everything a literary biography can and should be \u2026 Wilson has the utmost respect for Spark, but more important for a biographer, she has fervent curiosity about her \u2026 Who was the real Muriel Spark? We may never know, and that\u2019s the joy and delight of this book.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Jessica Ferri (The Washington Post<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"We<\/a><\/p>\n

4. We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution<\/a> by Jill Lepore
(Liveright)<\/p>\n

7 Rave \u2022 1 Positive<\/p>\n

\u201cMay be [Lepore\u2019s] best yet, a capacious work that lands at the right moment, like a life buoy, as our ship of state takes on water. She\u2019s not here to rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic; she\u2019s here to convey\u2014in vigorous, crystal-clear sentences\u2014what we\u2019re losing, and why \u2026 Lepore senses peril but also a whiff of democratic revival. Asymmetries lie at the foundation of our government; as this gifted scholar reminds us, it\u2019s our duty to tend to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Hamilton Cain (The Los Angeles Times<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Lin-Manuel<\/p>\n

5. Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist<\/a> by Daniel Pollack-Pelzner
(Simon & Schuster)<\/p>\n

6 Rave \u2022 1 Mixed<\/p>\n

\u201cPollack-Pelzner is at his strongest when he delves into the fascinating nitty gritty of the collaborations that help productions come together \u2026 But this is not a hagiography. Pollack-Pelzner is frank about Miranda\u2019s shortcomings \u2026 Pollack-Pelzner uses these details to treat Miranda as the creator he is\u2014enthusiastic, vulnerable, ambitious, innovative, fallible\u2014instead of as a mere celebrity. A different biographer might have used this as an occasion for dishy name dropping.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Jennifer Vanasco (NPR<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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