Featuring Deb Olin Unferth, Andrea Wulf, Dave Eggers, and More

Deb Olin Unferth’s Earth 7, Andrea Wulf’s The Traveler, and Dave Eggers’s Contrapposto all feature among the best reviewed books of the week.

Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s home for book reviews.

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Fiction

1. Earth 7 by Deb Olin Unferth
(Graywolf)

6 Rave

“Unferth follows her madcap present-day econovel, Barn 8, with a crystalline, poetic, witty, and haunting post-depopulation tale of loss, adaptation, unexpected beauty, and surpassing love. Every moment is enrapturing, every twist heart-seizing in this keenly imagined, ravishing, and profound celebration of life in extremis.”

–Donna Seaman (Booklist)

2. Contrapposto by Dave Eggers
(Knopf)

4 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed
Read an interview with Dave Eggers here

“What a relief to be able to recommend the new Dave Eggers novel (almost!) without reservation … An earthy, warm return to form and norm … It is a bildungsroman and a novel of ideas, exploring the meaning of art and the unfairness, pretensions and occasional skulduggery of the art world … Also a romance of epic and goopy proportions … Is there anything this children’s-book-writing, nonprofit-overseeing, magazine-founding Gen X-er can’t do?”

–Alexandra Jacobs (The New York Times Book Review)

3. Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer
(Doubleday)

5 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Mixed • 2 Pan
Read an excerpt from Villa Coco here

“If you’re looking for a work of fiction that’s charming from start to finish, Villa Coco is the book for you. It’s seductively entertaining from the get-go … Greer’s novel is a Tuscan romp that overflows with sunshine and surprises while providing a deep meditation on growing up, growing old and navigating the many crossroads in between.”

–Alice Cary (BookPage)

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Nonfiction

1. The Traveler: One Man’s Quest for Humanity from the South Seas to Revolutionary Paris by Andrea Wulf
(Knopf)

7 Rave • 1 Mixed

“George Forster is one of the most fascinating figures you have probably never heard of … Forster is the vibrant subject of Andrea Wulf’s The Traveler, a lively new book that hums with her characteristic verve … It is invigorating, especially now, to read him observing, thinking and enthusing on the page.”

–Jennifer Szalai (The New York Times)

2. Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America by Greg Tate
(Auwa)

3 Rave • 2 Positive

“Tate has the eloquence, anger, and wit to succeed in his commentary where other impassioned critics have failed … Erudite music criticism … This is essential reading for anyone who wants to get a grasp of not just black, but all contemporary American culture.”

–Ben Segedin (Booklist

3. Something We Said: Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word, and Me by Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor
(37 Ink)

4 Rave

“Wrapped around the life of Richard Pryor is the life of a word that straddles a line between danger and provocation, a word that author Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor refuses to say or even print … It’s a push-pull balance that holds readers fast and keeps them there. It’s perfect for fans of this genre, or Richard Pryor, or of language—and it’s going to make you think. If you want a good memoir this week, one that may send you to your old album collection, Something We Said is rock-solid.”

–Terri Schlichenmeyer (The Miami Times)