Val McDermid’s Winter, William J. Mann’s Black Dahlia, and Jung Chang’s Fly, Wild Swans all feature among the best reviewed nonfiction titles of the month.
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1. Winter: The Story of a Season by Val McDermid
(Atlantic Monthly Press)
6 Rave • 3 Positive
Read an essay by Val McDermid here
“An odd, unexpected and quite lovely book from McDermid … More than her memories; it is a celebration of all things cold, dark and Scottish. In short, evocative chapters McDermid slides gracefully from topic to topic … It’s a pleasure to move with McDermid … A memoir of her heart.”
–Laurie Hertzel (The Washington Post)
2. Black Dahlia: Murder, Monsters, and Madness in Midcentury Hollywood by William J. Mann
(Simon & Schuster)
6 Rave • 2 Positive
“Admirably researched and generous … Does Mann solve the crime? I think so—or at least he comes as close as one can to finding a plausible solution so many years after the fact.”
–Dennis Drabelle (The Washington Post)
3. Fly, Wild Swans: My Mother, Myself and China by Jung Chang
(Harper)
5 Rave • 2 Positive • 2 Mixed
Read an excerpt from Fly, Wild Swans here
“By far her most painfully personal yet—an unflinching assessment of her life and career and the role those dearest to her played in both … In simple, straightforward prose, Chang describes in new detail the horrors her parents suffered through during China’s Cultural Revolution … It is also a book of enduring filial love … Chang has a talent for tapping the history of the individual to speak to the broader societal forces at play around them.”
–Emily Feng (NPR)
4. The Flower Bearers by Rachel Eliza Griffiths
(Random House)
6 Rave • 1 Positive • 3 Mixed • 1 Pan
“Elegant and juicy … Storytelling unafraid of poetry. Like a pudding, the prose here is both plain and rich … It’s a lot, but it’s also gratifyingly lush. Griffiths gives us romance and romanticism.”
–Danyel Smith (The New York Times Book Review)
5. The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game by C. Thi Nguyen
(Penguin)
5 Rave • 1 Positive
“Brilliant and wildly original … Profound, rigorous and frequently beautiful … Even without [the] larger argument, The Score would brim with local insights … Socially attentive, historically literate and imbued with sensual glee. It is exuberantly eclectic.”
–Becca Rothfeld (The Washington Post)
