The Signature of All Things
by Elizabeth Gilbert (Viking, $29)
“The most interesting writers, just like scientists, learn by experimentation,” said Carolyn Kellogg in the Los Angeles Times. In this ambitious foray into historical fiction, the author of Eat, Pray, Love creates a “gorgeously detailed” 19th-century world and “a charming, flawed heroine.” But Philadelphia botanist Alma Whittaker has only a feeble inner life, and there’s hint of cultural imperialism in her midbook sojourn to Tahiti. That’s okay. At least this book doesn’t lack for creative passion.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Archangel
by Andrea Barrett (Norton, $25)
When you read Archangel, “you travel back to a time of possibility,” said Connie Ogle in The Miami Herald. Each of the protagonists in the book’s five stories finds inspiration in a major 19th- or 20th-century scientific breakthrough. But whether Andrea Barrett is introducing us to a boy sent to live with his tinkerer uncle or to an imperiled World War II–era geneticist, the National Book Award winner mixes the thrill of discovery with the “fears, hopes, and contradictions of the human heart.”
The Rosie Project
by Graeme Simsion (Simon & Schuster, $24)
“Squelch your inner cynic,” said Christina Ianzito in The Washington Post. This debut novel by an aspiring Australian screenwriter was being touted as an international sensation before it even arrived, yet “the hype is justified.” Graeme Simsion’s story about a professor with Asperger’s who decides to find himself a wife reads like a “genuinely funny” rom-com. Reading it, “you can’t help casting the film in your head.” For Rosie, the klutzy smoker who steals our hero’s heart, I see Jennifer Lawrence.
The People in the Trees
by Graeme Simsion (Simon & Schuster, $24)
“This is perhaps less a novel to love than to admire for its sheer audacity,” said Carmela Ciuraru in The New York Times. It’s based on the true story of a medical researcher who was convicted of raping a boy he’d adopted while studying the boy’s tribe in Papua New Guinea, and author Hanya Yanagihara makes her story’s predator deeply unlikable. Still, “it’s hard to turn away from Dr. Norton Perina” or this inventive book, which proves “almost defiant in its refusal to offer redemption.”
-
'A symbol of the faceless corporate desire'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Say farewell to summer at these underrated US lakesThe Week Recommends Have one last blast
-
Truck drivers are questioning the Trump administration's English mandateTalking Points Some have praised the rules, others are concerned they could lead to profiling
-
Also of interest...in picture books for grown-upsfeature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
-
Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
-
The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
-
Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
-
Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
-
Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
-
You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
-
Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”