The Stacks
All book reviews
773 honest reviews across fiction, non-fiction, mystery, sci-fi, romance, and more.
Showing 1-24 of 773
A Storm of Swords
by George R. R. Martin
A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin 2000 review. The third Song of Ice and Fire novel and the structural series peak - the Red Wedding, the Purple Wedding, and the broader War of Five Kings reordering.
Moneyball
by Michael Lewis
Moneyball by Michael Lewis 2003 review. Billy Beane's data-driven 2002 Oakland A's season. The Brad Pitt film source and the canonical contemporary book on sabermetrics.
Once Upon a River
by Bonnie Jo Campbell
Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell 2011 review. A sixteen-year-old markswoman navigates rural Michigan's Stark River after family catastrophe. Campbell's structural masterwork.
Shuggie Bain
by Douglas Stuart
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart 2020 review. A young boy navigates childhood with his alcoholic mother in 1980s post-industrial Glasgow. Booker Prize winner.
The Big Short
by Michael Lewis
The Big Short by Michael Lewis 2010 review. The four investor groups who saw the 2008 mortgage collapse coming and made fortunes shorting it. The basis for the Adam McKay film.
The Choice
by Edith Eger
The Choice by Edith Eger 2017 review. A Hungarian ballerina survives Auschwitz at sixteen and becomes a California clinical psychologist. Canonical contemporary American Holocaust memoir.
Young Mungo
by Douglas Stuart
Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart 2022 review. A gay Protestant boy and a Catholic boy fall in love in 1990s sectarian Glasgow. Stuart's Shuggie Bain follow-up.
Freshwater
by Akwaeke Emezi
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi 2018 review. A young Nigerian woman is inhabited by Igbo ogbanje spirits who narrate her coming-of-age. Emezi's debut.
Held
by Anne Michaels
Held by Anne Michaels 2023 review. Four generations of an English family across the twentieth century, organized as twelve fragmentary chapter-vignettes. Booker Prize shortlist 2024.
Kairos
by Jenny Erpenbeck
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck 2023 review. A 1986 East Berlin affair between a nineteen-year-old student and a fifty-three-year-old novelist. International Booker Prize 2024.
My Friends
by Hisham Matar
My Friends by Hisham Matar 2024 review. Three Libyan exiles meet in 1980s Edinburgh and navigate three decades of London expatriate life. Matar's fourth book.
Orbital
by Samantha Harvey
Orbital by Samantha Harvey 2023 review. Six astronauts spend one day at the International Space Station, orbiting Earth sixteen times. Booker Prize 2024.
Swamplandia!
by Karen Russell
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell 2011 review. The Bigtree alligator-wrestling family-park collapses after the matriarch's death. Pulitzer Prize finalist.
The Death of Vivek Oji
by Akwaeke Emezi
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi 2020 review. Vivek Oji is found dead on his mother's doorstep in 1990s Nigeria. Emezi's second novel.
The Return
by Hisham Matar
The Return by Hisham Matar 2016 review. Matar returns to Libya in 2012 to investigate the 1990 disappearance of his father, the opposition leader Jaballa Matar. Pulitzer Prize.
Vampires in the Lemon Grove
by Karen Russell
Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell 2013 review. Eight fabulist literary fantasy stories. Russell's second story collection after Swamplandia.
American Psycho
by Bret Easton Ellis
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis 1991 review. A Manhattan investment banker's late-1980s consumerism and parallel violence. Canonical contemporary American satirical literary novel.
Exit West
by Mohsin Hamid
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid 2017 review. A young Middle Eastern couple escape civil war through magical doors that lead instantly to other cities. Booker Prize shortlist.
Foster
by Claire Keegan
Foster by Claire Keegan 2010 review. A young Irish girl is sent for a summer to relatives in rural County Wexford. Davy Byrnes Memorial Prize winner.
Gilead
by Marilynne Robinson
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson 2004 review. A seventy-six-year-old Iowa Congregationalist minister writes a letter to his seven-year-old son. Pulitzer Prize winner.
Matrix
by Lauren Groff
Matrix by Lauren Groff 2021 review. The twelfth-century Anglo-Norman poet Marie de France becomes prioress of a destitute English abbey. National Book Award finalist.
Nothing to See Here
by Kevin Wilson
Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson 2019 review. Stepchildren who burst into flames whenever they get upset. Wilson's third novel and Kindle First / Reese's Book Club pick.
Severance
by Ling Ma
Severance by Ling Ma 2018 review. A Bible-production manager continues commuting to her New York office across the collapse of the Shen Fever pandemic. Kirkus Prize.
Small Things Like These
by Claire Keegan
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan 2021 review. A 1985 Irish coal merchant discovers what's happening at the local Magdalene laundry. Booker Prize shortlist.