A Million Heavens by John Brandon
“Considering the book’s high-stakes structure, amiably downtrodden characters and other obvious appeals, it matters little whether you buy every bit of feel-good gobbledygook. Rather than a prescriptive tract, ‘A Million Heavens’ is nothing more—or less—than a sweet ride, smooth traveling for both the mind and heart.” –Charles Bock, The New York Times
Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders by Samuel R. Delany
“It's tough to think of a more self-serving, isolating, and generally uninteresting novel from a well-established author.” –Josh Zajdman, Bookslut
The Obamians: The Struggle Inside the White House to Redefine American Power by James Mann
“There are no great squabbles or juicy scandals here, but valuable insights of how foreign policy really is made. The result is an indispensable account of an unexplored realm deep in Obama's White House.” –Bob Drogin, The Los Angeles Times
Mo said she was quirky by James Kelman
“The sort of threadbare life lived by Helen is so rarely given any unsentimental coverage in fiction that—in a time of massive state withdrawal, which is putting special pressure on poor women—Kelman might just have written his most important novel yet. This should be the lead item on everyone's summer reading list, not least David Cameron's.” –Simon Kövesi, The Independent
The Fabled Coast: Legends & Traditions from Around the Shores of Britain & Ireland by Sophia Kingshill and Jennifer Westwood
“This is a marvellously bracing compendium, to be swum through from first page to last rather than occasionally dipped into with a sceptical toe.” –Adam Thorpe, The Guardian
Sex Tips for Girls by Guys by Dorling Kindersley
“Really, the book is just bad, but not in a so-bad-it’s-good way, so I can’t even recommend it ironically. Instead, I’ll just leave you with one more awkwardly worded (and haphazardly bolded) excerpt, along with the unfortunate mental image it left permanently seared on my brain: ‘She rakes my pubes with her fingernails, nearly touching my penis, but not quite.’” –A blogger with a pen name so stupid I refuse to retype it, Persephone Magazine