{"id":230718,"date":"2023-12-07T04:55:48","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T09:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/?p=230718"},"modified":"2023-12-23T09:46:57","modified_gmt":"2023-12-23T14:46:57","slug":"the-best-reviewed-nonfiction-of-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/the-best-reviewed-nonfiction-of-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Reviewed Nonfiction of 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Book<\/a><\/p>\n

The points are tallied, the math is done, and the results are in.<\/p>\n

Yes, all year long the diligent and endearingly disgruntled Book Marks elves have been mining reviews from every corner of the literary internet. Brows furrowed, stomachs growling, they\u2019ve worked from break of dawn to blink of dusk, seven days a week, scouring the book review sections of over 150 publications\u2014from the New York Times<\/em> to the Sydney Morning Herald<\/em>, the Toronto Star<\/em> to the London Review of Books<\/em>\u2014all so that we can\u00a0now say with certainty that these<\/em> are the best reviewed nonfiction titles of 2023.<\/p>\n

Happy reading!<\/p>\n

Brought to you by Book Marks<\/a>, Lit Hub\u2019s home for book reviews.<\/em><\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

\"Tahir<\/a><\/p>\n

1. Waiting to Be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet\u2019s Memoir of China\u2019s Genocide<\/em><\/a> by Tahir Hamut Izgil, trans. Joshua L. Freeman<\/strong>
\n(Penguin Press)<\/strong><\/p>\n

13 Rave<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no scenes of torture, no violence and few sweeping proclamations about genocide. Izgil writes with calculated restraint. As his title suggests, the terror is in the anticipation \u2026 This is in effect a psychological thriller, although the narrative unfolds like a classic horror movie as relative normalcy dissolves into a nightmare \u2026 Izgil is a soft-spoken poet, not an orator or activist; that\u2019s perhaps one reason his understated account is so effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Barbara Demick (The New York Times Book Review<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Laura<\/a><\/p>\n

=2. Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life & Sudden Death<\/em><\/a> by Laura Cumming
\n(Scribner)<\/strong><\/p>\n

13 Rave \u2022 1\u00a0Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cGenre-defying \u2026 Cumming suggests that we recall the past through pictures \u2026 Cumming clearly loves these paintings, and by weaving together vivid evocations of ones that particularly move her with brief biographies of the men and women who painted them, she invites us to share that love \u2026 Like all good elegists, Cumming, too, brings the dead to life in the very act of mourning them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Ruth Bernard Yeazell (The New York Times Book Review<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Jonny<\/a><\/p>\n

=2. Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage<\/em><\/a> by Jonny Steinberg<\/strong>
\n(Knopf)<\/strong><\/p>\n

13 Rave \u2022 1 Positive
\nRead an excerpt from Winnie and Nelson<\/em> here<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cA powerful, intimate and ultimately heartbreaking account \u2026 Painstaking detail \u2026 Many of the details in Steinberg\u2019s masterful account have long been public knowledge thanks to court cases, newspaper articles and previous books. But his supreme contribution is in his ability to portray clearly and critically Nelson Mandela\u2019s flaws and Winnie Mandela\u2019s crimes, while expressing sympathy and understanding for both their courage and their pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Glenn Frankel (The Washington Post<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"David<\/a><\/p>\n

4. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder<\/em><\/a> by David Grann<\/strong>
\n(Doubleday)<\/strong><\/p>\n

20 Rave \u2022 2 Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c[A] propulsive, finely detailed seafaring saga \u2026 This is a ripping yarn disguised as an acute study of group psychology, or perhaps the other way around. However you categorize The Wager,<\/em> it is a remarkable book \u2026 Grann guides us through this process, step by step, storm by storm, man by man, in prose that the writers he references, including Herman Melville and Joseph Conrad, would appreciate. The book invites landlubbers in with vivid descriptions of life at sea, peppered with explanations of phrases and idioms given us by that life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Chris Vognar (The Boston Globe<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Jonathan<\/a><\/p>\n

5. King: A Life<\/em><\/a> by Jonathan Eig<\/strong>
\n(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)<\/strong><\/p>\n

14 Rave \u2022 3 Positive \u2022 1 Mixed<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOutstanding \u2026 The majority of the book shows who King really was behind the famous speeches and celebrity. Digging through thousands of hours of telephone transcripts and FBI wiretaps of conversations between King and other political and civil rights leaders, Eig offers an intimate, multidimensional biography. His reconstructed dialogues give the reader the feel of being in the room with King and other key players.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Ousmane Power-Greene (The Boston Globe<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Clare<\/p>\n

6. The Marriage Question: George Eliot\u2019s Double Life<\/em><\/a> by Clare Carlisle
\n(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)<\/strong><\/p>\n

13 Rave \u2022 9 Positive \u2022 1 Mixed<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIntriguing, often brilliant \u2026 Ultimately, Carlisle\u2019s thoughtful, comprehensive account of this particular liaison exquisitely probes the complex, thorny, and fascinating question: How much does our choice of partner determine who we ultimately become?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Jenny McPhee (AirMail<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Janet<\/p>\n

7. Still Pictures: On Photograph and Memory<\/em><\/a> by Janet Malcolm<\/strong>
\n(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)<\/strong><\/p>\n

17 Rave \u2022 13 Positive \u2022 2 Mixed<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSuperb \u2026 How could a writer so famously, effectively skeptical of subjective stories write an autobiography? Malcolm solves the problem with characteristic elegance: Nearly every short chapter of Still Pictures<\/em> is headed by a grainy black-and-white photograph, whose calls to memory she heeds, repels and bargains with in turn by subtle turn. Her comfort with incompleteness becomes a virtue \u2026 Most of this memoir consists of appreciative and often very dryly funny memories of her devoted, literate family \u2026 Still Pictures<\/em> has the clarity and brevity of a book by a writer who knows that time is short, and that there\u2019s much to say, much to convey, which will otherwise be lost forever \u2026 A lot gets lost in that transition, Malcolm argues in this final, splendid, most personal work of her long career. A lot\u2014but not everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Charles Finch (The New York Times Book Review<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Doppelganger<\/p>\n

8. Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World<\/em><\/a> by Naomi Klein<\/strong>
\n(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)<\/strong><\/p>\n

10 Rave \u2022 5 Positive \u2022 3 Mixed
\nListen to an interview with Naomi Klein here<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026a compelling and far-reaching political detective story \u2026 Especially when it comes to the political fallout from the pandemic, no other book I know of has been this intellectually adventurous, this loopily personal, or this entertaining \u2026 Known primarily as a critic of globalization and a climate activist, our Naomi turns out to be that rarest of specimens: a leftist with self-irony \u2026 Despite drawing such devastating connections, Klein maintains a perfectly calibrated tone toward Wolf, favoring calm argument over derision or contempt. Her preferred move is excavating the kernels of insight from even Wolf\u2019s most out-there claims \u2026 As a writer and a theorist, Klein is particularly talented at knitting together the sweep of history and the banalities of the present. She\u2019s equally attuned to what doppelg\u00e4ngers can mean in a more transhistorical sense \u2026 The originality and political courage of this book is to turn that into an opening, an entirely different way of thinking about our enemies\u2014and our selves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Laura Kipnis (The Nation<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Anna<\/a><\/p>\n

9. Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell\u2019s Invisible Life<\/em><\/a> by Anna Funder
\n(Knopf)<\/strong><\/p>\n

10 Rave \u2022 5 Positive \u2022 5 Mixed \u2022 1 Pan
\nListen to an interview with Anna Funder here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWith the precision of a historian, Funder cobbles together scant details to reconstruct a life. And with the imaginative force of a novelist, she speculates in clearly sign-posted moments on what that life was like \u2026 Considering how little information Funder has to work with, Wifedom<\/em> is a spectacular achievement of both scholarship and pure feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Jessica Ferri (The Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Claire<\/a><\/p>\n

10. Monsters: A Fan\u2019s Dilemma<\/em><\/a> by Claire Dederer<\/strong>
\n(Knopf)<\/strong><\/p>\n

13 Rave \u2022 10 Positive \u2022 3 Mixed \u2022 4 Pan
\nListen to an interview with Claire Dederer here<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cExcellent \u2026 Dederer is frank about how her own experience shaped her encounters with art \u2026 Every critic has their own biases, their own blind spots, and ignoring them does not erase them. In criticism, as in memoir, the only way to work through these biases is to admit them\u2014if not to others, at least to oneself. The value of the kind of criticism that Dederer practices, one that publicly acknowledges her own subjectivity, her own loves and hatreds, is that it makes the difficulty of this process visible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Melissa Febos (The New Yorker<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Our System: <\/strong><\/p>\n

RAVE = 5 points \u2022\u00a0POSITIVE = 3 points \u2022\u00a0MIXED = 1 point \u2022\u00a0PAN = -5 points
\nThe ten books with the highest\u00a0points totals are then ranked by weighted average<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The points are tallied, the math is done, and the results are in. Yes, all year long the diligent and endearingly disgruntled Book Marks elves have been mining reviews from every corner of the literary internet. Brows furrowed, stomachs growling, they\u2019ve worked from break of dawn to blink of dusk, seven days a week, scouring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":873,"featured_media":230719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43069,11,43070,43135],"tags":[90002,1460,92514],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Books-print.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5rKFr-Y1g","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230718"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/873"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithub.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}