Book Reviews: Cummins, Puchner, Wade, Tapper & Thompson

Cummins’ Talk with Me of Home: A Romance

Cummins’ new unique Talk with Me of Home (Tinder Press) is a “big swooning romance, elegantly created and an enjoyment to review”, created James Riding at the Times. The novel complies with 3 generations of women in an Irish-Puerto Rican household named Rafaela, Ruth and “reckless” Daisy. Riding kept in mind that Puerto Rico “is deftly evoked, as is its change from a location of royal residences and poverty to an Airbnb-studded vacationer hub”, yet the “story’s actual strength … is its romantic scenes, where young Rafaela and Ruth fall in love”.

Puchner’s Desire State: Family Saga

The Sunday Times’ Laura Hackett kept in mind: “And so Dream State slotted neatly right into the household saga group– up until it didn’t. Points obtain strange in the outside world because as the following generation of kids grows up. There are ‘warm deaths in London’, ‘ruining downpours in Pakistan’, ‘constant fires’ in LA.” Hackett called Puchner’s writing “virtually remarkable” and Fantasize State a “moving, amusing and utterly engrossing” read.

Wade’s Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife

Anne de Courcy at the Viewer noted that Wade “writes fantastically and affectionately” of Stein and Alice Toklas’ time in France throughout the Second Globe Battle, while, in the New Statesman, Margaret Drabble mentioned that Gertrude Stein is a “lighting and legible account of Stein’s life and literary immortality”.

Tapper & Thompson: Initial Transgression

The Times’ Justin Webb found that the book reveals how American voters “became targets of the one of the fantastic political cover-ups of modern-day times”. Jessa Crispin at the Telegraph called Initial Transgression “damning and well recorded”, while the Financial Times’ Lionel Barber stated that Tapper and Thompson’s “portrait of a shabby American president is ravaging”. Gertrude Stein’s posthumous track record”, kept in mind Kathryn Hughes at the Guardian. The Telegraph’s Luke Kennard hailed Gertrude Stein as a “work of art of biography”, adding: “Wade shows a wonderful level of sensitivity to the morality of bio writing, and the tendency to sensationalism, contemporary or historic.

Francesca Wade’s “thoughtful and deeply researched” autobiography of Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife (Faber), aims to “mak [e] and remak [e] Gertrude Stein’s posthumous reputation”, kept in mind Kathryn Hughes at the Guardian. The Telegraph’s Luke Kennard hailed Gertrude Stein as a “masterpiece of biography”, adding: “Wade reveals a great sensitivity to the morality of biography writing, and the propensity to sensationalism, contemporary or historical. She’s an exceptional author, able to draw out the legend, the contradictions and the truth in a completely coherent, dizzyingly comprehensive triptych.”

Puchner’s second novel Desire State (Sceptre) follows Cece, her future husband Charlie and his close friend Garrett. Cece and Garrett’s common distain begins to alter in advance of the wedding event. Simply prior to the couple’s nuptials take place, the narrative actions onward nine years “when Charlie, Cece and Garrett, currently in their late thirties, meet again”.

Initial Transgression: President Biden’s Decline, Its Whitewash, and His Devastating Selection to Run Again (Hutchinson Heinemann) by Jake Tapper, principal Washington contributor of CNN, and Alex Thompson, the nationwide political reporter of the internet site Axios, is “the very first breathless take on a cover-up that will haunt the Autonomous establishment for years”.

The Times’ Justin Webb found that the publication reveals exactly how American voters “became victims of the one of the wonderful political cover-ups of contemporary times”. Jessa Crispin at the Telegraph called Initial Transgression “damning and well documented”, while the Financial Times’ Lionel Barber stated that Tapper and Thompson’s “portrait of a run-down American president is ruining”.