Jon Ronson’s The Castle , Emily Wilson’s Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea , and Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s Said the Dead all feature among the best reviewed nonfiction titles of the month.

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1. The Castle: Adventures in a World of Unraveling Men by Jon Ronson (Riverhead)

“This is his first book in 11 years and it’s as good a read as any of his previous big hits. A Jon Ronson book is never clear-cut, there are no neat finishes or satisfying conclusions. The Castle is no different. But like all of his writing, this book will open new insights for you, and it will linger long after you’ve closed the final chapter … A great attempt to unpick modern masculinity and to see what is prompting a real mental health crisis in men. Only when we understand it will we be able to address it.”

2. American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn’s Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump by Kai Bird with Susan Goldmark (Scribner)

“I gobbled up every page … A bounteous cornucopia of midcentury sleaze and uneasily addictive for just that reason … As ugly and lurid as this saga is, American Scoundrel is consistently riveting, full of astonishing twists, ballsy plots, and eleventh-hour escapes from justice, like the legal version of the exploits of some Old West outlaw who is forever eluding the sheriffs by the skin of his teeth.”

3. Said the Dead by Doireann Ní Ghríofa (FSG)

8 Rave • 1 Positive Read an excerpt from Said the Dead here