Reviews of notable new fiction and nonfiction.  Pirate Enlightenment, Or the Real Libertalia, by David Graeber (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). In this posthumous volume, the late anthropologist and anarchist continues his reëxamination of the Enlightenment by expanding the story of communities that contributed to its thought. His focus is the pirate settlements founded on the east coast of Madagascar at the turn of the eighteenth century. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. The Scythian Empire, by Christopher I. Beckwith (Princeton). Often regarded by historians as a collection of savage tribes, the Scythians emerge as a pivotal force of the ancient world in this monumental history. Beckwith highlights previously unnoticed connections among the Scythian Empire’s far-flung groups, paying particular attention to linguistic data. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. The Sense of Wonder, by Matthew Salesses (Little, Brown). This playfully self-referential novel examines Asian American identity through the twin lenses of basketball and Korean TV dramas. When Won Lee, a point guard for the Knicks, leads his team to seven straight victories and becomes a media sensation, his TV executive girlfriend, Carrie Kang, develops a series about a Korean basketball star and a sportswriter. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. The Guest Lecture, by Martin Riker (Black Cat). Abigail, the narrator of this formally innovative novel, lies awake in a hotel, running through the next day’s lecture, on the economist John Maynard Keynes. In her mental tour, Abigail is accompanied by a version of Keynes who tries to keep her on track, even as she careers off onto tangents, about problems domestic and professional. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. What are you reading this week? Reply to let us know. | 
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