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This Week's Top 10
| July 10, 2014
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Hello
The response to the shorter newsletter we sent you the week before last was overwhelmingly favorable. Moving to a weekly format was also very positively received. So, here, for your reading pleasure is the second of what will now be weekly emails. I do hope you enjoy it!
If you did not already get a chance to respond to the survey and would like to, please do let me know what you think.
Thanks for reading!
Davina Morgan-Witts, Editor
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 1. The BookBrowse Book Club
Please Join Us to Discuss:
How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky
by Lydia Netzer
Published Jul 1, 2014, 352 pages
Lydia Netzer's How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky is a mind-bending, heart-shattering love story for dreamers and pragmatists alike, exploring the conflicts of fate and determinism, and asking how much of life is under our control and what is pre-ordained in the stars.
 Discussions Opening Soon |
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Opens July 15
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Opens July 22
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Opens Sept 2
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2. First Impressions
Each month we give away books to our members to read and review (or discuss). Members who choose to take part receive a free book (including free shipping) about every three months. Here are their opinions on one recently published book: 
Mating for Life by Marissa Stapley
Paperback Original, July 1 2014, 336 pages
Number of reader reviews: 60
Readers' consensus: 4.0/5.0
"Marissa Stapley's debut novel, Mating For Life, should be on every avid readers summer list and a priority for reading groups. I had to keep checking to make sure I was correct in reading that it was her first novel. The choice of subject matter and subsequent unfolding of the plot surprised, delighted and kept me reading. The novel takes a common theme of mothers and daughters and creates a family unique in their personalities and choices when it comes to love. We are then provided a perfect vantage point to watch life begin to unfold at the annual summer cottage weekend." - Deborah P. (Dunnellon, FL)
"Love, love, love this book! As a former 'flower child' I can relate to Helen's mind-frame (as the author so skillfully presents her). Every last character is extremely well developed. I think there is enough meaty insight in this book to last a life time and will recommend it to my book club and to women of all ages. Great read!" - Sandra L. (Delray Beach, FL)
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3. Editor's Choice
Hardcover, June 2014, 256 pages. BookBrowse Rating: 5/5
This is a damn good book. It's a compelling story with fascinating characters. Cover to cover, it is just a really great read.
Now that we've got that out of the way I want to suggest you ignore other professional reviews of Lily King's Euphoria, at least until after you've read the book yourself. Don't get me wrong. There are no spoilers. But, had I read the reviews, I might have been turned off of this terrific novel about three scientists studying indigenous New Guinea tribes at the height of anthropology's golden age, the early 1930s. Here's the thing. Most... continued
Read full review | More Editor's Choices | More by Donna Chavez Full access to our reviews & beyond the book articles are for members only. But there are always four free Editor's Choice reviews and beyond the book articles on our homepage.
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4. Publishing Soon
 A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Atria Books, July 2014, 352 pages
Critic's Opinion: 5/5
A feel-good story in the spirit of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, Fredrik Backman's novel about the angry old man next door is a thoughtful and charming exploration of the profound impact one life has on countless others.
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Join Now!
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BookBrowse features the kinds of books you can't wait to tell your friends about, providing insightful reviews, stories behind the books, previews of notable titles publishing soon, book discussions, and free books to read and review.
Full access to BookBrowse is for members only. Membership is $10 for 3 months or $35 for a year. Find out more!
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 5. Beyond The Book
Who Was Shakespeare's Dark Lady?
Every time we review a book we also go beyond the book to explore a related topic. Here is a recent "beyond the book" backstory for...
Dark Aemilia by Sally O'Reilly
Hardcover May 2014, 448 pages
Although Shakespeare is believed to have married Anne Hathaway and fathered three children with her, next to nothing is known of his private life in the eight years he spent in London while his family remained in Stratford-upon-Avon. It is not certain in which order he wrote his plays or even how many there were. His authorship of the plays is also questioned, as is his sexuality, particularly because of his sonnets. Three principal characters are addressed by the poet: the Fair Youth, the Rival Poet and the Dark Lady. Many academics have attempted to identify these individuals, but with so little known about Shakespeare's life and times, there are several candidates vying for each role....
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 6. News
July 09 2014In a new twist to the Amazon-Hachette dispute, David Naggar, Amazon's v-p of Kindle content and independent publishing has proposed that Hachette authors "would get 100% of the sales price of every Hachette e-book we sell. Both Amazon and Hachette would forgo all revenue and profit from the sale of every e-book until an agreement is reached." Douglas Preston, who drafted an open letter--signed by a number of bestselling authors--last week calling on Amazon to resolve the dispute, told the Wall Street Journal the new proposal would be "devastating" to Hachette while "barely hurting Amazon at all." He also objected to the proposal because Hachette has supported him throughout his career: "There's something wrong with this. My publisher gave me a very large advance for the book they are about to publish. Morally, I would have to turn over that [Amazon] money to them." "We made an offer in April that was the largest we ever made to any retailer, and in May made another that was higher still," said a Hachette spokeswoman. "Both offers were rejected." In the New York Times, Authors Guild president Robinson said if Amazon "wants to have a constructive conversation about this, we're ready to have one at any time. But this seems like a short-term solution that encourages authors to take sides against their publishers. It doesn't get authors out of the middle of this--we're still in the middle. Our books are at the center of this struggle."
Summarized from Shelf Awareness ... (more )
Jul 03 2014 An open letter, signed by a number of bestselling authors, is calling on Amazon "to resolve its dispute with Hachette without hurting authors and without blocking or otherwise delaying the sale of books to its customers." Drafted by Douglas Preston, the letter has now been signed by over 100 authors... (more)Jul 03 2014 Louis Zamperini,,1936 Olympian and the subject of Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling nonfiction book Unbroken, died July 2 of pneumonia aged 97. Random House Publishing Group president and publisher Gina Centrello said in a statement: "We have lost a man who gave everything for his country. It has been... (more)Jul 02 2014 After three years World Book Night in America is to cease. In a statement, executive director Carl Lennertz cited lack of outside funding as the main reason for ending the book-giving project: "The expenses of running World Book Night U.S., even given the significant financial and time commitment ... (more)
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 7. Themed Reads: World War I
Whatever your interests you can find the books that are just right for you by browsing and cross-referencing our recommended reading lists by genre, time period, setting and wide variety of themes - including books set during World War I...
Paperback: Jan 2010 Barry Unsworth, a writer with an "almost magical capacity for literary time travel" ( New York Times Book Review) has the extraordinary ability to re-create the past and make it relevant to contemporary readers. In Land of Marvels, a thriller set in 1914, he brings to life the schemes and double-dealings of Western nations grappling for a foothold in Mesopotamia (now Iraq) in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire.
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Paperback: October 2013 n the tradition of Robert Goolrick's A Reliable Wife and Karl Marlantes's Matterhorn, P. S. Duffy's astonishing debut showcases a rare and instinctive talent emerging in midlife. Her novel leaps across the Atlantic, between a father at war and a son coming of age at home without him.
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 Fall of Giants: Book One of the Century Trilogy by Ken Follett
Paperback: August 2011
The first novel in The Century Trilogy follows the fates of five interrelated families-American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh-as they move through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women's suffrage. |
 Paperback: January 2005
No disease the world has ever known even remotely resembles the great influenza epidemic of 1918. It exploded across the world with unequaled ferocity and speed. It killed more people in twenty weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty years; it killed more people in a year than the plagues of the Middle Ages killed in a century. Victims bled from the ears and nose, turned blue from lack of oxygen, suffered aches that felt like bones being broken, and died. In the United States, where bodies were stacked without coffins on trucks, nearly seven times as many people died of influenza as in the First World War. |
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 8. Readalikes for Longbourn by Jo Baker  In Longbourn Jo Baker dares to take us beyond the drawing rooms of Jane Austen's classic - into the often overlooked domain of the stern housekeeper and the starry-eyed kitchen maid, into the gritty daily particulars faced by the lower classes in Regency England during the Napoleonic Wars - and, in doing so, creates a vivid, fascinating, fully realized world that is wholly her own.
If you liked Longbourn, try these:
Margaret Powell's classic memoir of her time in service,
Below Stairs, is the remarkable true story of an indomitable woman who, though she served in the great houses of England, never stopped aiming high.
Habits of the House by Fay Weldon
Paperback October 2013
As the writer of the pilot episode of the original Upstairs, Downstairs - Fay Weldon brings a deserved reputation for magnificent storytelling. With wit and sympathy - and no small measure of mischief - Habits of the House plots the interplay of restraint and desire, manners and morals, reason and instinct.
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
Paperback March 2009
Grace Bradley went to work at Riverton House as a servant when she was just a girl, before the First World War. For years her life was inextricably tied up with the Hartford family, most particularly the two daughters, Hannah and Emmeline. In 1999, when Grace is ninety-eight years old and living out her last days in a nursing home, she is visited by a young director who is making a film about the events of that summer. She takes Grace back to Riverton House and reawakens her memories. Told in flashback, this is the story of Grace's youth during the last days of Edwardian aristocratic privilege shattered by war, of the vibrant twenties and the changes she witnessed as an entire way of life vanished forever.
Blending history, science, and anthropology, Wilson reveals how our culinary tools and tricks came to be, and how their influence has shaped modern food culture. The story of how we have tamed fire and ice and wielded whisks, spoons, and graters, all for the sake of putting food in our mouths, Consider the Fork is truly a book to savor.
Hardcover November 2013, Paperback Sept 2014
Bertie Wooster (a young man about town) and his butler Jeeves (the very model of the modern manservant) - return in their first new novel in nearly forty years: Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks.
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9.  Blog: Top 2014 Book Club Recommendations We've just published Part 2 of our 2014 top recommendations for book clubs. All have already published in hardcover and ebook, and all have published or will publish in paperback between May and August. . .... read this post
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 10. Win  The Fortune Hunter by Daisy Goodwin
Hardcover July 29, 480 pages
Enter the GiveawayA beautiful empress, a handsome horseman, and a bluestocking heiress form a passionate love triangle in this historical novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The American Heiress "Starred Review. Goodwin uses finely drawn characters and intriguing plot lines to create numerous memorable scenes such as when the empress, accompanied by Bay, visits and exchanges polite but pointed barbs with Queen Victoria. Although readers who enjoyed The American Heiress will be first in line to savor Goodwin's new novel, they will be followed quickly by others who appreciate engaging and thoughtful historical fiction." - Library Journal "A sumptuous, scrumptious confection, with country houses, Austrian Empresses and Victorian glamour galore." - Lucy Worsley, Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces 5 people will each win a hardcover copy of The Fortune Hunter. This giveaway is open to residents of the USA only, unless you are a BookBrowse member, in which case you are eligible to win wherever you might live. Enter the giveaway | Past Winners | More Fun & Games |
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