Kristin Harmel's historical novel The Forest of Vanishing Stars was very well-received by our First Impressions readers, who gave it an average rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars.
What it's about:
The...
In The Forest of Vanishing Stars, persecuted Jews in Eastern Europe take shelter in the Naliboki Forest, located west of Minsk in contemporary Belarus. The area, then known as Byelorussia, was annexed...
Read Article
The nexus of Africans and Europeans is not a recent historical development. Rather, the peoples of Africa and Europe have a long and complex history that — for many centuries, at least — ...
Read ReviewAs Olivette Otele references in her book African Europeans: An Untold History, many Black British artists find music to be an effective and far-reaching medium in which to address and explore their ...
Read Article
The personified hills of the novel's title foreshadow the mood of this brooding and ominous tale. Infused with colorful local lore, the story's backdrop is the hills and hollows ("hollers") of rural ...
Read ReviewMisogynistic Themes in Murder Ballads
In The Killing Hills, which takes place in Kentucky, misogyny manifests in attitudes toward key female characters, notably the town sheriff. Additionally, the act of femicide is a central theme and a ...
Read Article
Recent Harvard graduate Simon Putnam has been rejected from grad school and has thus returned to his parents' place in Coney Island for the foreseeable future. It's the summer of 1953, and Simon and ...
Read ReviewOn June 19, 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York, having been convicted of spying for the Soviet Union. The Rosenbergs met in ...
Read Article
With legislatures around the U.S. rushing to ban the teaching of critical race theory, it's clear that the backlash against an honest appraisal of systemic racism remains virulent and damaging. It's ...
Read ReviewThe "Lost Cause" Myth and Its Physical Legacy
Following defeat and widespread destruction in the Civil War, people in the former Confederate states set about rebuilding their communities and coping with the enormity of their loss. This effort ...
Read Article
In Big Vape, TIME reporter Jamie Ducharme studies the short but inflammatory history of Juul. Her comprehensive report, replete with testimonies and research, probes to what extent the company is ...
Read ReviewThe Importance of "Tech Company" Status
In Big Vape, Jamie Ducharme describes an existential crisis at the heart of Juul; while its founders (and many of its employees) saw the business as a tech start-up, to the Food and Drug ...
Read Article
All the Little Hopes
by Leah Weiss
A Southern story of friendship forged by books and bees, in the murky shadows of World War II.
Solve this clue:
and be entered to win...
"Dark and hilarious ... singular and soaring ... Hands down, top debut of 2021."—Literary Hub
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
