• Top Picks

    Review

    Beyond the Door of No Return

    In early 19th-century France, Aglaé's father Michel Adanson dies of old age. Sitting at his bedside, she hears his last word—a name she doesn't know. While going through his ...

    Read Review

    Beyond the Book

    The French East India Companies

    In David Diop's novel Beyond the Door of No Return, French botanist Michel Adanson journeys across 18th-century Senegal to discover the fate of a woman who was kidnapped. At the time of the story,...

    Read Article
  • Top Picks

    Review

    Crossings

    We've all seen it—a dead animal carcass on the side of the road, clearly mowed down by a car. Many of us have been the ones responsible for such carnage, and we've come away from those ...

    Read Review

    Beyond the Book

    Monarch Butterfly Habitat Restoration on Roadsides and Beyond

    As Ben Goldfarb notes in Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet, we're in the midst of an insect apocalypse. It's largely agreed now that our planet is experiencing a ...

    Read Article
  • Top Picks

    Review

    Wifedom

    When life became overwhelming for writer, wife, and mother Anna Funder in the summer of 2017, she turned to her favorite writer for clarity of vision. Reading George Orwell in the summer led to ...

    Read Review

    Beyond the Book

    The Erasure of Eileen Blair from Orwell's Homage to Catalonia

    Readers might be forgiven if, in reading George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, they miss the fact that his first wife, Eileen Blair, was in Spain with him, working for the Republican resistance against...

    Read Article
  • Top Picks

    Review

    The Fraud

    In a recent article for The New Yorker, Zadie Smith joked that she moved away from London, her childhood home and the primary subject of her work, because she didn't want to write a historical novel. ...

    Read Review

    Beyond the Book

    Women's Influence in the British Abolition Movement

    In The Fraud, Eliza's lover Frances is a passionate abolitionist whose commitment to the cause infects Eliza with a similar sense of urgency. Britain's Slavery Abolition Act was passed in 1833, ...

    Read Article
  • Top Picks

    Review

    Wasteland

    Globally, we generate more than 2 billion tons of household waste every year. That annual total includes more than 400 million tons of discarded plastic, more than 50 million tons of electronic waste ...

    Read Review

    Beyond the Book

    Wishcycling

    Let's say you have an empty shampoo bottle or yogurt container. Should it go in your recycling bin or the trash? Chances are you'll check for the familiar three-arrow recycling symbol before ...

    Read Article
  • Top Picks

    Review

    Disobedient

    Born in Rome in 1593, Artemisia Gentileschi led a successful career as an artist throughout the early 17th century. In recent years, she has come to be regarded by many as one of the most influential ...

    Read Review

    Beyond the Book

    Gentileschi's Masterpiece: Judith Slaying Holofernes

    Judith Slaying Holofernes — also referred to as Judith Beheading Holofernes — is widely considered the masterpiece of Italian Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-c.1656), the ...

    Read Article

Join BookBrowse

For a year of great reading about exceptional books!

Find Out More

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    This Is Salvaged
    by Vauhini Vara

    Stories of uncanny originality from Vauhini Vara, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.

    Reviews

  • Book Jacket

    The Wren, the Wren
    by Anne Enright

    An incandescent novel about the inheritance of trauma, wonder, and love across three generations of women.

    Reviews

An Introduction to BookBrowse

New In Paperback

  • Book Jacket: The Mitford Affair
  • Book Jacket: They're Going to Love You
  • Book Jacket: If I Survive You
  • Book Jacket: The Story of Russia
  • Book Jacket: Hotel Magnifique
  • Book Jacket: African Europeans

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.