Nell Irvin Painter's ninth book, I Just Keep Talking: A Life in Essays, is a collection of previously published work. The essays bear witness to history, art, politics, and black culture. From her ...
Read ReviewSojourner Truth Was Invisible — Or Was She?
It was May of 1851 when 54-year-old Sojourner Truth took the stage. Truth, who would become one of the most famous women of any race of the nineteenth century, spoke her personal testimony to the ...
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The four Flattery sisters have lived apart for many years, each the holder of a doctorate and passionately pursuing her own path. Olwen, the eldest, is a geologist in Galway; her lectures warn of the ...
Read ReviewQueens of Rock: Women in Geology
In Caoilinn Hughes' The Alternatives, Olwen is a geologist profoundly concerned with the effects of climate change. As in other sciences, women remain underrepresented in geology, even though they ...
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With the title Liberty Equality Fashion, it may seem like Anne Higonnet's new book is an unserious work—maybe a picture book of dresses from revolutionary France, recalling the refrain of "...
Read ReviewMarie Antoinette, Fashion Icon
In 1783, Marie Antoinette made a terrible faux pas—she dressed like a commoner. Painted by her favorite portraitist, Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, the queen was depicted in a loose ...
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Rachel Khong's sophomore novel Real Americans is an intergenerational saga that questions racial and cultural identity and our control over our destinies. Over the course of the book, we meet May, her...
Read ReviewChinese Science During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)
May, the matriarch of Rachel Khong's Real Americans, is born into a poor rural Chinese family in the 1950s. Her fate is foretold by her mother's life: wake before dawn to cook breakfast, clean up ...
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A Short Walk Through a Wide World
From the very first page of A Short Walk Through a Wide World, debut novelist (and librarian!) Douglas Westerbeke draws readers into the story of Aubry Tourvel, a nine-year-old girl who is not an ...
Read ReviewDouglas Westerbeke, author of the debut novel A Short Walk Through a Wide World, did not start his career as an author. In fact, he is a librarian in Ohio, at one of the largest libraries in the ...
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Journalist Karen Valby's first book, The Swans of Harlem, introduces readers to the little-known history of the Dance Theater of Harlem, which was founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell. Using interviews ...
Read ReviewPopular Dances of the 1960s-70s and Ballet
In The Swans of Harlem, Karen Valby explains how Arthur Mitchell sought to make ballet appealing and relevant to a Black audience. He and his dancers regularly visited schools to give talks and ...
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This Strange Eventful History
by Claire Messud
An immersive, masterful story of a family born on the wrong side of history.
Romantic Comedy
by Curtis Sittenfeld
A comedy writer's stance on love shifts when a pop star challenges her assumptions in this witty and touching novel.
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A powerful, sweeping historical novel about a courageous woman in World War II Germany.
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.
