BookBrowse: Your Guide to Exceptional Books

Top Picks
Review

These Heathens

It is 1960 in Millen, Georgia, a rural town three hours by train from Atlanta, and 17-year-old Doris Steele is pregnant. This is a devastating development in a young life already marred by ...
Read Review

Beyond the Book

Collier Heights, Atlanta's Black Enclave

In These Heathens, set in 1960, 17-year-old Doris Steele visits a friend of her former teacher, who lives in the Collier Heights area in Atlanta, Georgia. Collier Heights was established in 1952 ...
Read Article
Top Picks
Review

So Far Gone

The decision to become a hermit is not one to be made lightly. In 2016, after a 30-year career in environmental journalism, Rhys Kinnick retreated to his grandfather's primitive cabin in the remote ...
Read Review

Beyond the Book

Washington State Authors

Jess Walter, the author of So Far Gone, is based in Washington, a state that has produced a number of well-known writers. Below we feature a small selection of Washington State authors and books. ...
Read Article
Top Picks
Review

The Accidentals

An albatross relies on its powerful homing instincts to navigate its territory. If it strays too far or is displaced by a storm, it can become unmoored. Such birds are known as "accidentals," writes ...
Read Review

Beyond the Book

Contemporary Mexican Literature in Translation

The Accidentals is a collection of short stories by Mexican author Guadalupe Nettel, translated from Spanish to English by Rosalind Harvey. Nettel's novel Still Born, also translated by Harvey, was ...
Read Article
Top Picks
Review

Open, Heaven

Open, Heaven, the debut novel from Irish poet Seán Hewitt, opens with recent divorcé James returning to his hometown in northern England and contending with the intense memories his ...
Read Review

Beyond the Book

Classics of Queer Irish Literature

Ireland has an undeniably rich literary history across a wide range of fiction, drama, and poetry—this abundant legacy includes a number of noteworthy pieces of queer fiction and memoir. One of ...
Read Article
Top Picks
Review

My Friends

Fredrik Backman's latest novel, My Friends, is a touching story that revolves around four fourteen-year-old friends during one glorious, adolescent summer. In a working-class coastal town, Joar, Ted, ...
Read Review

Beyond the Book

Mary Oliver and "The Summer Day"

Fredrik Backman's new novel, My Friends, repeatedly quotes 'The Summer Day,' a well-known poem by poet Mary Oliver (1936-2019). Oliver was born in Maple Heights, Ohio, a small, rural town less ...
Read Article
Top Picks
Review

So Very Small

Not much about the COVID-19 pandemic could be called "lucky," but the fact humanity faced it in the 21^st century—with all modern medicine's tools at our disposal—has made a ...
Read Review

Beyond the Book

Plague in the 21st Century

Thomas Levenson begins So Very Small, his history of the development of germ theory, with an account of the Great Plague that struck London in 1665. Although this was the last major outbreak to hit ...
Read Article

Subscribe

to our Free Newsetter!

Genres & Themes

What's New

Book Clubs

Read-Alikes

Beyond the Book

Young Adults

The BookBrowse Review

ezine jacket

June 18, 2025

The BookBrowse Review

June 18, 2025

This issue of The BookBrowse Review contains reviews and "beyond the book" articles for 16 titles, including Endling by Maria Reva, Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan, and Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. We also bring you Our 2025 Summer Reading List: 11 Books for the Beach, previews of upcoming releases, author interviews, and more.

New In Paperback

Authors
See More
Book Clubs
See More
The Book Club

The Ghostwriter
by Julie Clark

From the instant New York Times bestselling author of The Last Flight and The Lies I Tell comes a dazzling new thriller.

Discuss

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.