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  • Top Picks

    Review

    America, América

    The origin and development of the United States is usually explained primarily by looking back east towards Europe, but in America, América, historian Greg Grandin shifts the focus south to Latin...

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    Beyond the Book

    Two Major Works that Shaped American (and Américan) Thought

    In America, América, historian Greg Grandin references two major intellectual works of history and philosophy that influenced the worldviews of peoples in the Americas and in Europe. These two ...

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    Review

    The Dry Season

    Two years after the chaotic, self-imposed implosion of her most significant romantic relationship (an affair and breakup she dubs "the Maelstrom") and on the heels of yet another anxiety-provoking bad...

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    Beyond the Book

    Painter Agnes Martin

    In The Dry Season, Melissa Febos seeks out stories of creative women who might serve as models for the kind of artistic life she hopes to pursue following a period of self-enforced celibacy. One ...

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    Review

    Great Big Beautiful Life

    Love, often couched in other themes or squeezed between ideas and concepts of apparent greater effect in literary fiction, rarely enjoys exploration for its own sake in its naked simplicity. However, ...

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    Beyond the Book

    Romance Novels with Complex Themes

    In many ways, Emily Henry's Great Big Beautiful Life is about the complex bond between mothers and daughters that prompts mothers to act in strange, counterintuitive ways. While the novel is quite ...

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    Review

    This Is Your Mother

    "Imagine this is your mother. Sallie Carol. Daughter of sharecroppers. Middle of ten." From its first lines onward, Erika J. Simpson's debut memoir invites readers to get to know and admire her mother...

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    Beyond the Book

    Memoirs about Mothers

    Erika J. Simpson's This Is Your Mother is an unconventional memoir about the author's mother Sallie Carol. Below we highlight some other recommended memoirs in which an author reflects on their ...

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    Review

    Death in the Jungle

    Most people have heard the expression "drinking the Kool-Aid," but not everyone is familiar with its horrifying origin. The often offhanded phrase is a reference to the 1978 tragedy at Jonestown, a ...

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    Beyond the Book

    Cyanide Toxicity: How It Works

    Death in the Jungle tells the true story of Jim Jones, the preacher-turned-cult-leader who founded the infamous Jonestown settlement, a socialist community that became a site of mass murder. Jones ...

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    Review

    Are You Happy?

    Is anyone happy? The more we learn about people's lives, the harder that question becomes to answer. In Lori Ostlund's collection Are You Happy? we follow nine stories that are sincere, thoughtful, ...

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    Beyond the Book

    The Reality of Writing Workshops

    Several stories in Lori Ostlund's Are You Happy? follow characters who are either teachers or students in writing workshops. Writing workshops are intended to help students strengthen their ...

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The BookBrowse Review

June 04, 2025

This issue of The BookBrowse Review contains reviews and "beyond the book" articles for 14 titles, including When the Harvest Comes by Denne Michele Norris, The Dry Season by Melissa Febos, and My Friends by Fredrik Backman. We also bring you our list of June Books We're Excited About, previews of upcoming books, the latest book news, and more.

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New In Paperback

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.