Archives of "The BookBrowse Review": Reviews, previews, back-stories, news

Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we cover Jess Row's latest novel The New Earth, the story of a globally dispersed, chaotic family and a clear-eyed but optimistic view of what standing up to oppression involves. Our accompanying Beyond the Book article focuses on the Zapatista indigenous peasant movement in Chiapas, Mexico.

We also review nonfiction that compellingly explores the origins and wide-ranging effects of persecution. Timothy Egan's A Fever in the Heartland tells of the Ku Klux Klan's resurgence in 1920s Indiana. Tania Branigan's Red Memory depicts experiences of the Cultural Revolution in China from firsthand interviews. The Forgotten Girls by Monica Potts examines the lives of American women in conservative rural communities through the author's reconnection with a childhood friend.

Straddling the line between fiction and nonfiction is Anne Berest's The Postcard, a novel that takes place during the Nazi occupation of France and incorporates her own family's experiences.

Other new fiction recommendations look at characters who find themselves out of place or between identities. In Nicole Cuffy's Dances, the first Black ballerina promoted to principal dancer in the New York City Ballet struggles with her newfound fame. S.A. Cosby's All the Sinners Bleed centers the first Black sheriff of Charon County, Virginia, who deals with the challenges of his position while attempting to solve a murder case. Ghost Girl, Banana by Wiz Wharton follows a biracial English woman unraveling a mystery surrounding her Hong Kong-born mother, who died when she was young.

We also have other reviews and articles, a sampler of our reviewer reading lists, a giveaway of Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis, a new Wordplay and much more.

Thank you for being a BookBrowse member.

Davina Morgan-Witts
BookBrowse Publisher

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Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we review Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano, a homage to Louisa May Alcott's Little Women which follows four sisters; their energetic mother Rose and their Walt Whitman-loving father Charlie; and William, a newcomer to the family, as they all experience emotional ups and downs. Our accompanying Beyond the Book article explores the therapeutic value of Whitman's poetry.

A new biography of Helen Keller, After the Miracle by Max Wallace, highlights her often-ignored political stances and activism. The West by Naoíse Mac Sweeney, another innovative work of nonfiction, challenges common ideas of Western civilization through the lives of 14 historical figures.

We also bring you a significant variety of historical fiction. The Lost Wife by Susanna Moore tells the story of a settler woman caught up in the U.S.-Dakota war of 1862. Where Coyotes Howl by Sandra Dallas sets a romance amid the realities of homesteading in the early-20th-century West. Susan Meissner's Only the Beautiful focuses on the eugenics movement in America and Nazi Germany between the 1930s and the 1950s. Jacqueline Winspear's The White Lady features a retired World War II spy, her previous life and current predicaments.

While set in contemporary times, Amulya Malladi's A Death in Denmark (a paperback original), also looks back to the WWII era, questioning the Danish role in the conflict and introducing idiosyncratic detective Gabriel Præst.

You can enjoy reviews and articles for many other books, try your hand at a new Wordplay and enter our latest giveaway to win one of 30 copies of Such Kindness, a new novel from celebrated writer Andre Dubus.

We also have a new Pulitzer-related literary quiz, an article on what book clubs get up to when not discussing books and previews of almost 50 notable books publishing in the next three weeks.

As always, thank you for being a BookBrowse member.

Davina Morgan-Witts
BookBrowse Publisher

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Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we bring you our review of The Covenant of Water, the first novel from bestselling author Abraham Verghese since his beloved 2009 Cutting for Stone. Beginning in the year 1900 and continuing over decades, this intricate and fascinating read follows a family living on India's Malabar Coast that suffers from a mysterious intergenerational affliction.

Another absorbing story chronicling a family's joys and sorrows, Tyriek White's We Are a Haunting, is set across three timelines spanning the 1980s to contemporary Brooklyn. Clytemnestra, Costanza Casati's feminist recasting of one of Greek mythology's most notorious women, and Fatherland, Burkhard Bilger's memoir of struggling with the legacy of his Nazi grandfather, each in their own way raise questions about the meaning of family ties in the face of atrocity. And Alice Winn's In Memoriam, a tale of romance between two English soldiers in World War I, portrays young people facing their own horrors and revelations from which family cannot shield them. Our accompanying Beyond the Book article explores the Alfred, Lord Tennyson poem In Memoriam A.H.H., which appears in Winn's novel.

You can also read reviews and linked articles for many other books, including two fresh young adult offerings: Margarita Engle's story-in-verse Wings in the Wild, and Lorraine Avila's debut novel The Making of Yolanda la Bruja.

Plus, we have 50 copies to give away of Mr Katō Plays Family, an entertaining work of fiction by Milena Michiko Flašar.

Thank you for being a BookBrowse member. We appreciate your support!

Davina Morgan-Witts
BookBrowse Publisher

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Dear BookBrowsers,

Laura Spence-Ash's stunning debut novel Beyond That, the Sea captures brief moments from multiple perspectives, starting when young protagonist Beatrix is sent overseas from England to live with an American family during World War II and continuing over many years after this. The Beyond the Book article accompanying our review of Spence-Ash's novel focuses on the evacuation of children from London at the time, including those like Beatrix who traveled out of the country.

We also cover the fascinating account of a different kind of journey undertaken during World War II in Fragile Cargo, where author Adam Brookes conveys China's attempts to protect thousands of cultural artifacts from the Japanese invasion in 1931 by shipping them elsewhere. And we review Under Alien Skies by Philip Plait, another work of nonfiction that portrays a voyage of sorts, this one offering a tour of the furthest reaches of the universe.

In Weyward, Emilia Hart's first novel, three women with extraordinary gifts contend with misogynistic oppression and violence from men in different time periods. Kate J. Armstrong's young adult fiction debut Nightbirds similarly addresses issues related to women's autonomy through three female protagonists with special powers; and another YA debut novel, Ari Tison's Saints of the Household, tells the story of two brothers who strive to overcome the influence of their abusive father. Along with our review of Armstrong's novel, we have an article on interesting current trends in YA fantasy cover art.

You can also enjoy many other reviews, a new Wordplay, previews of upcoming releases and much more.

Thank you for being a BookBrowse member.

Davina Morgan-Witts
BookBrowse Publisher

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Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we bring you reviews of multiple books that balance social commentary with superb storytelling. Birnam Wood, the latest work of fiction from Booker winner Eleanor Catton, takes on late-stage capitalism with humor and wit. A Country You Can Leave by debut novelist Asale Angel-Ajani follows tensions between a biracial teenager and her Russian immigrant mother through a funny, devastating coming-of-age plot. This Other Eden by Pulitzer-awarded author Paul Harding brings to life a mixed-race community in early 20th-century Maine threatened by prejudice and gentrification.

The Exceptions, a nonfiction book from Kate Zernike tracing sexism in academia, and The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel, a novel about a paleobiologist and her two daughters, both involve women in scientific fields having their work appropriated by men. Rachel Beanland's The House Is on Fire, based on the Richmond, Virginia theater fire of 1811, addresses gender inequality in news sources, and our accompanying Beyond the Book article further explores underrepresentation of women in media.

At BookBrowse, we generally only review books we can confidently rate at least 4 stars out of 5. However, we occasionally cover lower-rated high-profile titles with the hopes of offering valuable critical insight that may not appear elsewhere. This issue features two such 3-star reviews, for Salman Rushdie's Victory City, newly available in hardcover, and Jennifer Egan's The Candy House, soon to release in paperback.

We also have a new Q&A with an ESL book club, 36 Book Club Discussion Topics for Any Book and much more for you to enjoy.

Thanks for being a BookBrowse member.

Davina Morgan-Witts
BookBrowse Publisher

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Dear BookBrowsers,

Who doesn't love a good mystery? In this issue, we bring you Exiles, Jane Harper's suspenseful latest (and last) book featuring Federal Agent Aaron Falk, in which he investigates the disappearance of a woman in a small town — along with an accompanying Beyond the Book article on South Australian wine country, where the story takes place. Our review of Harper's novel is made up of reader comments from our First Impressions program, which offers a selection of books to BookBrowse members each month to read and review (due to publisher restrictions, books are only available to those resident in the U.S.) You can find readers' opinions on these books in our First Impressions section (under the "New" tab in the main menu), but we also run special features in this magazine for titles that participants especially enjoy, such as Exiles, rated an average of 4.7 out of 5 stars.

For a different kind of puzzle, dive into our review of A Mystery of Mysteries, Mark Dawidziak's new biography of Edgar Allan Poe, who not only contributed to the foundations of the modern detective story but also died prematurely in a fashion mysterious enough to stump the cleverest investigator.

Two historical novels we review in this issue consider points of view not often present in mainstream history. Jamila Minnicks' Moonrise Over New Jessup takes place in an all-Black Alabama town in the 1950s that wishes to resist oncoming racial integration, while Jennifer Rosner's Once We Were Home (another book reviewed by our First Impressions readers) is based around the stories of children stolen away from their families, ostensibly for their own protection, during World War II. Our Beyond the Book article relating to Minnick's novel looks at historic Black communities in the United States, and with Rosner's novel we present a reading list of more World War II novels for adults focused on a child's perspective.

We also bring you a review of Bisi Adjapon's Daughter in Exile, the story of Ghanaian immigrant Lola making her way in the US with few resources and connections. While Adjapon's novel tells a classic immigrant story of struggle and perseverance, it also grounds Lola's resilience and hope in the realities of her everyday life, ultimately offering much more than a tale of simple heroism.

Among much else to explore in this issue are the results of our survey to ascertain The Most Popular Book Club Books of 2022, a new Wordplay, and many more reviews and "beyond the book" articles.

Thank you for supporting BookBrowse by being a member.

Davina Morgan-Witts
BookBrowse Publisher

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Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we bring you a First Impressions review of a new atmospheric and intriguing novel from Pulitzer finalist Margaret Verble. Stealing follows Kit, a Cherokee child forced to attend a Christian boarding school in the 1950s, as she pieces together truths about her life through the act of reviewing a journal she has kept.

In addition, we review some fantastic debut novels, several of which, like Verble's book, explore issues of systemic injustice — in the first case, with welcome humor. The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff is a darkly comic glimpse into the life of a woman in contemporary India whose neighbors are under the mistaken impression that she murdered her abusive husband. Kevin Jared Hosein's Hungry Ghosts examines the religious and social inequalities of 1940s Trinidad through odd occurrences on a farm owned by a wealthy family and maintained by workers living in poor conditions. Wade in the Water by Nyani Nkrumah centers on the friendship between a white graduate student and a young Black girl among racial tensions in 1980s Mississippi. The New Life by Tom Crewe tells a fictionalized version of the struggle faced by the two men who published the first English textbook on homosexuality following the highly publicized trial of the famous writer Oscar Wilde in the 1890s.

You can learn more about fascinating public figures discussed in two of these books through their accompanying Beyond the Book articles. To expand on Crewe's novel, we give a brief overview of Wilde's trial and work, and look at how he went from being ostracized by British society in life to being celebrated after his death. In connection with Shroff's book, we highlight the controversial real-world "bandit queen" Phoolan Devi, a one-time fugitive criminal glorified as a Robin Hood-esque hero among the lower castes of India who later served as a Member of Parliament.

We also bring you works of nonfiction that delve into issues of migration and resettlement. Jake Bittle's The Great Displacement ponders how climate change is driving people from their homes in the United States, and Caroline Dodds Pennock's On Savage Shores considers historical Europe from an Indigenous American perspective.

Plus, explore our blog post about the 100th anniversary of the publisher W.W. Norton & Company, a literary quiz on collective nouns for birds and a new Wordplay.

Thanks, as always, for being a BookBrowse member.

Davina Morgan-Witts
BookBrowse Publisher

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