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

Dear BookBrowsers,

Percival Everett, a quietly prolific writer of noteworthy novels over the past four decades, may have gained a new audience from the recent Oscar-nominated film American Fiction, based on his 2003 book Erasure. His latest work, James, reimagines Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Huck's companion Jim. Our accompanying Beyond the Book article covers similar retellings of other classic tales, such as Albert Camus' The Stranger and Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.

A main theme of Everett's novel is language, as it shows Jim and other enslaved people of Twain's time using strategic code switching to protect themselves. Linguist Anne Curzan explores related topics in Says Who?, which looks at how power dynamics have historically affected what is considered "standard" English, and strives for a flexible, inclusive and fun approach to grammar. Those interested in social aspects of history may also love bestselling author Leigh Bardugo's scintillating latest, The Familiar, which follows Luzia, a servant with a magical secret, during the tumultuous time of the Spanish Inquisition.

Meanwhile, Hampton Sides' The Wide Wide Sea and Jessica J. Lee's Dispersals both tackle past journeys with aplomb — the last voyage of Captain James Cook and the movements of various plants across land and sea, respectively.

And readers craving the cream of contemporary literary fiction will find much to savor in Rachel Lyon's Fruit of the Dead, a thoroughly modern retelling of the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone.

We invite you to enjoy these and many other reviews and articles, The Most Popular Book Club Books of 2023 according to our subscribers, previews of upcoming titles, a new Wordplay and much more.

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

Davina & Nick
Founder & Publisher

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Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we bring you Change, the autofictional novel from Édouard Louis, translated from the French by John Lambert, that continues from his bestselling debut The End of Eddy. In this new work, Eddy attempts to transcend his childhood of poverty and homophobic abuse via social ascent, and our accompanying Beyond the Book article considers how Louis has been influenced in his writing by the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu.

Another fresh release from a well-loved author is Amor Towles' story collection Table for Two, including the 1930s Los Angeles-set novella "Eve in Hollywood," which gives his fans an abundance of material to enjoy along with the new TV series A Gentleman in Moscow. History also unfolds in the Billie Holiday biography Bitter Crop, Paul Alexander's evocative account of Lady Day's last year, and in Stephanie Dray's novel Becoming Madam Secretary, following the life of Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and the first woman to serve as a United States cabinet member. Carys Davies' Clear sets a story of intimate connection between two men against the backdrop of Scotland's Highland Clearances in the 19th century.

Under This Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis is a unique young adult thriller featuring a teenage girl who experiences auditory hallucinations and must unravel the mystery around the death of a beloved coworker. The Last Bloodcarver by Vanessa Le, another exciting YA offering, combines steampunk aesthetics with inspiration from Vietnamese culture to craft the fantastical story of a young woman with the power to change human biology through magic.

You can read these reviews and articles along with many others, author interviews, book club recommendations, a new Wordplay and more.

Thanks for being a BookBrowse member!

Davina & Nick
Founder & Publisher

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Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we bring you Rita Bullwinkel's much-anticipated debut novel Headshot, a visceral foray into a girls' boxing tournament and an exploration of the timeless nature of athletic competition. Our linked Beyond the Book article showcases the history of women's boxing through notable participants in the sport.

Other fiction we review features more young characters fighting to find their place in the world. Tia Williams' A Love Song for Ricki Wilde focuses on an aspiring florist who sets up shop in Harlem and becomes immersed in the neighborhood's history. Izzy, the 20-year-old Cuban American protagonist of Jennine Capó Crucet's Say Hello to My Little Friend, attempts a criminal life in the vein of Scarface's Tony Montana. In The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard, teenager Odile Ozanne approaches a prestigious career in the Conseil, a group of authorities that rule in an alternate reality where time is a geographical construct, only to make a snap decision she will regret. Accompanying our review of this book is a reading list of novels involving technology-free time travel.

Emily Howes' The Painter's Daughters follows Peggy and Molly Gainsborough, daughters of the 18th-century British landscape painter Thomas Gainsborough, as they come of age and develop an awareness of the misogynistic society around them. Another work of historical fiction that takes on the neglected perspectives of women and children is All Our Yesterdays by Joel H. Morris, a prequel to Shakespeare's Macbeth that imagines the earlier life of Lady Macbeth and her son.

Enjoy these and many other reviews and articles, book club recommendations, previews of upcoming books, a new Wordplay and more.

Thank you for supporting BookBrowse as a member.

Davina & Nick
Founder & Publisher

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Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we cover several books that court the otherworldly with enough realism to satisfy fans of literary and historical fiction. The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden and Held by Anne Michaels are brilliantly realized World War I novels tinged with the supernatural. Elizabeth Gonzalez James' The Bullet Swallower adds a dash of magic to the spaghetti western, and Francis Spufford's Cahokia Jazz imagines an alternate history drama in a 1920s Native American city.

You Glow in the Dark, an eerily beautiful dystopian story collection translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews, brings award-winning Bolivian author Liliana Colanzi to English-language readers in a slim paperback original. Soyoung Park's Snowglobe, futuristic YA fiction translated from the Korean by Joungmin Lee Comfort, channels today's fan culture into an icy world wrecked by capitalism and climate change. Jennifer Croft, translator of Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk, debuts with her own novel, The Extinction of Irena Rey, about a world-famous author who vanishes, leaving her translators to solve the mystery of her disappearance.

Meanwhile, Robert Jackson Bennett's The Tainted Cup delivers an unusual police procedural set on a planet where genetically modified plants can be used to commit murder. Our accompanying Beyond the Book article outlines the history of the police procedural, and considers modern examples that challenge its traditional structure.

Plus, Lauren Markham's A Map of Future Ruins dissects myth and fact in an exploration of her family's roots and the European refugee crisis.

You can check out these reviews and articles along with many others, the latest book news, previews of upcoming releases, a new Wordplay and more.

Thanks for being a BookBrowse member.

Davina & Nick
Founder & Publisher

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Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we bring you new fiction from internationally beloved author Muriel Barbery. One Hour of Fervor, translated by Alison Anderson, tells the poignant, quietly descriptive story of a Japanese art dealer separated from his daughter as she grows up halfway around the world with her French mother.

Derek B. Miller's The Curse of Pietro Houdini, another beautifully written novel focused on visual art, follows a fictional heist in World War II-era Italy.

Rebecca Boyle's Our Moon examines humans' relationship with that celestial body both faraway and familiar, and our paired Beyond the Book article explores artists' depictions of the moon.

We also review Diane Oliver's posthumous debut Neighbors and Other Stories. Comprised of writings completed before the author died tragically in 1966 at the age of 22, it offers a fresh perspective on the end of the Jim Crow era. Our accompanying article recommends other story collections centering Black American life.

Enjoy these and plenty of other articles and reviews, along with a list of 2024 debut authors to keep an eye on, a giveaway of Brandi Wells' office thriller The Cleaner and much more.

Thanks for supporting BookBrowse as a member!

Davina & Nick
Founder & Publisher

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Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we review a handful of books that focus on mysterious and awe-inspiring phenomena. Shubnum Khan's The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years is the captivating story of a house in South Africa haunted by a djinn from the 1930s to contemporary times. An accompanying Beyond the Book article touches on the role of the djinn in Islamic folk culture. Wild and Distant Seas by Tara Karr Roberts follows four generations of women with supernatural powers descended from Ishmael, the protagonist of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. Transient and Strange, a collection of essays by science journalist Nell Greenfieldboyce, combines personal experiences with a sense of wonder for the natural world.

We also cover stories that question the authority of long-standing institutions. Paul Lynch's dystopian tale Prophet Song imagines Ireland collapsing into a totalitarian state. Suzie Miller's Prima Facie, the novel based on the award-winning play of the same name, looks at how victims of sexual assault are re-victimized by legal systems. Daniel Lefferts' literary thriller Ways and Means, which follows a college student on the run after something goes wrong at his unusually high-paying job, considers the price of accruing wealth.

You can explore these along with many other articles and reviews, as well as the latest book news, recommendations for book clubs, previews of upcoming releases, a new Wordplay and more.

Thank you for being a BookBrowse member.

Davina & Nick
Founder & Publisher

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Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we bring you Marie-Helene Bertino's Beautyland, the strange, funny and sad story of a girl named Adina growing up in Philadelphia who not only feels alienated from others but believes she is an actual alien from outer space sent to Earth to observe human behavior. Our accompanying Beyond the Book article explores a human creation that Adina finds deeply affecting: the album Glassworks by Philip Glass.

We also review other unusual, imaginative takes on the coming-of-age plot. Poet Kaveh Akbar's debut novel Martyr! follows Cyrus Shams, a disillusioned young man living in an Indiana college town, searching for meaning in the face of family members' seemingly meaningless deaths. Happy by Celina Baljeet Basra presents Happy Singh Soni, a boy who leaves his family's cabbage farm in India to pursue his dream of being a famous actor in Europe. Chikodili Emelumadu's Dazzling, a Nigerian boarding school drama, tells the tale of two teenage girls as they encounter otherworldly forces.

Plus, we cover Louise Kennedy's short story collection The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac, which focuses on women in contemporary Ireland, John Clinch's The General and Julia, a work of historical fiction imagining the last days of President Ulysses S. Grant, and many other books.

You can enjoy these reviews and articles, along with book club recommendations, previews of February releases, a new Wordplay and more.

Thanks for being a BookBrowse member.

Davina


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