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This Week's Top 10
| July 31, 2014
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Hello
 We've opened a new book club discussion - about Sue Miller's just released novel, The Arsonist - please do join us! Other highlights include a "beyond the book" article about a brave WWI hero - pictured right; and 10 notable August debuts you won't want to miss.
Thanks for reading!
Davina, BookBrowse Editor
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A lot of BookBrowse's content is available for free but full access is for members. Most readers of this newsletter are not members. Membership is $10 for 3 months or $35 for a year. Find out more!
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 1. First Impressions: Members Recommend
Each month we give away books to US resident members to read and review (or discuss). Members who choose to take part receive a free book (including free shipping) about every three months. Here are their opinions on one recently published book:
 The Fortune Hunter by Daisy Goodwin Publisher: St. Martin's Press Publication Date: Jul 2014 Historical Fiction, 480 pages Number of reader reviews: 25 Readers' consensus: 3.8/5.0 Members Say One of the most famous women of the nineteenth century (The Empress of Austria) certainly made a marvelous heroine upon which to build this novel. If this is your first chance to meet Sisi or you are seeking more knowledge of her, this novel will more than satisfy you." - Kathleen R. (Ogdensburg, NY) "Daisy Goodwin serves up a slice of history presented by characters so alive they can neither be overlooked nor forgotten. The mind-set of the 19th century, its customs and levels of society, the clothing, food, manner of speech, vocabulary are so skillfully combined, the 21st century can seamlessly slip away and the reader falls easily into that earlier age where royalty and its observations flourish, where behavior and occupation are often by royal commend and personal desires are conflicted." - Shirley D. (Amherst, MA) "I will definitely recommend this most entertaining book to my book club." - Sheila S. (Supply, NC)
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 2. The BookBrowse Book Club
 The Arsonist: A Novel by Sue Miller
Published Jun 2014
Knopf, 320 pages
From the best-selling author of While I Was Gone and The Senator's Wife, a superb new novel about a family and a community tested when an arsonist begins setting fire to the homes of the summer people...
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 3. Editor's Choice
The Bees by Laline Paull
Hardcover, 352 pages Publisher: Ecco BookBrowse Rating: 5/5 Critics' Consensus: 4.8/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | IndieA palpable buzzing noise fills our heads as we turn the final page of playwright Laline Paull's compelling debut, The Bees. Built on the foundations of a limitless imagination and flawless research, this new slice of dystopian fiction will no doubt leave the reader hankering for more. Nestled deep within the orchards of an overgrown garden, sits an old wooden hive. Deep within it lives our narrator Flora 717, a worker bee from the sanitation division of her colony. Large, dark and incredibly hairy she is looked upon as ugly, insignificant and even deformed, her destiny: to scrub the ... continued Read the review | More Editor's Choices | More reviews by Lucy Rock Full access to our reviews & beyond the book articles are for members only. But there are always four free Editor's Choice reviews and beyond the book articles on our homepage.
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4. Beyond the Book  Every time we review a book we also go beyond the book to explore a related topic. Here is a recent "beyond the book" backstory for...
The Dog Who Could Fly: The Incredible True Story of a WWII Airman and the Four-Legged Hero Who Flew At His Side by Damien Lewis Hardcover (June 10, 2014), 304 pages.
A note to Damien Lewis....The world could use a lot more of your stories of miraculous dogs of war. Below, you'll find two other dogs, equally as brave as Antis in The Dog Who Could Fly, who I hope will spark your interest. The sooner, the better! In July 1917, the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut was not only host to basic training for Camp Yale, the soldiers of the 102nd Infantry in the 26th "Yanke e" Division, but also a short brindle bull terrier mutt, who wandered onto the field. All of the troops got to know this dog, but 25-year-old J. Robert Conroy had the closest bond with him. Soon, he adopted him and named him Stubby. But when he prepared to ship out with his Infantry, he had the problem of what to do with Stubby because the U.S. military forbade dogs. Conroy had kept the dog well hidden during his three months of training, so after the troops traveled by train to Newport News, Virginia, Conroy hid Stubby in his Army greatcoat before boarding the SS Minnesota to France. Officers did find him aboard the ship, but it is said they couldn't resist Stubby when the dog lifted his right paw in salute.... continued Read in full | More about this book
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 5. Publishing Soon
Each month BookBrowse previews 80-100 notable books. Here is a particularly interesting title from these upcoming books.  In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton SidesPublisher: Doubleday, Aug 5, 2014, 480 pages Critic's Opinion: 5/5 New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides returns with a white-knuckle tale of polar exploration and survival in the Gilded Age.
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 6. News
It's the slow news season, even in the book world - but fortunately Amazon seem to be keeping us in news stories!
Jul 25 2014 Amazon sales in the second quarter rose 23%, to $19.34 billion, in line with analysts' expectations, but the net loss of $126 million was deeper than expected. In addition, the company said it expects its third quarter loss to be between $810 million and $410 million compared to a loss of $25 ... (more)Jul 23 2014 Amazon's new "Kindle Unlimited" program that allows unlimited downloads of about 600,000 books (about 500,000 of which are self-published) for a monthly subscription appears to be having a significant impact on Amazon's Top 100 list. Jul 22 2014 The group of writers who signed an open letter earlier this month regarding the Amazon/Hachette dispute are now "developing a long-term strategy" under the banner Authors United, the Bookseller reported. The group includes Paul Auster, David Baldacci, Tracy Chevalier, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Mark Haddon, Sophie Hannah, Stephen King, Barbara Kingsolver, James Patterson, Philip Pullman and Donna Tartt. "This struggle with Amazon may go on for a while," Preston wrote. "Our group, which we call Authors United, is developing a long-term strategy in case our effort here is not effective ... (more)
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 7. Readalikes for Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat  A stunning work of fiction that brings us deep into the intertwined lives of a small seaside town where a little girl, the daughter of a fisherman, has gone missing.
If you liked Claire of the Sea Light, try these:
Paperback May 2013
Vivid, powerful stories of contemporary Nigeria, from a talented young author.
 Map of the Invisible World by Tash Aw
Paperback Dec 2010
From the author of the internationally acclaimed, award-winning The Harmony Silk Factory comes an enthralling new novel that evokes an exotic yet turbulent and often frightening time and place. Map of the Invisible World is the masterly, psychologically rich tale of three lives indelibly marked by the past-their own and Indonesia's.
Paperback Sep 2008
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition - its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.
Paperback Sep 2008
Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fukœ - the curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations.
Hardcover Feb 2014
The UnAmericans, a stunning exploration of characters shaped by the forces of history, is the debut work of fiction by Molly Antopol, a 2013 National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" Honoree.
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 8. Feature Focus
You know that you can find just the right book for you at BookBrowse by searching and cross-referencing by genre, time period, setting and theme. To get started go to http://www.bookbrowse.com/category
or click on the "Find Books" button in the main menu. |
 9. Blog: 10 Notable August Debuts Each year we search through thousands of books and book reviews in order to shortlist the most notable 80-100 publishing each month. Then we gather together all available reviews for each book so our members know about the best and most interesting books well ahead of the crowd.
Click for 10 notable debuts that we think you'll want to know about - all publishing in August.
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 10. Quote "The purpose of life is to be defeated by greater and greater things." 
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) is considered one of the German language's greatest 20th century poets. He was born in Prague (then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire) and studied in Prague, Munich and Berlin. His works in German include Das Stundenbuch(The Book of Hours), written after visiting Russia; Die Sonnette an Orpheus(Sonnets to Orpheus) and Duineser Elegien(Duion Elegies). He also wrote about 400 poems in French dedicated to Valais in Switzerland, his homeland of choice, where he died of leukemia at just 51 years of age.
More quotes by Rilke
This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love: the more they give, the more they possess.
The only journey is the one within.
Love is like the measles. The older you get it, the worse the attack.
I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of the other. |
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