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This Week's Top 10
| October 2, 2014
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Hello
In this issue we review Thank You For Your Service by Pulitzer-winner David Finkel, and De Potter's Grand Tour.
We go "beyond the book" to explore 2nd Wave Feminism, and the Day of the Dead - our backstories relating to Florence Gordon and Six Feet Over It. In addition, we recommend exceptional books set in a range of African countries, and interview Laline Paull about her intriguing first novel set in the dystopian world of a bee hive!
Don't miss the chance to enter to win the critically acclaimed Longbourn, set below stairs in the house of Jane Austen's Bennet family, and as a bonus winners will also receive The Annotated Pride & Prejudice.
Davina
BookBrowse Founder & Editor
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 1. Editor's Choice: Hardcover
De Potter's Grand Tour by Joanna Scott
Hardcover (September 02, 2014), 272 pages. Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. BookBrowse Rating: 5/5, Critics' Consensus: 5.0/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | IndieReview: Even if it were true - as per F. Scott Fitzgerald - that there are no second acts in American lives, it is the land of opportunity that pretty much birthed the concept of reinvention. Of course its very definition implies that a life story has to be "invented" in the first place, that a carefully constructed narrative can iron out any potential wrinkles. This is precisely what Pierre Louis Armand de Potter d'Elseghem does when he immigrates from his native Belgium to the United States in the late nineteenth century and decides to wipe the slate clean. Armand de Potter, as he... continued 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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 2. Wanted: Book Clubs to Interview!
Our book club interviews are packed with useful information and insights from all sorts of different types of book clubs. There's just one problem - we're running low on clubs to interview!
If you're proud of your book club and have insights about it that you'd like to share with our readers, please contact us with brief details about what you like about your club and what you think makes it just that bit different to other clubs. Here are some recent Q&As:
Instead of picking a single specific book The Western Readers choose a genre, topic or author to discuss. They love the freedom this allows them, to explore and follow exactly what interests each of them.
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3. Editor's Choice: Paperback 
Thank You for Your Service by David Finkel
Paperback (September 23, 2014), 272 pages. Publisher: Picador. BookBrowse Rating: 5/5, Critics' Consensus: 5.0/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | Indie Review: In 2007, author David Finkel, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist for The Washington Post, spent several months as an embedded reporter with the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, (also known as the "2-16 Rangers"), as they deployed to Baghdad during the Iraq War. His experiences and observations while there became the basis for the book, The Good Soldiers. Finkel's latest, Thank You For Your Service, follows the lives of several soldiers he met while in Iraq as they return home bearing the scars they incurred - both ... continued 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. Readalikes
Thank You for Your Service is an act of understanding - shocking but always riveting, unflinching but deeply humane, it takes us inside the heads of those who must live the rest of their lives with the chilling realities of war.
If you liked Thank You for Your Service, try these:
Hardcover Mar 2014. Redeployment takes readers to the frontlines of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, asking us to understand what happened there, and what happened to the soldiers who returned.
Paperback Apr 2013. In the tradition of Michael Herr's Dispatches and works by such masters of the memoir as Mary Karr and Tobias Wolff, a powerful account of war and homecoming that grabs readers by the throat even as it touches their hearts.
Paperback Apr 2013. With profound emotional insight, especially into the effects of a hidden war on mothers and families at home, The Yellow Birds is a groundbreaking novel about the costs of war that is destined to become a classic.
Hardcover Jun 2014. Three lives are bound together by a split-second mistake, and a child's fate hangs in the balance. What happens next will test-and restore-your faith in humanity.
Find readalikes for over 2000 authors & 3000 books
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 5. Author Interview
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 6. Publishing Soon
Each month BookBrowse previews 80-100 notable books. Here is a particularly interesting title from these upcoming books.  The Birds of Pandemonium by Michele RaffinPublisher: Algonquin Books Publication Date: Oct 2014 Biographies/Memoirs, 240 pages Critic's Opinion: 4/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | IndieEach morning at first light, Michele Raffin awakens to the bewitching music that heralds another day at Pandemonium Aviaries - a symphony that swells from the most vocal of over 350 avian throats representing over 40 species. "It knocks me out, every day," she admits.
Pandemonium Aviaries is a conservation organization dedicated to saving and breeding birds at the edge of extinction ...continued
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 7. Beyond the Book: 2nd Wave Feminism  Every time we review a book we also explore a related topic. Here is a recent "beyond the book" article for
Florence Gordon by Brian Morton
Hardcover (September 23, 2014), 320 pages.
In the early 20th century several strides were made for the advancement of women, including the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. These victories were associated with what is commonly referred to as the first wave of feminism. After World War II, however, feminist causes waned, and by the 1950s the image of the blissful suburban housewife permeated the national ... continued Read "Beyond the Book" in full | More about this book
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 8. Themed Reads: Africa Whatever their interests members can find the books that are just right for themby browsing and cross-referencing our recommended reading lists by genre, time period, setting and wide variety of themes. Here is a selection of titles from our Africa category:
 The Lion Seeker by Kenneth Bonert
Hardcover: Oct 2013, Paperback Sep 2014
South Africa: A thrilling ride through the life of one fumbling young hero, The Lion Seeker is a glorious reinvention of the classic family and coming-of-age sagas. |
 We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
Hardcover: May 2013, Paperback May 2014
Zimbabwe. Darling is only 10 years old, and yet she must navigate a fragile and violent world. But Darling has a chance to escape: she has an aunt in America |
 Hour of the Red God by Richard Crompton
Hardcover: Apr 2013, Paperback Apr 2014
Kenya: The Maasai believe in two gods. Enkai Narok, the Black God, is benign. Enkai Nanyokie, the Red God, is the god of anger, vengeance, and death. |
 The Orchard of Lost Souls by Nadifa Mohamed
Hardcover: Mar 2014, Paperback 9 Jun 2015
Somalia: From one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists, a stunning novel illuminating Somalia's tragic civil war |
 My First Coup d'Etat by John Mahama
Hardcover: Jul 2012, Paperback May 2013
Ghana: My First Coup d'Etat chronicles the coming-of-age of John Dramani Mahama in Ghana during the dismal post-independence "lost decades" of Africa. |
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9. Beyond the Book: The Day of The Dead  Every time we review a book we also explore a related topic. Here is a recent "beyond the book" article for
Six Feet Over It by Jennifer Longo Leigh was born on November 1. The day following Halloween is known as All Saints Day. In Mexico, where Dario, her friend the gravedigger is from, it is also known as Dias de Los Muertos - The Day of the Dead. On Leah's fifteenth birthday, and the first day they meet, Dario gives her a tiny clay skeleton, La Catrina, the patron saint of death. This iconic figure is thought to represent the ... continued Read in full | More about this book
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 10. Win This Book  Longbourn by Jo Baker Published, Paperback Jun 2014, 352 pages
Enter the Giveaway " Pride and Prejudice and Longbourn create a delightfully unified whole. It is possible to read one without the other, but reading them together provides a broad and nuanced view of early 19th century England - and takes readers into the lives of some of literature's most beloved characters." - BookBrowse 5 people will win a paperback copy of Longbourn by Jo Baker and The Annotated Pride and Prejudice - filled with fascinating facts about Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice and the time period. These books form the perfect companion to read alongside Masterpiece Theater's 3-part series, Death Comes to Pemberley (beginning Oct 26) This giveaway is open to residents of the USA only, unless you are a BookBrowse member, in which case you are eligible to win wherever you live. Enter the giveaway Past Winners
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