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BookBrowse Highlights
| October 16, 2014
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Hello,
This week's issue includes a review of Some Luck, Jane Smiley's new book, the first in a trilogy. We're also discussing it in our book club, so if you're lucky enough to have already read it please do join us!
In our 'beyond the book' articles you can learn about dirty realism and interesting facts about the birth of the pill.
You can also meet Celeste Ng, author of Everything I Never Told You, enter to win Bitter Greens and catch up on news from the world of books, including award winners.
Enjoy!
Davina
BookBrowse Founder & Editor
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Some 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. Editor's Choice 
Some Luck by Jane Smiley
Hardcover (October 01, 2014), 416 pages. Publisher: Knopf. BookBrowse Rating: 5/5, Critics' Consensus: 5/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | Indie Review: The 395-page Some Luck, which is part of an intended trilogy, focuses on a farming family in a small town in Iowa, from 1920 to 1953. The novel starts with the birth of the first son, Frank, to parents Rosanna and Walter Langdon. Jane Smiley uses an unusual technique to bring their world close to the reader by depicting it through the eyes of baby Frank. The effect is one of immediacy, as his world is made mostly of sensations and wonder. The sensations around his Mama are soft and pleasant, while those around his Papa are more likely to be rough and noisy. Thus, the reader discovers ... 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. The BookBrowse Book Club
Please Join Us to Discuss Some Luck 
From the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a powerful, engrossing new novel - the life and times of a remarkable family over three transformative decades in America  Discussions coming soon:
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 3. Publishing Soon
Each month BookBrowse previews 80+ notable books. Here is a particularly interesting title from these upcoming books.  The Book of Strange New Things by Michel FaberPublisher: Hogarth Books Publication Date: Oct 2014 Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Alternate History, 480 pages Critic's Opinion: 5/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | Indie
A monumental, genre-defying novel over ten years in the making, Michel Faber's The Book of Strange New Things is a masterwork from a writer in full command of his many talents. It begins with Peter, a devoted man of faith, as he is called to the mission of a lifetime, one that takes him galaxies away from his wife, Bea. Peter becomes immersed in the mysteries of an astonishing new environment ... continued
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 4. News  Oct 15 2014
The National Book Awards have announced their nonfiction shortlist consisting of five titles ... (more)
Oct 15 2014
The National Book Award shortlist for this year's Young People's Literature category is ... (more)
Oct 15 2014
The National Book Awards have announced their fiction shortlist... (more)
Oct 14 2014
Australian author Richard Flanagan has won the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for his wartime novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Flanagan's novel is set during the construction of the Thailand-Burma Death Railway in World War Two. This was the first year that the Man Booker prize had been open to ... (more)
Oct 13 2014 Amazon will soon open small warehouse/stores in Manhattan, San Francisco and Sacramento. According to the Wall Street Journal, which reported on the New York store, apparently, the stores will function as "mini warehouse, with limited inventory for same-day delivery within New York, products ... (more)
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 5. Beyond the Book: Dirty Realism  Every time we review a book we also explore a related topic. Here is a recent "beyond the book" article for...
Goat Mountain by David Vann
Paperback (October 14, 2014), 256 pages.
David Vann fits into an American literary tradition that has been around since the 1960s, but was only given a name in 1983. Bill Buford, former editor of Granta literary magazine, coined the term "dirty realism" to characterize two trends in American fiction: a tendency toward simplified language, largely free from adverbs or flowery language (as is true of Vann's matter-of-fact prose in Goat Mountain...continued Read in full | More about this book
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6. Editor's Choice 
The Wallcreeper by Nell Zink
Paperback Original (October 01, 2014), 200 pages. Publisher: Dorothy, a publishing project. BookBrowse Rating: 4/5, Critics' Consensus: 4.7/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | IndieReview: It was in 2013 that writer Claire Messud responded to an interviewer who suggested that her female protagonists were not likeable. Messud claimed that the question was sexist, that one should not expect women in fiction to be likeable. It's more important, Messud claimed, to have characters who are alive. By every indication, Tiffany, the young, newly married narrator in The Wallcreeper is just that. She might not be likeable but she is very much alive. And interesting. After a whirlwind romance that leads to marriage in just three short weeks, Tiffany decides ... 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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7. Beyond the Book
Surprising Facts About The Pill
 Every time we review a book we also explore a related topic. Here is a recent "beyond the book" article for...
The Birth of the Pill by Jonathan Eig
Hardcover (October 13, 2014), 400 pages.
The pill wasn't an accident, but it was a surprise.
The birth-control pill has been labeled the most important invention of the twentieth century, but no drug company, no university, and no government agency wanted anything to do with it in the beginning. The pill never would have been developed if not for a small group of radicals hell-bent on changing the world...continued
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 8. Author Interview
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 9. Blog: Relive World War I Day by Day  Would you like to know more about World War I but are nervous about getting bogged down in weighty nonfiction or possibly flawed fiction reads? Do you enjoy listening to a good yarn that wraps historical fact around a great narrative story? If you do, then I urge to tune into BBC Radio 4's Home Front. continued... Read this blog post | All blog posts |
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 10. Win This Book
 Bitter Greens by Kate ForsythPublished Sep 2014
496 pages
Enter the Giveaway From the Jacket The amazing power and truth of the Rapunzel fairy tale comes alive for the first time in this breathtaking tale of desire, black magic and the redemptive power of love French novelist Charlotte-Rose de la Force has been banished from the court of Versailles by the Sun King, Louis XIV, after a series of scandalous love affairs. At the convent, she is comforted by an old nun, Sœur Seraphina, who tells her the tale of a young girl who, a hundred years earlier, is sold by her parents for a handful of bitter greens... After Margherita's father steals parsley from the walled garden of the courtesan Selena Leonelli, he is threatened with having both hands cut off, unless he and his wife relinquish their precious little girl. Selena is the famous red-haired muse of the artist Tiziano, first painted by him in 1512 and still inspiring him at the time of his death. She is at the center of Renaissance life in Venice, a world of beauty and danger, seduction and betrayal, love and superstition. Locked away in a tower, Margherita sings in the hope that someone will hear her. One day, a young man does. Award-winning author Kate Forsyth braids together the stories of Margherita, Selena, and Charlotte-Rose, the woman who penned Rapunzel as we now know it, to create what is a sumptuous historical novel, an enchanting fairy tale retelling, and a loving tribute to the imagination of one remarkable woman. 5 people will each win a hardcover copy of Bitter Greens. 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 might live. Enter the giveaway Past Winners
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