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BookBrowse Highlights
| October 23, 2014
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Hello,
Unwrap a whole bunch of assorted treats this week:
We've just opened a discussion of Lessons in French by debut novelist Hilary Reyl - if you've read the book, please do join us; if you have not, we have an excerpt and reviews for you to explore.
We offer reviews of the talented Alice McDermott's Someone, now out in paperback; compelling non-fiction in The Underground Girls of Kabul; and Martin Amis' novel set during the Holocaust, The Zone of Interest.
Sure you need no incentive to read, but our 'Beyond the Book' section for Someone, "Your Brain On Literature," outlines the many delights of delving into literary fiction. Martin Amis' colorful and storied career is the focus of "Bad Boy of English Letters?" the 'Beyond the Book' peek for The Zone of Interest.
Yet another veteran author, Denis Johnson, has a new novel, The Laughing Monsters, releasing soon. You can find out more about this book and preview other upcoming releases as well.
Meet Matthew Thomas, the author of We Are Not Ourselves, and read a complete short story from Terrence Holt's riveting new collection, Internal Medicine.
Enjoy!
Davina, BookBrowse Editor
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 1. The BookBrowse Book Club Please Join Us to Discuss:
 Lessons in French: A Novel by Hilary Reyl
Published Jul 2014, 368 pages
An evocative, coming-of-age story about a Yale graduate's year in Paris as an assistant to a legendary American photographer: "An appealing debut novel" (Oprah.com, Editor's Pick).
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 2. Editor's Choice
Someone by Alice McDermott
Paperback (October 01, 2014), 240 pages. Publisher: Picador. BookBrowse Rating: 5/5, Critics' Consensus: 5.0/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | IndieReview: When I recommend a book that I enjoyed, one of the first questions people ask is: "What is it about?" I feel like I have about thirty seconds to make my case before they decide if they want to read it or not. Now if I were to tell you that I'd just read a very quiet book about the life of an ordinary woman where nothing very dramatic happens, I bet most of you would shake your head and skip to the next review. But wait. I know it might be hard to convince you that Alice McDermott's Someone is a worthwhile and rewarding read, but I'm going to try. Because it is. ... 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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3. Editor's Choice 
The Underground Girls of Kabul by Jenny Nordberg
Hardcover (September 01, 2014), 288 pages. Publisher: Crown. BookBrowse Rating: 5/5, Critics' Consensus: 4.4/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | Indie Review: In The Underground Girls of Kabul, award-winning journalist Jenny Nordberg investigates a practice she discovered while pursuing a story in Afghanistan: that of parents dressing their young daughters as boys and allowing them to fill the role of sons for their families. The author discovered the custom, called bacha posh, (translated as "dressed like a boy") almost by accident. She was interviewing Azita, a female politician, when one of the woman's daughters let slip that the youngest "son" was really a girl. Until the child's mother confirmed the story, Nordberg wasn't ... 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. Editor's Choice 
The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis
Hardcover (September 01, 2014), 320 pages. Publisher: Knopf. BookBrowse Rating: 5/5, Critics' Consensus: 5.0/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | IndieReview: In 1991 Martin Amis' Booker Prize-nominated novel, Time's Arrow, garnered much praise for its reverse narrative where the protagonist, a German doctor, begins the novel as an old man living in America but travels back through time to Auschwitz where he assists in the torture and murder of Jews. In contrast, in The Zone of Interest Auschwitz is not the destination, but rather the substance and subject of the whole novel as Amis explores the Nazi final solution through the eyes of three narrators: two Germans and one Jew. Golo Thomson is an easy-going and good-natured officer living in ... 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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 5. Beyond the Book: Your Brain on Literature Every time we review a book we also explore a related topic. Here is a recent "beyond the book" article for Someone by Alice McDermott  Reading quiet, literary fiction, like Someone, nudges us towards contemplation and self-examination. But according to a recent study conducted at the New School for Social Research in New York, it may do even more. This much-publicized study, "Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind," concludes that reading literary fiction can better the ability to "read" the thoughts and feelings of ... continued Read in full
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6. Martin Amis - Bad Boy of English Letters? 
Every time we review a book we also explore a related topic. Here is a recent "beyond the book" article for
The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis
The road to publication for Martin Amis' latest novel, The Zone of Interest, has been less smooth than might be imagined, given that Amis is one of the stars of the British literary firmament. The New York Times recently reported that in France and Germany, Amis' longtime publishers have rejected it on the grounds, in France, that its humor is puzzling and, in Germany, that it would be difficult ... continued Read in full
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 7. Publishing Soon
Each month BookBrowse previews 80-100 notable books. Here is a particularly interesting title from these upcoming books.  The Laughing Monsters by Denis JohnsonPublisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux Publication Date: Nov 2014 Thrillers, 240 pages Critic's Opinion: 5/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | Indie
Roland Nair calls himself Scandinavian but travels on a U.S. passport. After ten years' absence, he returns to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, to reunite with his friend Michael Adriko. They once made a lot of money here during the country's civil war, and, curious to see whether good luck will strike twice in the same place, Nair allows himself to be drawn back to a region he considers ... continued
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 8. Author Interview
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 9. Excerpt - Complete Short Story 
Internal Medicine by Terrence Holt
Hardcover (September 01, 2014), 240 pages. Publisher: Liveright / WW Norton. BookBrowse Rating: 5/5, Critics' Consensus: 5.0/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | Indie
Sign of Weakness
My first call night as an intern, I ran into Dr. M, one of the senior attendings, whom I had known for several years. "How's it going?" he asked me. I told him I was on call. "First call?" He smiled. "I remember my first call. About ten o'clock that night, my resident said to me, 'I'm going to be just behind that door. Call me if you need me. But remember-it's a sign of weakness.'"
I don't recall my response: I don't think I even had time to consider the story until evening, when the frantic milling about that makes up an intern's day had started to wind down. That day, we filled up early-three opportunistic pneumonias from the HIV clinic; a prison inmate transferred from Raleigh with hemoptysis, presumably TB, and a fever-of-unknown-origin.
Keith, the resident, whose job it was to direct me in my labors, felt this was a good day-his work was essentially done by five, as together we wrote admission orders starting the workup of the mysterious fever. He said to me, "I'm heading off to read. Call me if you need anything." "But it's a sign of weakness, right?" I said, remembering Dr. M's story. Keith laughed. "Right." And sauntered off down the hall.... continued
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 10. Wordplay Solve one of our fiendish wordplay puzzles, and be entered to win the book of your choice! Enter nowThis week's wordplay
Solve this clue: "I I A Smoke A M" Enter now The answer to last Week's Wordplay: B A Rock A A H P " Between a rock and a hard place" Meaning: In difficulty, faced with a choice between two unsatisfactory options. This phrase apparently originated in the USA in the early part of the 20th century but, logic suggests, has its root in the much older expression, "between Scylla and Charybdis" (pronounced silla & karibdis), and is related to the expression, "the lesser of two evils." In Greek mythology, on his way back from Troy, Odysseus was faced with a narrow channel with dangers on both sides, He chose to sail close to Scylla, a monstress sea goddess who lived under a large rock, instead of Charybdis, another sea monster who lived under a small rock. By sailing close to Scylla he lost six of his companions but if he had sailed close to Charybdis all would have been lost. In short, finding himself between a rock and a hard place, Odysseus chose the lesser of two evils. Some time earlier (according to Greek mythology, before the Trojan Wars), Jason and the Argonauts also had to sail past Scylla and Charybdis but, unlike Odysseus who had upset Poseiden (Neptune) and thus found himself at odds with many a sea monster, Jason was guided by Thetis, a nereid (sea nymph/goddess), one of the daughters of Nereus. Just in case you're wondering, Nereus, also referred to as the Old Man of the Sea, was the eldest son of Pontus (Sea) and Gaia (Earth). According to Greek legend Nereus was supplanted by Poseiden when Zeus, the Father of the Gods, overthrew Cronus, the leader of The Titans. General opinion is that Sylla and Charybdis lay in the Strait of Messina, between Sicily and mainland Italy. The strait is 3.1 km (1.9 miles) wide at its narrowest point. The rock Scylla is on the toe of Italy, whereas what is believed to have been a whirlpool (Charybdis) is close to the coast of Sicily. A whirlpool, caused by the meeting of currents, does exist at that location today but is too small to cause damage except in extreme conditions. |
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