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BookBrowse Highlights
| January 22, 2015
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Hello,
Savor this delicious assortment of sampler bites that will give you a taste of BookBrowse.
Read the reviews of two novels we recently featured: Sweetland and Us. Explore the story of NYC's Tenement Museum with our Beyond the Book article, and read an author interview with YA writer A.S. King.
Don't forget to enter our book giveaway for The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah!
Thank you!
Davina
BookBrowse Founder & Editor
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Some of BookBrowse's content is free but full access is for members only. Not yet a member? Consider subscribing. Learn 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 Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jaaskelainen Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books Publication Date: Jan 2015 Novel, 352 pages Number of reader reviews: 20 Readers' consensus: 3.5/5.0 Members Say "If you like quirky, mysterious, unconventional, disturbing books with undertones of magical realism you will like this book. It is a book for book lovers and thinkers..." - Barbara C. (Fountain hills, AZ) "If you love Lewis Carrol or Jasper Fford you will like this book. No doubt it is more than a little strange and, and at times weird. Maybe I'm also strange and a bit weird because I really enjoyed reading it." - Portia A. (Mount Laurel, NJ) "This was a wonderful read, filled with literary aspirations, childhood remembrances, psychological hi-jinks, with mythological overtones thrown in." - Linda P. (Medford, WI) "'Elusive' is the best word to describe this book. Everything about it is elusive. Nothing is as it first appears - and nothing remains what it seems to have been. Interesting." - Carol T. (Ankeny, IA)
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 2. Editor's Choice 
Sweetland by Michael Crummey
Hardcover (January 01, 2015), 336 pages. Publisher: Liveright / WW Norton. BookBrowse Rating: 5/5, Critics' Consensus: 5.0/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | Indie In previous novels such as the award-winning Galore, Michael Crummey has depicted his homeland, the Canadian province of Newfoundland, as a place where myths and legends can come to life. Sweetland shares the same setting and Crummey depicts a place that is itself about to become nothing more than a distant memory. Sweetland is a tiny (fictional) island off the coast of Newfoundland, dependent on the government ferry for the transportation of supplies and people to and from the mainland. There's a problem: the government has decided that it would make more economic sense to give each Sweetland... 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
Us by David Nicholls
Hardcover (October 01, 2014), 416 pages. Publisher: Harper. BookBrowse Rating: 5/5, Critics' Consensus: 4.9/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | Indie After nearly thirty years of marriage, the middle-aged biochemist who narrates Us has learned a few things from his artist wife. One is that you should always carry a novel when you go on a journey. "In the early days of our relationship," he recalls, "I neglected to take a book on to the plane. It was not a mistake I would make again." His wife is startled by the lapse. "I've always wondered who those freaks are who don't read novels." He imagines a slip in her affections, as if she is asking herself whether she can "really love a man who doesn't see the point of made-up ... 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. Beyond the Book: The Tenement Museum  Every time we review a book we also explore a related topic. Here is a recent "beyond the book" article for
Audacity by Melanie Crowder Like many immigrant families in New York at the turn of the 20th century, Clara and her family lived in a tenement very much like the one preserved and recreated at the Tenement Museum in Manhattan's Lower East Side, a National Historic Site run by the National Park Service. This five-story brick building on Orchard Street was built in 1863 and over the next 70 years was home to almost 7,000 ... continued Read in full | More about this book |
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 5. Publishing Soon Each month BookBrowse previews 80+ notable books. Here is a particularly interesting title from these upcoming books.  A Kim Jong-Il Production by Paul FischerPublisher: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: Feb 2015
Current Affairs, 368 pages
Critic's Opinion: 5/5
Before becoming the world's most notorious dictator, Kim Jong-Il ran North Korea's Ministry for Propaganda and its film studios. Conceiving every movie made, he acted as producer and screenwriter. Despite this control, he was underwhelmed by the available talent and took drastic steps, ordering the kidnapping of Choi Eun-Hee (Madam Choi) - South Korea's most famous actress - and her ex-husband ... continued
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 6. Author Interview
 Tamara Ellis Smith interviews A.S. King about her young adult novel, Ask the Passengers, an original portrayal of a girl struggling to break free of society's definitions. Read the Interview | Ask The Passengers
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 7. Readalikes for Motherland by Maria Hummel 
At BookBrowse we don't just review books, we go beyond to explore interesting aspects related to the book and suggest "readalikes" to other books you might enjoy. Here are some suggestions for Motherland.
Motherland bears witness to the shame and courage of Third Reich families during the devastating final days of the war, as each family member's fateful choice lead the reader deeper into questions of complicity and innocence, to the novel's heartbreaking and unforgettable conclusion.
If you liked Motherland, try these:
Paperback Jul 2006
The diary of a young woman, recording her and her neighbors' experiences as, for six weeks in 1945, Berlin fell to the Russian army.
Paperback May 2013
It is 1943 - the height of the Second World War - and Berlin has essentially become a city of women. In this page-turning novel, David Gillham explores what happens to ordinary people thrust into extraordinary times, and how the choices they make can be the difference between life and death.
Paperback Mar 2010
This never-before-translated masterpiece-by a heroic best-selling writer who saw his life crumble under the Nazis- is based on a true story. It presents a richly detailed portrait of life in Berlin under the Nazis and tells the sweeping saga of one working-class couple who decides to take a stand when their only son is killed at the front.
Paperback Oct 2008
Mining a lost piece of history, Sara Young takes us deep into the lives of women living in the worst of times. Part love story and part elegy for the terrible choices we must often make to survive, My Enemy's Cradle keens for what we lose in war and sings for the hope we sometimes find.
Paperback Feb 2006
A powerful and riveting account of a seemingly halcyon life lived mere paces from a center of evil and madness; a remarkable memoir of an "ordinary" childhood spent in an extraordinary time and place.
Hardcover Jan 2014
"A masterpiece" (A.N. Wilson), this many-layered novel of WWII combines fiction with a Sebaldian collage of facts to explore the fate of Italian Jews under Nazi occupation, through the intimate story of a mother's search for her son
See all 13 readalikes
Find readalikes for over 2000 authors & 3000 books | How we pick readalikes |
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 8. This Week's Book Club Top 5 Sometimes it's just nice to know that you're on to a sure fire winner with your book club choice. At times like this we suggest you check out our Top 10 Most Popular Book Club Recommendations.
Find the Top 10 on our Book Club Page:
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 9. Win This Book
 The Nightingale by Kristin HannahWill publish Feb 3, 2015. 448 pages From the Jacket From the #1 New York Times bestselling author comes an epic novel of love and war, spanning from the 1940s to the present day, and the secret lives of those who live in a small French town. Viann and Isabelle have always been close despite their differences. Younger, bolder sister Isabelle lives in Paris while Viann lives a quiet and content life in the French countryside with her husband Antoine and their daughter. When World War II strikes and Antoine is sent off to fight, Viann and Isabelle's father sends Isabelle to help her older sister cope. As the war progresses, it's not only the sisters' relationship that is tested, but also their strength and their individual senses of right and wrong. With life as they know it changing in unbelievably horrific ways, Viann and Isabelle will find themselves facing frightening situations and responding in ways they never thought possible as bravery and resistance take different forms in each of their actions. Vivid and exquisite in its illumination of a time and place that was filled with great monstrosities, but also great humanity and strength, Kristin Hannah's novel will provoke thought and discussion that will have readers talking long after they turn the last page. 5 people will each win a hardcover copy of The Nightingale. 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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 About BookBrowse
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Back issues of this newsletterYou might also be interested in the content of our About section, including how we got started, profiles of our editorial staff and reviewers, and answers to frequently asked questions. |
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