|
|
|
|
BookBrowse Highlights
| March 12, 2015
|
|
|
|
Hello
Among the many benefits that BookBrowse members enjoy, is participation in our popular First Impressions program, where books can be requested to read and review. In this issue we highlight two books that have won strong reviews as part of First Impressions: All the Old Knives and A Fireproof Home For the Bride.
We also include a sampling of BookBrowse's many features, including two Editor's Choice reviews, an interview with Paul Fischer, author of A Kim Jong-Il Production, insight into the new YA readers as part of a Beyond the Book section.
Thank you and happy reading!
Davina
BookBrowse Editor |
|
|
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:   All the Old Knives by Olen Steinhauer Publisher: Minotaur Books Publication Date: Mar 2015 Thriller, 224 pages Number of reader reviews: 20 Readers' consensus: 4.4/5.0
Members Say "I read and loved the Milo Weaver trilogy and The Cairo Affair. The Old Knives is something different. Shorter, with a more compact but still twisty plot, fewer characters but intriguing. When I finished, I wanted to go back and reread to catch the clues and misdirections. Highly recommended for espionage fans." - Maggie R. (Canoga Park, CA) "Not a traditional spy thriller, this book kept me on edge and made me uncomfortable observing their dinner, not unlike Herman Koch's The Dinner. Recommend highly!" - Alison F. (Clearwater, FL) "I was blown away! It's difficult to really narrow down this book to one genre. On the surface, it's a spy thriller; but when you peel away the layers of the very intense plot, it's so much more. I recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a complex and cerebral affair." - Christopher R. (Brooklyn, NY)
More about this book | Read all the reviews Buy at Amazon | B&N | Indie |
|
2. First Impressions: Members Recommend
 A Fireproof Home for the Bride by Amy Scheibe Publisher: St. Martin's Press Publication Date: Mar 2015 Historical Fiction, 384 pages Number of reader reviews: 41 Readers' consensus: 4.0/5.0 Members Say" A Fireproof Home for the Bride is both a coming-of-age story of a young woman in the late 1950s and a cautionary tale about the tragic effects of two hot-button issues that are still with us: immigration and racism. It offers no easy answers for these issues but does show the toxic effects that opposing views can have on a community." - Anna S. (Auburn, AL) "I loved this book. It far exceeds what one expects it to be - a coming of age story in a time when women's options were limited and mostly pre-ordained. But this book takes off in to other complicated and painful areas. The writing and the story flows and I could not put it down." - Eileen L. (Danvers, MA) "This is one of those books that I just couldn't stop reading. The plot was riveting, and the characters real. I enjoyed this book and will recommend it to my book club. It is a "must read."" - Anna R. (Oak Ridge, TN)
More about this book | Read all the reviews Buy at Amazon | B&N | Indie |
|
 3. The BookBrowse Book Club Please mark your calendars if you'd like to join us for any
of these upcoming discussions (click the image for info on each book):
 |
|
|
4. Editor's Choice 
Redeployment by Phil Klay
Paperback (February 01, 2015), 304 pages. Publisher: Penguin Books. BookBrowse Rating: 5/5, Critics' Consensus: 5.0/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | IndieWinner of the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction ReviewIs there any way a civilian can understand military life? And what about combat: can anyone, other than those who have lived it, ever relate? Such questions recur each time I read war literature, watch a classic film like Full Metal Jacket or talk with a veteran. For some reason, maybe selfish or maybe curious, I desperately want to understand - or at least relate to - what I hear and read from the people who do know. Phil Klay's short story collection, Redeployment, reassured me that this curiosity is okay.... continuedFull 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. |
|
 5. Readalikes for Redeployment
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. If you liked Redeployment, try these:
Hardcover Apr 2014
A novel about war and homecoming, love and duty, and an impassioned look at the effects of war on women-as soldiers and caregivers, both at home and on the front lines.
Paperback Sep 2008
What does literature - particularly the literature of war - mean to a student who is likely to encounter its reality? This is the terrain Samet traverses each semester.
Paperback Sep 2014
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.
 The Forever War by Dexter Filkins
Paperback Jun 2009
From the front lines of the battle against Islamic fundamentalism, a searing, unforgettable book that captures the human essence of the greatest conflict of our time.
|
|
 6. Editor's Choice 
Into the Savage Country by Shannon Burke
Hardcover (February 01, 2015), 272 pages. Publisher: Pantheon Books. BookBrowse Rating: 4/5, Critics' Consensus: 4.4/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | IndieAfter exploring the urban grime of New York City in his previous novels, Shannon Burke's latest, Into A Sudden Country, is the account of William Wyeth, a young man who on the outs with his father, decides to prove himself by seeking fame and fortune in the American frontier. A classic Western set in the 1820s, the novel is filled with buffalo hunts, encounters with Native Americans and rival British trappers, and plenty of fightin' and killin' and dyin' - just exactly what you'd expect from a book about the first forays into the American West... 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. |
|
 7. Beyond the Book Crossing Into the Borderlands: The New YA Readers  Every time we review a book we also explore a related topic. Here is a recent "beyond the book" article for The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean by David Almond The True Tale Of The Monster Billy Dean, first published in the UK in 2011 by Penguin's adult imprint, Viking, was reviewed as David Almond's debut for adults, but it was simultaneously released as a young adult novel by Puffin, another Penguin imprint. It is one of a growing number of books that straddles the borderlands of adult, young-adult, and middle-grade fiction while the adult audience for YA and MG literature continues to grow .... continued Read the article in full | More about this book
|
|
|
 8. Publishing Soon
Each month BookBrowse previews 80-100 notable books. Here is a particularly interesting title from these upcoming books.  The Last Flight of Poxl West by Daniel TordayPublisher: St. Martin's Press Publication Date: Mar 2015 Novel, 304 pages Critic's Opinion: 5/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | IndieAll his life, Elijah Goldstein has idolized his charismatic Uncle Poxl. Intensely magnetic, cultured and brilliant, Poxl takes Elijah under his wing, introducing him to opera and art and literature. But when Poxl publishes a memoir of how he was forced to leave his home north of Prague at the start of WWII and then avenged the deaths of his parents by flying RAF bombers over Germany during the war, killing thousands of German citizens, Elijah watches as the carefully constructed world his uncle has created begins to unravel. ... continued
|
 9. Author Interview
|
|
|
 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: "A T I A Teapot"
The answer to last Week's Wordplay: N Say N " Never say never" Meaning: Nothing is impossible Gregory Titelman's America's Popular Proverbs and Sayings says that the earliest reference to "never say never" is in Charles Dickens' first novel, The Pickwick Papers (1837). Many online sources corroborate this fact - or perhaps rather they are simply repeating it because, thanks to the wonders of online texts, we have searched The Pickwick Papers from top to bottom, and back again, without finding any reference to "never say never." Perhaps we missed it - if we did, please do write and let us know! What we did find, however, were references to "never say die", such as: "That's right," said Mr. Price. "Never say die. All fun, ain't it?" At its most literal, never say die functions as a positive counter to a statement such as "we are all going to die." In other words, however hopeless a situation looks, don't give up! Never say die is first cited in the USA in 1814 and would seem to have been in familiar use a couple of decades later when Dickens uses it; but it's believed to have hit maximum popularity in 1939 due to the movie of the same name starring Bob Hope and Martha Raye. As for "never say never", we were unable to track down much specific to this expression so conclude that it is likely a variation on "never say die."
|
|
 About BookBrowse
Get to know BookBrowse through our 4-part introductory series:
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. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
