Each month we give away books to U.S. resident members to read and review (or discuss). Members who choose to participate receive a free book about every three months. Here are their opinions on one recent release.

Letters to the Lost by Iona Grey

 Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
 Published May 2015
 Novel, 384 pages

 Number of reader reviews: 21
 Readers' consensus: 4.4/5.0

Members Say
"Reader be warned. Make sure you have a box of tissues handy and a clear calendar for the next few days. You will not want to put this book down until the final page and even then the characters stay with you. Letters to the Lost is historical fiction meets love story meets mystery... Grey hit one out of the park with this debut novel." - Luv2read NY

"Readers travel seamlessly back and forth between WWII and the present through Dan's letters to Stella, at the same time learning what fighter pilots and those on the home front endured. In the present, Jess takes up the search for Dan while trying to turn her own life around. Those who enjoy a good love story with realistic twists and turns will love this book. It will stay with you long after the last page is read." - Linda M. (Candia, NH)

"Iona Grey has written a book that begs to be discussed and would make a good choice for book groups who enjoy talking about characterizations." - Janet H. (Utica, NY)

More about this book | Read all the reviews    Buy at Amazon | B&N | Indie

Paperback May 2015, 416 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
BookBrowse Rating: 5/5, Critics' Consensus:  4.8/5
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Review: In Enduring Courage, John F. Ross provides a vivid portrait of the utterly amazing Eddie Rickenbacker, who was forever at the center of action throughout his long life. Rickenbacker's resume included that of a successful race car driver in the early 1900s, America's top flying ace in WWI, and some 24 harrowing days adrift at sea in WWII. Not only is this a thrilling tale of bravery and perseverance, but Ross also presents a window into eras of time that have long gone by... continued

4. Editor's Choice: Ages 12+

Every time we review a book we also explore a related topic. Here is the "beyond the book" article for The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd, just out in paperback.

Paperback May 05, 2015, 384 pages
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Among the many unifying symbols in all the intertwining relationships that course through The Invention of Wings, one of the most important concerns is not another person but a quilt.

In her book, Stitched From the Soul: Slave Quilts From the Antebellum South, folklore historian Gladys-Marie Fry notes that for enslaved women, quilting was a survival mechanism, "... a type of emotional and social release that provided ... the means by which they recorded and preserved their experiences ... it was their personal and communal history, recorded not on paper but on fabric." Since they were forbidden by law to learn to read and write, these story quilts became a way for slave women to validate and preserve their own experiences separate and apart from the day-to-day drudgery of involuntary servitude... continued

Read this article in full | More about this book

Wondering how to pronounce an author's name? Check out our author pronunciation section to find a guide to hundreds of tricky names. Here are a sample of names starting with the letter P.

• Iain Pears: the same as Ian
• Jodi Picoult: pee-coh
• Chuck Palahniuk: paula-nik
• Christopher Paolini: pow-leeni (literally means 'little Paul')
• Susan Beth Pfeffer: feffer (pfeffer means pepper in German)
• Per Petterson: pehr
• Annie Proulx: proo
• Brigid Pasulka: pa -soolk -ah
• Siobhan Parkinson: sh-vawn - last syllable rhymes with yawn (Siobhan is Gaelic/Irish for Joan)
• Favel Parrett: fahv-el parrit

You can challenge yourself with our interactive author pronunciation game in our author section (you'll need to scroll about halfway down the page to find it.)

Each month BookBrowse previews 80+ notable books. Here is a particularly interesting title from these upcoming books.

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: Jun 2015
Psychological Thriller, 304 pages

Critic's Opinion: 5/5
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From the book jacket: The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when fourteen-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia.

To her parents' despair, the doctors are unable to stop Marjorie's descent into madness. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. Father Wanderly suggests an exorcism; he believes the vulnerable teenager is the victim of demonic possession. He also contacts a production company that is eager to document the Barretts' plight. With John, Marjorie's father, out of work for more than a year and the medical bills looming, the family agrees to be filmed, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of The Possession, a hit reality television show. When events in the Barrett household explode in tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend ... continued

More about this book  |  More Previews  

Sarak Pekkanen answers questions about the timely topics explored in her novel, Things You Won't Say which takes us inside a family in crisis and a marriage on the brink after a tragic shooting.

Read the Interview | More Interviews

More interviews, plus pronunciation guide, games & biographies

Whatever your interests you can find the books that are just right for you by browsing and cross-referencing our recommended reading lists by genre, time period, setting and wide variety of themes. And if you're looking for a really big book to while away the summer days, we've got that covered too in our "doorstopper" section - books with 500+ pages: