|
|
|
|
BookBrowse Highlights
|
October 29, 2015
|
|
|
|
|
Hello,
At BookBrowse, we don't just toss out book reviews. Instead, we feature only the books we truly believe to be best in class. Then we back each recommendation with an in-depth review and intriguing "beyond the book" article, plus an excerpt and other related information, so that you have all need to decide whether to add the book to your reading list.
We also give you the means to jump from book to book discovering further literary treasures - by exploring "readalikes" for each book (books that share similar story-lines, writing styles and so forth), and by linking to books that are set in similar places and time periods.
In this issue we showcase an example of our readalikes for The Undertaking, the debut novel from talented new Irish writer Audrey Magee. We also explore one of our themed categories, bringing you a selection of books from "On the High Seas".
Our members routinely tell us that BookBrowse is filled with endless discoveries to treasure. I hope you agree.
Happy reading!
Thank you!
Your editor, Davina
|
|
Please Cast Your Votes for Our 2016 Award Winners!
Please help us decide which books will be included in this year's list of BookBrowse Favorites, and which will win the BookBrowse Awards.
When you cast your vote you will also be entered to win the book of your choice from our current list of more than 70 recently published books. There will be 6 winners - and you are eligible to win wherever you live. Voting closes midday ET on Tuesday Nov 3. Please do not forward this to friends to vote. For the reasons explained on the voting form, only those on our mailing list at the time the voting opened are eligible to participate. Thank you!If the link does not work, copy/paste: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DY6VDXK
|
|
 1. Editor's Choice 
Mrs. Engels by Gavin McCrea
Hardcover & ebook (Oct 2015), 368 pages. Publisher: Catapult BookBrowse Rating: 5/5, Critics' Consensus: 4.8/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | IndieReviewed by Kate Braithwaite Frederick Engels, co-author with Karl Marx of The Communist Manifesto (1848), did not believe in marriage. The Mrs. Engels of Gavin McCrea's debut novel, is therefore not Engels' wife in the eyes of the law, even though Lizzie Burns lived with him for many years. This is just one facet of the enormously rich and complex relationship McCrea has imagined around the bare biographical facts that are known about Lizzie. The story is anchored in the eight years Lizzie and Frederick lived together in London - between 1870 and 1878 - but also delves into the past when Frederick... 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 available.
|
|
2. Editor's Choice 
The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife, and the Missing Corpse by Piu Marie Eatwell
Hardcover & ebook (Oct 2015), 352 pages. Publisher: Liveright/WW Norton BookBrowse Rating: 5/5, Critics' Consensus: 4.3/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | Indie
Reviewed by Kim Kovacs
In 1898, Mrs. Anna Maria Druce approached the London Ecclesiastical Court with a highly unusual request: She asked that the court permit the exhumation of her father-in-law T.C. Druce, who had supposedly died 24 years previously. She stated she had proof that the man was not who he'd claimed to be, that he was in fact William John Cavendish-Bentinck-Scott, 5th Duke of Portland, that he had faked his own death, and that the coffin was empty. So begins the labyrinthine mystery that author Piu Marie Eatwell unravels in her impeccably researched nonfiction book, The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife... 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 available.
|
|
 3. Beyond the Book: Old English  Every time we review a book we also explore a related topic. Here is a recent "beyond the book" article for The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth Hardcover & ebook (Sept 01, 2015), 384 pages Buy at Amazon | B&N | IndieArticle & review by James Broderick The phrase "Old English" might seem like a quaint way to refer to any works in English that we now consider "old" - Milton, Shakespeare, Chaucer, et al. But in fact Old English - the language whose rhythms and vocabulary inspired Paul Kingsnorth's novel The Wake - would be unrecognizable by readers and speakers of the contemporary language. Broadly speaking, Old English is the term used to describe the language and dialects of England in the period after the fall of the Roman Empire and before the Norman Conquest... continued Read in full | More about this book |
|
4. Beyond the Book: Michel Houellebecq  Every time we review a book we also explore a related topic. Here is a recent "beyond the book" article for Submission by Michel Houellebecq Hardcover & ebook (October 20, 2015), 256 pages. Buy at Amazon | B&N | Indie Article & review by Sinead Fitzgibbon
Michel Houellebecq (pronounced mish-elle wellbeck) is nothing if not an autobiographical writer. He has, in fact, become the poster child for a movement, prevalent in contemporary French literature, known as "auto-fiction" which sees authors unashamedly use fictionalized versions of their own lives in their novels. Autobiographical writing is addressed directly in Submission ... continued Read in full | More about this book |
|
 5. On The High Seas Whatever your interests, at BookBrowse 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 - including "On The High Seas":
 Pacific by Simon Winchester
Hardcover & ebook: Oct 2015
Pacific is a paean to this magnificent sea of beauty, myth, and imagination that is transforming our lives. |
 Landfalls by Naomi J. Williams
Hardcover & ebook: Aug 2015
By turns elegiac, profound, and comic, Landfalls reinvents the maritime adventure novel for the twenty-first century. |
 Glorious Misadventures by Owen Matthews
Hardcover & ebook: Nov 2013, Paperback Jul 2015
From the glittering court of Catherine the Great to the wilds of the New World, Matthews conjures a brilliantly original portrait of one of Russia's most eccentric Empire-builders. |
 Pirate Hunters by Robert Kurson
Hardcover & ebook: Jun 2015
Fast-paced and filled with suspense, fascinating characters, history, and adventure, Pirate Hunters is an unputdownable story that goes deep to discover truths and souls long believed lost. |
 In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides
Hardcover & ebook: Aug 2014, Paperback May 2015
New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides returns with a white-knuckle tale of polar exploration and survival in the Gilded Age. Winner of the 2014 BookBrowse Award for Nonfiction. |
 Lusitania by Greg King, Penny Wilson
Hardcover & ebook: Feb 2015, Paperback 26 Apr 2016
On the 100th Anniversary of its sinking, King and Wilson tell the story of the Lusitania's glamorous passengers and the torpedo that ended an era and prompted the US entry into World War I. |
|
|
 6. Readalikes for The Undertaking  A much-anticipated debut from a remarkable new talent in Irish fiction-a terrifyingly intimate story of a war marriage caught up in the calamity of World War II
If you liked The Undertaking, try these:
Hardcover & ebook May 2014
A stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Winner of the 2014 BookBrowse Award for Fiction.
Hardcover & ebook Sep 2014
A stunning literary debut of two young women on opposing sides of the devastating Sri Lankan Civil War-winner of the Commonwealth Book Prize for Asia, longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize
Paperback Sep 2011. Also available as ebook
A riveting and emotionally absorbing portrait of post-war Soviet Russia, a world of violence and terror, where the severest acts of betrayal can come from the most trusted allies.
Paperback Jul 2015. Also available as ebook
Powered by both wit and compassion, and in characteristically vivid prose, Martin Amis's unforgettable new novel excavates the depths and contradictions of the human soul.
|
|
|
 7. Wordplay Solve our fiendish Wordplay puzzle, and be entered to win the book of your choice!
This week's Wordplay: Solve this clue: "T O T W H T F is F I"
The answer to last Week's Wordplay: N S Like S
"Nothing succeeds like success"
Meaning: One success leads to another
According to Gregory Titelman's America's Popular Proverbs and Sayings, this very American expression originated in France ("Rien ne réussit comme le succès") with the earliest known use appearing in AngePitou (1854) a book by Alexander Dumas, also known as Storming the Bastille or Six Years Later. Dumas is better known as the author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.
But a reference at Google Books points to an 1837 edition of the magazine Revue des deux Mondes that quotes French author M. Jules Janin saying this some years earlier. Citations for the earliest use in America also vary, but date to the 1850s or '60s.
|
|
 8. Win This Book
 'Til the Well Runs Dry by Lauren Francis-SharmaPublished Sep 2015, 416 pages. Paperback & ebook
Enter the Giveaway
From the Jacket A glorious and moving multigenerational, multicultural saga that sweeps from the 1940s through the 1960s in Trinidad and the United States. 'Til the Well Runs Dry opens in a seaside village in the north of Trinidad, where young Marcia Garcia, a gifted and smart-mouthed sixteen-year-old seamstress, lives alone, raising two small boys and guarding a family secret. When she meets Farouk Karam, an ambitious young policeman (so taken with Marcia that he elicits help from a tea-brewing obeah woman to guarantee her ardor), the rewards and risks in Marcia's life amplify forever. On an island rich with laughter, calypso, Carnival, cricket, beaches, and salty air, sweet fruits and spicy stews, the novel follows Marcia and Farouk from their sassy and passionate courtship through personal and historical events that threaten Marcia's secret, entangle the couple and their children in a tumultuous scandal, and put the future in doubt for all of them. Paperback reprint. First published in hardcover & ebook April 2014. Reviews"Starred Review. Francis-Sharma's spellbinding, intimately detailed, psychologically lush, and suspenseful tale of racial and sexual trauma, hard work, love, and family devotion makes personal the injustice people endured in the years leading up to the civil rights movement in both multicultural Trinidad and segregated America." - Booklist "Marcia's story, told lovingly in this, Francis-Sharma's debut novel, is as universally touching as it is original. - The New York Times "You'll hear the calypso music in this vivid debut about a spirited seamstress and devoted mother with a family secret. - People 5 people will each win a paperback copy of 'Til the Well Runs Dry. 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 |
|
 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. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
