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The past offers an endless resource of stories, but few writers have the ability to take the dry facts of history and turn them into truly riveting reading. In this issue we highlight two authors that have done just that. The first is Erik Larson whose account of the fateful voyage of "The Lusitania" in Dead Wake reconfirms his position as one of the great popular historians writing today. The second is David Dyer whose debut novel The Midnight Watch draws from previously unseen documents to bring us the story of the "Titantic" from an intriguing viewpoint you have likely not seen before.
We also explore early African American authors, find out about the life of Nobel Prize-winner Mario Vargas Llosa, return to Promise Falls for the second volume of Linwood Barclay's thrilling trilogy, and discover the source of the expression "for want of a nail the kingdom was lost."
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1. The BookBrowse Book Club Please Join Us to Discuss:
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
Published Mar 2015 in hardcover & ebook, Mar 2016 in paperback, 448 pages
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author and master of narrative nonfiction comes the enthralling story of the sinking of the Lusitania Discussions Coming Soon
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2. First Impressions: Members Recommend
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.
Far From True by Linwood Barclay
Publisher: NAL Publication Date: Mar 2016, hardcover & ebook Thriller, 480 pages
Number of reader reviews: 21 Readers' consensus: 3.9/5.0
Members Say "I have read several Linwood Barclay books, including Broken Promises, which is the first of this trilogy. The characters are believable and just when you think you have things figured out, something else happens. I am so looking forward to book three." - Debi B. (Charleston, SC)
"Mr. Barclay is a master at building interesting characters & a story you can't put down." - Charlene M. (Murrells Inlet, SC)
"Barclay masterfully juggles a multitude of diverse plots; and, even more amazingly, ties everything together. Along with a variety of creepy and frightening villains, Far From True is filled with an assortment of flawed, troubled, and very endearing protagonists. All in all, the novel presents a many-layered tale with enough cliffhangers to keep most readers up late into the night. This is truly an enthralling novel, with enough tragedy, humor, and human emotion to rival a modern-day Shakespearean play." - David M. (Glendale, CA)
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3. Editor's Choice
Ginny Gall by Charlie Smith
Hardcover & ebook (Feb 2016), 464 pages, Harper BookBrowse Rating: 4/5, Critics' Consensus: 4.4/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | Indie
Reviewed by Kim Kovacs
Nearly every paragraph in the book is a work of art and on a page-by-page basis I am utterly in awe of this author's writing. Unfortunately it becomes too much of a good thing relatively early on. Smith's descriptions are lush but extensive; they seem to go on forever and bog down Delvin's story considerably, giving the narrative a plodding, elegiac tone. I came away from the book with a deeper understanding of the heart of the racial divide that continues to affect us (the United States in particular) to this day. While the book may be slow-going, readers who appreciate a well-crafted novel will almost certainly find that it's worth the time. Read the full reviewFull 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.
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4. Early African American Authors
Every time we review a book we also explore a related topic. Here is a recent "beyond the book" article for Ginny Gall by Charlie Smith
In Ginny Gall, the main character is an avid reader who aspires to be much like the black authors he admires... Read the article in full
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5. Editor's Choice
The Discreet Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa, Edith Grossman
Paperback & ebook (Mar 2016), 336 pages, Picador BookBrowse Rating: 5/5, Critics' Consensus: 4.8/5 Buy at Amazon | B&N | Indie
Reviewed by Alta Ifland
The Discreet Hero is mostly perfectly constructed, and even though it doesn't stand next to Llosa's masterpieces - The War of the End of the World, Conversation in the Cathedral and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter - the gradation of the events, the dialog and the way the two stories come together prove that the author is a master storyteller. Translator Edith Grossman is a perfect match for Llosa's sober voice. The novel is proof that Nobel-prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa still has stories to tell and still knows how to do it.
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.
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6. Mario Vargas Llosa, Writer and Citizen
Every time we review a book we also explore a related topic. Here is a recent "beyond the book" article for The Discreet Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa, Edith Grossman
When Peruvian-born writer Mario Vargas Llosa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010, the committee praised "his cartography of structures of power, and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat." Indeed, these themes have been present in his work from his first novel, The Time of the Hero (1963) until The Discreet Hero. The two novels share more than ... continued Read in full |
7. Publishing Soon
Each month BookBrowse previews 80+ notable books. Here is a particularly interesting title from these upcoming books.
The Midnight Watch: A Novel of the Titanic and the Californian by David Dyer
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Publication Date: Apr 2016 hardcover & ebook Historical Fiction, 336 pages Buy at Amazon | B&N | Indie
A powerful and dramatic debut novel - the result of many years of research in Liverpool, London, New York, and Boston, and informed by the author's own experiences as a ship's officer and a lawyer. BookBrowse members recently reviewed The Midnight Watch, rating it an average of 4.7 out of 5 stars - putting it in the company of perhaps just a dozen or so books of the more than 600 members have reviewed over the past few years. More about this book More Previews
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8. Wordplay
Solve our fiendish Wordplay puzzle, and be entered to win the book of your choice! This week's Wordplay Solve this clue: "Y Can't G H A" Enter now The answer to the last Wordplay: F W O A Nail T K W L " For want of a nail the kingdom was lost" Meaning: No detail is too small to ignore to achieve a successful outcome This essence of this proverb dates back to at least the late 14th century in English and to the early 13th century in German. Possibly the earliest use is found in the work of Freidank, an early 13th century didactic poet (i.e writer of poems intended to teach) who is thought to have lived somewhere around Swabia, which was part of the German kingdom of the time. His version translates something like: The wise tell us that a nail keeps a shoe, a shoe keeps a horse, a horse keeps a knight, a knight, who can fight, keeps a castle. The earliest reference in English is by John Gower in the late 14th century in his expansive poem Confessio Amantis ("The Lover's Confession"). Gower was a contemporary and friend of Geoffrey Chaucer so its safe to say that his Middle English version of the expression would be almost as unintelligible to most modern readers of English as Freidank's Germanic version is. Where things get confusing is where the proverb in its modern form - including the reference to a lost kingdom - originated. Many sources point to it being a reference to Richard III of England's defeat at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. But there is a bit of a hole in this from an historic perspective as it would seem that Richard's horse didn't lose a shoe but got stuck in the mud. Maybe we have Shakespeare to thank for the introduction of the concept of the loss of the kingdom due to the loss of the horse: A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse! (Richard III, Act V, Scene IV) But versions of the expression between Shakespeare's time and up to the 20th century don't appear to reference "kingdom". For example, in 1758 Benjamin Franklin in The Way to Wealth wrote: Continued
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BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
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