BookBrowse | Book Reviews and Recommendations

See What Can Be Done: Essays, Criticism, and Commentary
by Lorrie Moore

Erudite Literary Criticism: Mostly a Delight, Sometimes a Slog (4/20/2023)

From Shakespeare to Stephen Sondheim and Amos Oz to Joyce Carol Oates, this scholarly collection of more than 50 essays, mostly erudite literary criticism, is at times a delight to read and at other times a real slog.

Author Lorrie Moore has assembled essays in …more

A Column of Fire: A Kingsbridge Novel
by Ken Follett

A Spellbinding, Gripping Thriller (Bonus: You'll Learn History Painlessly!) (4/20/2023)

This is a work of fiction that is masquerading as nonfiction. Beware! You will learn quite a bit of history while being utterly absorbed in a spellbinding tale. It is the literary equivalent of tricking us into eating our vegetables.

Author Ken Follett has crafted an …more

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper
by Phaedra Patrick

An 18-Carat Gold Charm of a Book: What a Delight! (4/20/2023)

This captivating story of dear Arthur Pepper, grieving widower, discombobulated father and disgruntled neighbor, is a lot like a soft, warm shawl. It will wrap its way around you, and you won't want to let it go. It is a tale about life, love and loneliness—and the …more

March
by Geraldine Brooks

An Original, Imaginative and Inspired Masterpiece (But Do Read (4/20/2023)

This is a masterpiece—an original, imaginative, inspired masterpiece. That is the only way to describe this extraordinary Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Geraldine Brooks.

Published 137 years after Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women," this is the story of Mr. March, who was …more

A Book of American Martyrs
by Joyce Carol Oates

Intense, Heartbreaking and Utterly Engaging. Truly a Book for Our Times (4/20/2023)

This is a creative and philosophical masterpiece. And it is also a really good book—as in sometimes it's hard to do anything but read.

Author extraordinaire Joyce Carol Oates has done the seemingly impossible: She has written a book about abortion from both sides of this …more

Ohio
by Stephen Markley

Genius. Pure Genius. Not an Easy Book to Read—But an Important and Compelling One (4/20/2023)

Genius. Pure genius. I will only say that once (well, twice). Because if I don't make that pledge now, I will pepper my review of this extraordinary literary fiction masterpiece with the word "genius." (Okay, three times.)

That said, this is a challenging book to read on …more

The Sense of an Ending: A Novel
by Julian Barnes

Reminded Me of (4/20/2023)

What is ordinary, everyday time? How do our memories of the past shape our reality of the present? Author Julian Barnes explores these and other existential questions in this Man Booker Prize-winning two-chapter novel that is short enough to be read in one sitting, but was …more

A Place for Us
by Fatima Farheen Mirza

A Must-Read! Profound, Heartbreaking Family Saga (4/20/2023)

Is love alone enough to heal a fractured family? That is the essential question of this truly magnificent novel by Fatima Farheen Mirza that unerringly examines the joys and sorrows children and their parents wrest upon one another—intentionally or not. It is a timeless …more story of all families. Also, just be forewarned: This is a powerful, intense story that will require quiet reading time to fully appreciate.

Rafiq and Layla are Indian Muslims. They marry in an arranged marriage, and Layla moves from Hyderabad, India to San Francisco to be with her husband. They have three children, and Layla becomes a devoted and loving stay-at-home mom. Hadia is the overachieving, first-born who does all she can to please (and never disappoint) her strict and stern father. Huda is the complacent, sweet second child. And then Amar, the only boy, tries so hard to belong but always feels like an outsider—even (and perhaps, especially) within his own family. Led by the parents, the family is devoutly religious, which serves as both a rock of resilience and hope, as well as a wedge that tears them apart.

This is also a book about American culture. Mirza deftly places the reader so firmly inside this family that we bond with them and feel great sympathy for them. That makes it all the more poignant when they experience the ugliness perpetrated against Muslims immediately following and in the years after 9/11. And that is the real power of great literature! No matter your race or religion, once you are inside this story, you will feel the psychic and physical pain of being treated and viewed as the outsider in your own country.

While the book begins on Hadia's wedding day, it quickly slips back to the deep past and then the near past and then back again to the present. I'm not even sure there is a word that describes the chronology of this story, but the author handles it deftly and expertly so it is never jarring or jerky. In fact, it is nearly perfect.

Told with candor and compassion from the points of view of various family members, this profound book reveals not only all that is good and solid and loving in any family, but also those things big and small that can be so hurtful and continue to hurt for years. It will break your heart for all that could have been but wasn't, and it will make you wonder in awe at the healing power of love. (less)

The Boleyn Inheritance
by Philippa Gregory

A Riveting Story Written With a Touch of Literary Genius (4/20/2023)

When it comes to historical fiction, I do think the most fascinating time period is the reign of King Henry VIII during the first half of the 16th century. Why? It was such a soap opera! Everything was done to excess—eating, drinking, gossiping, playing and most of all …more

Shadow Child
by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto

Emotionally Searing, but This Is Great Literature (4/20/2023)

The best way I can describe this book by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto is emotionally searing. It is profound, deeply moving and it will break your heart. That said, I also think this may very well be great literature.

Ingeniously plotted, this structurally complex book is essentially …more

Rise and Shine
by Anna Quindlen

A Vividly Imagined, Engaging Book. Read It! (4/20/2023)

She was America's sweetheart. She was living the perfect life. And that perfect life suddenly cracked open like a rotten egg when Meghan Fitzmaurice, the lead anchor of America's top-rated morning talk show didn't realize her mic was on and said two words that one must …more

The Stars Are Fire
by Anita Shreve

It's Really, Really Good! A Fast and Captivating Read (4/20/2023)

The plot premise of this book is truly the stuff of nightmares and, tragically, real news headlines: What if a ravaging, uncontrollable wildfire burned not only everything you own, but also destroyed your entire town?

It is 1947. Gene and Grace Holland live a simple life in …more

Becoming
by Michelle Obama

Charming, Heartbreaking and Hilarious! This Is SO Much More Than a Memoir (4/20/2023)

This is so much more than a memoir. It is also a sermon of sorts--but the good kind of preaching that doesn't shout, scold and threaten, but rather the kind that warmly draws you in and offers extraordinary hope, real optimism and awestruck inspiration.

Written with candor …more

Circe
by Madeline Miller

Treasure This Book! Mythology Becomes a Feminist Tale (4/20/2023)

This is a daring, audacious and imminently readable retelling of the story of the goddess Circe from her own point of view. While she was a relatively minor character in Greek mythology, her tale of life, love and redemption becomes something much larger in the talented …more

The Story of Arthur Truluv: A Novel
by Elizabeth Berg

A 10-Star Book in a Five-Star World! This Is Honey for the Soul (4/20/2023)

Oh, this is a wonderful, wonderful book! This is a 10-star book in a five-star world.

Written in a similar style as "The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper" and (to some extent) "Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine," this heartwarming—but not sappy!—book by Elizabeth Berg is …more

Educated: A Memoir
by Tara Westover

The Best Way to Describe This Book: Shock and Awe (4/20/2023)

This is the best way to describe how I feel about this book: Shock and awe!

Author Tara Westover's life in the mountains of Idaho as the youngest child of a Mormon survivalist who shunned formal education—be it in a public school or homeschooling—shocked and angered me. And …more

The Art of the Wasted Day
by Patricia Hampl

Thought-Provoking and Scholarly, But NOT an Instruction Manual for How to Be a Lazy Bum (4/19/2023)

I admit it! I bought this book for the title. For me, wasting a single hour, much less an entire day, is an anathema, so I was fascinated about an entire book on the topic.

As it turns out, the book is not exactly an instruction manual for being a lazy bum.

Instead, it's a …more

The Great Believers
by Rebecca Makkai

This Is the Rarest of Books: A Heartbreaking and Devastating Story, But I Couldn't Stop Reading (4/19/2023)

This is the rarest of books. It is a story of loss and separation—the kind that is foisted upon us by death and the kind that is inflicted upon us by estrangement—but it is also a story about the abiding power of love and friendship. It is a riveting, can't-put-it-down …more

The Other Americans
by Laila Lalami

There Is Always Another Side of the Story (4/19/2023)

There is always another side of the story.

Author Laila Lalami has taken this adage to heart in this searing and ingenious tale about the death of Driss Guerraoui, a Moroccan immigrant living in the small town of Mojave, California with this wife, Maryam. The couple have two …more

Hazards of Time Travel
by Joyce Carol Oates

A Dystopian Novel and Also a Coming-of-Age Love Story…But Not One of Joyce Carol Oates's Best Books (4/19/2023)

Many us have wondered in recent years if our democracy is under a very real threat. If you are one of these people, this dystopian novel by Joyce Carol Oates may give you nightmares because what should be a horrific fantasy limited to the pages of a book may feel more like …more