Pei C

BookBrowse Reviewer

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BookBrowse Reviewer Pei is a BookBrowse Reviewer and has written reviews featured in The BookBrowse Review.

Pei reads to immerse herself completely in a fictional world and writes to share that world with other readers. She has a penchant for books that leave her wrecked emotionally afterwards, either from the beauty of the story or the complexity of a character. BookBrowse is the first publication for which she has written. She practices family medicine in her spare hours.

BookBrowse Editorial Reviews (13)

BookBrowse Editorial Review

In Sickness and in Health: Love Stories from the Front Lines of America's Caregiving Crisis
by Laura Mauldin

(3/25/2026)

Across these stories runs a common thread: the intense burden placed on spousal caregivers, who are often expected to become "The One" responsible for every aspect of care while also maintaining financial stability. As Mauldin observes, cultural ideas about spousal caregiving encapsulate "our expectations around love, romance, sex, intimacy, and self-worth," as well as the legal and moral obligations embedded in marriage itself. The book illuminates the quieter costs of caregiving: burnout, decl

BookBrowse Editorial Review

Katabasis: A Novel
by R. F Kuang

(9/24/2025)

Alice and Peter descend through Hell searching for Grimes, and as they do, Kuang builds a geography of its circles, or courts, that mirrors both Cambridge and, metaphorically, the structures of academia: Pride is a library in which scholars must defend their theories; Desire is a storm-battered student union. Later circles mock the absurdities of research culture, tenure battles, and intellectual pretension. As they proceed, Alice begins to question both her motivation for finding her advisor an

BookBrowse Editorial Review

Automatic Noodle
by Annalee Newitz

(8/13/2025)

The narrative is quirky and humorous, but beneath the banter lie deeply relevant themes: who gets to work high-demand, prestigious jobs; who gets to be a citizen; and who gets to define "authenticity." Robots here are obvious proxies for immigrants and other marginalized laborers who are legally precarious, socially suspect, and economically vulnerable; the parallels, while well-considered and highly relevant, can be a little on-the-nose.

BookBrowse Editorial Review

Awake in the Floating City: A Novel
by Susanna Kwan

(6/18/2025)

Kwan is interested in both the experience of memory and its potential to shape the future... Bo is moved by Mia's stories but also disheartened by how a memory can be flattened into one simple item, by how a lifetime can fit into a forgotten closet... The thematic core of her novel—the conviction that despite our transience in this world, life is still worth living, and that it is the job of those who are still alive and present to remember the past—is universal.

BookBrowse Editorial Review

Fagin the Thief: A Novel
by Allison Epstein

(3/26/2025)

In Allison Epstein's reimagining, Fagin is not the villain we've come to expect, who tempts and ensnares desperate young boys into a life of vice. Rather, he offers otherwise abandoned children a chance at survival, and is a complex, ambiguous man, whose motivations remain murky even to himself... The real story is the complex relationship between Fagin and Sikes, who are mentor and protégé, debatably brothers, and arguably friends. No one quite knows which of these best describes thei

BookBrowse Editorial Review

Saint of the Narrows Street
by William Boyle

(2/26/2025)

Boyle's crime thriller has the drama and pathos of a Greek tragedy as each section introduces another complication to the cover-up, with various people questioning Risa's version of that night and getting closer to the truth... William Boyle, a master of atmosphere, crafts a gritty world of tough-talkers, heavy-drinkers, and good folks just trying to make ends meet.

BookBrowse Editorial Review

The Capital of Dreams: A Novel
by Heather O'Neill

(1/15/2025)

In The Capital of Dreams, Heather O'Neill unpacks meaty themes around identity and coming-of-age; mother-daughter relationships; and war, occupation, and genocide. Sofia is a child at the beginning of the war and feels every bit like one, eager to grow up and be part of the adults' resistance efforts. She views being sent away from her mother's clique as a mark of her immaturity, but this only hastens her growth as she faces decisions on her own. She learns independence, comes to understa

BookBrowse Editorial Review

The Puzzle Box: A Novel
by Danielle Trussoni

(10/16/2024)

The Puzzle Box, while set in a new location and with a new challenge, returns to familiar faces and themes. In addition to Brink and Appel, it features an old antagonist, as well as the juxtaposition of modern-day tech elite with elements of mysticism, as Appel believes that Brink's acquired savant abilities make him a "conduit of the gods." Trussoni also resumes her fast-paced storytelling. In 300 pages and over one night, we cover the length of Japan, solve a 74-move puzzle, and unravel

BookBrowse Editorial Review

Early Sobrieties: A Novel
by Michael Deagler

(7/17/2024)

Despite the frequent urge to grab Monk by the shoulders and give him a good shake, his character grew on me. The book begins with him at a few fragile months of sobriety, and one would be mistaken thinking this was a sort of turning point in his recovery, as if everything before the start was old/drunk Monk and everything after a happy ending. As Deagler illustrates for us, and as anyone who has ever supported themselves or a loved one through recovery can confirm, there is no narrative turning

BookBrowse Editorial Review

Real Americans: A Novel
by Rachel Khong

(5/15/2024)

Over the course of the book, we meet May, her daughter Lily, and her grandson Nick. May, who flees China's Cultural Revolution and the persecution of scientists and academics, is driven by a passion for understanding gene expression. As the title suggests, the book explores what it means to be a "real American." Each of the three main characters feels excluded in some way: one doesn't look the part; one looks the part but feels different from his peers; one's past life and language is just too

BookBrowse Editorial Review

The Other Valley: A Novel
by Scott Alexander Howard

(3/20/2024)

Scott Alexander Howard's debut novel is set in a lush alternate reality: a series of villages spread across valleys, each twenty years apart. The Conseil's sole job is to protect the status quo of time, weighing the benefit of providing grieving petitioners a moment of comfort with the risk of interference in the past or future that might change the direction of events for any of the villages, particularly their own. Odile is poised for a brilliant career with them when her friend Edme upends it

BookBrowse Editorial Review

Happy: A Novel
by Celina Baljeet Basra

(1/24/2024)

Celina Baljeet Basra's debut novel is a postmodernist work, characterized by unreliable narration, a non-linear structure, and grappling with relevant political and social themes of today. Happy is a dreamer who sees the world through rose-colored lenses. So rose-colored that he is fundamentally untrustworthy. Excitable, impatient, charismatic, single-minded, he is "unable to distinguish the important from the unimportant," and others "seriously question whether he has a firm grasp of what is re

BookBrowse Editorial Review

Roman Stories
by Jhumpa Lahiri

(11/1/2023)

In sharing Lahiri's characters' thoughts, we can recognize parts of ourselves in them. At the same time, her use of rich details contributes to the scene, even when these details aren't the focus of her story. In "P's Parties," about a mostly imagined love triangle dreamed up by a husband at a friend's party, vacation plans and bungalows by the sea evoke a picture of summer and the tradition of Ferragosto, a holiday for which Italians debunk to the beach or the mountains, creating a lovely setti