Archives of "The BookBrowse Review": Reviews, previews, back-stories, news

Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we review Moderation by Elaine Castillo, a complex tech satire following a social media moderator accustomed to the worst of the internet who discovers new possibilities in the world of virtual reality, including VR therapy.

River Selby's memoir Hotshot, another creative exploration of trauma, tells of the author's time spent wildland firefighting while grappling with a fraught past and present. Catherine Dang's novel What Hunger combines horror with …more historical reflection and a Vietnamese American family's wartime memories.

Other fiction titles include Charlotte Runcie's hilarious Bring the House Down, about a struggling art reviewer who observes her more successful, highly critical theater critic colleague's terrible behavior, Annalee Newitz's appetizing Automatic Noodle, examining contemporary issues like current immigration policy through a team of enterprising robots in a future San Francisco, and Ed Park's much-anticipated story collection An Oral History of Atlantis, with its mixture of emotional resonance and fantastical plots. We also review Carrie R. Moore's Make Your Way Home, a paperback original containing stories of Southern Black life and history, and feature a related Beyond the Book article about the rebellion of enslaved Igbo people at Dunbar Creek.

Science lovers will adore Carly Anne York's The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog and its entertaining examples of "silly science" (like taking satellite imagery of penguin poop!), while literary history buffs and book clubs will be thrilled to discover Graham Watson's The Invention of Charlotte Brontë, an exciting new study of the legendary author that touches on her later life and her friend and biographer Elizabeth Gaskell.

We also bring you previews of upcoming releases, book club discussions, an article about publishers that make reading classics a fresh, pleasurable pastime, a giveaway of Christine Pride's solo debut All the Men I've Loved Again, and more.

Thanks for supporting BookBrowse!

— The BookBrowse Team

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Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we bring you historical fiction with a touch of the speculative.

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia follows three women at different points in time, each seeking to understand the mysterious disappearance of a loved one. Angel Down by Daniel Kraus revolves around a celestial being discovered on a World War I battlefield, and our Beyond the Book article looks at the story of the Angels of Mons, a popular legend about a similar phenomenon. Archive of …more Unknown Universes by Ruben Reyes Jr. uses alternate history and a dual-timeline plot to explore outcomes of the Salvadoran Civil War.

We also feature Fox, the latest from Joyce Carol Oates, a harrowing murder mystery centering on an English teacher who manipulates and abuses his students. Linn Ullmann's novel Girl, 1983 weaves an in-depth story of trauma from the perspective of an abuse victim. Ecstasy by Ivy Pochoda is a modern tale of feminist rage that draws inspiration from Euripides' tragedy The Bacchae.

For an overview of an enchanting character-driven work with glimpses of Italy's scenic Amalfi Coast, enjoy our coverage of André Aciman's three-novella collection Room on the Sea, along with a related article about love letters alleged to have been written by 17th-century nun Mariana Alcoforado.

Plus, check out an array of new First Impressions selections, including our book club guide A Club of One's Own, author interviews, previews of upcoming releases, and more. And you can still enter our giveaway of Sarah Loudin Thomas's These Blue Mountains for a chance to win a copy.

Thank you for being a BookBrowse member!

— The BookBrowse Team

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Dear BookBrowsers,

In this, our second retrospective issue of the year, we revel in the past with special coverage of work ranging from the 1930s to the early 2000s.

Join us in exploring the long publication journey of Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Zora Neale Hurston's classic story of one woman's search for love and happiness. We also feature Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace (1996), based on the life of alleged killer Grace Marks; Percival Everett's Erasure (2001), adapted for film as …more American Fiction (2023); Kate Atkinson's playful historical debut Behind the Scenes at the Museum (1995); and Octavia E. Butler's Bloodchild and Other Stories (1995), a decades-spanning collection that serves as a great introduction to her work.

London Fields (1989) by Martin Amis, a sort of murder mystery with an unusual premise, may interest dark comedy aficionados. Lovers of language can check out our coverage of Lolita (1955), Vladimir Nabokov's famous tale of deception and obsession. And Joan Lindsay's Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967) is an absorbing and ambiguously rendered work of fiction that could have roots in a real mysterious disappearance.

If you'd prefer something less intense, R.C. Sherriff's The Fortnight in September (1931), the story of an English family's seaside trip once recommended by Kazuo Ishiguro as an "uplifting, life-affirming" read, may be just the balm you need.

Plus, enjoy other reviews and articles, and keep up to date with recent paperbacks, July Books We're Excited About, and previews of upcoming releases. You can also enter our latest giveaway for a chance to win a copy of Sarah Loudin Thomas's historical novel These Blue Mountains.

Thanks for subscribing to BookBrowse!

— The BookBrowse Team

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Dear BookBrowsers,

Still need more fiction for your summer TBR? This issue will fix that. We cover Taylor Jenkins Reid's Atmosphere, bringing to life the early days of NASA's Space Shuttle program, and Susan Choi's Flashlight, which mixes contemporary and historical timelines between the United States, Japan, and Korea. Dennard Dayle's How to Dodge a Cannonball, another ambitious novel that takes on aspects of American history, is a soberingly hilarious satire featuring a scrappy, …more opportunistic Civil War flag bearer.

The Compound by Aisling Rawle dissects escapism and consumerism through a reality show whose participants live in a desert compound, having willingly left the world behind. Benedict Nguyễn's Hot Girls with Balls builds a universe in which pro volleyball is big, two Asian American trans women athletes play it, and internet fame is an additional ever-present game. UnWorld by Jayson Greene, set in a future where mind uploading is possible, explores questions about what makes us who we are.

For those seeking a pleasant intellectual diversion, Nell Stevens' The Original tells the tale of an aspiring art forger in turn-of-the-20th-century England. Our accompanying article studies a real-life painting that serves as the original to one of her fictional forgeries, Van Eyck's mysterious and alluring Arnolfini portrait. And lovers of thrillers won't want to miss The House on Buzzards Bay by Dwyer Murphy, about five friends sharing a house on the New England coast and the slow-burning strangeness that ensues.

Read other reviews and articles, get ahead of the rest of the year with our Most Anticipated Books for July through December 2025, see what's publishing later this month in handpicked previews, peruse recommendations for book clubs, and more. Plus, this issue is packed with reading guides for featured books, including some we've created ourselves (watch out for more of these to come).

Thank you for being a BookBrowse member!

— The BookBrowse Team

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Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we're pleased to bring you recent fiction gems, including standout debuts. Maria Reva's Endling offers a unique perspective on the war in Ukraine, combining the novel she was working on during the Russian invasion with her response to it. Our accompanying Beyond the Book article covers chernozem, the country's all-important and particularly fertile soil. Lucas Schaefer's ambitious The Slip follows the disappearance of a teenager in Texas, reflects on the broad …more appeal of boxing, and contemplates race, immigration, and American life. Susanna Kwan's Awake in the Floating City explores the artistic process, aging, and memory in a future, flooded San Francisco.

We also catch up with Charlotte McConaghy's latest novel Wild Dark Shore, a suspenseful eco-thriller about a family on a vanishing island and an unexpected guest. Megan Giddings' Meet Me at the Crossroads focuses on teen twin sisters' encounters with a mysterious door to another realm. Jess Walter's So Far Gone tells the tale of a former journalist given the confounding task of rescuing his grandchildren from conservative extremists.

While many of these books portray a version of the present or future, Mia McKenzie's These Heathens delves into the past with the story of a 17-year-old seeking an abortion in 1960s Atlanta and her time in the Black community of Collier Heights. V.E. Schwab's Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil features three women at different points in time who are thrust into new, immortal lives. And So Many Stars, compiled by novelist Caro de Robertis, presents an invaluable oral history of trans and nonbinary elders of color, Nicky Calma among them.

Along with other reviews and articles, you can enjoy previews of upcoming books, our 2025 Summer Reading List, author interviews, and more.

Thanks for being a BookBrowse member!

— The BookBrowse Team

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Dear BookBrowsers,

This wedding season and Pride Month, we bring you When the Harvest Comes by Denne Michele Norris, an emotional contemporary story of marriage, queer identity, and childhood trauma. We also review The Dry Season by Melissa Febos, a reflective memoir about self-love, pleasure, and nurturing an artistic life that recounts a year-long experiment with celibacy.

We cover several additional titles in this issue that significantly feature love or longing, accompanied by literary " …more beyond the book" articles. In conjunction with Fredrik Backman's new release My Friends, a tale of teen friendship, we explore the work of poet Mary Oliver and her famous "The Summer Day." We examine the tradition of queer Irish writing around Open, Heaven, Seán Hewitt's quiet and intense debut of adolescent infatuation. Our coverage of Emily Henry's genre-mixing romance Great Big Beautiful Life includes a look at other romance novels with complex themes. And alongside The Accidentals by Guadalupe Nettel, a collection of slice-of-life stories that exhibit a sense of displacement and yearning, we consider the larger landscape of contemporary Mexican literature in translation.

Meanwhile, history lovers will be riveted by America, América, Greg Grandin's account of the relationship between Latin America and the United States, as well as Thomas Levenson's So Very Small, encompassing humans' efforts to fight infectious disease in the past and present.

Plus, check out other articles and reviews, previews of books publishing soon, June Books We're Excited About, and much more.

Thank you for subscribing to BookBrowse!

— The BookBrowse Team

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Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we feature two standout debut memoirs. This Is Your Mother by Erika J. Simpson paints a picture of the author's late mother Sallie Carol, whose larger-than-life presence is rendered in a playful and multifaceted narrative. The True Happiness Company tells Veena Dinavahi's story of being swept into a self-help cult as a teenager, when she suffered from persistent depression and the group seemed to promise a brighter future.

Candace Fleming's Death in the …more Jungle, a YA nonfiction account of the Jonestown massacre, offers a different view of the insidious nature of cults, while other books we cover further explore the slippery notion of happiness. Lori Ostlund's Are You Happy? presents stories about primarily women and queer characters that interrogate the meaning behind this question. Cartoonist Alison Bechdel, famous for the "Bechdel test," examines the role of community in life satisfaction in her new metafictional graphic novel Spent. Florence Knapp's The Names follows three separate plotlines that diverge based on one woman's decision of what to name her child, showing varying degrees of contentment for her family members and herself. K. Ancrum's latest young adult outing The Corruption of Hollis Brown is the story of a ghost and the boy he possesses finding love in a rundown Michigan town. Our accompanying "beyond the book" article looks at Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, the 1906 novel that challenged the ideal of the American Dream.

Plus, we review Mark Whitaker's The Afterlife of Malcolm X, which traces the iconic leader's life, death, and legacy.

You can also see previews of upcoming releases, our latest survey results on Book Clubs' All-Time Favorite Books, recommendations for book clubs, and more.

Thank you for supporting BookBrowse as a member!

— The BookBrowse Team

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