Very sad news for World Book Night fans in the USA. After three years World Book Night in America is to cease. In a statement, executive director Carl Lennertz cited lack of outside funding as the main reason for ending the book-giving project that, through a veritable army of volunteers, aimed to put books directly into the hands of reluctant and non-readers.

"The expenses of running World Book Night U.S., even given the significant financial and time commitment from publishers, writers, booksellers, librarians, printers, distributors, and shippers, are too high to sustain without additional outside funding," Lennertz wrote.

If you enjoy seeing your favorite books interpreted in film, or just enjoy a good movie, there are a number to look forward to between July and September 2014 including films based on Jane Mendelsohn's Innocence, Lois Lowry's The Giver, Gayle Forman's If I Stay and Alan Snow's Ratbridge Chronicles series.

Read on for brief descriptions and trailers (and please be patient as the page will likely take a few seconds to load due to the multiple videos).

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In addition to reviewing books, BookBrowse goes "beyond the book" to explore interesting aspects relating to each book we feature. Here is a "Beyond the Book" feature for The Blessings by Elise Juska...

The Blessings is a novel, but it's also a portrait —an ensemble in which assorted members of three generations reveal various complexities and challenges. Here is a handful of other books that also offer multi-generational stories about family.

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BookBrowse trawls through tens of thousands of books and book reviews each year in order to shortlist the most notable 80-100 publishing each month. Then we gather together all available reviews for each book so our members know about the best and most interesting books well ahead of the crowd.

Below you will find highlights from our list of best books publishing in June 2014.

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This is not so much a blog entry as it is a plea on behalf of people in desperate need of escape. As a book critic for several publications I receive, on average, eight-to-twelve books every month. It goes without exaggeration that books have a tendency to pile up. Stacks in every nook and corner of our small home quickly escalate from evidence of a moderate reader to hoarder status. A couple of decades ago when I first started reviewing books I simply gave them to friends or - forgive me - tossed the not-so-great ones into the recycling bin. Occasionally an editor would send me the first edition of a book that I had reviewed pre-publication, and I started donating these to my local library. I still do this, but for some reason I get sent fewer follow up first editions these days.

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Sandra Gulland on 17th-century French theater, and a moving people's protest against authority.

Five years ago I went to Paris to research the life of Mademoiselle Claude des Oeillets. It was going to be a challenge, I knew. Claude--or Claudette, as I think of her--was a two-bit-player-turned-lady's maid, and she had lived over 250 years ago. As it is, there is often little in the historical records about the serving classes.

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