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

Dear BookBrowsers,

As we near the end of 2024, we feature the Top 20 Books of the Year chosen by our subscribers, and announce our Award Winners. Plus, our reviewers cover four books voted in by write-in nomination especially for this issue. We're grateful to everyone who participated for contributing to a fantastic annual roundup.

The winner of our Top Debut award is Eve J. Chung's sweeping Daughters of Shandong, which follows a mother and her daughters escaping from China to Taiwan during the Communist revolution. This book is on our list of favorite First Impressions reads of the year, also in this issue.

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon, an intriguing fictionalized drama of the real-life midwife Martha Ballard, takes the Top Fiction prize.

The Demon of Unrest, Erik Larson's absorbing exploration of pre-Civil War tensions, comes out ahead of the pack for our Top Nonfiction distinction.

And this year's Top YA ranking goes to one of our write-in nominees, Everything We Never Had, Randy Ribay's compact but moving tale of the complicated and shifting relationships between four generations of Filipino men.

Besides Ribay's novel, the newly reviewed books in this issue are Hisham Matar's Booker-longlisted and National Book Award finalist My Friends, the expansive but quietly reflective story of a Libyan exile living in London; Marjan Kamali's compelling The Lion Women of Tehran, centered on the friendship of two girls coming of age during a tumultuous period of contemporary Iranian history; and Lynda Cohen Loigman's The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern, a cozy literary romance that may just offer the perfect winter escape. Other Top 20 books include Percival Everett's James, winner of this year's National Book Award for Fiction; Elizabeth Strout's latest character-driven marvel Tell Me Everything; and The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich, a finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction.

Big Holiday Wordplay fans, you'll be pleased to know that this year's mammoth conundrum is bigger and better than ever. Solve as many of our whopping 15 (yes, 15) clues as you can and enter for a chance to win a free one-year membership.

Thank you again to everyone who voted, and thank you for subscribing to BookBrowse — we couldn't do this without your support!

Davina & Nick
Founder & Publisher

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Dear BookBrowsers,

In our second-to-last issue of the year, we feature recent books from acclaimed authors that paint vivid pictures of lives in retrospect. Alan Hollinghurst's Our Evenings spans a British actor's memories from the 1960s to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and André Aciman's Roman Year recounts a period spent in Rome as a young adult after his Jewish family was exiled from Egypt. Weike Wang's upcoming Rental House also travels through time, examining American society through a couple's fraught vacations five years apart.

In addition to new or soon-to-be-released books, we cover a sprinkling of lesser-known gems from earlier in 2024, including Maureen Sun's The Sisters K, a modern gender-flipped retelling of Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, and Jessica Zhan Mei Yu's But the Girl, which follows an Australian PhD student on an artist residency in the UK as she ponders creativity, her Malaysian heritage, and her complicated academic relationship with Sylvia Plath. Alongside these two classic-inflected contemporary debuts, we bring you a Beyond the Book article on the unique publisher they share, Unnamed Press, as well as one on beloved poet Plath's only novel, The Bell Jar.

Another glowing debut, Before the Mango Ripens by Afabwaje Kurian, tells the complex and hopeful tale of a village in 1970s Nigeria under the influence of American missionaries.

And Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's powerful posthumous memoir Patriot lays out a vision for the "normal country" he imagined his homeland could become.

You can also enjoy other reviews and articles, recommendations for book clubs, author interviews, a roundup of Our Most Anticipated Books for 2025, a new Wordplay, and more.

Thanks for subscribing to BookBrowse!

Davina & Nick
Founder & Publisher

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Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we bring you the latest from acclaimed author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates. The Message reflects on historical narratives and their meaning as the reader travels alongside Coates through Senegal, South Carolina, and the Middle East. Our accompanying Beyond the Book article presents works of art and writing that tell stories of ordinary Palestinian life.

Other excellent new nonfiction includes My Good Bright Wolf, a poetic memoir in which award-winning novelist Sarah Moss explores her struggles with anorexia, and Linguiphile, where Julie Sedivy examines the complex and beautiful connection between human life and language.

We also cover a couple of much-anticipated fiction follow-ups. Jean Hanff Korelitz's The Sequel centers Anna Williams-Bonner, wife of the writer Jacob Finch Bonner from The Plot, as she basks in the celebrity that has come with her husband's death. Jeff VanderMeer is back with Absolution, the fourth book in his Southern Reach series, which returns to the mysterious Area X in a roller coaster ride of a prequel.

For those looking to dive into something new and delightful, Kate Greathead's The Book of George offers a darkly humorous story of male millennial angst. Our related article explores the picaresque genre and its lovable rogues over the centuries.

You can read these reviews and articles along with many others, our selection of The Best Books for Book Clubs in 2025, author interviews, upcoming releases, and more.

Thank you for subscribing to BookBrowse!

Davina & Nick
Founder & Publisher

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Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we catch up with the latest in the universe of Elizabeth Strout. Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Bob Burgess, the town of Crosby, Maine, and some minor characters from previous books all have parts to play in the beautifully orchestrated Tell Me Everything.

Another new contemporary work of fiction by an old hand is Charles Baxter's Blood Test, a delightful satirical take on modern for-profit healthcare in which a mild-mannered Midwestern dad is informed by a genetic test that he will, in all likelihood, kill someone. Meanwhile, Daniel Lavery's debut Women's Hotel is a pitch-perfect ode to the days of women-only residential spaces in New York City. Danielle Trussoni's The Puzzle Box, sequel to The Puzzle Master, flits between past and present as Mike Brink attempts to solve a mystery from Meiji-era Japan.

In nonfiction, Wright Thompson's sobering and resonant The Barn unearths little-known details about Emmett Till's murder, dispels common misperceptions, and contextualizes the incident in the culture and history of Mississippi. Our Beyond the Book article outlines the experiences of Willie Reed, the witness who was driven into hiding after identifying Till's killers.

You can read many other reviews and articles, check out our blog post on Examples of Good Book Reviews, enjoy previews of upcoming books, peruse the latest book news items (including Han Kang's recent Nobel win), and more.

Thank you for being a BookBrowse subscriber!

Davina & Nick
Founder & Publisher

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Dear BookBrowsers,

As we move into October and the cooler breeze carries the promise of darker days ahead, we bring you some spine-chilling reading for the scariest month of the year. Olga Tokarczuk's The Empusium, a "health resort horror story," follows a young guest "taking the waters" in a European mountain spa town during the days before World War I, as rumors of unsettling happenings flow. Rivers Solomon's Model Home is a modern haunted house tale about a Black American family who weathers disturbing occurrences while living in a white gated community. Charles Burns' graphic novel Final Cut pays tribute to classic horror films and examines the dangers of idealized unrequited love.

But these books are only part of the veritable cornucopia of fantastic fiction coming out this fall. In this issue, we review the stunning latest from Louise Erdrich, The Mighty Red, in which the personal devastations of a North Dakota community are reflected in the dying surrounding landscape. Richard Powers' multilayered Playground develops plotlines linked to the world's oceans, the board game Go, and other topics. Yuri Herrera's richly rendered Season of the Swamp follows eventual Mexican president Benito Juárez during his exile in 19th century New Orleans. Sally Rooney's vivid Intermezzo, her fourth and longest novel yet, centers two brothers and their strained relationship after the death of their father. Our related article reports on a recent appearance Rooney made in Dublin.

We also bring you our list of 9 New Books to Read This Fall, which includes both recent and upcoming reads, along with additional reviews and articles, a giveaway of Jesmyn Ward's novel Let Us Descend, previews of soon-to-be-released books, and much more.

As always, thank you for subscribing to BookBrowse!

Davina & Nick
Founder & Publisher

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Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we're excited to bring you three strikingly original titles that just made this year's National Book Award for Fiction longlist. Rachel Kushner's Creation Lake features a secret agent infiltrating a French commune in a one-of-a-kind novel that mixes modern anxieties with classic espionage. Yr Dead, the poignant fiction debut of poet Sam Sax, follows a young person in the reflective moments leading up to a death they've chosen. Tony Tulathimutte's entertaining Rejection presents characters' relationships to the titular concept, whether they're being spurned romantically or having their writerly dreams dashed.

Along with the NBA nominees, other books feature vivid glimpses of and challenges to our contemporary social reality. Cebo Campbell's imaginative debut Sky Full of Elephants is a sweeping speculative story exploring racial politics and their limitations in a world where all white people have walked into the nearest body of water and drowned. Our connected article looks at the modern appeal of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Fans of Greek mythology adaptations can kick off their fall reading with The Palace of Eros by Caro De Robertis, a creative retelling of the story of Eros and Psyche that transcends binary gender. In her inspiring memoir A Well-Trained Wife, Tia Levings recounts escaping an abusive marriage sustained by Christian patriarchy and the Institute in Basic Life Principles ministry, which has entered mainstream awareness through reality TV and the documentary Shiny Happy People.

Meanwhile, Richard Osman, author of the beloved Thursday Murder Club series, is back with We Solve Murders, a fast-paced, wisecracking new thriller about a bodyguard, her father-in-law, and a bestselling author investigating linked crimes as they flee an assassin.

We hope you enjoy these reviews and articles along with new First Impressions books, advice on How Anyone Can Fight Book Bans ahead of Banned Books Week (September 22-28), author interviews, previews of upcoming releases, and much more.

Thanks for subscribing to BookBrowse!

Davina & Nick
Founder & Publisher

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Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we bring you the latest from Booker finalist Elif Shafak. There Are Rivers in the Sky is an ambitious novel of three linked timelines that ranges from the Tigris to the Thames. We also feature an impressive debut story collection with a strikingly similar title — Ruben Reyes Jr.'s There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven, which puts a supernatural spin on the experiences of Latinx immigrants — along with a connected reading list of more speculative fiction dealing with themes of displacement and migration.

Another book with celestial associations is Ruby Todd's Bright Objects, about a grieving widow in Australia caught up in the strange and powerful events surrounding a newly discovered comet. In an accompanying article, we cover real-life inspirations for Todd's novel: Comet Hale-Bopp and the Heaven's Gate cult.

Garth Greenwell's Small Rain is a quiet, thoughtful story about a poet in Iowa City who reflects on the general and specific during a period of hospitalization. In a more electric exploration of the writing life, Danzy Senna's Colored Television zooms in on a novelist trying to switch to a TV career in sunny Los Angeles.

Readers everywhere will enjoy The Bookshop by Evan Friss, a loving tribute to the bookstores and booksellers that have engaged with the social landscape throughout American history.

Along with many other reviews and articles, you can check out our selection of upcoming September releases, an overview of BookBrowse's Young Adult Award Winners from recent years, our giveaway of Afabwaje Kurian's debut novel of 1970s Nigeria Before the Mango Ripens, and much more.

As always, thank you for supporting BookBrowse as a subscriber!

Davina & Nick
Founder & Publisher

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