Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Reviews by Barbara

Order Reviews by:
Evening Is the Whole Day
by Preeta Samarasan
Amazing debut novel (6/11/2008)
Evening is the Whole Day is a beautifully written novel about a wealthy Indian family in Malaysia. Everything is not as it seems in this epic family saga and Samarasan utilizes rich prose and well-developed characters in unveiling the many layers of the families dark secrets. The story is told from various points of view in a seamless and unconfusing way. A wonderful book!
Someone Knows My Name: aka: The Book of Negroes
by Lawrence Hill
Outstanding (11/20/2007)
This book was engaging from the very beginning and I could not put it down. The character development, descriptions and plot were all extraordinary and although long it was well-paced. It is impossible not be drawn in by the main character and narrator, Aminata.

This book provides a fresh perspective on the horrors of slavery and prejudice. Knowing historical facts is so different than reading someone's first hand account of those events (even if in the context of historical fiction). Some characters stay with you long after the book is over and Aminata is one who I won't forget.
Run
by Ann Patchett
Just OK (11/19/2007)
I loved Bel Canto and was eager to read Run. Although it was well-paced and interesting enough to keep me engaged, the plot didn't seem plausible and none of the characters stayed with me once I was finished. With other books the characters linger with me for days and I didn't connect with any of these characters. I feel that this book was average and nothing like her other novels, all of which I have read (except Taft) and loved.
  • Page
  • 1

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Small Rain
    Small Rain
    by Garth Greenwell
    At the beginning of Garth Greenwell's novel Small Rain, the protagonist, an unnamed poet in his ...
  • Book Jacket: Daughters of Shandong
    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...
  • Book Jacket: The Women
    The Women
    by Kristin Hannah
    Kristin Hannah's latest historical epic, The Women, is a story of how a war shaped a generation ...
  • Book Jacket: The Wide Wide Sea
    The Wide Wide Sea
    by Hampton Sides
    By 1775, 48-year-old Captain James Cook had completed two highly successful voyages of discovery and...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.