Get The BookBrowse Anthology, our 880 page collection of our past decade of Best of Year reviews, now available in hardcover!

Reviews by Susan Reiners

Order Reviews by:
The Whisperer
The Whisperer
by Donato Carrisi
Warning: Here Be Monsters (1/21/2012)
I have no idea how to rate this book. I HATE the subject: the sadistic serial murder of children and others. I try to avoid reading the blurb on the inside flap until after I've finished a book, but in this case it might have saved me hours. I began reading (and it IS a …more
The Philosophical Breakfast Club
The Philosophical Breakfast Club: Four Remarkable Friends Who Transformed Science and Changed the World
by Laura J. Snyder
Connecting the Dots (1/18/2011)
The Philosphic Breakfast Club helped shape the modern world in which science plays a starring role. The PBC was four Cambridge students in the early 1820's who had long Sunday breakfasts together and discussed the role and methods of "natural philosophy", as science was …more
The Discovery of Jeanne Baret
The Discovery of Jeanne Baret: A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe
by Glynis Ridley
The Discovery of a Soporific (1/4/2011)
Jeanne Baret's is a story of pioneering, romance, intrigue, adventure and science. It deserves fleshed out characters and settings. This book doesn't deliver.

At a time when people of her class seldom ventured farther than their feet could carry them in a day, Jeanne Baret …more
Beat the Reaper
Beat the Reaper: A Novel
by Josh Bazell
Those with Delicate Sensibilities, Beware! (10/21/2010)
Despite using an f-word as a noun, this book grabbed me harder faster than just about any book I can think of. It was difficult to put down, and at first I would have recommended it to just about anyone, including my German physician daughter-in-law for my son to read aloud. …more
The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise
The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise: A Novel
by Julia Stuart
A dissenting opiniion (8/13/2010)
It appears that most BookBrowse readers really liked this book. I tried. Really, I did! With the news always so full of the current wars, scandal in high places, natural disasters and murders du jour, I thought it would be fun and relaxing to read a gentle story about three …more
Losing My Cool
Losing My Cool: How a Father's Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-hop Culture
by Thomas Chatterton Williams
Anticipating the next chapters in this man's life (4/10/2010)
This thoughtful memoir is written by a young man whose mother is white and whose father is a black man who came up in the pre-integration south. When he finally got the opportunity, Mr. Williams senior embraced books and scholarship wholeheartedly.

Growing up in a …more
The New Global Student
The New Global Student: Skip the SAT, Save Thousands on Tuition, and Get a Truly International Education
by Maya Frost
Thinking Outside the Box (11/3/2009)
If money is no object in your family, pass on this book. If your college-bound student adores the pressure of tests and getting into a prestige college, don't bother with this book. If your student isn't interested in the wide world out there and how to make her mark, skip …more
Sweeping Up Glass
Sweeping Up Glass
by Carolyn Wall
Sweeping Up Glass (8/10/2009)
When Poisoned Pen published this last year I looked forward to an interesting, offbeat mystery. So I was surprised that this is not a mystery in the conventional sense at all. Sure, there are (very) bad guys and good guys, but no actual detectives, amateur or otherwise. We …more
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
by Alan Bradley
Wheee! (6/16/2009)
What fun!!
Honolulu
Honolulu
by Alan Brennert
No Rose-Colored Glasses (6/5/2009)
This book has what I look for in a book: it took me to a time and place not well known to me in the company of people I care about. Even the bad guys are more than cardboard people.

The story follows Gen,an extremely restricted traditional young Korean woman who escapes to …more
Finding Nouf
Finding Nouf
by Zoë Ferraris
Way behind the headlines (5/18/2009)
This book was a shock and an eye-opener. Of course anyone who's been paying attention in the last few decades knows that Saudi Arabia is a "sexist" society. Women can't drive, vote, etc. But the big shock to me was the guilt the detective felt about even thinking of or …more
  • Page
  • 1

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Devil Finds Work
    by James Baldwin
    A book-length essay on racism in American films, by "the best essayist in this country" (The New York Times Book Review).
1
2
3
4
PrevNext

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Happy Land
    by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

    From the New York Times bestselling author, a novel about a family's secret ties to a vanished American Kingdom.

    Read the Reviews
  • Book Jacket

    The Seven O'Clock Club
    by Amelia Ireland

    Four strangers join an experimental treatment to heal broken hearts in Amelia Ireland's heartfelt debut novel.

    Read the Reviews
  • Book Jacket

    The Fairbanks Four
    by Brian Patrick O’Donoghue

    One murder, four guilty convictions, and a community determined to find justice.

    Read the Reviews
  • Book Jacket

    One Death at a Time
    by Abbi Waxman

    A cranky ex-actress and her Gen Z sobriety sponsor team up to solve a murder that could send her back to prison in this dazzling mystery.

    Read the Reviews
1
2
3
4
PrevNext
Who Said...

A million monkeys...

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

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

J of A T, M of N

and be entered to win..

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.