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Reviews by Claire M. (Sarasota, FL)

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Harlem Rhapsody
by Victoria Christopher Murray
Harlem Rhapsody (9/11/2024)
I've read quite a few books by Black authors of that era but hadn't heard of Jessie Fauset and now she's having a moment. Murray, whom I'd not heard of either, has brought Jessie to life and effectively brought out her importance to the Renaissance. There were parts Imore
This Is Salvaged: Stories
by Vauhini Vara
This is Salvaged (8/14/2023)
I don't think I've quite read anything like This is Salvaged. These are stories whose characters are all seeking an intimacy of some sort, salvaging something from the sought after, whether it's a piece of art, one's sanity, something out of one's grief, sisterhood.

Somemore
Scatterlings: A Novel
by Resoketswe Martha Manenzhe
Scatterlings (11/6/2022)
When I opened this book I thought - who was the editor, I wish I were, because this is a talent!!! Stories, the kind that bring us into a culture or country are the way we connect with others, we learn about the wider world.
Resoketswe Manenzhe is a writer who brings usmore
Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden: Two Sisters Separated by China's Civil War
by Zhuqing Li
China Separation (6/1/2022)
To read this book, one must reflect on human endurance, choices, failed government policies, women's search for their place in the world against odds everywhere and the consequences of it all.

Two sisters, separated by the most unimagined of circumstances live through themore
The Paris Bookseller
by Kerri Maher
The Paris Bookseller (12/1/2021)
I struggle to write about this tale of Sylvia Beach. The beginning chapters were overwritten, used current American phrases, and almost made me wonder if I wanted to continue. I persisted as I was expecting a story about the trials and travails of opening what became amore
The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation
by Anna Malaika Tubbs
The Three Mothers (12/14/2020)
Three Black men of historical consequence are seen through what the writer makes of the lives of their mothers and the influence she proposes these women had on their sons.
These three women came from different backgrounds, even countries, but all were bright and all wantedmore
A Girl is A Body of Water
by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
A Girl Is a Body of Water (8/20/2020)
A fascinating journey into an African culture, specifically Uganda, in which the author uses her gifts of storytelling and language to examine the particulars of a patriarchal and storytelling culture. The ways of speaking which move from Bantu and local dialects to onemore
The Mountains Sing
by Nguyen Phan Que Mai
The War that No One Won (2/2/2020)
The American War in Viet Nam was devastating to a country that had been fighting for independence for almost ever. Nguyen Phan Que Mai tells the story of the war through the eyes of one family and in doing so she speaks for what it was like in the middle and the North,more
Travelers: A Novel
by Helon Habila
Les Miserables 21st Century (5/6/2019)
TRAVELERS is a book of wonder. Through 6 "books" Habilon ties a Nigerian- almost American to tales of people who have survived fleeing their African or Asian homelands to Europe. These are the stories of the migrants we read about every day, fleeing war and the certainty ofmore
The Guest Book
by Sarah Blake
Secrets and Lies (4/11/2019)
I started The Guest Book with some expectation, and in the end, it is a good book, a good read. As it jumps around in time it might prove helpful for the publisher to include a page with a family tree. People who name their children after themselves make it confusing as themore
Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir
by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman
Bright Lights, No Filter (1/5/2019)
Bright Lights; No Filter. Jessica Hindman leaves Appalachia for the big city and in a very short period of time starts to see Culture. That kind, yes, but also the big one: her studies in middle east history and politics as well as small town America and the Capital of themore
Gone So Long
by Andre Dubus III
Gone So Long (11/2/2018)
Mother love. The thing Susan searches for but never finds, going from man to man with no feeling of finding permanence. The murder of her mother by her father when she was a child haunts the characters in Gone So Long. A lone, vicious act of uncontrollable anger when Dannymore
A Place for Us
by Fatima Farheen Mirza
A Place for Us (4/9/2018)
An incredible debut from a very young author; reading A Place for Us is a richly rewarding experience. Family dynamics, secrets told and not, questioning one's religion and deciding whether and how it works for one is an important subtext. A young Indian Muslim man moves tomore
The Milk Lady of Bangalore: An Unexpected Adventure
by Shoba Narayan
The Sacred Cow (12/18/2017)
Upon returning home to India after 20 years in New York, Brahmin Shoba Narayan is greeted in her new building by a neighbor and a cow this woman is bringing in the elevator for the housewarming benediction of her new home. Narayan is nonplussed but then considers, on themore
Mothers of Sparta: A Memoir in Pieces
by Dawn Davies
Mothers of Sparta (9/26/2017)
There is some amazing writing here. And as Dawn shifts from one life period to another the tone and substance change, to the point I thought perhaps I was reading different authors. But as one grows, perspective changes and of course, life changes too. One of the funniermore
The Necklace
by Claire McMillan
The Necklace (7/7/2017)
The Necklace is a good bet for a lazy afternoon in a hammock on the porch or a chair at the beach. It lacked character development and really any kind of emotional depth. Having said that, it is a story of family secrets and greed, jealous rivalry between brothers, andmore
The Twelve-Mile Straight: A Novel
by Eleanor Henderson
The Twelve Mile Straight (5/28/2017)
There are so many reasons to read this vivid, beautifully written book about life as a sharecropper around the time of the depression. One is that if you think about it while you're reading you'll come away with a greater understanding of life as a black or poor white andmore
Rise: How a House Built a Family
by Cara Brookins
Rise-A family made house (10/31/2016)
An inspirational story of a woman who finally has the courage to break away from her schizophrenic, abusive husband, Cara Brookins and her four young children grow individually as well as a family through building a house. Cara sits down one night and talks about building amore
The Tea Planter's Wife
by Dinah Jefferies
The Tea Planter's Wife (7/25/2016)
A captivating read about a well to do Englishman, the wife he marries in England, brings to his tea plantation in Ceylon in the early years of the 20th century before the fall of the Raj. Gwen meets Laurence and falls deeply in love with him, a widower who has a few secretsmore
Miss Jane
by Brad Watson
Miss Jane (4/8/2016)
I love this book! Really love it. Each of us has a story, but the ability to tell it is what keeps most of us from doing so. Brad Watson gives voice to Miss Jane's story in some of the most beautiful writing I've read in a long time. Set in the South, in pre-depressionmore
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BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Bluest Eye
    by Toni Morrison
    The story of a black girl in America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others. First published 1970; won the 1993 Nobel Prize.

Members Recommend

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    Beast of the North Woods
    by Annelise Ryan

    When a local fisherman is mauled to death, it seems like the only possible cause is a mythical creature.

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    Harlem Rhapsody
    by Victoria Christopher Murray

    The extraordinary story of the woman who ignited the Harlem Renaissance.

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    Three Days in June
    by Anne Tyler

    A new Anne Tyler novel destined to be an instant classic: a socially awkward mother of the bride navigates the days before and after her daughter's wedding.

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