BookBrowse | Book Reviews and Recommendations

The Naming Song
by Jedediah Berry

The Naming Song (6/23/2024)

Where words create reality and danger lurks in the nameless worlds. Novel takes place in a dystopian world of committees, couriers, ghosts, monsters, namers. Population is scattered and many living in poverty. There is a general amnesia that prevents people from speaking the names of objects. There is much spying and mistrust. The main character is the courier who brings words forth and is nameless. The novel creates an entire world, including a traveling train show that reminds people of their history. Most people are struggling and isolated but team form. I enjoyed the novel but found it a bit long. There is a list of principal characters at the front which is very helpful. Recommend this book for someone who wants something different. Or for a book club that is interested in imaginary worlds.

The Witches at the End of the World
by Chelsea Iversen

Witches (8/18/2023)

This debut novel is a tale of witches set in 1677 Norway. Sisters Minna and Kaija have seem their mother burn and must escape their village and flee to live in isolation in the middle of the woods. They learn to be self-sufficient, but Kaija yearns to return to a life surrounded by people. The novel does a good job of making real how superstitious the people of the area are. Any sickness or misfortune is attributed to a curse. Anyone different or without strong social ties is assumed to be a witch. Very reminiscent of the events surrounding other persecution of those assumed to be witches. The main characters are witches. The novel made real the fear the characters lived with, and how they had to be secretive.

The September House
by Carissa Orlando

The September House (5/21/2023)

Hal and Margaret buy their dream house. But the house has a scary history, violent deaths have occurred there. At first the couple is very happy but then strange things start happening. Is the house haunted? Hal and Margaret have very different ideas about how to deal with the occurrences. Hal disappears and their daughter Katherine arrives to help find him. Is Margaret imaging all of this or is it really happening? As I read, I kept changing my mind about what was going on. It made the novel enjoyable. It would be a good book club selection, interesting to see what readers thought.

Scatterlings: A Novel
by Resoketswe Martha Manenzhe

Scattered (10/15/2022)

Scatterings is a novel set in 1927 South Africa. The Immorality Act has just been passed, it prohibits sexual intercourse between people of different races. Abram and Alisa are an interracial couple with two children. Now their entire existence is threatened. Displacement is a big part of the plot. Alisa is "scattered", black and adopted by white parents she feels she does not belong. Awful events occur that change the family's life forever. What I enjoyed most about the novel was the storytelling. Native rituals and myths are mixed in with the events that are taking place. Glad I read Scatterlings, was a book I would not have found on my own.

The Family Izquierdo: A Novel
by Rubén Degollado

The Family (8/5/2022)

The Family Izquierdo is a collection of short stories about a Mexican American family that lives in McAllen Texas. The stories are each told by one member of the three generations. The family is held together by both love and a strong belief that they have been cursed by a rival business owner. I appreciated reading the family history from different viewpoints. Every person gave the impression that the curse was real and caused the family great harm to all the relations. The book was entertaining and effortless to read because I could finish one story and break away.

Fruiting Bodies: Stories
by Kathryn Harlan

Mushrooms (5/15/2022)

Fruiting Bodies is a collection of eight short stories by Kathryn Harlan. I place this in the genre of speculative fiction. Most of the stories center on queer women and their relationships. The two stories I enjoyed most were "Fiddler, Fool Pair" and "Fruiting Bodies". Fiddler is a story of a fantasy card game, the players have special identities. They wager memories and often body parts too. Fruiting is a story of a gay couple, one partner "grows" mushrooms on her body that the other partner removes. Very disturbing but I was eager to see where it was going. Recommend this collection to anyone willing to feel in uncomfortable in return for some interesting stories.

The Sunset Route: Freight Trains, Forgiveness, and Freedom on the Rails in the American West
by Carrot Quinn

The Sunset Route (7/11/2021)

The Sunset Route: Freight Trains, Forgiveness, and Freedom on the Rails in the American West

The subtitle of this memoir is an accurate description, it tells you what to expect when reading this memoir. The memoir flips back forth between the author's childhood and her life as a young adult. The author, Carrot Quinn, tells her story of a harrowing childhood. She is raised by her schizophrenic mother and experiences terrible hunger. She leaves home and travels the country be freight train, which is quite dangerous. She is trying to escape her awful childhood and find happiness and love. Carrot takes pleasure in the natural world and it heals her. And she uses the physical challenges of her lifestyle to move beyond her past. Her story is captivating and I enjoyed the book.

Palace of the Drowned
by Christine Mangan

Palace of the Drowned (3/19/2021)

This novel is both a character study and a dark tale. Story is set in 1966 and the central character is writer Frankie Croy. Locations switch between London and Venice. Frankie is in Venice recovering from a very public meltdown and severe writer's block. She meets an enigmatic young woman named Gilly. Gilly is hiding something and becomes obsessed with Frankie. The Venice location becomes an integral part of the story. Venice is like another character. Suspense builds throughout the book. Important events take place during the historic Venice flood of 1966. I recommend this book if you want to experience life in Venice and like suspense.

Piranesi
by Susanna Clarke

Piranesi (8/25/2020)

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is a novel set in a dreamlike alternative reality. Piranesi, the main character, lives in a infinite stone castle with room after room of statues and skeletons. Tides often flood part of the castle. Piranesi is an unreliable narrator who keeps meticulous journals. His main point of contact is the Other, who tries to control him. Piranesi has no contact with the outside world. But through his journals who find out about other characters. The story keeps your attention as you try to understand Piranesi. I was unsure until towards the end what was actually happening. I recommend this book, I enjoyed the way the plot was developed. It might be challenging as a book club read. Everyone must finish the book before the discussion.

Ruthie Fear: A Novel
by Maxim Loskutoff

Ruthie Fear (6/10/2020)

Ruthie Fear is both the title of the novel as well as the name of the main character. Set in beautiful Bitterroot Valley Montana Ruthie grows up poor with her survivalist father. The natural beauty of the area is resulting in new development. This feeds on a culture of guns, violence and anger against the "rich". I enjoyed this novel because of the way the author shows Ruthie first as a young child and on into adulthood. Discussions about changes in a remote town and how the residents react would be interesting for a book club.

Courting Mr. Lincoln
by Louis Bayard

Communicaton is key (2/19/2019)

This is a novel that is centered on Abraham Lincoln's young adult life in Springfield Illinois. It focuses on Lincoln, his future wife Mary Todd and his close friend Joshua Speed. The novel delves into the personalities of all three. Lincoln is very closed off emotionally, he and Mary have a lot of difficulty communicating on an emotional level. Lincoln and Joshua share a very close relationship, but they too have trouble understanding each other. No one seems to be able to express their feelings. There is a lot of sadness. I liked that the novel was told from different character's point of view.

Red, White, Blue
by Lea Carpenter

Red, White and Blue (7/11/2018)

Red White and Blue is novel told from two alternating points of view. The narrators take turn telling two parallel stories. This creates a fast paced read. The main character Anna has a loving father she knows very little about and a mother who left when she was a young child. As an adult Anna finds out that her father was a CIA agent. You don't really get to know much about the characters in the novel: Anna, her father, her mother, her husband or her father's co-worker who is the other narrator. This keeps the book interesting as it moves back and forth in time. While not a traditional spy novel this reads like one and keeps you wondering until the end.

Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions
by Mario Giordano

Aunt Poldi (12/30/2017)

Aunt Poldi and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano is a fun detective story set in Sicily. The protagonist, Aunt Poldi is a quirky amateur detective. The residents of her small town harbor decades long secrets and grudges. She investigates a murder with the help of her sisters and brothers in law. Of course there is a handsome police detective and a few encounters with dangerous criminals. I enjoyed the few words and phrases in Sicilian that were spread throughout the book. I recommend this novel to anyone who likes mysteries set in a beautiful location.

If We Were Villains
by M. L. Rio

Thespians (4/2/2017)

Shakespeare comes to life in this suspense novel that takes place at an elite arts college. The story moves back and forth between the events at the school and ten years forward. The novel centers on seven fourth year theater students and the murder of one of them. The school year is organized around the performance of several of Shakespeare's plays. The students are so immersed in the playwright that they often speak to each other using quotes from the plays. They become actors in the drama. As the horrible events take place the group becomes detached from reality. Sometimes it seemed that they thought they were in a play rather than experiencing real life. There's excessive drug and alcohol use as well as a lot of violence. I recommend this book if you like suspense and Shakespeare. I am not that familiar with all of his plays, so at times I found it hard to follow some of the dialogue.

The Typewriter's Tale
by Michiel Heyns

A book about books (1/2/2017)

A book about books

This is a interesting novel about the novelist Henry James and his typewriter. Set in the early 1900s the term typewriter referred both to the machine and the person who did the transcribing. The story is a mixture of actual historical events and people and a fictional person and plot.

Freida Wroth is a young woman of 23 when she is hired to work for Henry James. She comes from a poor background and experiences the rigid class distinctions in place. She cannot understand the problems of the upper classes.

The novel also contains a story line about spiritualism and automatic writing. Frieda faces a moral dilemma which adds suspense to the story. I recommend this book because it covers a different sort of topic.

The Book That Matters Most: A Novel
by Ann Hood

Book club meets real life (6/8/2016)

If you are a book lover and/or someone who likes reading about books, this book is for you. It tells the story of a book club with selective membership in Providence RI. The members become close; they must each choose a "book that matters most" that the club will read and discuss. Woven into the book club story is the life story of Ava. She is dealing with a divorce and struggling with some terrible childhood memories. Her mission to find the author of her book selection changes her life. This would be a great book club pick.

Reviews by Norma R. (Secaucus, NJ)

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Reviews by Norma R. (Secaucus, NJ)

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