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

Reviews by Cathryn Conroy

Power Reviewer  Power Reviewer

If you'd like to be able to easily share your reviews with others, please join BookBrowse.
Order Reviews by:
The Paying Guests
by Sarah Waters
What a Delicious Book! (4/22/2023)
Oooh! What a delicious book! It just sneaks up on you--and in a good way. It takes a bit to get into it, but it's worth the wait. By the time the plot really gets moving the characters are fully developed and seem like real people. And look out! You won't be able to put itmore
Empire Falls
by Richard Russo
A Book About the Comedy and Tragedy of Life (4/22/2023)
This book will make you laugh. And this book will break your heart. It is about the comedy and tragedy of life--some of which we bring on ourselves and some of which just happens. The good. The bad. The in-between. And sometimes the horrific.

The story is told through themore
Fates and Furies
by Lauren Groff
If I Could Give It 10 Stars, I Would (4/22/2023)
If I could give this book 10 stars, I would! But do know this is not an easy, on-the-beach type read. This is an intelligent book--literary fiction at its finest. The story by Lauren Groff, which is a behind-closed-doors look at the marriage of Lancelot (Lotto) and Mathildemore
The Summer Before the War
by Helen Simonson
Thin on Plot, But Excellent Writing (4/22/2023)
This book, while being a very slow read, is rich in the details, manners and the lifestyle of the late Edwardian period just before the outbreak of World War I. I was all set to give it three stars until the last 20 percent of the book when (finally) the plot picks up andmore
Another Brooklyn: A Novel
by Jacqueline Woodson
Powerful. Exquisite. Read It (4/22/2023)
Powerful story. Exquisite prose. This short book by Jacqueline Woodson will grab you with the first sentence (For a long time, my mother wasn't dead yet.), squeeze your heart tight and not let go. If I could give it 10 stars I would.

This is the story of August, a blackmore
The Constant Princess
by Philippa Gregory
Oh, How Delicious! (4/22/2023)
Oh, how delicious! This is historical FICTION. Emphasis on the word "fiction." While it is a historical account of Catalina, princess of Spain who becomes Katherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife and queen of England, there is liberal artistic license taken.

The factsmore
The Sandcastle Girls: A Novel
by Chris Bohjalian
Historical Fiction at Its Best (4/22/2023)
This is a difficult book to read--not because of inferior writing, a confusing plot or one-dimensional characters. The writing is excellent, the plot is well-conceived and the characters ring true. Rather, it is difficult to read because of the horrific subject matter: themore
Commonwealth
by Ann Patchett
Powerful and Compelling (4/22/2023)
It all began because of an illicit kiss.

Bert Cousins kissed Beverly Keating at a family christening party, and that set in motion two divorces, a marriage and a Brady Bunch of six kids who get tossed back and forth from the state of California to the commonwealth ofmore
Moonglow
by Michael Chabon
Bizarre. Strange. (Really, Really Strange.) And It's a Must-Read (4/22/2023)
This is by far THE strangest book I have ever read. And maybe ever will read. The full title (and this is important) is "Moonglow: A Novel." Yes, it's fiction. But wily author Michael Chabon has written it and presented it as a memoir of his (never named) grandfather.more
The Promise
by Ann Weisgarber
Just One More Page...You Won't Be Able to Stop Reading This Book (4/22/2023)
Riveting. Captivating. Spellbinding. Entrancing. Get the idea? This short, can't-put-it-down novel by Ann Weisgarber will grab you at page one and not let go. This is the kind of book that will make you forgo sleep, housework and other responsibilities. Just one more page. (more
The UnAmericans: Stories
by Molly Antopol
Read It! Compelling and Intelligently-Written (4/22/2023)
I have recently discovered the joys of reading a well-written short story collection. Short stories are a tough sell to readers. The writer has to reel in the reader fast--in the first few sentences, ideally. And when each story ends, often abruptly, the next one had bettermore
Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty
by Ramona Ausubel
A Story About the Heartbreak and Humor of Life's Changes (4/22/2023)
FYI: It's a sin to covet the riches of others. And that's exactly what makes this book so delicious!

In this case, we're talking about the filthy rich--those who are so rich that they can buy anything they want at any time they want--and they don't even have to work. Thatmore
What Alice Forgot: A Novel
by Liane Moriarty
A Fun, Escapist Read, But a Totally Predictable Plot (4/22/2023)
I am arriving late to the Liane Moriarty party, as this is the first book I have read by this best-selling author. Now I know why she is a best-selling author. What a fun book! It's almost like time travel--but more believable. Thirty-nine-year-old Alice Love falls down hermore
Internal Medicine: A Doctor's Stories
by Terrence Holt
Superb Writing...As Engrossing as a Novel (4/22/2023)
To become a physician, I believe, requires as much of a spiritual calling as it does to become a priest, minister or rabbi. If a fat paycheck is the primary motivator for a career in medicine, I suspect that person will not survive residency. Exhibit A: This book.

Writtenmore
Burial Rites
by Hannah Kent
A Dark, Disturbing Book--And You Must Read It! (4/22/2023)
This is a dark book. With an even darker ending. But that's not a spoiler because this extraordinary tale by Hannah Kent (published in 2010 when she was only 25 years old!) is based on actual historical events. While it is a novel, the author's prodigious research gives themore
A Certain Age: A Novel
by Beatriz Williams
Delicious! Delectable! Daring! Oh, Dahling...You Simply Must Read This! (4/22/2023)
Delicious! Delectable! Daring! Oh, dahling...you simply must read this. Great literature it is not, but it is so much fun. So between Joyce Carol Oates, Jane Austen and Anne Tyler (all of whom I highly recommend), read this sinfully delightful book by Beatriz Williams.

It'smore
Ordinary Grace
by William Kent Krueger
Ordinary Life, Extraordinary Story (4/22/2023)
It's summer 1961 in New Breman, Minnesota. JFK is president. It is a time of innocence. Kids wander everywhere in this small town--in the fields, down by the river, on the railroad tracks. But this idyllic town is rocked by five deaths--accidents, suicide, homicide--in justmore
The Lady of the Rivers: A Novel (The Cousins' War)
by Philippa Gregory
Read With Caution (You Will Be Hooked--and It's the First of a Six-Part Series!) (4/22/2023)
If you read this book, do so with caution! Why? It's really good. And it's the first in a series of six books (with a seventh reportedly in the works). I read the second in the series, "The White Queen," first, and it's even better than this one.

Written by Philippa Gregory,more
Midwives
by Chris Bohjalian
A Not-to-Be-Missed Story of Tragedy and Consequences--and Love (4/22/2023)
I don't know what most impresses me about author Chris Bohjalian's writing in this book:
--He wrote from a woman's perspective.
--He wrote with the knowledge of a physician.
--He wrote with the knowledge of an attorney.

And he pulled it off expertly!

When a woman giving birthmore
The Fortunes
by Peter Ho Davies
A Work of Literary Genius (4/22/2023)
Plain and simple: This is a work of literary genius.

But this is what it is not:
• It is not an easy read. Don't even think of taking it to the beach.
• Even though it is billed as a "multigenerational novel," it is not. It is four novellas about four people spanning 100more

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: There Are Rivers in the Sky
    There Are Rivers in the Sky
    by Elif Shafak
    Elif Shafak's novel There Are Rivers in the Sky follows three disparate individuals separated by ...

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.
Book Jacket
The Story Collector
by Evie Woods
From the international bestselling author of The Lost Bookshop!
Win This Book
Win My Darling Boy

My Darling Boy by John Dufresne

The story of of a man whose son collapses into addiction and vanishes into the chaotic netherworld of southern Florida.

Enter

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.