The Best Recent Reader Reviews posted at Bookbrowse

Powerful and thought provoking by Labmom55 (7/9/25)
Once again, John Boyne has crafted a book that drew me in and kept me enthralled. It is a powerful book. In The Elements, four interconnected stories explore sexual crimes and the different parties involved - the enabler, the accomplice, the perpetrator and the victim. The main character of the first story is a wife who remained obtuse to her husband’s crime and has now run away in the aftermath of him being found guilty. Next, there's the footballer who is on trial for supposedly filming his buddy’s rape of a young woman. Then a female doctor who rapes young boys because of a crime she was the victim of. And finally, a forty year old man who was once the victim of the doctor. The stories are all tangentially intertwined until the end, when everything comes full circle. The book presents a pebble in a pond aspect, watching the repercussions move outward.

Boyne manages to present each character in a straightforward manner. It takes a special talent to write from the first person POV in some of these situations. I didn’t feel sympathetic to the first three, but I also didn’t look away. Each was nuanced and I felt I was given a clear eyed view of their thoughts. Overall, it’s a book that covers different aspects of culpability, guilt, identity, forgiveness (or not) and survival. As always, the writing is beautiful. This is a deeply thought provoking book. It’s a book I’ll be pondering for a while.

My thanks to Netgalley and Henry Holt for an advance copy of this book.

An Intense Page-Turner with an Electrifying Plot Twist by Cathryn Conroy (7/7/25)
OMG! This is one of those pressure-cooker psychological thrillers that just slowly builds and builds and builds until the chilling, appalling ending. Oh, this is a good book.

Written by Jean Hanff Korelitz, this is the story of frustrated novelist Jacob Finch Bonner. Jake published his first book to critical acclaim, although that didn't translate into significant book sales. His second book was a total flop. Now he is heading to Ripley College, a small little-known college in Northern Vermont near the fabled "Northeast Kingdom," where he will teach a low-residency symposium to wannabe novelists. Jake is miserable. Almost all his students are forgettable—except for one. Haughty, arrogant, and conceited Evan Parker thinks he has conceived a plot that is so exceptional, so explosive, so much of a pager-turner that it will not only be a No. 1 bestseller, but also a hit movie. And Evan will be world-famous. All he has to do is write it. Evan is guardedly evasive and highly secretive about this sure-thing winner, sharing only a few of the opening pages and telling no one the plot. At some point, Evan shares with Jake the gist of the plot, and Jake realizes that all the braggadocio is warranted. There has never been a novel like the one Evan has conceived. That sends Jake into a tailspin of gloom.

Fast forward a few years. Jake learns quite by accident that his former student has died. And he never wrote the novel. That amazing plot is still out there in the universe, waiting for an author to turn it into a book. Feeling only a little remorse and a few twinges of guilt about stealing his student's brilliant idea, Jake writes the book. It's titled "Crib," and it is indeed a runaway bestseller with Steven Spielberg signing on to make the movie of the book. Oprah chooses it for her book club. Jake's life is now everything he ever hoped it would be. And then it gets better. He's a guest on a radio show in Seattle, and the woman who booked him on it is gorgeous and is flirting with him! Jake and Anna hit it off quickly, and she moves to New York City where they happily live together and soon marry.

Life is perfect, right? No. Because while he was Seattle, Jake received the first (of what would be many) threatening emails. It said: "You are a thief." It was signed TalentedTom@gmail.com. And so it begins. Someone out there knows that Jake stole the story idea, and that someone wants him to pay for his blatant, unabashed thievery. Jake is terrified. His only way out, in his mind, is to lie about what he did.

Korelitz gives lots of clues all along the way. Even I—who rarely figure out whodunit—could figure out this one, but the big plot twist at the end I didn't see coming until right before it happened. Many of the clues are literary, which is so much fun for avid readers. Pay attention in particular to the novels "Housekeeping," by Marilynne Robinson and "The Talented Mr. Ripley," by Patricia Highsmith. (Even if you haven't read these books, Korelitz eventually explains the clues from the these acclaimed novels, but if you have read them, you are more likely to figure out things sooner.)

"The Plot" is also two novels in one. Interposed with Jake's story of writing "Crib" is the novel "Crib," excerpted in several-page increments throughout the book. (And it IS a genius plot!)

This is an intense page-turner with an electrifying plot twist and a horrifying ending. But wait! There's more! The story continues in "The Sequel."

A Book Everyone Should Read by techeditor (7/6/25)
RED NOTICE is nonfiction, and I know that nonfiction can often be dull. But please believe that this isn't. You need to read this. RED NOTICE is a book that everyone should read.

This is Bill Browder's story of his experiences with Russia since the Soviet Union. He invested in Russia as CEO of Hermitage Capital Management and became the country's largest foreign investor. Then the Russians charged him with stealing and tax evasion, all lies, all made up so that he would stop accusing Russian oligarchs of doing exactly that and proving it. He had to leave Russia for his own safety and soon realized that anyone he worked with had to get out, too. What he didn't know at first was that even his lawyer was not safe there, even the lawyer who worked with his lawyer.

Eventually, Browder was able to convince his lawyer to leave Russia. But Sergei Magnitsky, Browder's other lawyer, would not. He believed too strongly in the law, that the truth would eventually win. But this was Russia, is Russia. Magnitsky would not lie, and the Russians arrested, tortured, and murdered him as a result.

This is also Browder's story of convincing other countries to enact laws, in the name of Magnitsky, to sanction these human rights abusers. Browder has devoted most of his life to this since Magnitsky's death. This is how he could see that Magnitsky's murderers are made to pay.

Everyone should read this so we remember the evil of Russia. As you read RED NOTICE, remember the news stories he speaks of and how they were presented to us at the time. For example, remember the news story of Vladimir Putin's no longer allowing Americans to adopt Russian orphans. That was his way of punishing Americans for enacting the Magnitsky Act. Putin says he did this for the orphans' safety, and that's how the media presented the story, as if we should take Putin at his word.

Browder wrote RED NOTICE 10 years ago. He followed up with another book, FREEZING ORDER, more recently, in 2022. Believe me, you'll want to read it when you finish RED NOTICE.

I read FREEZING ORDER first because I won it. It interested me so much I was sorry I hadn't read RED NOTICE first. And now that I've read it, I want to reread FREEZING ORDER. It will be the only book I've reread since THE GATEWAY TO STORYLAND when I was five.

Auntie Em by SusanR (7/4/25)
I have watched The Wizard of Oz on TV more times than I can count and really enjoyed Hazel Gaynor's story about Dorothy's Auntie Em's earlier life and how she ended up Kansas. There are lots of references to the Wizard of Oz from a mention of the ruby red shoes, Toto and lots more. It was fun to see all of these references back to the original story and I think that Frank Baum would have approved of this story.

This story begins long before Dorothy was born. Emily and her two sisters had emigrated from Ireland with their parents and after several stops, they ended up in dirty and gritty Chicago. The oldest sister moved to California and Annie married someone that Emily didn't really like or trust. When Emily married Henry and they decided to farm in Kansas, Annie was very unhappy and kind of nasty to her sister about the move. Annie was pretty spoiled and willful and didn't want Emily to leave and not be available to help her. But Emily was not only in love with Henry but she soon was in love with the beauty that was Kansas and wanted to do everything that she could to help the farm. After a miscarriage, she realized that she'd never get pregnant and resigned herself to never becoming a mother. When Annie and her husband died, their will requested that Emily and Henry take responsibility and raise their daughter Dorothy. Life in Kansas was tough when Emily brought Dorothy to Kansas - the Depression was affecting farm prices and the huge dust storms had started along with frequent tornadoes. Emily wasn't sure how Dorothy would adapt to Kansas or adapt to her because she wasn't really sure how to be a mother. Yet despite everything, they did become a family.

Be sure to read the Author's notes at the end of the book where she gave some political background of the story and talked about her love of the Wizard of Oz movie. It was apparent when reading this book that the author had done considerable research into the time period and into the movie. It was a fun book to read and it was interesting to find all of the references to the original story.

A Provocative and Haunting Work of Literary Fiction: Dark and Devastating to Read by Cathryn Conroy (6/29/25)
This is a profound book, albeit highly disturbing, about the love and conflict, addictions and deceptions that bind together families who are struggling to survive on very little money, very little education, and very few community resources. These are people who are truly on the forgotten fringes of society.

Written by American Book Award winner Ocean Vuong, this is the story of Hai (pronounced "Hi"), a 19-year-old Vietnamese-American living in the dying, post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut. It's September 2009. Hai is lost. He has lost his sense of self and rightness. His short life has been built on lies and drugs. And now he has seemingly come to the end after telling his beloved mother a whopper of a lie that is so big, so glorious that she has found real happiness for the first time in a long time. But what he told her isn't true. So Hai does the only thing he can think to do: Kill himself.

Just as he is about to jump off a railroad bridge into a swirling, powerful river, an 82-year-old woman living in deep poverty and neglect in the shadow of that bridge, screams at him to stop. Miraculously, he hears her and obeys her. And then she takes him in…for good. Her name is Grazina Vitkus, a widow of Lithuanian descent and the mother of two adult children from whom she is quite distant. She is suffering from advanced dementia. Because her house is so dilapidated and in such a run-down and chemically toxic area, no live-in nurse will stay long. Hai takes on that role. But money is scarce, so he gets a job at a fast-food restaurant called HomeMarket, thanks to his autistic cousin Sony who also works there. It is here in a restaurant that serves Thanksgiving dinner foods year round that Hai is fully embraced into a caring community for the first time. It is also here that he finds order, consistency, and discipline for the first time. But the big lie he told his mother and his continued dependence on drugs taints his new life with desperation and despondency as he desperately searches for a second chance.

This is a provocative and haunting work of literary fiction that is not only unsettling, but also emotionally searing. It is a dark and difficult book to read because the characters' lives are so devastating. Even though there is a small sense of redemption and hope, the ending is just as sad and shattering as the rest of the book. Still, it's an important novel with a profound and relevant message.

Witty, Wise, and Wonderful: The Perfect Summer Novel by Cathryn Conroy (6/28/25)
Anne Tyler is one of my all-time favorite authors. If she writes it, I read it. There is just something magical about every book she has written, and this latest book—No. 25, which is just as special as those that precede it—was published when she was 83 years old. The girl's still got it!

The book opens when the lead character, Gail Baines, a 61-year-old assistant headmistress at a posh private school in Baltimore, is summarily let go instead of being promoted after her boss, the headmistress, decides to retire. This just happens to be the day before Gail's only daughter, Debbie, is getting married. Gail flees the school building in confusion and embarrassment and soon after arriving home, her ex-husband, Max, who is a kind of human hurricane, unexpectedly appears on her doorstep from his home in Delaware. He is asking to spend the wedding weekend in her house, along with an elderly foster cat for which he is caring. And even though he is the father of the bride, he has no suit—only a rumpled sport coat. As they are preparing for the imminent rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, Debbie drops in with shocking news—news that could very well derail the wedding the next day.

The novel is told in three parts—the day before the wedding, the day of the wedding, and the day after the wedding. But this is so much more than a wedding story. We find out Gail's complicated backstory and secrets of her past that she has confided to no one, including the real cause of her divorce from Max.

This is a story about love, especially married love, and all that makes it work—or not. Like all Anne Tyler novels, it is brilliantly told through the lives of the quirky, colorful characters. The plot is minimal—just enough to nudge it along bit by bit with a delightfully happy ending. Do pay attention to the mentions of wristwatches and the marvelous symbolism of time—past, present, and future.

This is a charming summer read filled with solid life advice and remarkable insight into the our human foibles and fears, while parts of it are laugh-out-loud funny. It is witty, wise, and wonderful.

Perfect for book clubs by Labmom55 (6/26/25)
I will admit to grabbing an advance copy of The Uproar because of that wonderful cover and understanding it was about trying to temporarily rehome a dog. Not just any dog, Judy is a 150# Bull Mastiff with numerous health concerns. Sharif and his wife Adjoua are expecting their first child who has been diagnosed with leukemia in utero. The dog can’t be in their cramped apartment while the baby is treated. Needless to say, no one agrees to take the dog. Dog parents can absolutely understand the dilemma Sharif is faced with. And he ends up making a bad decision about who to trust.
The stress that Sharif is under is palpable. On top of the cascading problems resulting from that one poor decision, his marriage begins to show stress fractures. But he’s also totally obtuse.

Dimechkie’s writing was masterful. It was easy to envision each scene and feel each character’s emotions. My thoughts were ricocheting all over the place in how I felt about all the characters - sympathy, frustration and at times, despair.
The story would be a great book club selection. There are multiple meaty themes - sacrifice, what makes someone a good person, advantage, marriage, emotional affairs, cyber bullying. I highly recommend at least reading this with a buddy because you are going to want to discuss it!

The ending totally caught me by surprise. In fact, I’m still a bit in shock at how it played out.

Warning - there was one scene that had me squirming on behalf of poor Judy.
My thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown for an advance copy of this book.