Dear BookBrowsers,

This issue has those big new releases you’ve been waiting for. Elizabeth Strout’s The Things We Never Say follows Artie Dam, a secretly unhappy man living a charmed life. In Douglas Stuart’s John of John, John-Calum (Cal) Macleod, a closeted art school graduate, reluctantly returns to his family’s rural, conservative home.

We also cover Harriet Clark’s captivating debut The Hill, loosely based on the author’s own experiences growing up while visiting a parent in prison. A Beyond the Book article looks at the role of Clark’s mother, a member of the guerrilla organization the Weather Underground, in the 1981 Brink’s truck robbery in Nanuet, New York. (One of our featured First Impressions picks, Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young by Zayd Ayers Dohrn—an upcoming Ask the Author interviewee—provides a nonfictional glimpse of a childhood with parents who were leaders of the Weather Underground.)

Other exciting fiction includes Mothers and Other Strangers by Corey Ann Haydu, a deep examination of motherhood and friendship, George Saunders’ latest novel Vigil, in which an oil tycoon on his deathbed is tended to by a ghost, Portia Elan’s Homebound, an unusual story featuring characters across time that is also a surprising piece of multimedia art, and Jeffrey Zuckerman’s translation of Ananda Devi’s All Flesh, a stunningly brutal tale of adolescence that casts a critical eye on societal fatphobia and social media culture. Our related reading list explores more significant Mauritian fiction available in English.

And Lindy West’s memoir Adult Braces offers readers the chance to tag along on a hilarious, life-changing cross-country roadtrip.

Plus, find additional reviews and articles, previews of May books, the latest book club discussions, and more.

Thanks for being a BookBrowse member!

— The BookBrowse Team

Read This Issue

Dear BookBrowsers,

This issue has those big new releases you’ve been waiting for. Elizabeth Strout’s The Things We Never Say follows Artie Dam, a secretly unhappy man living a charmed life. In Douglas Stuart’s John of John, John-Calum (Cal) Macleod, a closeted art school graduate, reluctantly returns to his family’s rural, conservative home.

We also cover Harriet Clark’s captivating debut The Hill, loosely based on the author’s own experiences growing up while visiting a parent in prison. A Beyond the Book article looks at the role of Clark’s mother, a member of the guerrilla organization the Weather Underground, in the 1981 Brink’s truck robbery in Nanuet, New York. (One of our featured First Impressions picks, Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young by Zayd Ayers Dohrn—an upcoming Ask the Author interviewee—provides a nonfictional glimpse of a childhood with parents who were leaders of the Weather Underground.)

Other exciting fiction includes Mothers and Other Strangers by Corey Ann Haydu, a deep examination of motherhood and friendship, George Saunders’ latest novel Vigil, in which an oil tycoon on his deathbed is tended to by a ghost, Portia Elan’s Homebound, an unusual story featuring characters across time that is also a surprising piece of multimedia art, and Jeffrey Zuckerman’s translation of Ananda Devi’s All Flesh, a stunningly brutal tale of adolescence that casts a critical eye on societal fatphobia and social media culture. Our related reading list explores more significant Mauritian fiction available in English.

And Lindy West’s memoir Adult Braces offers readers the chance to tag along on a hilarious, life-changing cross-country roadtrip.

Plus, find additional reviews and articles, previews of May books, the latest book club discussions, and more.

Thanks for being a BookBrowse member!

— The BookBrowse Team

Read This Issue

Dear BookBrowsers,

This issue has those big new releases you’ve been waiting for. Elizabeth Strout’s The Things We Never Say follows Artie Dam, a secretly unhappy man living a charmed life. In Douglas Stuart’s John of John, John-Calum (Cal) Macleod, a closeted art school graduate, reluctantly returns to his family’s rural, conservative home.

We also cover Harriet Clark’s captivating debut The Hill, loosely based on the author’s own experiences growing up while visiting a parent in prison. A Beyond the Book article looks at the role of Clark’s mother, a member of the guerrilla organization the Weather Underground, in the 1981 Brink’s truck robbery in Nanuet, New York. (One of our featured First Impressions picks, Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young by Zayd Ayers Dohrn—an upcoming Ask the Author interviewee—provides a nonfictional glimpse of a childhood with parents who were leaders of the Weather Underground.)

Other exciting fiction includes Mothers and Other Strangers by Corey Ann Haydu, a deep examination of motherhood and friendship, George Saunders’ latest novel Vigil, in which an oil tycoon on his deathbed is tended to by a ghost, Portia Elan’s Homebound, an unusual story featuring characters across time that is also a surprising piece of multimedia art, and Jeffrey Zuckerman’s translation of Ananda Devi’s All Flesh, a stunningly brutal tale of adolescence that casts a critical eye on societal fatphobia and social media culture. Our related reading list explores more significant Mauritian fiction available in English.

And Lindy West’s memoir Adult Braces offers readers the chance to tag along on a hilarious, life-changing cross-country roadtrip.

Plus, find additional reviews and articles, previews of May books, the latest book club discussions, and more.

Thanks for being a BookBrowse member!

— The BookBrowse Team

Read This Issue

Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we bring you Tayari Jones’ latest novel Kin, which follows Vernice and Annie, childhood friends from Louisiana, along diverging paths as they experience the world as young Black adults during the Civil Rights era. Nikesha Elise Williams’ The Seven Daughters of Dupree, also partly revolving around Black women in the South, covers multiple generations of a family whose female descendants bear only daughters, from the Civil War to the Great Migration and beyond.

Different books illuminate other social and political histories. Tina Harnesk’s The Secret of Snow, acclaimed in Sweden, explores the lives of two couples while addressing the displacement of the Sámi in Scandinavia. Cristina Rivera Garza’s Autobiography of Cotton, a fascinating cross-genre work, fictionalizes the author’s family history on both sides of the United States-Mexico border, including her grandparents’ participation in a cotton workers’ strike that the writer José Revueltas helped organize. Liadan Ní Chuinn’s debut short story collection Every One Still Here reflects on the aftermath of the Troubles in contemporary Northern Ireland.

Two of the books we review here have titles that evoke eating, in very different ways! Partially Devoured by Daniel Kraus ponders the significance of the seminal zombie movie Night of the Living Dead, while Rebecca Kauffman’s heartfelt and humorous The Reservation focuses on the antics and personal stories of the employees at a restaurant in a university town set to host the famous writer John Grisham. Our accompanying reading list highlights other author cameos in fiction.

Plus, see more reviews and articles, including coverage of new paperbacks, recent First Impressions titles, previews of upcoming releases, the latest book news, and more.

Thank you for being a BookBrowse member!

— The BookBrowse Team

Read This Issue

Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we bring you Tayari Jones’ latest novel Kin, which follows Vernice and Annie, childhood friends from Louisiana, along diverging paths as they experience the world as young Black adults during the Civil Rights era. Nikesha Elise Williams’ The Seven Daughters of Dupree, also partly revolving around Black women in the South, covers multiple generations of a family whose female descendants bear only daughters, from the Civil War to the Great Migration and beyond.

Different books illuminate other social and political histories. Tina Harnesk’s The Secret of Snow, acclaimed in Sweden, explores the lives of two couples while addressing the displacement of the Sámi in Scandinavia. Cristina Rivera Garza’s Autobiography of Cotton, a fascinating cross-genre work, fictionalizes the author’s family history on both sides of the United States-Mexico border, including her grandparents’ participation in a cotton workers’ strike that the writer José Revueltas helped organize. Liadan Ní Chuinn’s debut short story collection Every One Still Here reflects on the aftermath of the Troubles in contemporary Northern Ireland.

Two of the books we review here have titles that evoke eating, in very different ways! Partially Devoured by Daniel Kraus ponders the significance of the seminal zombie movie Night of the Living Dead, while Rebecca Kauffman’s heartfelt and humorous The Reservation focuses on the antics and personal stories of the employees at a restaurant in a university town set to host the famous writer John Grisham. Our accompanying reading list highlights other author cameos in fiction.

Plus, see more reviews and articles, including coverage of new paperbacks, recent First Impressions titles, previews of upcoming releases, the latest book news, and more.

Thank you for being a BookBrowse member!

— The BookBrowse Team

Read This Issue

Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we’re excited to announce our Top 20 Books of 2025 and the four Award Winners among them. We also have extensive coverage of write-in nominees this year, with seven new reviews to share. Thank you to everyone who voted!

The winner of our Best Fiction award is The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, a charming story of aging and relationships told through the letters of its curmudgeonly main character.

Our award for Best Nonfiction goes to Geraldine Brooks’ poignant memoir Memorial Days, which explores her grief after the sudden loss of her husband, the writer Tony Horwitz.

Allen Levi’s bestselling Theo of Golden, an inspirational novel about a man who develops a connection with the townspeople of Golden, Georgia, takes this year’s honor for Best Debut.

And Best YA is awarded to Ann Bausum’s White Lies, a critically acclaimed examination of false narratives about the Civil War written for young people.

Newly reviewed titles in this issue include the first three books above, along with Niall Williams’ Time of the Child, the extraordinary tale of an infant’s mysterious arrival in a small Irish town, Wally Lamb’s The River Is Waiting, a tragic, intriciately drawn narrative of addiction, Clare Leslie Hall’s Broken Country, focusing on a fraught love triangle in rural England, and Everything Is Tuberculosis, popular YA author John Green’s account of the social factors contributing to the persistence of a curable disease.

The Top 20 also includes One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad’s National Book Award-winning work based on a tweet responding to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, Maria Reva’s Booker-nominated Endling, a one-of-a-kind metafictional novel about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Princess Joy L. Perry’s impressive debut This Here Is Love, addressing slavery and indentured servitude in 17th-century Virginia, among other books.

The last issue of the year also means it’s Big Holiday Wordplay time! Try to solve the clues for a chance to win a one-year membership. Plus, enter our giveaway of Allegra Goodman’s historical novel Isola, see Our Best 2025 Discussions & First Impressions Features, and more.

Thanks for supporting BookBrowse this year. We look forward to bringing you more great books in 2026!

— The BookBrowse Team

Read This Issue

Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we’re excited to announce our Top 20 Books of 2025 and the four Award Winners among them. We also have extensive coverage of write-in nominees this year, with seven new reviews to share. Thank you to everyone who voted!

The winner of our Best Fiction award is The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, a charming story of aging and relationships told through the letters of its curmudgeonly main character.

Our award for Best Nonfiction goes to Geraldine Brooks’ poignant memoir Memorial Days, which explores her grief after the sudden loss of her husband, the writer Tony Horwitz.

Allen Levi’s bestselling Theo of Golden, an inspirational novel about a man who develops a connection with the townspeople of Golden, Georgia, takes this year’s honor for Best Debut.

And Best YA is awarded to Ann Bausum’s White Lies, a critically acclaimed examination of false narratives about the Civil War written for young people.

Newly reviewed titles in this issue include the first three books above, along with Niall Williams’ Time of the Child, the extraordinary tale of an infant’s mysterious arrival in a small Irish town, Wally Lamb’s The River Is Waiting, a tragic, intriciately drawn narrative of addiction, Clare Leslie Hall’s Broken Country, focusing on a fraught love triangle in rural England, and Everything Is Tuberculosis, popular YA author John Green’s account of the social factors contributing to the persistence of a curable disease.

The Top 20 also includes One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad’s National Book Award-winning work based on a tweet responding to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, Maria Reva’s Booker-nominated Endling, a one-of-a-kind metafictional novel about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Princess Joy L. Perry’s impressive debut This Here Is Love, addressing slavery and indentured servitude in 17th-century Virginia, among other books.

The last issue of the year also means it’s Big Holiday Wordplay time! Try to solve the clues for a chance to win a one-year membership. Plus, enter our giveaway of Allegra Goodman’s historical novel Isola, see Our Best 2025 Discussions & First Impressions Features, and more.

Thanks for supporting BookBrowse this year. We look forward to bringing you more great books in 2026!

— The BookBrowse Team

Read This Issue

Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we’re excited to announce our Top 20 Books of 2025 and the four Award Winners among them. We also have extensive coverage of write-in nominees this year, with seven new reviews to share. Thank you to everyone who voted!

The winner of our Best Fiction award is The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, a charming story of aging and relationships told through the letters of its curmudgeonly main character.

Our award for Best Nonfiction goes to Geraldine Brooks’ poignant memoir Memorial Days, which explores her grief after the sudden loss of her husband, the writer Tony Horwitz.

Allen Levi’s bestselling Theo of Golden, an inspirational novel about a man who develops a connection with the townspeople of Golden, Georgia, takes this year’s honor for Best Debut.

And Best YA is awarded to Ann Bausum’s White Lies, a critically acclaimed examination of false narratives about the Civil War written for young people.

Newly reviewed titles in this issue include the first three books above, along with Niall Williams’ Time of the Child, the extraordinary tale of an infant’s mysterious arrival in a small Irish town, Wally Lamb’s The River Is Waiting, a tragic, intriciately drawn narrative of addiction, Clare Leslie Hall’s Broken Country, focusing on a fraught love triangle in rural England, and Everything Is Tuberculosis, popular YA author John Green’s account of the social factors contributing to the persistence of a curable disease.

The Top 20 also includes One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad’s National Book Award-winning work based on a tweet responding to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, Maria Reva’s Booker-nominated Endling, a one-of-a-kind metafictional novel about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Princess Joy L. Perry’s impressive debut This Here Is Love, addressing slavery and indentured servitude in 17th-century Virginia, among other books.

The last issue of the year also means it’s Big Holiday Wordplay time! Try to solve the clues for a chance to win a one-year membership. Plus, enter our giveaway of Allegra Goodman’s historical novel Isola, see Our Best 2025 Discussions & First Impressions Features, and more.

Thanks for supporting BookBrowse this year. We look forward to bringing you more great books in 2026!

— The BookBrowse Team

Read This Issue

Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we’re excited to announce our Top 20 Books of 2025 and the four Award Winners among them. We also have extensive coverage of write-in nominees this year, with seven new reviews to share. Thank you to everyone who voted!

The winner of our Best Fiction award is The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, a charming story of aging and relationships told through the letters of its curmudgeonly main character.

Our award for Best Nonfiction goes to Geraldine Brooks’ poignant memoir Memorial Days, which explores her grief after the sudden loss of her husband, the writer Tony Horwitz.

Allen Levi’s bestselling Theo of Golden, an inspirational novel about a man who develops a connection with the townspeople of Golden, Georgia, takes this year’s honor for Best Debut.

And Best YA is awarded to Ann Bausum’s White Lies, a critically acclaimed examination of false narratives about the Civil War written for young people.

Newly reviewed titles in this issue include the first three books above, along with Niall Williams’ Time of the Child, the extraordinary tale of an infant’s mysterious arrival in a small Irish town, Wally Lamb’s The River Is Waiting, a tragic, intriciately drawn narrative of addiction, Clare Leslie Hall’s Broken Country, focusing on a fraught love triangle in rural England, and Everything Is Tuberculosis, popular YA author John Green’s account of the social factors contributing to the persistence of a curable disease.

The Top 20 also includes One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad’s National Book Award-winning work based on a tweet responding to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, Maria Reva’s Booker-nominated Endling, a one-of-a-kind metafictional novel about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Princess Joy L. Perry’s impressive debut This Here Is Love, addressing slavery and indentured servitude in 17th-century Virginia, among other books.

The last issue of the year also means it’s Big Holiday Wordplay time! Try to solve the clues for a chance to win a one-year membership. Plus, enter our giveaway of Allegra Goodman’s historical novel Isola, see Our Best 2025 Discussions & First Impressions Features, and more.

Thanks for supporting BookBrowse this year. We look forward to bringing you more great books in 2026!

— The BookBrowse Team

Read This Issue

Dear BookBrowsers,

In this issue, we’re excited to announce our Top 20 Books of 2025 and the four Award Winners among them. We also have extensive coverage of write-in nominees this year, with seven new reviews to share. Thank you to everyone who voted!

The winner of our Best Fiction award is The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, a charming story of aging and relationships told through the letters of its curmudgeonly main character.

Our award for Best Nonfiction goes to Geraldine Brooks’ poignant memoir Memorial Days, which explores her grief after the sudden loss of her husband, the writer Tony Horwitz.

Allen Levi’s bestselling Theo of Golden, an inspirational novel about a man who develops a connection with the townspeople of Golden, Georgia, takes this year’s honor for Best Debut.

And Best YA is awarded to Ann Bausum’s White Lies, a critically acclaimed examination of false narratives about the Civil War written for young people.

Newly reviewed titles in this issue include the first three books above, along with Niall Williams’ Time of the Child, the extraordinary tale of an infant’s mysterious arrival in a small Irish town, Wally Lamb’s The River Is Waiting, a tragic, intriciately drawn narrative of addiction, Clare Leslie Hall’s Broken Country, focusing on a fraught love triangle in rural England, and Everything Is Tuberculosis, popular YA author John Green’s account of the social factors contributing to the persistence of a curable disease.

The Top 20 also includes One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad’s National Book Award-winning work based on a tweet responding to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, Maria Reva’s Booker-nominated Endling, a one-of-a-kind metafictional novel about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Princess Joy L. Perry’s impressive debut This Here Is Love, addressing slavery and indentured servitude in 17th-century Virginia, among other books.

The last issue of the year also means it’s Big Holiday Wordplay time! Try to solve the clues for a chance to win a one-year membership. Plus, enter our giveaway of Allegra Goodman’s historical novel Isola, see Our Best 2025 Discussions & First Impressions Features, and more.

Thanks for supporting BookBrowse this year. We look forward to bringing you more great books in 2026!

— The BookBrowse Team

Read This Issue