BookBrowse Editorial Review
Gliff: A Novel
by Ali Smith
(2/12/2025)
An ominous vision of a dystopian future of techno-totalitarianism, Gliff is a cautionary tale all too relevant for our current day—a time when surveillance technology is increasingly prevalent, algorithms control the information we see through our social media feeds, a handful of tech oligarchs have growing political sway, and democratic institutions are in decline worldwide. The book deals with dark topics—oppression, inequality, prejudice—but it is also about individua
BookBrowse Editorial Review
Rethinking Rescue: Dog Lady and the Story of America's Forgotten People and Pets
by Carol Mithers
(8/21/2024)
With vividly rendered accounts of the people and dogs Weise has met over the years, the book details her on-the-ground work in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods, from her early days of forging community connections with homeless pet owners in Skid Row to her pioneering intervention program at the South LA shelter that kept thousands of pets safely with their owners and helped bring about a paradigm shift in the concept of animal rescue, inspiring similar programs across the country. Overa
BookBrowse Editorial Review
Hard by a Great Forest: A Novel
by Leo Vardiashvili
(2/21/2024)
Hard by a Great Forest deals with dark themes: war, displacement, loss and grief. But although it includes more than a few harrowing scenes, the book is also funny, touching and infused with quirky charm. Frequent allusions to fairy tales—from the Brothers Grimm to The Wizard of Oz—weave throughout the book. And indeed, with its touches of the surreal (including escaped zoo animals prowling the streets of Tbilisi) and elements that evoke a fairy tale setting (includ
BookBrowse Editorial Review
Wasteland: The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future
by Oliver Franklin-Wallis
(9/6/2023)
Wasteland is an engaging read, and Franklin-Wallis writes in a personable style lightened by occasional touches of wit. But it's hard not to come away feeling deflated, despairing at the sheer scale of our wastefulness—and how deeply embedded it is in our way of life. As the book convincingly argues, waste isn't just a byproduct of our consumer economy. In a very real sense, waste is what keeps it running. Corporations' very business model depends on disposability, on
BookBrowse Editorial Review
Fatherland: A Memoir of War, Conscience, and Family Secrets
by Burkhard Bilger
(5/3/2023)
Embedding Gönner's story into the larger context of the era, Fatherland traces his life from the rural village in the Black Forest where he grew up to the battlefields of northern France where he lost an eye in the First World War, and from Bartenheim in German-occupied Alsace to the hilltop fortress where he was imprisoned after the war. The result is both a deeply personal family portrait and an insightful and fascinating wartime history. But while Fatherland is a work of history,
BookBrowse Editorial Review
The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration
by Jake Bittle
(3/1/2023)
Bittle, a staff writer for Grist who covers climate change, writes with compassion and insight about the issues at stake, clearly explaining both the science and the social policy ramifications while also forcefully portraying the human face of the crisis. By foregrounding the personal stories of people whose lives have been devastated by climate disasters, the book starkly conveys what we lose when communities are destroyed by climate change—not just homes, lives and livelihoods, b
BookBrowse Editorial Review
Between Light and Storm: How We Live with Other Species
by Esther Woolfson
(2/1/2023)
The book is structured not as a systematic argument for Woolfson's view or a treatise on animal rights and welfare. Rather, Between Light and Storm is a cultural history of ideas. Interspersing personal anecdotes and reminiscences with discussions of science, literature, art, philosophy and religion, Woolfson surveys the belief systems that have shaped Western attitudes about other species, examining why some strands of thought have prevailed over others and what the repercussions of this
BookBrowse Editorial Review
Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial
by Corban Addison
(7/13/2022)
A former attorney with litigation experience, Addison deftly narrates dramatic courtroom showdowns, leading us through the ins and outs of the legal proceedings in five separate class action suits filed against the hog industry's biggest offender: Smithfield Foods, a 15-billion-dollar multinational corporation that controls more than a quarter of the United States market for pork. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews, months of on-the-ground research and meticulous documentation from court
BookBrowse Editorial Review
2 A.M. in Little America by Ken Kalfus
(6/8/2022)
Part dystopian thriller, part political allegory, 2 A.M. in Little America is an intriguing, at times cryptic read with Kafkaesque elements that brilliantly evoke a sense of anxiety and alienation, estrangement and displacement. Ron's memories shift in and out of focus, facts dissolve into uncertainty, identities blur and even the city he moves through morphs into a surreal landscape of optical illusions as the glass buildings he passes cast off a dizzying array of reflections—vivid
BookBrowse Editorial Review
Sentient: How Animals Illuminate the Wonder of Our Human Senses
by Jackie Higgins
(3/2/2022)
Over the course of the book, Higgins introduces readers to a menagerie of creatures—from peacock mantis shrimps and octopuses to orbweaver spiders, cheetahs and duck-billed platypuses—to illustrate the ingenuous sensory mechanisms our animal kin have evolved in adaptation to the world around them. In each case, these examples serve as a springboard for discussing parallels in the sphere of human perception, showing that our senses are both more powerful and more varied than we may co
BookBrowse Editorial Review
The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times (Global Icons Series)
by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams
(11/3/2021)
While The Book of Hope is in part a pep talk for the despairing—a "survival guide for trying times," as the subtitle suggests—it is also a stirring call to action, an urgent plea to do all we can to bring the planet back from the brink before it is too late. Structured as an extended conversation narrated by Abrams, the book follows Goodall from Tanzania to the Netherlands to her family home in Bournemouth, England to record their discussions on topics such as the psychology o
BookBrowse Editorial Review
Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson
(9/22/2021)
A graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, Davidson was born in the region where Damnation Spring takes place, and her familiarity with the area shows in the way she brings her setting to life with vivid details that evoke a strong sense of place. Pitch-perfect dialogue makes her characters feel real, and intricate depictions of the logging industry deftly convey the realities of living and working in timber country. Davidson is particularly adept at writing about the natural environment. L
BookBrowse Editorial Review
Secrets of Happiness by Joan Silber
(6/23/2021)
Once a student of the great short story writer Grace Paley, Silber displays a similar talent for conveying the voice of her characters, for weaving together offhand details that capture the texture of their lives. Secrets of Happiness doesn't have the sort of cohesive unity one expects from a book billed as a novel. Although Ethan returns as narrator in the seventh and final chapter, bringing us full circle, by then too many other characters and too many other tangents have intervened to
BookBrowse Editorial Review
The Arsonists' City by Hala Alyan
(5/19/2021)
Alyan writes well and with insight, but the pacing stumbles in places. While most of the book proceeds slowly and methodically, the ending feels overly rushed, with too many loose ends wrapped up hastily. And while Mazna and Idris's story is genuinely absorbing, my interest flagged in the portions of the book dealing with the private lives of the Nasr children. Despite some flaws in execution, however, The Arsonists' City is a compelling, multidimensional portrayal of the messy complexiti
BookBrowse Editorial Review
The Lost Family: How DNA Testing Is Upending Who We Are
by Libby Copeland
(5/6/2020)
How much power do our genes have to shape who we are? And as the genetic databases of ancestry companies grow larger and larger, what unforeseen implications might this have for our private lives? Well-researched and thoroughly enjoyable to read, The Lost Family is a fascinating look at these and other issues surrounding the rise of commercial DNA testing. With clear and accessible explanations of the relevant science, Copeland describes the basics of gene sequencing and delves into topic
BookBrowse Editorial Review
The End of the Ocean by Maja Lunde
(2/5/2020)
The End of the Ocean, ably translated by Diane Oatley, returns to the theme of climate change, this time tackling the environmental threats to our most precious resource: water. A powerful reminder of what's at stake, The End of the Ocean is an unblinkered depiction of the devastating consequences of climate change and the price of inaction.
BookBrowse Editorial Review
The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness
by Susannah Cahalan
(1/8/2020)
Susannah Cahalan's The Great Pretender is a fascinating deep-dive into one of the most influential studies in the history of psychology, Stanford University professor David Rosenhan's 1973 paper "On Being Sane in Insane Places." But while the extent of Rosenhan's influence on the field is clear, it turns out that little else about his story is straightforward. As the book unfolds, it becomes evident that there is yet another layer of meaning to its title—neither Rosenhan nor the det
BookBrowse Editorial Review
A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves: One Family and Migration in the 21st Century
by Jason DeParle
(9/18/2019)
DeParle is a good storyteller, and A Good Provider is an absorbing read. The personal journeys of Tita, Emet, Rosalie, and other family members—fleshed out in rich detail—are seamlessly integrated into broad reflections on the history, controversies, and debates surrounding immigration worldwide.
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