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This week, our book club welcomes a discussion of Nadine Bjursten's novel Half a Cup of Sand and Sky, a captivating love story set amidst contemporary Iranian history.
Pull up a chair and enjoy our review of the recent short story collection from Amor Towles, Table for Two, featured in Editor's Choice.
What did book clubs read in 2023? Find titles by Bonnie Garmus, James McBride, Barbara Kingsolver and more on our annual list of the most popular book club books according to our subscribers.
We also have free books for members to request, an exciting announcement about new genre-specific emails and details on getting premium BookBrowse benefits via your local library.
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With best wishes,
The BookBrowse Team
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Discussions are open to all to view and participate, so if you've read a book, click on "discuss."
If you have not, we suggest you go to "about the book" to avoid spoilers.
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Half a Cup of Sand and Sky
by Nadine Bjursten
From the Jacket
It is 1977, and the anti-shah protests at Tehran University are intensifying, but Amineh is not like her peers who want a say in the future of their country. Her thoughts are on the beautiful literature of another era and her past of rose harvests and Sufi poetry evenings under the desert sky. A chance encounter with Farzad, an opposition leader and disarmament activist, will thrust her into a life she could never have imagined.
From the Discussion
"I very much enjoyed the book. It combines historical fiction with a love story. Amineh is a character who is fully developed in both her strengths and weaknesses. We are encouraged to cheer her on in her discovery of who she can become." —lynneb
"This book ranks as one of my all-time favorites. I learned quite a lot about this period of history and global nuclear standings. I hope it wins a ton of awards." —bethb
"The author does a good job of making one feel they are there with her words and descriptions of the land and what is going on at the moment." —LoLa
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Members! This month's First Impressions and Book Club books are now available to request. Offer closes end of Saturday, April 13.
Books are provided free of charge to BookBrowse members resident in the U.S. with the understanding that they'll do their best to either write a short review or take part in an online discussion forum (depending on whether the book is assigned for First Impressions or the Book Club). Members who choose to take part generally receive a book about every three months.
Not yet a member? Free books are one of the many benefits of a BookBrowse membership, for just $3.75/month! Join by this Saturday to be able to request books from this month's offer. Don't wait!
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New Genre-Specific Emails | |
In an effort to provide even more tailored content, we are going to start sending shorter, genre-specific emails to our subscribers, with the first genres being contemporary fiction, historical fiction, biographies & memoirs and mysteries & thrillers.
From our subscriber surveys, we know the majority of our readers are interested in these genres, and so no action is needed to opt in to these emails. However, if you would like to opt out of these new emails, you can use the button below. You will be able to update your email preferences to specific genres in the next few weeks.
There is no set schedule for these emails but they will be sent about once a month, and will feature short, genre-specific content from BookBrowse as well as promotions and giveaways from publishers.
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Table for Two
by Amor Towles
Amor Towles's short story collection Table for Two reads as something of a dream compilation for those of us who have dearly wished we could spend just a bit more time in the company of his characters and in the fully imagined settings of his novels Rules of Civility (2011), A Gentleman in Moscow (2016) and The Lincoln Highway (2021). It appears that the author may have felt that way, too.
Although we get just a short whiff of the Moscow location of Towles's Gentleman in Moscow in "The Line," the first of six stories that make up the New York section of Table for Two, the general sensibility, gentle humor and expert storytelling we associate with Towles and, perhaps, his greatest character, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, reverberate through all of the stories, particularly the wry first-person narrative of "The Didomenico Fragment." In this story, as in others in the volume, readers are kept engrossed by one surprising plot twist after another; Guy de Maupassant would be proud. ... continued
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The Most Popular Books for Book Clubs in 2023 | |
What were the most popular book club books in 2023? The results are in! Read on to see the titles our subscribers enjoyed discussing most with their book groups over the past year.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus not only retains its spot on the list from the previous year but claims an even larger percentage of the votes (up to 18.6% from 13.9%). That's not especially surprising, as this debut novel, a humorous and charming but substantial story exploring aspects of 1960s misogyny, was voted a BookBrowse Best Book of the Year in 2022 and is well established as a book club and reader favorite. ... continued
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