| In the tradition of classic literature retellings from a secondary character's point of view, like Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys — or, more recently, Percival Everett's James — comes Fagin the Thief, Allison Epstein's reworking of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist.
This week, First Impressions readers review Epstein's book and Laila Lalami's The Dream Hotel, a dystopian nightmare about technology that monitors people's subconscious minds.
Animal lovers will love our latest Editor's Choice selection, an English translation of the Japanese classic Mornings Without Mii, Mayumi Inaba's book of essays detailing life lived alongside her cat companion.
Discover more memoirs-in-essays to suit multiple tastes in our "beyond the book" article accompanying Edgar Gomez's Alligator Tears.
Plus, we have a dazzling variety of free books for members to request, and a new Wordplay! | | With best wishes,
The BookBrowse Team
| | Each month, we share books with BookBrowse members to read and review. Here are their opinions on two recently released titles. | | | Fagin the Thief by Allison Epstein
"You don't have to be familiar with Oliver Twist, or a fan of the musical Oliver!, to enjoy this fresh take on Fagin, Dickens' infamous thief who trained a cadre of young boys in the fine art of pickpocketing. Here we learn Fagin's backstory: how he grew up Jewish in London and turned to thievery...And here Fagin is more than a caricature: he's a fully-developed character with an inner life, philosophical musings about life and death, and a ferocious will to live. Various London neighborhoods, prisons, and communities come alive in this book, with lots of historically accurate details including foods, clothing styles, London fogs, and river Thames smells. If you're looking for a book to take you away to another time and place, and immerse you in the lives of others, this one is perfect." —Deborah W. (Boynton Beach, FL)
"If you loved James by Percival Everett, then you will definitely want to read this book." —Lynne B. (Somersworth, NH)
"To say that Fagin is a complex character is an understatement. The author weaves the antisemitic portrayal of Fagin as well as the stereotyping of Jewish people during Victorian England into his character...I would definitely recommend this novel to book clubs. The discussions could go in many different directions." —Arlene I. (Johnston, RI) | | | The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
"Sara lives with her husband and twin babies. Sleep disturbance in new motherhood—she has a job, too—has made it impossible for her to stay on top of things in her waking life. Exhaustion has taken over. She agrees to an implant from a technology firm, and as we typically do, Sara scans the terms of the service agreement rather than eyeballing the details. Shit happens, and she ends up being 'retained,' as they say—'not imprisoned' as they say, in a facility she can't leave freely until they decide to release her. Bad food, low water, strict rules that amplify feelings of confinement, and random petty violations that the not-jailers say retainees did all ensure extended stays...How Lalami does it, I don't know, but she's a flawless kneader of literary characters and theme with pulsating plot drama." —Betsey V. (Austin, TX)
"In The Dream Hotel, Lalami asks, 'What if someday even dreams are monitored?' Then, takes it one step further, asking, 'What if our dreams can indict us?'...Would shelve this alongside Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale or George Orwell's 1984 for its thought-provoking premise." —Karen B. (Crestwood, KY)
"Although I rarely read dystopian fiction, I couldn't put this book down...I plan to recommend it to my book club as I think it would lead to very interesting discussion." —Lisa G. (Port Washington, NY) | | | Members! This month's First Impressions and Book Club books are now available to request. Offer closes end of Saturday, March 8.
Books are provided free of charge to BookBrowse members resident in the US 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 $5.00/month! Join by this Saturday to request a book from this list. Don't wait! | | | Mornings Without Mii by Mayumi Inaba
Sharing your life with a cat is an enlightening experience and a true testament to unconditional love. In Mayumi Inaba's modern Japanese classic, Mornings Without Mii (2001) (now translated into English for the first time by the award-winning Ginny Tapley Takemori, translator of Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman, among others), she shares the many lessons learned from 20 years alongside her companion and soul-cat, Mii: the triumphs, the laughter, and the heartbreak.
In this short but powerful memoir, Inaba (1950–2014) presents a series of essays showing her personal growth from young interior design assistant to editor to blossoming and eventually celebrated writer — a journey she tracks through milestones with Mii.
It was a strange sort of comfort reading Mornings Without Mii as my own 15-year-old cat Deckard's life waned, with him passing just as I passed the midpoint of the book. I was feeling exactly what Inaba felt, knew her immeasurable pain without knowing it truly at all. ... continued
Review by Christine Runyon | | | The Memoir-in-Essays
Compared to a traditional memoir, a memoir-in-essays allows for a more thematic approach and a diversity of styles and formats. It generally prioritizes ideas and memorable scenes or vignettes, and its essays might be linked or discrete. The essays in Alligator Tears by Edgar Gomez appear in roughly chronological order, but a memoir-in-essays can break from convention by eschewing chronology. A looser timeline can be a way of acknowledging that life is usually not a clear trajectory from one phase to another; instead, it contains recurrences, contrasts, and connections.
As Sarah Kasbeer wrote for The Rumpus in 2020, "Exploring a complex network of interactions sounds like the work of an essayist, whereas the projection of time is clearly the memoirist's domain." The memoir-in-essays can accomplish both. Here, we highlight a few that exemplify their chosen themes. ... continued
Article by Rebecca Foster | | | Solve our Wordplay puzzle to reveal a well-known expression, and be entered to win a one-year membership to BookBrowse!
"S O, S N, S B, S B" | | | The answer to the last Wordplay: D to T N
"Dressed to the nines"
Meaning: Dressed elaborately or to perfection.
The origin of this saying actually comes in three parts. First, let's consider the number "nine." What's so special about this particular digit?
The number nine appears frequently in antiquity. There are nine muses in Greek folklore and nine worlds joined by the world tree, Yggdrasil, in Norse mythology. In early South American cultures the figure also has significance, as there are nine levels of the Underworld in both Aztec and Mayan legends. Dante speculated about nine circles of hell, and in Roman Catholicism there are nine choirs of angels. Until recently, astronomers indicated nine planets made up our solar system (Pluto was downgraded in 2006).
Some speculate that the number nine represents completion. It's the last single digit in our numeric system and is also the number of months for a typical human pregnancy. The number three has its own deep significance (e.g., the Christian trinity) and nine is three squared, making it an especially powerful integer. It's thought the phrase "to the nines" grew out of this interpretation, that nine embodied perfection — the best of the best. ... continued | | With so many new books published every month, it's difficult to find the standouts, the ones that are really worth your time. This is why hundreds of thousands of readers rely on BookBrowse to do the hard work of sifting through the multitude of titles to find the most promising new books, with a focus on books that entertain, engage, and enlighten. | | BookBrowse Highlights is just one of our free newsletters. We also offer Publishing This Week every Sunday, and Book Club News and Librarian News monthly. We send out Genre Specific Emails occasionally. | | | | |
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