| | | Hello Readers! | This week, our First Impressions readers review Evelyn in Transit, the latest from David Guterson, which follows two very different characters to a surprising conclusion. | In Editor's Choice, we explore Bryan Washington's recent National Book Award finalist, Palaver, an immersive story centered on an estranged mother and son reuniting in Tokyo. | The first dinosaur exhibit was at London's Crystal Palace in the 1850s. Read all about it in our "beyond the book" article accompanying Iida Turpeinen's Beasts of the Sea, the tale of a sea cow skeleton's journey across the ages. | Plus, we bring you the winners of the Nero Book Awards, recent and upcoming discussions and author interviews, and a new Wordplay! | Thanks for reading, | The BookBrowse Team | | | Each month, we share books with BookBrowse members to read and review. Here are their opinions on one recently released title. | | Evelyn in Transit by David Guterson | "Evelyn Bednarz is indeed an original character. From the outset, growing up in a loving family in rural poverty in Southwestern Indiana, attending a parochial school, she's out of place: unusually tall, strong, and curious, questioning nature, religion, convention…Evelyn ends up back at home as a single parent, and happy to be there... where out of the blue, when her son Cliff is five, two strangers show up to announce he is the reincarnation of a high-ranking Buddhist lama. They would like to bring him to Nepal to be trained to assume his rightful role. But the choice is for Evelyn to make. This novel is an invitation to explore what matters most—and be entertained and inspired along the way." —Janice P. (South Woodstock, VT) |
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| "What a beautifully written book, one with its own pace and cadence…Evelyn in Transit is a great choice for book club discussions." —Rose A. (Bradenton, FL) | "I just completed my second reading of Evelyn in Transit. It was essential for me, even though I felt that I had read it carefully the first time. When I got to the astonishing and unanticipated ending, I knew I had overlooked clues that the author shared all along the way. The second reading was revelatory." —Linda L. (Hilliard, OH) |
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| | | | Palaver by Bryan Washington | Bryan Washington's third novel, Palaver, a finalist for the 2025 National Book Award, begins with a mother lost in Tokyo. She is visiting her son but unable to locate his apartment, so she stops into a bistro to try to contact him. When he arrives to pick her up, their greeting signals that these two do not have a tender or close relationship: the moment he sees her, the son is annoyed and frustrated by the disturbance. Over the course of the mother's visit, we piece together their backstories, the reasons for their separation, and the life and community the son has built for himself in exchange for the one he left behind. |
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| With black-and-white photographs of the city woven throughout, Palaver offers an immersive view of Tokyo while delving into the theme of parental and child estrangement. … continued | Review by Letitia Asare | | | | Dinosaurs at the Crystal Palace | In Beasts of the Sea, the reality of extinction is first discovered by the French anatomist and paleontologist Georges Cuvier. Iida Turpeinen writes that as the concept of extinction took hold, people clamored to know what these long-dead creatures looked like. That request would be granted, albeit inaccurately, in 1854 when the artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins unveiled the Crystal Palace dinosaurs, the world's first attempt at life-sized recreations of creatures that up until then had only existed in people's imaginations. |
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| The Crystal Palace was a grand glass hall originally part of London's Great Exhibition of 1851. … continued | Article by Sara Fiore | | | The 2026 Nero Book Awards |
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| The Nero Awards recognize books written by authors in the United Kingdom and Ireland for quality writing and readability. This year's prize for Fiction goes to Benjamin Wood's Seascraper, which follows a young man in a fictional coastal town whose life is upended by the arrival of a stranger. The Nonfiction winner is Sarah Perry's Death of an Ordinary Man, a moving account of her father-in-law's final days after a cancer diagnosis. |
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| Check out our Awards page to explore all the winners, along with the recipients of other major book prizes. | | | Discussions & Ask the Author Interviews |
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| Discussions are open to all, so please join us! If you would like to receive a message when a particular discussion opens, you can sign up for a one-time notification. You can also find inspiration for your book club among our more than 200 past discussions. | Currently, we're discussing Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite, among other books. |
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| Starting January 29, we feature Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray and Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley. | | | | BookBrowse is now hosting Ask the Author sessions in our community forum. Stop by to post your own questions and follow along in any interviews that interest you. | In the meantime, check out our conversation with Ann Bausum, author of White Lies, a Top 20 book and YA Award Winner of 2025. |
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| | | | Solve our Wordplay puzzle to reveal a well-known expression, and be entered to win a one-year membership to BookBrowse! | "J the S" | | Click for the answers to the last Wordplay (The Big Holiday Wordplay). | | |
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