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Harlem Renaissance History & Healing Books
Victoria Christopher Murray, Libby Page, the NBCC Award finalists, and more ...
BookBrowse Highlights
Hello Readers!
We kick off Black History Month with our book club members’ thoughts on Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray, which explores the life of influential Harlem Renaissance editor Jessie Redmon Fauset.
In First Impressions, Libby Page’s This Book Made Me Think of You is a touching foray into grief, love, and the power of books to heal.
From our recent backlist issue, we feature an Editor’s Choice review of Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, about a town’s dark secret, and a “beyond the book” article on how Billy-Ray Belcourt’s A Minor Chorus examines the physical effects of the carceral state in a way that’s relevant to current events.
Plus, get in on a fantastic new selection of free books for members to request, and our community forum conversation about the National Book Critics Circle Award finalists!
Thanks for reading,
The BookBrowse Team
Book Club Discussions
Discussions are open to all! If you’d like to participate, you can do so by creating an account here. Please note that discussions can contain spoilers.
Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray
From the Jacket She found the literary voices that would inspire the world…. The extraordinary story of the woman who ignited the Harlem Renaissance, written by Victoria Christopher Murray, New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Personal Librarian. From the Discussion “It was so easy to read and flowed beautifully…I look forward to backtracking and reading some other books by this author. I read The Personal Librarian and liked that too.” —Rose_S |  |
“I really enjoyed the book and learned about one person, Jessie Redmon Fauset, I had never heard of. Considering I was very familiar with all the other poets/writers mentioned in the book this was truly amazing. I enjoyed getting more insight into the personalities of the writers I was familiar with such as Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen, W.E.B. Du Bois and Countee Cullen.” —Joyce_Montague
See what people are saying in response to this question: Fauset asks her sister, “Has there ever been a force in your life that brought you an equal measure of joy and sorrow?” How do you think her relationship with Du Bois exemplifies this? How would you answer her question?
First Impressions
Each month, we share books with BookBrowse members to read and review. Here are their opinions on one recently released title.
This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page
“The protagonist, Tilly, receives the gift of a book each month for a year, from her husband, Joe, who died five months prior. His letter in each book offers love and encouragement for her to try new things and move forward with her life. She bravely attempts the challenges, some with difficulty that made me laugh or shed a tear. The main characters were likeable and well-developed; I felt like I knew them well…I recommend this book to all book lovers who enjoy uplifting books about family drama and facing difficult life choices.” —Sylvia L. (Suwanee, GA) |  |
“The grief hit hard and was familiar to anyone who has experienced loss, but the hope and focus on life made the book a joy to read. I think it captures the recovery process well and offers a way out to those who are in mourning.” —Susan L. (Alexandria, VA)
“This novel is particularly suited for book clubs, as it offers rich material for discussion about grief, personal growth, and the unexpected ways in which love can continue to shape our lives even after loss.” —Ruth O. (Downingtown, PA)
For Members
Members! This month's First Impressions and Book Club books are now available to request. Offer closes end of Saturday, February 7.
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). Our basic membership guarantees you at least four books a year when you request each month.
Free books are one of the many benefits of a BookBrowse membership. Join by this Saturday (for just $5.00 a month) to request and receive a book from this list. Don't wait!
Editor’s Choice
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
It's December 1985 in a small town in rural Ireland, the kind where everyone knows everyone else's business. With Christmas round the corner and the ground thick with frost, coal merchant Bill Furlong is working flat-out to make sure his neighbors are equipped to deal with the harsh winter closing in. Whispers have long circulated about the true goings on behind the walls of the local convent and the circumstances of the girls sent to work in its laundry—but when Bill, an honest, hard-working man whose only goal is to keep his head down and provide for his family, stumbles upon a dark secret during a delivery to the convent, he realizes that the truth is far worse than anything he might have imagined. … continued Review by Callum McLaughlin |  |
Beyond the Book
The Carceral State in Billy-Ray Belcourt's A Minor Chorus
Billy-Ray Belcourt's A Minor Chorus examines aspects of the human condition in a way that is deeply erudite but also intensely physical. Through this approach, Belcourt demonstrates how the problems and questions of existence don't reside in some nebulous realm of the mind, but are bound up in the politics of how we inhabit our bodies, and how we move inside them in space, freely or otherwise. |  |
For the book's unnamed narrator, a queer Cree grad student who returns from Edmonton to his rural hometown to gather material for a novel, the philosophical despair he feels about his own life and life in general is inextricably connected to the physical and material realities of his existence as a gay Indigenous man in a settler-colonial state. … continued
Article by Elisabeth Cook
BookBrowse Community Forum
Check out our discussion about the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalists, which include lots of titles that have been getting buzz over the past year, in the BookBrowse community forum, our space for all kinds of bookish conversation. |  |
In the forum, you can also find recommendations and book club advice, the latest book news, discussions, Ask the Author interviews, and much more.
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