BookBrowse Highlights
Hello Readers!
This week, our book club members discuss All Her Beautiful Deaths by A. Rushby, a captivating mystery with a haunting atmosphere focused on photography in Victorian London.
Meanwhile, First Impressions readers are loving the modern Monaco setting of Ally Zetterberg’s The Dating Game, in which a board game designer finds herself in a dicey situation.
In Editor’s Choice, we cover the latest novel from Valeria Luiselli, Beginning Middle End, following a mother and daughter as they explore their family history and the ancient world.
Plus, enjoy a “beyond the book” article on women-only Radcliffe College relating to Alice Hoffman’s new book The Witches of Cambridge, out just in time for the Halloween season. And don’t miss October previews!
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.
All Her Beautiful Deaths by A. Rushby
From the Jacket
London, 1865. Minnie has been sent to Culpepper House to work as a maid. She's been told that the Culpepper twins are odd, and odd they are. Edmund and Edith seem to do as they please, with Edmund running a laboratory from the house and Edith running about with glass plates in order to create photographs. When Minnie spies what Edith is photographing—a young woman and swan, both dead—she is horrified. But with nowhere else to go, there is nothing to do but remain and try to unlock the mystery of Culpepper House's secrets before she becomes the victim of such a photograph.
From the Discussion
“What an incredible read! Allison Rushby has written a beautiful, very haunting story that captivates the reader from its very beginning. This gothic, historical novel is not my usual genre to read…I was drawn to its subject, Victorian memorial photography, and the mystery.” —Carol_N
“Such an interesting storyline, both past and present. The plots were both interesting and were revealed just enough as the book went along that they really kept me involved.” —Cresta_F
“While this seems to be a historical mystery, it’s solved in present time. I’d recommend the book to many friends.” —NanK
First Impressions
Each month, we share books with BookBrowse members to read and review. Here are their opinions on one recently released title.
The Dating Game by Ally Zetterberg
“Tilda is a board game designer, and she is great at it because of how her brain works. She is also trying to fulfill her late mother's wishes by finding friendship and love for herself, which she approaches very literally, treating life like a game with carefully planned moves. Things spiral when she ends up with a dead body and has to cover it up, and from there it is one unbelievable situation after another. I could not put this book down because I needed to know how she would get out of everything…Monaco, the beautiful setting, felt like another character. I loved the sharp, satirical take on wealth, class, consent, and dating culture.” —Supertalya
“The story was a nail-biter from beginning to end, without any slow parts to stall out the read. Initially it seemed hard to relate to the main character, but she grew on me very quickly and was made just sympathetic enough to keep me completely hooked…I would love to read a sequel!” —Jael_R
“If you enjoy darkly funny thrillers with quirky, morally complicated characters and plenty of unexpected turns, this is definitely worth picking up.” —Kathleen_G
For Members
This issue of The BookBrowse Review contains reviews and "beyond the book" articles for 14 titles, including The Witches of Cambridge by Alice Hoffman, Beginning Middle End by Valeria Luiselli, and Adam, Mine. by K. Ancrum.
We also bring you the latest book news, an interview with Chloe Dalton, and more.
Not Yet a Member? Do you love to spend your reading hours immersed in captivating storytelling and intriguing ideas?
Then a BookBrowse membership is for you! What you see on BookBrowse for free and in this newsletter is just a small part of what is available to members—for just $5.00/month! Join Today!
Editor’s Choice
Beginning Middle End by Valeria Luiselli
On the surface of this book lies the journey of a recently divorced writer and her daughter, navigating literary events, readings, and conferences, who end up landing in Catania, Sicily. There, for the first time in their new and unfamiliar life of just the two of them, they begin to feel that things might finally fall back into place. The writer can perhaps work on her notes, hoping they will eventually acquire the shape of a book about and for her own mother, who is slowly losing her memory, and her mother can receive bites of this in-progress work to translate from English into Spanish or Italian as an exercise to prevent dementia.
At the same time, the writer's 12-year-old daughter can be homeschooled for some months with the help of a well-equipped library of classics belonging to the man who owns the apartment in Catania where they are staying. If this man turns out to be extremely underwhelming, another thread of the story begins to acquire great significance: a piece of mosaic stolen by the writer's grandmother, Sicilian by birth, who then emigrated to Latin America. … continued
Review by Elena Bellini
Beyond the Book
The History of Radcliffe College
When Alice Hoffman spent a year as a master's student at the Harvard Divinity School in 2023, she was on the home campus in Cambridge, alongside students of all genders. But before the 1960s, Hoffman and any other female students would have lived, studied, and worked at Radcliffe College, as Ava and Lauren did in The Witches of Cambridge.
Radcliffe College was chartered in 1894, born out of an informal women's education school known as the Harvard Annex. … continued
Article by Maria Katsulos
October Previews
We know it can be tough to keep up with all the new books coming out every month, so we do the hard work for you.
We've carefully selected 100+ of the most noteworthy books publishing in October and are continually updating our selections—check them out and get yourself on the library waitlist ahead of the crowd!
Paying BookBrowse members can see, sort, and download the full list of previews for all months.
Non-subscribers can view books up to the current month and a limited selection of future months.
If you don’t already, you may also wish to subscribe to our Publishing This Week newsletter.
