Hello,

We hope your new year is off to a great start! To begin our 2024 book coverage, we bring you Tara Karr Roberts' Wild and Distant Seas, an epic historical tale featuring magical elements and multiple generations of women that builds on Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.

Our latest Editor's Choice pick is Matthew Desmond's Poverty, by America, voted a Best of the Year book by our subscribers, which addresses one of the most important social issues of our day. Along with our review, you can read an accompanying "beyond the book" article on the myth of the "success sequence," and browse additional articles on a wide range of subjects in our Society and Politics category.

You can also check out the fantastic lineup of online discussions we have planned over the next few months — sign up now to be notified when any of them open.

Plus, we have the answers to December's Big Holiday Wordplay, along with a brand new puzzle.

With best wishes,

The BookBrowse Team

Each month, we share books with BookBrowse members to read and review. Here are their opinions on one recently released title.

"What a wonderfully written debut by Tara Karr Roberts! This piece of historical fiction truly captures the rich atmosphere of a Nantucket seaside town and inn... Although it somewhat follows the tale of Moby-Dick, this novel's focus is on women spanning over four generations." —Beatrice M. (West Islip, NY)

"What a concept! Take a literary classic, add some incredible women, and then, as a final flourish, stir in a dollop of magic... Evangeline Hussey deserves to take her place among strong and unusual literary heroines, as do the other women in this book." —Sue P. (Albuquerque, NM)

"Fortunately, you do not need to be a lit major or even read Moby-Dick to understand and appreciate Roberts' debut novel. The multi-generational story of Evangeline and her heirs, with their unique 'magical' traits, is compelling and intriguing as they each navigate their life paths and mother-daughter relationships." —Melissa H. (McKees Rocks, PA)

It wasn't a cruel accident that Crystal Mayberry entered the foster care system at the age of five and stayed there her entire childhood. Through no fault of her own, she was born into a family intimately acquainted with generational poverty, drug abuse, and violence. Following dozens of placements and a revolving door of group homes, even Crystal's aunt threw in the towel after trying to parent her, and Crystal abandoned her education at the age of sixteen.

Crystal's heartbreaking struggle is one of many absorbing passages in Poverty, by America, authored by Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond. The data Desmond offers is sobering, upsetting, and stark. One in eight children live in poverty. Thirty-eight million Americans cannot afford basic necessities. One million public school students are homeless, living in motels, cars, shelters, and abandoned buildings. Two million people don't have running water or a flushing toilet.

"Poverty isn't simply the condition of not having enough money," Desmond explains, "It is the condition of not having enough choice." ... continued

The words conflate virtue with escaping poverty and are known as the success sequence. In principle, the success sequence is anchored in math. A full-time job will ensure a family can be sustained before children are born. That keeps the government at a distance. However, Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond points to the flaws in the formula. For one, it blames the poor for their own poverty and what they cannot control: changes in economic trends.

In his book Poverty, by America, Desmond illustrates that income volatility, referring to the fluctuation of paychecks over short periods, has doubled since 1970, meaning that even a full-time job is not necessarily an antidote to poverty. Poverty is beset with issues more complex than if you work full-time. Cato Institute senior fellow Michael Tanner argues, "The success sequence also ignores the circumstances in which the poor make choices." ... continued

For every book we review, we also write a "beyond the book" article expanding on a related cultural, historical or contextual topic. Browsing these pieces is a great way to discover new books while learning about all kinds of subjects!

The article accompanying Matthew Desmond's Poverty, by America (above) on the success sequence falls into our Society and Politics category. Here are a few more examples of articles in this category for you to enjoy:

Members can view our complete selection of articles, while nonmembers can view a limited number.

Discussions are open to all, so please join us!

Currently, we're discussing Lauren Grodstein's We Must Not Think of Ourselves. Our discussion of Evie Woods' The Lost Bookshop opens next week, and Lynda Rutledge's Mockingbird Summer is scheduled for early February.

If you would like to receive a message when a particular discussion opens, you can sign up for a one-time notification.

Solve our Wordplay puzzle to reveal a well-known expression, and be entered to win a one-year membership to BookBrowse!

These years' Big Holiday Wordplay quiz was to decipher the titles of 10 animal-related books:

T J S S by R K: The Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling (1902)

T C O T W by J L: The Call of the Wild by Jack London (1903)

T W I T W by K G: The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (1908)

... see all

Winners will be contacted by email and posted here.

BookBrowse Highlights is one of our four free newsletters. We also offer Publishing This Week every Sunday, and Book Club News and Librarian News monthly.

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