This week, we bring you two First Impressions books that feature unique viewpoints on immigration and the American Dream.

In Aaron Hamburger's Hotel Cuba, Russian Jewish sisters Pearl and Frieda attempt to flee their home for the United States in the 1920s but find themselves held up in Cuba.

Susie Luo's Paper Names follows a Chinese American immigrant, his daughter and a lawyer with a dark secret whose stories are all brought together by a violent incident.

Whip up some ideas for your next book club meeting in no time with our list of discussion topics you can use for any book.

Plus, we have copies to give away of Milena Michiko Flašar's Mr Katō Plays Family, a novel that has been compared to Fredrik Backman's A Man Called Ove.

With best wishes,

Davina Morgan-Witts

BookBrowse Publisher

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

"This is not the familiar story of immigrants arriving through Ellis Island to start their new lives. This is the unfamiliar story of displaced persons being redirected to Cuba and struggling to get into the U.S. from there, in the 1920s. Jewish sisters Pearl and Frieda flee their home in occupied Poland, hoping to reunite in New York with another sister. We see right away that Pearl and Frieda are very different. The characters are well-developed, including their strengths and fears and hopes. Pearl tries to hold on to her home values while navigating life in Cuba. She meets many colorful characters along the way who help her open up to her changing world. This would be a great book club choice!" - Lynn D. (Kingston, NY)

"Oh my gosh, I loved everything about this book! The story, based on the author's grandparents, was interesting, engaging and simply a wonderful read. I learned so much about Cuba post-WWI, the older days of Cuba, and loved following the journey of Pearl and Frieda." - Vicky R. (Roswell, GA)

"I loved this book. It is the real deal. Beautifully written, enthralling, entertaining and educational. ... The characters all had depth and heart, Pearl in particular. It was a very satisfying read. Fascinating!" - Jennifer H. (Mishawaka, IN)

"The story is told through three points of view. Tony Zhang, once an engineer in China who sought a better life for his family, is now a doorman in New York. His daughter Tammy, whom we follow from age nine to adulthood, deals with her family's old world ways and her own new world hopes. The third story is Oliver Wright's. He's a charming lawyer with everything going for him except a dark family secret. A vicious street crime brings all three people and stories together. There are no saints or true villains in these pages, only complicated, real people trying to find their way and sometimes tripping up. I heartily recommend this book and will definitely read whatever Susie Luo decides to write next." - Judy G. (Greenbrae, CA)

"The characters' stories are so compelling that I found myself reading well into the night. Because it would generate a lively discussion, Paper Names would be an excellent choice for a book club." - Diane S. (El Paso, TX)

"I really, really enjoyed this book. Typically, I don't enjoy multiple narrators but the author skillfully wove the narrations together to truly develop each character. This book would make a great book club book because it touches on so many different themes -- immigration, family, what makes a 'good person,' relationships, work, cultural differences, etc. This book will stay with me a while." - Amy W. (Annapolis, MD)

This issue of The BookBrowse Review contains reviews and accompanying "beyond the book" articles for 14 titles, including the novels In Memoriam by Alice Winn, Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati and We Are a Haunting by Tyriek White. You can also enter our giveaway of Milena Michiko Flašar's Mr Katō Plays Family, explore previews of upcoming releases and more.

This twice-monthly online-magazine is just one benefit of being a BookBrowse member.

Membership is $3.75/month. Find out more!

We also offer Library Subscriptions that give patrons full and free access to BookBrowse's premium content.

You're in a book group and it's your turn to lead the discussion. You've found the perfect book, but there's no reading guide for it. What to do? Why, create your own, of course! With some all-purpose book club discussion topics like these below, you can turn out a top-notch discussion guide that will be an awesome fit for your book group.

Simply pick one to three topics from most of the categories for a well-rounded discussion. ... continued

Milena Michiko Flašar's Mr Katō Plays Family is an eccentric second-lease-on-life novel for fans of A Man Called Ove and Beautiful World, Where Are You.

"[T]he tender story of a man who must reinvent himself after retirement....Readers will float along with the bemused Mr Katō through the dreamlike prose." ―Booklist

"By turns playful, humorous and poignant, this book invites underlining so that a reader may return again and again to certain lines or scenes. I absolutely loved it." ―Elizabeth Berg, New York Times bestselling author of The Story of Arthur Truluv

"A fascinating intrigue and a warmhearted book about life, and what you can do to improve it." ―Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg, international bestselling author of The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules

We have 50 early reader copies of Mr Katō Plays Family by Milena Michiko Flašar to give away.

Due to copyright restrictions, this offer is only open to residents of the USA. Offer ends 5/15/2023