This week, our First Impressions readers share their thoughts on The All-American by Joe Milan Jr., an intriguing novel full of twists and turns that follows a teenage Korean American football player who is deported to the country of his birth.

We also bring you comments from our book club discussion of Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, which follows the relationship between two video game designers. Participants insist you don't have to be a gamer to enjoy it, and they're right, I've never played video games and I absolutely loved it!

Plus, we have an interview with author Heinz Insu Fenkl, in which he talks about his autobiographical novel Skull Water, and free copies to give away of Monika Helfer's Last House Before the Mountain.

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 one recently released title.

"There are many books that as you read, you kind of have a sense of where it is all going. Not so with this first novel by a very talented writer. Bucky is a Korean-born high school football player whose perhaps unrealistic goal of college and professional ball is dashed when he suddenly finds himself deported to the country of his birth, which he finds foreign to him and whose people speak a language he cannot... I loved this book and would recommend it highly." - Arden A. (Longboat Key, FL)

"The All-American is an interesting and enjoyable book... My niece's friend was deported without his family to the country of his birth and had a similar experience. Bucky is a resourceful guy who in a roundabout way gets his wish to play football. The story is well-written, absorbing... It is interesting how he applies what he learns in football to help himself with his current difficulties in life. I'm not a football fan and I still enjoyed the story. I think you will too!" - Louise E. (Ocean View, DE)

"An unforgettable, suspense-filled, descriptive journey that had me anxiously sitting on the edge of my chair... I am so impressed with how the author includes meaningful characters throughout the entire book, and he never lets the reader forget the character's position, nor what that character means to him. I would definitely recommend this book to be read and discussed in book clubs... I found it to be enjoyable, entertaining and gratifying with well thought-out twists and turns." - Sandra Z. (Silverdale, WA)

In this exhilarating novel by the best-selling author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry two friends - often in love, but never lovers - come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

"I truly enjoyed this unique novel. The characters were so well developed. I enjoyed the gaming thread that tied everything together. The author gave enough description of the games to make them understandable, but I never felt that the games overtook the novel. I enjoy books that are different and this novel kept my interest while reading and left me thinking about it long after I finished it." - cathyoc

"I adored this novel and have recommended it to everyone; none of them, except my teenaged daughter, are gamers. I thought the writing was equally as compelling as the story... I don't think it is important to understand gaming or even the industry, as there is enough information given throughout the book to keep you informed." - ashleyb

"I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be recommending it to my book club. I liked her previous book, so completely different. I am looking forward to what the author will publish next." - LS

This issue of The BookBrowse Review features reviews of 16 books, including This Other Eden by Paul Harding, Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton and A Country You Can Leave by Asale Angel-Ajani, along with accompanying Beyond the Book articles. We also bring you a list of 36 Book Club Discussion Topics for Any Book, a new Wordplay and much more.

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

Membership is $3.75/month. Find out more!

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"Skull water is the fluid that's said to accumulate in the human skull and, according to a Taoist folk belief, it can cure any human ailment. In my novel, the main character, Insu (who's based on my younger self), sets out with his friends to dig up a grave to get skull water for his uncle, Big Uncle. Big Uncle has suffered for decades from a mysterious foot injury that never seems to heal, and he's dying as the infection spreads, so there's urgency to the quest, which goes spectacularly wrong with lots of unexpected consequences.

Skull Water is largely autobiographical and has two parallel stories—Big Uncle's survival during the horrible early days of the Korean War and Insu's survival in-between cultures in 1970s Korea. (My wife calls it the great 'After M*A*S*H' novel.) The threads of Insu's and Big Uncle's lives overlap in unpredictable and illuminating ways.

My real-life Big Uncle was a geomancer who could read the spiritual energy—the 'dragons'—of a landscape to find auspicious grave sites; he also performed exorcisms." ...continued

For readers of Ian McEwan, Elena Ferrante, and Julie Orringer, the spellbinding, internationally bestselling, multigenerational family saga set in a fractured rural village in WWI Austria. At under 200 pages, Last House Before the Mountain is a concise but immensely satisfying novel.

"Helfer brings a great deal of nuance to her exploration of female desire and vulnerability, male power, and community division. This should win the author wider recognition in the U.S." —Publishers Weekly

"What distinguishes Last House Before the Mountain from a hundred other family stories is its charm: narrated by Maria's granddaughter, it confides in the reader intimately." —The Guardian

"A poignant, captivating, beautifully woven family saga. As honest as Elena Ferrante, with the folkloric intensity of Téa Obreht, Last House Before the Mountain explores the ways we reconstruct our family histories in an attempt to understand who we are." ―Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Exiles, A Piece of the World, and Orphan Train

We have three hardcover copies of Last House Before the Mountain by Monika Helfer to give away.

This offer is open to residents of the USA, except for BookBrowse members who are welcome to enter wherever they live. If a member not resident in the US wins, they receive an extension to their membership. Giveaway ends April 17, 2023.