This week, you can enjoy our First Impressions reviewers' comments on Thao Thai's alluring debut novel Banyan Moon, which features three generations of Vietnamese American women and an old house filled with secrets.

Meanwhile, our book club members are discussing Robert Kanigel's frank memoir Young Man, Muddled, the story of his confusing passage into adulthood during the 1960s.

And in Editor's Choice, we have A Disappearance in Fiji, the impressive debut mystery from Nilima Rao: Read our review, an accompanying "beyond the book" article on the indentured labor system in colonial Fiji, and an excerpt.

With best wishes,

Davina Morgan-Witts

BookBrowse Publisher

PS: We will not be publishing this newsletter next week due to the proximity to the 4th July holiday. So, expect to see the next issue of BookBrowse Highlights in your inbox on July 13th; in the meantime subscribers to our Publishing This Week newsletter will receive newsletters on July 2nd and 9th.

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

"Banyan Moon by Thao Thai is a mesmerizing and poignant first novel that immerses readers in the lives of Vietnamese American women who are navigating the profound loss of their matriarch. Within the pages of this book, these women confront the weight of life's challenges, expectations and situations, all while unearthing long-buried secrets. I loved the exquisite prose and the compelling development of the characters... I eagerly anticipate Thao Thai's future literary work, curious to discover what this talented author will deliver next!" —Mitzi K. (Cumming, GA)

"This is a multi-generational story narrated by Minh (grandmother), Huong (daughter) and Ann (granddaughter). The story begins with Minh's death followed by Ann's return to her grandmother's decrepit house situated next to a banyan tree, where she reconnects with her mother. It is in this house, full of keepsakes and secrets, that we learn about their own stories of love, connections and pushbacks... Thai's writing is descriptive, beautiful, heartfelt and piercing!" —Anke V. (Portland, OR)

"Motherhood in all its complexities is a major theme of this book. I highly recommend it. I know my book club will be reading it." —Patricia C. (Naples, FL)

In this, his first memoir, celebrated biographer and non-fiction book author Robert Kanigel tells of "muddling" his way into adulthood, love, and a new life. The 1950s formed him first; then the 1960s got their grip on him.

"For the most part I don't really want to read about the lives of the rich and famous. My response is generally, 'Why should I care about this person's experience?' Recently, though, I've read two memoirs I've really connected with - this one and You'll Forget This Ever Happened (also a BookBrowse book group selection). Which got me thinking that for a memoir to be interesting to me it has to be relatable." —kimk

"I enjoy books that take me back in time or to places I've visited. I felt what he wrote about was honest, insightful and beautifully crafted." —janines

"His writing is almost lyrical, weaving and connecting just like life does...he has the knack for making his story both interesting and extremely well written. I have read too many memoirs that lack that kind of polish." —Meg J

Once a promising and rising police officer in his native India and in Hong Kong, Sergeant Akal Singh is banished to the beautiful but lonely archipelago of Fiji in 1914 to pay for a professional misstep that haunts him.

When a plantation owner reports one of his indentured servants is missing, and the Fiji Times runs a contradictory story that she was kidnapped, British Inspector-General Thurstrom assigns Singh to unravel the conflicting accounts and locate the woman before an Indian delegation reviewing the indentured servitude program hears about her disappearance.

Rao develops the mystery of Kunti's disappearance slowly, building up tension through the racist scorn Singh endures from the plantation owners, Henry and Susan Parkins, as well as his own biases. Despite the caste divide between himself and the indentured Indians, he immediately recognizes their situation as slavery under another name. ... continued

The country and archipelago of Fiji is in the South Pacific Ocean, approximately 1,300 miles north of Auckland, New Zealand and 2700 miles southwest of Hawaii. It consists of more than 300 islands, about 100 of which are inhabited. The largest island, at approximately 66 miles long and 91 miles wide, is Viti Levu, or "Great Fiji." The country's capital of Suva—where part of the action takes place in Nilima Rao's novel A Disappearance in Fiji—is located on its southeast coast.

At the time of the novel's events—1914—Fiji had been a British Crown Colony for 40 years. A conducive climate for such high-demand products as cotton, tea and sugar made it an initially attractive target for planters looking to raise cash crops. However, at the time of British annexation, commodity prices were in a depression as America began to pump cotton back into world trade, sugar beet production rose in Europe and Asia cornered the market on tea.

Imported "coolie" labor from India (also a British colony) started as a way of getting around this in 1878. ... continued

Along with a review, "beyond the book" article and other information, BookBrowse offers excerpts for most featured titles, so you can sample a book before deciding if it's right for you.

Below is an excerpt from A Disappearance in Fiji.

"Arre yaar," he muttered with feeling. In the six months he had been in Fiji, Akal had knocked his head on that very door any number of times. It wasn't a particularly low door, but his turban added inches to his already formidable height. Akal smoothed his hands over the turban, cursing the lack of mirror in the sparsely furnished front room of the station, or indeed any of the police buildings. One had been ordered for the European officers' barracks, but the ship from Sydney had been delayed. There was no talk of ordering one for the Indian and Fijian barracks. ... continued

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

The answer to the last Wordplay: Y S M Back A I'll S Y

Meaning: I'll do something for you, if you do something for me.

In Latin: Quid pro quo ("something for something")

Sources say that this expression traces back to Montaigne - presumably by which they mean Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, one of 16th century France's leading philosophers who is known for popularizing the essay as a literary format and for using casual anecdotes to express serious intellectual insights.

It is first attested in the USA in Artemus Ward, His Book, written by American humorist Charles Farrar Browne (1834-1867) using the pen name of his character Artemus Ward, an illiterate rube with Yankee common sense. Browne published the first of the Artemus Ward series in 1858, in The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio). In collected form, the series achieved great popularity in both the U.S. and Britain.

... continued