This week, join our First Impressions reviewers as they journey to rural Australia through Hayley Scrivenor's debut mystery Dirt Creek.

Then, travel back in time with our Editor's Choice pick, Gabrielle Zevin's novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, which follows two video game aficionados from the 1980s onward. Our accompanying Beyond the Book article explores the popular computer lab game The Oregon Trail.

Also, we invite you to enjoy more articles in our Cultural Curiosities category and our recent interview with the Marcus Book Club of Oakland, California!

With best wishes,

Davina Morgan-Witts

BookBrowse Publisher

Each month we give away books to BookBrowse members who live in the U.S. to read and review. Members who choose to participate receive a free book about every 3-4 months. Here are their opinions on one recently released title.

"Dirt Creek is a crackin' whodunnit, a guaranteed page-turner set in dry rural Australia, in a small town that has superficial similarities to Jane Harper's The Dry, but this is a darker tale. A 12-year-old girl has gone missing on the way home from school with her friends. How could this happen in a community where everybody knows everybody? The out-of-town Detective Sergeant and her colleague who arrive to work the case have to dig down deep under the surface. It seems that nobody knows or has seen anything, but she gradually peels the layers away, and the town's secrets are revealed...A fun read and a brilliant cast of characters, with the young people playing a big part." - Patricia T. (Fallbrook, CA)

"I don't usually read mysteries but Dirt Creek is excellent! I did not want to put it down until I found out what really happened. I was drawn into the small rural Australian town with descriptive images. The characters were believable even with their quirks and kept me guessing as to their innocence or guilt. The story developed with layer upon layer of new information and secrets revealed. Hayley Scrivenor's first novel is a winner and I hope she keeps writing!" - Mary Jane D. (Arlington Heights, IL)

"The writing style and language were mesmerizing...And, oh, the small town-ness is so apparent! This story is a great read; while a disturbing tale, it is one to be savored, to be talked about, and to be passed on with high recommendations to the next reader. My book club will definitely be made aware of this title!" - Martha G. (Columbia, MO)

The just-published issue of The BookBrowse Review is packed with 16 reviews and articles, featuring Louis Bayard's historical novel about the Kennedys, Jackie & Me, Elaine Castillo's essay collection How to Read Now and Jean Thompson's novel The Poet's House among other new releases; plus author interviews, recommendations for book clubs and previews of notable books publishing soon.

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Sam and Sadie first meet in a children's hospital waiting room when they are preteens living in very different Los Angeles neighborhoods. Sadie's there because her older sister Alice is undergoing chemotherapy; Sam's there because he's been in a bad car accident requiring numerous reconstructive surgeries on his foot (he's also recovering from severe emotional trauma, but that's not revealed until later). Sadie, it turns out, is the first person who's gotten Sam to speak in months — and what gets him talking is the shared language of video games.

They have a falling out, but Sam and Sadie reunite years later after a chance meeting on the other side of the country, in the Harvard Square subway station. The two put their differences behind them and decide to spend the upcoming summer building their own game, with the support of Sadie's professor/boyfriend and Sam's charismatic roommate Marx. The game, an enigmatic adventure quest called Ichigo, becomes a massive and somewhat unexpected success, and the two of them, along with Marx, move back to LA and found their own gaming company.

When both love and tragedy complicate the picture, Sam and Sadie's creative partnership threatens to collapse again — but this time, the stakes are higher than they were when they were children. ... continued

Before they became video game developers, the main characters in Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow were kids growing up in the 1980s, and like countless other Generation X kids, one of the first video games they fell in love with was The Oregon Trail. Many people of this age group probably remember hunting for deer and buffalo, trading for supplies, and possibly dying of dysentery on a westward journey to the Oregon Territory — all from the comfort of the Apple II computers in their school computer labs.

The Oregon Trail is actually older than most people might know. The idea for the game was initially conceived in 1971 by a group of recent college graduates, one of whom, Don Rawitsch, later got a job at the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC), a pioneer (pardon the pun) in developing educational software for Minnesota schools. MECC soon expanded its distribution nationwide, and The Oregon Trail quickly became its most popular game once it was widely available in schools and later homes. One estimate places the total number of copies of the game sold at more than 65 million. ... continued

Visit BookBrowse for full review, excerpt, Beyond the Book article and more.

Pick up interesting cultural tidbits from the Beyond the Book articles in our Cultural Curiosities category, like the one on The Oregon Trail above.

BookBrowse members have full access to every article in the category, but many are available for non-members as well, including:

This year, the Marcus Book Club of Oakland, California is celebrating its 25th anniversary of reading books by and about Black people.

Hi. My name is La Rhonda Crosby-Johnson. I am an Oakland, California native, author and a very proud member of the Marcus Book Club. MBC was founded in 1997 by Marcus Books owner, Blanche Richardson because she had just read an amazing book, My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due, and wanted to talk about it.