This week's First Impressions read is Jane Harper's new mystery novel Exiles, set in South Australian wine country and the third in a series following Detective Aaron Falk. If you aren't already a fan of Harper's fiction, you may be pleased to know that this work can be read as a standalone, and might even appeal to those who don't normally read mysteries.

In Editor's Choice, we bring you a unique nonfiction book on America's problem with gun violence presenting the prose of acclaimed novelist Paul Auster alongside the photography of Spencer Ostrander, whose work is the focus of our accompanying "beyond the book" article.

We also invite you to explore our Music and the Arts "beyond the book" articles category, and to enjoy a new Wordplay!

And in case you missed it, we're revisiting my discussion with Lloyd Russell on his podcast Lit with Lloyd from a few months ago.

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. Here are their opinions on one recently released title.

"My excitement level over a new Jane Harper book was raised even higher by the welcome return of federal investigator Aaron Falk. In Exiles, Aaron travels to the wine country of South Australia, where he will gather with his dear friends, Rita and Greg Raco, to become godfather to their baby, George. This christening, which has been postponed a year, will be celebrated by the Racos' extended family and close friends. The ceremony was canceled when a family member disappeared suddenly, leaving her infant daughter abandoned in her pram at the community's annual festival. A year later, there are no answers and only speculation about what happened to Kim Gillespie. Greg, a police officer, asks Aaron to take a look at the thick file he has gathered about her disappearance... the reader can feel the tension and anxiety mounting ever higher on the way to discovering what really happened! I found this book to be a wonderfully satisfying mystery!" - Pat D. (Little Rock, AR)

"This is Jane Harper's third book featuring Aaron Falk and - good news - you don't need to read the first two to enjoy Exiles. In fact, with all the things happening in Aaron's life this would be an excellent place to start... This is an example of a really good crime novel that doesn't have a lot of violence." - Bill B. (Lake Oswego, OR)

"This book will be my next recommendation to my book club as there are weighty topics for us to ponder. Teens and adults alike would find much to discuss... In short, this is a mystery for those of us who love mysteries, yet a book with big ideas for discussion, not 'just a mystery.'" - Mary C. (Plano, TX)

In recent years, Booker Prize­–nominated novelist Paul Auster has increasingly turned to nonfiction writing. Long Live King Kobe zeroes in on one of the countless stories of families recovering from the trauma of loss. And now, in Bloodbath Nation, Auster takes a broader view of violence, specifically America's long love affair with guns and our culture's seeming tolerance of mass shooting events.

Auster opens the volume by acknowledging that even he—a Brooklyn-based intellectual—did not grow up immune to the allure of firearms. As a young teenager, Auster freely confesses, he found pleasure in firing a gun at paper targets and clay pigeons. That romanticization of firearms, however, first began to fade as he entered adulthood and learned about a gun-inflicted death in his own family that prompted generations of trauma.

These personal anecdotes—including Auster's acknowledgment of guns' allure—underpin the rest of his slim yet powerful work, which starkly outlines the grim statistics of American death by firearms—"Eighty thousand wounded and forty thousand dead, or one hundred and twenty thousand ambulance calls and emergency room cases for every twelve-month tick of the clock."—but also addresses the collective emotional toll of this unrelenting brutality. ... continued

Thanks to the numerous photographs that accompany Paul Auster's prose, Bloodbath Nation reads like an extended photo essay, the combination of words and pictures creating a truly indelible work. The images were recorded by New York City–based photographer Spencer Ostrander, for whom this work is deeply personal.

Ostrander, who was born in Seattle, Washington in 1984, experienced a series of personal tragedies the year he turned 21, when several important people in his life died in close succession. Although he had been studying psychology up until that point, the realization that he lacked permanent images of those loved ones led him to explore photography, first as a hobby and then as a profession.

After transferring from a university in San Francisco to Parsons School of Design in New York City, Ostrander began assisting a variety of photographers working on documentary, portrait and fashion photography. Since then, he has published a great deal of work in magazines, including Playboy, Teen Vogue and Zeit Magazine. But he is best known for an artistic series of photographs titled "Times Square in the Rain." ... continued

In this issue, we cover 14 books, including Eleanor Shearer's debut historical novel River Sing Me Home (just announced as Good Morning America's new Book Club selection), Kate Alice Marshall's thriller What Lies in the Woods and Franny Choi's poetry collection The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On.

We also share a blog post on some of the best book podcasts for readers, a new Wordplay and more.

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

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

For every book we review, we also write a "beyond the book" article that focuses on a cultural, historical or contextual topic related to the book - a great way to discover new books and learn about new subjects!

In addition to our article about the photography of Spencer Ostrander (accompanying Bloodbath Nation above), our Music & the Arts category includes interesting reading on the painting of Mark Rothko, the history of The Nutcracker, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the music and writing of Sasha LaPointe, John Coltrane's Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album and much more.

Individual members and patrons of subscribing libraries have full access to all articles, while others have access to some.

Solve our Wordplay puzzle to reveal a well-known expression, and be entered to win the book of your choice or a 6-month membership to BookBrowse!

The answer to the last Wordplay: C To T Q

Meaning: To cause deep emotional hurt.

An archaic meaning of 'quick' is those that are living (thus biblical references to 'the quick and the dead'). It has its roots in the Old English word cwic, meaning living.

Thus, to cut to the quick means to cut deeply - either with a physical wound or, as seen in Sir Thomas More's Utopia (1551), to the limit of a person's ability to survive: "Their tenants... whom they poll and shave to the quick, by raising their rents." ... continued

A few months ago, I had the chance to speak with book reviewer Lloyd Russell for his podcast Lit with Lloyd. I've received a couple of emails recently asking for the link to this Q&A, so I'm taking the opportunity to rerun it for anyone who missed it.

In the interview, we discuss:

I hope you have as much fun watching this as I had recording it!

--Davina, BookBrowse Publisher