This week, we look at our First Impressions readers' thoughts on two new offbeat works of fiction: Kathryn Harlan's fantastical debut collection of short stories Fruiting Bodies and Ashley Hutson's debut novel One's Company, about a woman who takes refuge from her trauma on the recreated set of 1970s sitcom Three's Company.

In Editor's Choice, we review 2 A.M. in Little America, a dystopian novel by author and journalist Ken Kalfus. We also bring you the latest book news; comments from our book club's discussion of In Every Mirror She's Black by Lola Akinmade Åkerström; and information about our Beyond the Book articles in the Science, Medicine and Technology category.

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 two recently released titles.

"Fruiting Bodies is a unique and stunning collection of stories so cohesive it reads like a novel. Though each chapter tells an entirely different coming-of-age tale, the reader is left wanting more of the individual stories and their vivid characters. I hated to have the book end, and I haven't felt that way in a long time! I've read lots of short story collections, and it's rare to enjoy all of them so thoroughly." - Stephanie K. (Glendale, AZ)

"The author of Fruiting Bodies has provided a great collection of stories to read, to think about, to ponder their meanings, from the fantastic to the sublime! Here's an author to watch. Recommended!" - Gary R. (Bolingbrook, IL)

"As I was reading Fruiting Bodies, vivid images and scenes would continuously play out in my mind based on the evocative descriptions of people and places. While all stories center on humans and their relationships, nature is always present, and sometimes, as in the title story, the line between humans and nature is blurred. Even if she had not incorporated the supernatural elements appearing at regular intervals throughout the book, Harlan has a knack for depicting ordinary people living lives that come across as a little magical just from the sheer beauty of her writing." - Rebecka H. (Roswell, GA)

"Bonnie Lincoln has not had an easy life - both her mother and father died at an early age, leaving her without resources. She is taken in by her friend Krystal's family, but soon suffers another tragedy. Luckily, Bonnie wins the lottery, allowing her to escape her reality by building a life within the set of popular '70s sitcom Three's Company. She rotates living as each of the television show's characters, cutting herself off from the outside world. In Bonnie, Ashley Hutson has created a surreal heroine. What is real and what is imagined? How have the traumas that Bonnie has suffered contributed to this bizarre life she has created? I was puzzled at many of her choices, but riveted to the book until completion. Hutson has a bright future in literature - I found this to be a well-written, gripping novel." - Julie Z. (Oak Park, IL)

"Hutson's delineation of the characters and settings in One's Company resembles Ottessa Moshfegh's depiction of the main characters in Eileen, but Hutson's complex characterizations are strictly her own, physically and emotionally built upon background and incidents in the narrative. Readers who appreciate dark humor, dense narrative and farcical situations will love this novel." - Joanne J. (Franklin, MA)

"Wow! This was like nothing I have ever read. A completely bizarre story that kept me turning the pages just to see how it would end. I enjoyed the nostalgic feeling of the Three's Company vibe. In fact, I watched the show a few times while I was reading. I think readers who enjoy psychology would be interested in this. Overall, I enjoyed the book - mostly because it was so bizarre!" - Jessica F. (Revere, MA)

2 A.M. in Little America depicts a grim future in which a polarized United States plunges into outright civil war, and Americans become the world's next wave of refugees.

Smart, darkly funny and unsettlingly prescient, 2 A.M. in Little America is a cautionary tale about the dangers of political factionalism and polarization, with all too relevant lessons about nationalism and xenophobia, the myth of American exceptionalism, and the difficulty of seeing past the distorting filter of our ideologies and group allegiances to an objective view of reality. Although Kalfus never specifies the exact nature of the political divisions that plunge his imagined future United States into civil war, the book is a clear parable for our current era of fractured politics.... continued

Meaning "dark room" in Latin, the term "camera obscura" was coined by German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler in 1604 to describe a box-shaped device - like the one in 2 A.M. in Little America - that focuses light rays through a small opening to create an inverted image.

Centuries earlier, the Chinese philosopher Mozi (470-390 BCE) provided the first written account of the optical principle underlying camera obscura devices. Light reflected from an object travels in straight lines from its source, he observed. When projected into a dark chamber through a tiny opening, these light rays intersect at the aperture, casting a small, upside-down, reversed image of the external object onto the opposite wall - much the way that the lens of the eye focuses light through the opening of the pupil to form an image on the surface of the retina... continued

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Last year, BookBrowse's book club discussed In Every Mirror She's Black by Lola Akinmade Åkerström. It received many positive comments, so we're revisiting it now that the book is released in paperback.

Told through the perspectives of three women, Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström's In Every Mirror She's Black is a fast-paced, richly nuanced yet accessible contemporary novel that touches on important social issues of racism, classism, fetishization, and tokenism, and what it means to be a Black woman navigating a white-dominated society.

The discussion of In Every Mirror She's Black took place last fall, so the forum is closed for new posts at this time, but you can read the many comments, or explore more about the book, via the links below.