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Fantastically compelling, quick read about one family’s explosive secrets coming out as DNA testing becomes available. The author is a specialist in genealogy and family research but he’s using it to solve the mystery of his own family. The author does a really nice job of sharing his emotions, as good as Dani Shapiro in […]
Rachel Maddow (of The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC) has written the background story of our time, explaining why Vladimir Putin needed to hack our 2016 election and why Rex Tillerson became Secretary of State. She raises the curtain on the Resource Curse, the almost inevitable decline of democracy that follows the discovery of oil […]
A quick and easy-to-digest read about the making of a beloved classic film. Last week this tweet from Cary Elwes really got me thinking about this book again. The Princess Bride has been one of my all time favorite movies ever since my mom made me rent it (despite my eyerolls at the title) while […]
Gorgeous, elegiac book in which award-winning nature writer Sy Montgomery takes you on a dream safari with the world’s foremost expert on wildebeest, the keystone species for the whole Serengeti. The details of how the wildebeest shape and share the African plain are fascinating. Along the way, you also get to learn about many of […]
Wow! Casey Cep’s first book is an incredible read. Harper Lee was Truman Capote’s friend and research assistant on In Cold Blood. Many years later, Lee got very involved researching a series of murders in Alabama committed about 2.5 hours from her own home in Monroeville and told not only friends but the press that […]
Written in a conversational style, like listening to the friend who starts stories in the middle, this memoir is of the year Lorene and her family shared their home with her 100 year old grandmother, so they could help her as she came to the end of her life. The story wraps the reader in […]
It is a mystery to me that the author, who is celebrating her survival into her 40’s despite bad decisions that could have led to her drowning twice, strangulation by a stranger, deathly childhood illness, car accidents, robbery with deadly weapons and more, has titled her book with a quote from Sylvia Plath, the poet […]
This book is a long pep talk written by Marco Borges who helped various clients transition to a plant-based lifestyle. Two of his most famous clients, Jay-Z and Beyonce introduce the book: “We want to challenge you, as we challenge ourselves, to move toward plant-based foods.” The first half of the book is a explanation […]
This is a slim volume, part reminiscence about the Waldorf Astoria’s recent history before the Anbang remodel began, part fascinating, deeply researched introduction to honey bee life. Strong recommendation for anyone interested in pollinators! Lesley Day is a New York City naturalist who authored 3 field guides to the NYC natural world and she writes […]
Clemantine was a demanding, curious six year old living in Kigali when the Rwandan massacre started. She had no idea why the adults started whispering and people she knew began to disappear. Her parents sent Clemantine and her older sister to stay with their Grandmother, the first in a long line of peregrinations that in […]
