A Jewish midwife in 16th Century Venice, by edict of the Pope, is forbidden from delivering a Christian baby setting up an ethical dilemma for the protagonist.
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The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddartha Mukherjee
A biography of cancer, winner of the Pulitzer and recommended by friends.
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Dissolution by C.J. Sansom
Nancy Pearl, NPR, says, “C.J. Sansom’s Dissolution is the first in a series of historical mysteries set in Tudor England during the reign of Henry VIII. In 1537, England has been sundered in two by religion: There are those who have gone along with Henry’s decision to dissolve the monasteries and institute the Church of England, and those who are still loyal to the Catholic Church, overseen by the pope in Rome. The main character of this series is a hunchbacked lawyer named Matthew Shardlake. He is one of the reformers, as the followers of the king’s new religion are called. His fellow reformer (and Henry’s loyal servant), Thomas Cromwell, asks (or rather, orders) Matthew to undertake an investigation into the death of a royal commissioner that occurred in a monastery scheduled to be destroyed, located on the south coast of England.”
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Island beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende
Allende’s novel recounts Haiti’s slave revolt in 1804.
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Hope: A Tragedy by Shalom Auslander
Asulander’s account of finding Anne Frank still alive and writing in his parent’s attic in upstate NY.
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Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens
Hitchen’s esophageal cancer inevitably throws a shadow over this spirited, provocative, prodigiously witty collection.
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A Drop of the Hard Stuff by Lawrence Block
NPR Book Summary
17th in the Scudder series. When a childhood friend is shot down while attempting to atone for past sins as per the dictates of Alcoholics Anonymous, Matthew Scudder is drawn into a murder investigation that threatens to derail his own sobriety. Best mystery of the year according to NPR.
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Ghost Hero by S.J. Rozan
NPR Book Summary
Eleventh book in this series. Investigating a rumor about new paintings by a famous contemporary Chinese artist who has been dead for 20 years, private investigator Lydia Chin and her partner, Bill Smith, discover that a new client is not who he claims to be.
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Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner
NPR Book Summary
Traces the history of the CIA from the end of World War II to Iraq, in a study that condemns the organization for its record, its inability to understand world affairs, the violence it has unleashed, and its undermining of American politics.
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The Nazi Officer’s Wife by Edith Hahn Beer
Autobiography of how one Jewish woman survived the Holocaust.