Sigrid Nunez
[isbn]
Despite what it sounds like — and without spoilers — this is not one of those “the cat/dog/pet dies at the end, but not before teaching me the most important of life lessons” genre of books. Yes, it is a book about loss and grief and a dog, but also about uncommon evil, memory, and voice, and a questioning not only of the worth of fiction but the right to tell stories only partially — or not at all — our own. An intellectually engaging and... (read more)
Recommended by Lori M.
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Paul Yoon
[isbn]
You will not soon forget this slim, quietly devastating novel, which relays the aftermath for three orphans working in a hospital in rural Laos during the American bombing campaign. Spare, beautiful writing about forever-altered lives.
Recommended by Lori M.
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Steven Johnson
[isbn]
Johnson has a knack for honing in on pivotal moments in scientific history, and making the big, lofty ideas behind them, as well as the more intimate personal aspects of the people involved, riveting. This chronicle of the 1854 cholera outbreak in London is also an exciting detective story — one with huge ramifications for the development and sustainability of urban life. It’s an especially timely read during the age of COVID-19.
Recommended by Lori M.
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Rebecca Watson
[isbn]
One day. Every thought, every observation, every suppression of a particular niggling memory and all the tiny magnified moments that make up that day (and that unbidden memory). Far from being gimmicky, Watson’s experimental prose proves an extremely effective way of portraying, from the inside, the aftermath of betrayal and violation. I was awed by the emotional honesty and compulsive poetry of this slim foreboding novel, and left both... (read more)
Recommended by Lori M.
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Ed Yong
[isbn]
If you've been devouring British science writer Ed Yong's insightful articles on COVID-19 in The Atlantic these last few months, but haven't read his 2016 book, you are in for a treat. Yong's enthusiasm for his subject — the microbial world and our ever-expanding research into it — is absolutely infectious. Yong shares some of the most significant research into our planet’s diverse and countless microbes and explains the symbiotic... (read more)
Recommended by Lori M.
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Michael Ondaatje
[isbn]
A young man looks back at a mysterious period, shortly after the end of the Second World War, when he and his sister were left in London in the care of some questionable characters, while their parents traveled abroad for “work." What he can discern, years later, is still veiled in “warlight” — for records of post-war diplomacy and espionage do not invite sunlight and scrutiny, but remain curtained in wartime shadow. Exquisite writing,... (read more)
Recommended by Lori M.
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Huston Smith
[isbn]
An admirably readable and respectful introduction to the basic tenets and philosophies of the world's major religions, written by religious scholar Huston Smith. As I read these chapters, I found myself developing an increased appreciation of each of these faith traditions, including my own. What can be found here is perhaps best summed up by Professor Smith's own words: "If we take the world's enduring religions at their best, we discover the... (read more)
Recommended by Lori M.
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Thomas Childers
[isbn]
I read this ambitious history of the Third Reich in small doses over a period of nine months. So often, I closed the book with my jaw completely dropped. Exceptionally readable and thoroughly researched, historian Thomas Childers's newest work has been hailed as possibly the best one-volume overview of Nazi Germany available, with frequent comparisons to William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. But with access to documents... (read more)
Recommended by Lori M.
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Jessica Shattuck
[isbn]
An unexpectedly nuanced and moving portrayal of three German women and their children in the aftermath of World War II. Widowed when their husbands are executed for roles in the plot to assassinate Hitler, the women take refuge in a rundown castle. The author uses the women’s very different backgrounds, circumstances, and political awareness to examine questions of complicity, guilt, and moral obligation during a period of growing fascism.
Recommended by Lori M.
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Viet Thanh Nguyen
[isbn]
While the Vietnamese “sympathizer” of the story is a communist agent, he is also a man who truly sympathizes, and therefore, a man deeply torn. This makes for a powerful, many-layered work, biting in its criticism of the United States’ involvement in Vietnam without being didactic. It’s also a book that crosses genres and tones: a literary spy story, both suspenseful and intellectual, yet in one memorable sequence, a hilarious satirical set... (read more)
Recommended by Lori M.
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Bryan Stevenson
[isbn]
If I could be Book Czar, I would make this moving memoir required reading for the entire nation. Stevenson recounts his early career as a young attorney working on multiple death row cases, first for the Southern Prisoners Defense Committee and later as founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. From a purely narrative point of view, Just Mercy is impossible to put down. In alternating chapters, Stevenson weaves multiple stories with one... (read more)
Recommended by Lori M.
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