Non-Fiction

Escape: Carolyn Jessop  "I found this book the most satisfying of the recent books that have been written about the Fundamentalist Mormon Church. It is a sincere and shocking account of the inside workings of the cult of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints and how the church leaders manipulate their members to keep control. Her story (eight children by the age of 30!) and how she persevered, escaped and rebuilt her life is fascinating. Again, a way to understand why those women with the long braids and dresses allow themselves to stay in a culture where they are treated as breeding machines."

Escape From Cubicle Nation by Pam Slim. "This is the go-to book if you're considering starting your own business or freelancing. Funny, heartfelt, instructive." Slim explores both the emotional issues of leaving the corporate world and the nuts and bolts of launching a business. Drawing on her own career, as well as stories from her coaching clients and blog readers, Slim will help readers weigh their options, and make a successful escape if they decide to go for it.

Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story by Amanda Vaill. “Biography of the couple that embodies the Fitzgerald era. A sad story, but also beautiful and intelligent.”

Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I've Loved) by Kate Bowler. "It's on Bill Gates' Summer Reading List and it's there for a very good reason: it's a great book. Bowler, a PhD professor at Duke Divinity School writes about her experience with stage four colon cancer and puts it into context of the larger picture. Inspiring, happy, uplifting, motivating, funny - it's one of those books you can't put down, and you can't forget it, either."

An Exclusive Love: A Memoirby Johanna Adorjan, translated by Anthea Bell.  "This book tells the story of Vera and Istvan, Hungarian Jews who survived the Holocaust, fled during the 1956 uprising in Budapest to Denmark, and in 1991 in Copenhagen took their own lives. They were found in their bed, hand in hand. It is the story of an unusual love.  The story of my grandparents."  (Barnard Book Club)

Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identityby Andrew Solomon.  “What can I say? This is a masterpiece on compassion. This author is brilliant and one of the best and most thorough researchers around. Don't let the massive size of the book discourage you. There is far too much to learn from this masterpiece.”

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser "If you eat fast food, you owe it to yourself to understand what is behind the burger and fries!" Schlosser's myth-shattering survey stretches from California's subdivisions, where the business was born, to the industrial corridor along the New Jersey Turnpike, where many of fast food's flavors are concocted. Along the way, he unearths a trove of fascinating, unsettling truths -- from the unholy alliance between fast food and Hollywood to the seismic changes the industry has wrought in food production, popular culture, and even real estate.

My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Family's Past by Ariel Sabar. Interesting story of one family journey from Aramaic speaking Kurdish Iraq to Israel and to the United States in just three generations. The author retraces not only his grandfather and father's lives but the history and decline of the last remnants of the Aramaic language as a living tongue."

The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine.  “Sounds a little heavy--but is actually fun and very cool.”  From Amazon:  “Why are women more verbal than men? Why do women remember details of fights that men can’t remember at all? Why do women tend to form deeper bonds with their female friends than men do with their male counterparts? These and other questions have stumped both sexes throughout the ages.”

Fiasco by Tom Ricks. "Lots of policy makers changed from optimism to pessimism after reading this book. Great overview of how things went wrong in different parts of the government, and intelligible to non-military folks."