50 Children: One Ordinary American Couple's Extraordinary Rescue Mission into the Heart of Nazi Germany by Steven Pressman. “This non-fiction book is an unbelievable testament to the amazing things that some people will do to help others in desperate times.  Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus were a prominent Philadelphia Jewish couple that traveled into Nazi Germany and Austria to save Jewish children.  They worked through all levels of US Government to get the appropriate visas and paperwork, and risked their own lives to travel through Europe and meet with Nazi officials.  At the time, there was significant backlash from other refugee and Jewish groups that had not been as successful in bringing people safely to the US.  An inspiring story at any time, but especially at this point in our nation's political climate when there are so many refugee groups trying to gain entry.”

Ahab's Wife: or, the Star-Gazer by Sena Jeter Naslund. “I didn’t see this on your list and it’s one of my favorite books!!”  Amazon: From the opening line—"Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last"—you will know that you are in the hands of a master storyteller and in the company of a fascinating woman hero. Inspired by a brief passage in Moby-Dick, Sena Jeter Naslund has created an enthralling and compellingly readable saga, spanning a rich, eventful, and dramatic life. At once a family drama, a romantic adventure, and a portrait of a real and loving marriage, Ahab's Wife gives new perspective on the American experience.

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn. A historical fiction about the female spies recruited by the allies in WWI.  The novel moves back and forth between the "Alice Network" of spies and a post-WWII woman searching for her missing French cousin.  Based loosely on a real network of heroic women.

All the Ways We Said Goodbye by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White. From Goodreads: “The New York Times bestselling authors of The Glass Ocean and The Forgotten Room return with a glorious historical adventure that moves from the dark days of two World Wars to the turbulent years of the 1960s, in which three women with bruised hearts find refuge at Paris’ legendary Ritz hotel.”

Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa, and Sarah Lennox: by Stella Tillyard. From Amazon:  "An intimate, detailed portrayal of the lives of four eighteenth-century sisters, great granddaughters of King Charles II who lived wealthy, public lives.  It is based on diaries and letters and reveals the joys and tragedies they shared."

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie -- "I loved this book! Good review: This book was a charming vignette about a most unlikely subject: the re-education of two city boys during Mao's cultural revolution in China. The two young men are sent to a remote mountain called Phoenix of the Sky where they work like peasants in the fields and are allowed no books. But life in the remote mountains is never dull.”

Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West by Hampton Sides. “In the summer of 1846, the Army of the West marched through Santa Fe, en route to invade and occupy the Western territories claimed by Mexico. Fueled by the new ideology of “Manifest Destiny,” this land grab would lead to a decades-long battle between the United States and the Navajos, the fiercely resistant rulers of a huge swath of mountainous desert wilderness. In Blood and Thunder, Hampton Sides gives us a magnificent history of the American conquest of the West. At the center of this sweeping tale is Kit Carson, the trapper, scout, and soldier whose adventures made him a legend. Sides shows us how this illiterate mountain man understood and respected the Western tribes better than any other American, yet willingly followed orders that would ultimately devastate the Navajo nation. Rich in detail and spanning more than three decades, this is an essential addition to our understanding of how the West was really won.”

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown  "I knew nothing about rowing before reading this, but now get I why people get hooked on the sport.  Great history of Germany before WW 2 and the 1936 Olympics.  Wonderful read."  "Getting raving reviews from my in laws... it has popped up in other must read lists."

Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King “about the master who built the Duomo in Florence (since I went there in April it was particularly relevant)."This is short, historical, but interesting enough to read like fiction. Was probably more engaging since I was reading it while I was actually viewing the building. So if anyone is heading to Florence this summer, this is the book for them."

The City of Falling Angels By John Berendt. He’s the author ofMidnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. This book traces the events surrounding the fire which destroyed an opera house in Venice. Some have told me that this was not as gripping as “midnight,” but the Amazon reviews were pretty good.

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff Biography. “Not one I would have picked up but given to me by a friend. I devoured it in a few days." … “Great read, great history as biography.” … “Read this on your Kindle or with dictionary at your side. A light rompy read, this is not... however, it is a very interesting and well researched story about the mesmerizing Cleopatra.”

The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to his White Mother By James McBride.

Columbine by Dave Cullen. "Wow! This book hooks you from page one and never lets go. The Columbine massacre is a fascinating story to start with but Dave Cullen does a fantastic job of putting you in the school on that horrible day and into the minds of the killers, the victims, and the town. It would be easy to write a sensational account of such an infamous day in history but this book does not read like sleazy tabloid reporting. Cullen is thoughtful and empathetic but also painfully honest about debunking some of the myths around the killers and even the victims. I could understand why someone may not feel up to tackling a book on this subject matter but if you are remotely interested in reading a book on Columbine I would highly recommend Cullen's."

Conversations with Kennedy by Ben Bradlee "Ben Bradlee, who was then the White House correspondent for Newsweek, and his first wife and their young kids lived around the corner in Georgetown from Senator Jack Kennedy and his wife and young kids. Then Kennedy won the presidency. The two couples hung out a lot -- many private dinners at the WH just the four of them, often after the switchboard would call the Bradlees at 6 p.m. and ask if they’d be able to come over for a quick dinner. Bradlee kept a diary of every conversation he had with the president, with the promise that it wouldn’t be published until after he’d been out of office for many years. Some of the conversations were pretty unbelievable. The tension builds as the dates of the diary entries progress until November of 1963. Riveting. Plus, you can’t help but think: what would it be like if your friend got elected president?"

Courtesans: Money Sex and Fame in the 19th Century By Katie Hickman. Biography of five “kept women” of the 19th century. Very interesting and dishy. These women were total rule-breakers in that Victorian era, yet they were enormously influential and quite famous.

Dead Wake by Eric Larsen. “The story of the final voyage of the passenger liner The Lusitania and the confluence of events that lead to its sinking at the start of WW1.  Chapters alternate between the stories of the passengers and crew and the unfolding political situation as the US and President Wilson sought to avoid involvement in the European conflict.  A perfect balance between a novel and an historical account of the early days of WW1.” …..From Amazon:  “On May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were surprisingly at ease, even though Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, German U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era’s great transatlantic “Greyhounds”—the fastest liner then in service—and her captain, William Thomas. Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack. Germany, however, was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot-20, was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, an ultra-secret British intelligence unit tracked Schwieger’s U-boat, but told no one. As U-20 and the Lusitania made their way toward Liverpool, an array of forces both grand and achingly small—hubris, a chance fog, a closely guarded secret, and more—all converged to produce one of the great disasters of history.It is a story that many of us think we know but don’t, and Erik Larson tells it thrillingly, switching between hunter and hunted while painting a larger portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era. Full of glamour and suspense, Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope to President Woodrow Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love. Gripping and important, Dead Wake captures the sheer drama and emotional power of a disaster whose intimate details and true meaning have long been obscured by history.”

Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S. C. Gwynne.  “In the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a stunningly vivid historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West, centering on Quanah, the greatest Comanche chief of them all. S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches. Although readers may be more familiar with the tribal names Apache and Sioux, it was in fact the legendary fighting ability of the Comanches that determined just how and when the American West opened up. Comanche boys became adept bareback riders by age six; full Comanche braves were considered the best horsemen who ever rode. They were so masterful at war and so skillful with their arrows and lances that they stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and halted the French expansion westward from Louisiana. White settlers arriving in Texas from the eastern United States were surprised to find the frontier being rolled backward by Comanches incensed by the invasion of their tribal lands. So effective were the Comanches that they forced the creation of the Texas Rangers and account for the advent of the new weapon specifically designed to fight them: the six-gun. The war with the Comanches lasted four decades, in effect holding up the development of the new American nation. Gwynne’s exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads—a historical feast for anyone interested in how the United States came into being. Against this backdrop Gwynne presents the compelling drama of Cynthia Ann Parker, a lovely nine-year-old girl with cornflower-blue eyes who was kidnapped by Comanches from the far Texas frontier in 1836. She grew to love her captors and became infamous as the "White Squaw" who refused to return until her tragic capture by Texas Rangers in 1860. More famous still was her son Quanah, a warrior who was never defeated and whose guerrilla wars in the Texas Panhandle made him a legend. S. C. Gwynne’s account of these events is meticulously researched, intellectually provocative, and, above all, thrillingly told. Empire of the Summer Moon announces him as a major new.”

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."

Five Sisters By James Fox. This is another biography about a Virginia family, in this case the Langhorne sisters, who include Irene (the original Gibson girl) and Nancy Astor. Their family was remarkable – almost Kennedyesque. It was a quick read, and very entertaining.

Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship By Jon Meacham. This recounts the complicated friendship of FDR and Churchill.

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. Historical Fiction based in Alaska – 1970’s. A Vietnam POW comes home fighting demons from the war and moves his wife and daughter to a cabin with no electricity or running water in a remote area of Alaska.  The story chronicles the hard life of homesteaders and the relationships between husband and wife, the daughter who falls in love with her only friend and the close-knit community that helps neighbors through good times and bad.  I loved the strong women she created in this book, wanted to shake sense into a few characters and grew to really dislike a few others! This was a page turner for me and I lost some sleep because I was up all-night reading!

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough. "While I would argue it’s not McCullough’s best book (that would be his Teddy Roosevelt biography ‘Mornings on Hoseback’), it is McCullough so it has to be good.  These are the new American doctors, artists, authors, cultural enthusiasts of the 19th century in Paris.  A must read for history lovers.  Tons of memorable tidbits of America’s favorites wrapped up in war and world diplomacy of the time."

The Guest Book by Sarah Blake. "A story that spans several generations of a New York family who spend time every summer on the same small island in Maine.  Great at evoking a sense of place, as well as exploring changing American society from World War II to the present day.  A satisfying beach read."

Hellhound On His Trail by Hampton Sides. From Random House:  “”On April 23, 1967, Prisoner #416J, an inmate at the notorious Missouri State Penitentiary, escaped in a breadbox. Fashioning himself Eric Galt, this nondescript thief and con man—whose real name was James Earl Ray—drifted through the American South, into Mexico, and then Los Angeles, where he was galvanized by George Wallace’s racist presidential campaign. On February 1, 1968, two Memphis garbage men were crushed to death in their hydraulic truck, provoking the exclusively African American workforce to go on strike. Hoping to resuscitate his faltering crusade, King joined the sanitation workers’ cause, but their march down Beale Street, the historic avenue of the blues, turned violent. Humiliated, King fatefully vowed to return to Memphis that April. With relentless storytelling drive, Hampton Sides follows Galt and King as they crisscross the country, until the crushing moment at the Lorraine Motel when the drifter catches up with his prey. Against the backdrop of the resulting nationwide riots and the pathos of King’s funeral, Sides gives us a riveting cross-cut narrative of the assassin’s flight and the sixty-five-day search that led investigators to Canada, Portugal, and England—a massive manhunt ironically led by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. Magnificent in scope, drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished material, this nonfiction thriller illuminates one of the darkest hours in American life—an example of how history is so often a matter of the petty bringing down the great.”

The Heminsges of Monticello by Annette Gordon Reed. "If you are a history buff you will love it. Get past the deep detail in the beginning and it is very readable. You will see a whole new side of Thomas Jefferson." The story of the Hemingses, whose close blood ties to our third president had been systematically expunged from American history until very recently. It brings to life not only Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson but also their children and Hemings's siblings, who shared a father with Jefferson's wife, Martha.

Heretics by Leonardo Padura. “I highly recommend it for this year's reading list. (His book, The Man Who Loved Dogs, was on the 2019 list.) The mystery surrounding a Rembrant painting and the historical journey of a Polish-American family that immigrated to Cuba in 1930 is an epic novel. This Cuban author brilliantly weaves two stories and Jewish, Cuban, Dutch, and Polish history”

A Hundred Suns by Karin Tanabe. “A transporting historical novel with a dash of suspense, set in 1930s Indochine. A young American woman, Jessie Lesage, journeys to Vietnam with her French husband, a Michelin heir, so that he can run the rubber plantations that fuel the family business. While there, she is swept up in the exotic glamour of expat life––as well as the darker sides of colonialism.”

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides. “New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides returns with a white-knuckle tale of polar exploration and survival in the Gilded Age. In the late nineteenth century, people were obsessed by one of the last unmapped areas of the globe: the North Pole. No one knew what existed beyond the fortress of ice rimming the northern oceans, although theories abounded. The foremost cartographer in the world, a German named August Petermann, believed that warm currents sustained a verdant island at the top of the world. National glory would fall to whoever could plant his flag upon its shores. James Gordon Bennett, the eccentric and stupendously wealthy owner of The New York Herald, had recently captured the world's attention by dispatching Stanley to Africa to find Dr. Livingstone. Now he was keen to re-create that sensation on an even more epic scale. So he funded an official U.S. naval expedition to reach the Pole, choosing as its captain a young officer named George Washington De Long, who had gained fame for a rescue operation off the coast of Greenland. De Long led a team of 32 men deep into uncharted Arctic waters, carrying the aspirations of a young country burning to become a world power. On July 8, 1879, the USS Jeannette set sail from San Francisco to cheering crowds in the grip of "Arctic Fever." The ship sailed into uncharted seas, but soon was trapped in pack ice. Two years into the harrowing voyage, the hull was breached. Amid the rush of water and the shrieks of breaking wooden boards, the crew abandoned the ship. Less than an hour later, the Jeannette sank to the bottom,and the men found themselves marooned a thousand miles north of Siberia with only the barest supplies. Thus began their long march across the endless ice—a frozen hell in the most lonesome corner of the world. Facing everything from snow blindness and polar bears to ferocious storms and frosty labyrinths, the expedition battled madness and starvation as they desperately strove for survival. With twists and turns worthy of a thriller, In The Kingdom of Ice is a spellbinding tale of heroism and determination in the most unforgiving territory on Earth.”

The Jane Austen Society.  "If you like Austen, this is a must-read.  Mostly set prior to and during WWII, the novel is about eight very different people joining together to form the Jane Austen Society, who share the goal of preserving Ms. Austen's last home in the little village of Chawton.  The group includes a doctor widower, a farmhand, a former schoolteacher, an actress, one of Austen's relations and a solicitor. Lots of pride, prejudice, sense and sensibility.  Not the most propulsive, but, like Austen's novels, it builds well to a satisfying conclusion." [editor's note: made this a top pick, as there are indeed a lot of Austen lovers among this list's contributors and followers].

John Adams David McCullough "It will weigh down your beach bag terribly, but worth every sandy page! Really brings the history to page-turning life!" This powerful, epic biography, unfolds the adventurous life journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution; who rose to become the second president of the United States and saved the country from blundering into an unnecessary war; who was learned beyond all but a few and regarded by some as "out of his senses"; and whose marriage to the wise and valiant Abigail Adams is one of the most moving love stories in American history.

The Last Castle by Denise Kieran. “Vanderbilt friends of the Great Beach Books editor will appreciate this great story of George Washington Vanderbilt (scion of Cornelius)  who hired the best to design and build The Biltmore in Asheville, NC.  Anchor Down!”

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Visions of Glory and The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-1940 by William Manchester. "These are the first two in what was to be a trilogy of Churchill biographies by Manchester. Manchester died in 2004, but journalist Paul Reid is finishing the third one, and it's supposed to be published late this year. So let's read the first two and then we can all go to the party at midnight at Barnes & Noble on the eve of the release of the third and final volume." (Context:  this contribution was added the year the last Harry Potter book came out.  As it happens, the final volume was, indeed, released in 2012.)

Lee Miller: A Life By Carolyn Burke. "Lee Miller is the Forest Gump of the art & photography world.  She was a muse of Man Ray, Conde Nast & other arty men, then ended up taking all the most amazing photos of WW2 as a correspondent for Vogue (inc. bathing in Hitler’s tub). Wild."

Lincoln at the Bardo by George Saunders "This is such a different way of story telling (including quotes - real and fictional - about Lincoln and the historical setting). I think going in without a lot of preconceived ideas and just letting the story unfold is the best way to go. The premise is Lincoln visiting his eleven year old son's grave the day of his burial. But really the heart of the book for me was the wide ranging cast of characters who are between the worlds - in the Bardo of the title - and their touching, funny, tragic, and heart breaking stories. I listened to this book on audio which I highly recommend. There are over 160 voices and they all bring these characters to life (so to speak). Many of the characters make fairly brief appearances but they are vivid in my memory.”

A Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich "Sort of a Cliff Notes of world history, from the Stone Age to the atomic bomb, written for younger readers (so not a lot of dates and names) with a wry sense of humor. Get the full sweep of human history -- including the rise of fall of civilizations, great works of art and the progress of science -- in forty very short chapters. Gombrich wrote it at age 26 before WWII in Vienna, but then at age 92 updated it to include the rise of the Nazis (who banned the book) and his own escape from the Holocaust. Beautifully written and concise. Originally written in German, now published in twenty-five languages. I read it out loud to our kids a few years ago and am currently re-reading it. Also comes as an audiobook, for long car rides."

Mary: Mrs. A. Lincoln by Janis Cooke Newman. From Amazon: "Mary is a novel written in the first person, comprised of notes composed by Mary Todd Lincoln when she was an inmate of a lunatic asylum. She takes up her pen to block out the screams and moans of the other inmates and to save her own sanity. According to these notes, although she held séances in the White House and drove her family deeply into debt because of compulsive shopping, she was perfectly sane. She makes a good case for herself, despite occasional manic behavior and often uncontrollable grief." From an Amazon reviewer: "It is a cracking good read; rich in detail, engrossing, and an interesting take on an historical figure who continues to be controversial. Like Margaret George's "Autobiography of Henry VIII"--another great example of looking at familiar events through the eyes of its often-maligned main character--Newman allows Mary Todd Lincoln writes her own story, this time from the asylum where her son Robert has committed her."

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder.  "This book on Paul Farmer, the founder of Partners in Health in Haiti is a fabulously compelling story of a struggling country and a man committed to its people that reads like a beautiful novel. The book stayed with me long after I put it down."

My Promised Land; The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel  by Ari Shavit  "an authoritative and deeply personal narrative on the state and existence of Israel.  I wanted answers to questions like: Why does Israel exist and how is it that the issues are so completed and seemingly unresolvable?  So far the book is a page-turner and gets rave reviews on its accuracy, richness and insight."

Night By Elie Wiesel. “His acct of the Holocaust, I hadn’t read it since I was in 8th grade & clearly didn’t get it all. Unbelievable. Short & dense.”

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. Historical Fiction based in France, 1939-1940. A story about two French sisters who find their own paths of resistance and survival during WWII when Germany occupied France.  I fell in love with the two sisters – each with their own strong, defiant determination to do what they felt was best for themselves and their country. It was a page-turner!

One Summer:  America, 1927 by Bill Bryson.  From Amazon:  It’s amazing what a talented writer at the top of his game can do with a seemingly narrow topic. The title of Bill Bryson’s latest sums up the simplicity of his task: to document the “most extraordinary summer” of 1927, beginning with Charles Lindbergh’s successful flight across the Atlantic. Even though we know many of these stories--Lindbergh’s flight, Babe Ruth’s 60-homerun season, the Mississippi River flood, Al Capone’s bullet-ridden reign over Chicago--in Bryson’s hands, and in the context of one amazing summer of twentieth-century ingenuity and accomplishment, they feel fresh, lively, and just plain fun. The book is so jammed with “did you know it” nuggets and fascinating origin stories (the opening of the Holland Tunnel, the first Mickey Mouse prototype, the source of the term “hot dog”), the effect is like sitting beside a brilliant, slightly boozy barstool raconteur, who knows a little bit about everything.”

Oracle Bones, Peter Hessler. "A view of contemporary China and its ongoing changes through the experiences of a journalist (Peter Hessler) living there. It reads like part travel journal, part novel. At times I found the book fascinating and witty through the descriptions of the characters that Hessler encounters, whose lives weave through the book. At other times I found myself skimming through pages to get to something more interesting. In the end, it is an interesting read and one that certainly illuminates why I feel so lucky to have been born in this country."

The Orpheus Clock: The Search for My Family's Art Treasures Stolen by the Nazis by Simon Goodman. “A writer discovers his father’s secret obsession of reclaiming his lost art awakening a history of being the son of a Holocaust survivor, and taking on the campaign to reclaim his birthright and artwork.”

The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason. "Historical fiction about a British Army officer living in Burma who sends for a Piano Tuner from London. Story revolves around the officer, the Shan rebellion, life in a British Colony and independence while the officer searches for love."

The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down by Andrew Young. "I read every delicious word of this insider account of John Edwards, Elizabeth Edwards, Rielle Hunter and their whole dysfunctional and ridiculous relationships to each other. Andrew Young was Edwards closest aide -- and the one who pretended to be Rielle Hunter's baby's father -- and has great detail into Edwards narcissism, Elizabeth's nastiness and Rielle's total craziness. Reading the book, you'll have to keep reminding yourself that this is all true story, and the man was running for president!"

Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989 by Michael Beschloss. "My husband just read it and liked it."

The Ragged Edge of Night by Olivia Hawker. "In 1942 Germany, the Nazis force Anton Starzmann, a former Franciscan monk, to return to the life of a layperson. Desperate to atone for not doing enough to save the children under his tutelage at the monastery, Anton answers an advertisement and marries a widow with three young children in a small German village, who needs a husband – in name only – to help support her family. As Anton struggles to adapt to his new life, he learns of the Red Orchestra, an underground network of resisters plotting to assassinate Hitler. Despite his wife’s reservations, Anton joins this army of shadows, his acts grow more daring over time and he is suspected of treason. How far will he go to atone for his sins and will he risk the lives of the family he has grown to love?"

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard.  "A gripping account of Roosevelt’s trip through the Amazon in the early 1900s."  From Amazon: After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Teddy Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil’s most famous explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. In the process, he changed the map of the western hemisphere forever. Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide. The River of Doubtbrings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived.

Rosa Lee: A Mother and Her Family in Urban America by Leon Dash. "A devastating in depth view of the underclass in DC. I read it in 2 days."

Saved by Her Enemy: An Iraqi woman's journey from the heart of war to the heartland of America by Don Teague. "This has a compelling narrative like all the great stories in history: A hero goes on an epic mission; he faces great trials and obstacles; he finally conquers the goal; and, in the end, he learns lessons about the world and himself. In Mr. Teague's story, the beautiful lessons are that we are all united by our common humanity and that God's love, as seen through our relationships, is more powerful than divisions of race, religion or nationality. 'Saved by Her Enemy' is a true story, but it feels like a parable that teaches us once again that God is at work in this world - even in a war zone - and loving our neighbors as ourselves will result in miracles."

The Secret Lives of Tsarsby Michael Farquhar.  Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Gene Weingarten once said, "Michael Farquhar doesn’t write about history the way, say, Doris Kearns Goodwin does. He writes about history the way Doris Kearns Goodwin’s smart-ass, reprobate kid brother might. I, for one, prefer it."  I do, too!  I love Michael's irreverence, and the Romanovs give him great material to work with.  Did you know, for example, that Peter the Great loved dwarves and often had them jump naked out of cakes (for amusement)?   Lots of interesting, fun facts against the colorful backdrop of Russian history.  Really worth it, as are previous works by the author:  

Behind the Palace Door:  Five Centuries of Sex, Adventure, Vice, Treachery, and Folly from Royal Britain;

A Treasury of Great American Scandals:  Tantalizing True Tales of Historic Misbehavior by the Founding Fathers and Others Who Let Freedom Swing;

A Treasury of Royal Scandals: The Shocking True Stories History's Wickedest, Weirdest, Most Wanton Kings, Queens, Tsars, Popes, and Emperors;

A Treasury of Foolishly Forgotten Americans: Pirates, Skinflints, Patriots, and Other Colorful Characters Stuck in the Footnotes of History; and

A Treasury of Deception: Liars, Misleaders, Hoodwinkers, and the Extraordinary True Stories of History's Greatest Hoaxes, Fakes and Frauds.

The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott. "At the height of the Cold War, two secretaries are pulled out of the typing pool at the CIA and given the assignment of a lifetime. Their mission: to smuggle Doctor Zhivago out of the USSR, where no one dare publish it, and help Boris Pasternak’s magnum opus make its way into print around the world. The Secrets We Kept combines a legendary literary love story–the decades-long affair between Pasternak and his mistress and muse, Olga Ivinskaya, who was sent to the Gulag and inspired Zhivago’s heroine, Lara–with a narrative about two women empowered to lead lives of extraordinary intrigue and risk." 

The Sisters: the Saga of the Mitford Family: By Mary S. Lovell. This was a fantastic book about an absolutely astonishing family. The parents were middling British aristocracy. The daughters, however, include Nancy Mitford, a best-selling novelist; Diana Mitford, the great beauty who left her prominent husband for the head of the brownshirts (Fascists) and was a friend of Hitler’s; Unity, who also became a great friend of Hitler’s; and Jessica who eloped at 18, became a Communist, moved to America and also became a best-selling author. The youngest married a man who became Duke of Devonshire. Don’t bring it on a plane, as they would probably make you count it as a carry-on.

The Sot Weed Factor by John Barth "a really hard read but worth it."  From Wiki:  A satirical epic set in the 1680s–90s in London and colonial Maryland, the novel tells of a fictionalized Ebenezer Cooke, who is given the title "Poet Laureateof Maryland" by Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore and commissioned to write a Marylandiad to sing the praises of the colony. He undergoes adventures on his journey to and within Maryland while striving to preserve his virginity. The complicated Tom Jones-like plot is interwoven with numerous digressions and stories-within-stories, and is written in a style patterned on the writing of 18th-century novelists such as Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne and Tobias Smollett.

The Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln -- "I'm about to read this NYT bestseller about Abraham Lincoln."

Thunderstruck by Erik Larsen – "Larsen writes about parallel historical events, such as in Devil in the White City about the architects of the Chicago’s World Fair in 1893 and a serial killer who stalked women at the World’s Fair. In Thunderstruck he follows the first international dragnet involving wireless communication when a London murder is captured at sea through wireless technology invented by Marconi. He parallels this manhunt with Marconi’s rise from an inventor to a shrewd businessman."

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand. By the author of Seabiscuit: An American Legend, this is a biography of Louie Zamperini, an Olympic runner who wound up an Air Force Lieutenant and prisoner of war in WWII. By all accounts I’ve seen, Unbroken reads like fiction – a “breathless” narrative style, in the words of the New York Times. Contributor comments: “I am not usually a nonfiction fan but this story is too amazing not to read. Laura Hillenbrand's story is pretty interesting as well. She lives DC and suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome.” … “Definitely not my usual pick but impossible to put down.”

Unwise Passions By Alan Pell Crawford. "Riveting. The subtitle is 'A True Story of a Remarkable Woman---and the First Great Scandal of Eighteenth-Century America.' It’s an accessible biography, a potboiler but true story. I thought it was great fun.

Victoria's Daughters by Jerrold M. Packard. "Character studies of Queen Victoria's five daughters. Fun look at late 18th/early 19th century Britain. Queen Victoria considered the marrying off of her offspring to be one of her highest callings.  (And she was quite good at it.)"

Waiting for Snow in Havana By Carolos Eire. “This isn’t bad for the non-fiction types. It’s about a Cuban boy who is one of 14000 children who were flown out of Havana w/o their parents during the first years of the Castro regime.”

The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish. “Perhaps it's a bit hyperbolic to say that this is one of the best books ever written... but I'm saying it. It's a story that runs on two timelines - today and 1654, when Jews were allowed back into England. Today, scholars are researching a trove of recently discovered Jewish apocrypha and in 1654, that material is being created. Kadish writes in the language of both times in a rich and evocative way. She creates indelible characters who grow in important and revealing ways. And the twist at the end? Did not see it coming.”

Why Women Should Rule the World by Dee Dee Myers "A great case for why women should rule the world, with all kinds of examples and research to make the case. Not an attack on men, just what would happen in our society if the women were in charge, and the type of leadership they’d bring to the table. She also draws on her experience in the Clinton White House and tells a few stories.”

Wine and War: the French, the Nazis and the Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure By Donald and Petie Kladstrup. “I heard this was really good about 2nd WW and germans stealing wine from the french -- and more...”

The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century by Thomas Friedman. “Friedman makes highly accessible an understanding of how the technological revolution is changing our world and how it is not driven by large, anonymous corporations, but by individuals and innovation.”

The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex. By Nathaniel Philbrook. "He lives in Nantucket and is a fabulous writer - I love all his work. This is the true story of a nantucket whaleship attacked by a whale in the 1800s and how the crew survived. It is the story moby dick was based on. Melville came to nantucket to interview the captain. Its a great read - and historical. Always nice to actually learn some history while enjoying the pure ecapism of reading a great book!"