Non-Fiction

Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer.  “A comprehensive exploration of the 'science' of creativity, with the goal of shattering the common right-brain or left-brain perception and showing that truly anyone can be creative.  Lehrer provides interesting examples of 'non traditional' creativity and practical suggestions for thinking creatively (daydreaming is productive, so is thinking like a child).”

Immortal Bird: A Family Memoir by Doron Weber. "a memoir in which the author tells the story of his son who is born with a serious form of congenital heart disease.  The son is gifted and attends Brooklyn Technical High School.  He ultimately receives a heart transplant at age 16 at Columbia Hospital in NY.   The father/author, a former Rhodes Scholar and current VP of the Alfred P Sloan Foundation, writes movingly of the family’s journey."

The Imperfectionists: A Novel by Tom Rachman. I gather this book is like Olive Kitteridge – a bunch of stories loosely woven together. It’s gotten mixed reviews on Goodreads, but friends gave it raves: "I've been reviewing some of the books I read on Amazon and will be giving this one 5 stars once I think of a review that is worthy. Don’t read the summary on Amazon, just read the book!" and: "I raced through this book in a day, devouring the vignettes of characters who work for an American newspaper headquartered in Rome. Each chapter tells the story of a different employee at the paper. .. Between each chapter/character study is the ongoing back story of the paper's history and its founder, an American business man who leaves his wife and family in Atlanta to move to Rome and create the paper as a way to connect again with an old flame. There is nothing new about building a novel out of a series of connected short stories and the newspaper world creates a microcosm that works will with this technique. Rachman writes with a warmth and humor and an obvious affection for these ‘imperfect’ characters - his style elevates what could have been a fairly average book to something more substantial." (Ed: Just read that Brad Pitt acquired the movie rights.)

In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri. “It is at heart a love story—of a long and sometimes difficult courtship, and a passion that verges on obsession: that of a writer for another language. For Jhumpa Lahiri, that love was for Italian, which first captivated and capsized her during a trip to Florence after college. Although Lahiri studied Italian for many years afterward, true mastery always eluded her.  Seeking full immersion, she decides to move to Rome with her family, for “a trial by fire, a sort of baptism” into a new language and world. There, she begins to read, and to write—initially in her journal—solely in Italian. In Other Words, an autobiographical work written in Italian, investigates the process of learning to express oneself in another language, and describes the journey of a writer seeking a new voice.   Presented in a dual-language format, this is a wholly original book about exile, linguistic and otherwise, written with an intensity and clarity not seen since Vladimir Nabokov: a startling act of self-reflection and a provocative exploration of belonging and reinvention.”

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlinby Erik Larsen. “Erik Larson writes non-fiction like fiction. In Devil in the White City and Thunderstruck he weaves the stories of real people and murders into major events in history (1893 Chicago World's Fair and invention of the Marconi Wireless respectively). In the Garden of the Beasts, he tracks the lives of U.S. Ambassador William Dodd and his socialite daughter Martha during Ambassador Dodd's time in Berlin during the 1930s. Since the story has Hitler, there is no shortage of murders but this was still at the time when people weren't sure how crazy Hitler was or even if his power would last. Martha Dodd was pretty crazy too, just not the murdering type.”

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.”

Infidel: Ayaan Hirsi Ali  "What can I say – the story of an intelligent, gorgeous woman who escaped a culture and religion that (personal opinion) completely crushes women.  One way to try to begin to understand the Muslim issue and how it affects the 'West.'" Infidel shows the coming of age of this distinguished political superstar and champion of free speech as well as the development of her beliefs, iron will, and extraordinary determination to fight injustice.

Inheritance by Dani Shapiro. A New York Times bestselling memoir about a woman who took a “23 and me” genetic test and discovered she is not who she thought she was.

Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz. “For the dog lovers.”

Into the Raging Sea; Thirty-three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of El Faro by Rachel Slade. "I found this book on a NYT list of must reads for the summer.  First, readers should know modern day shipping vessels are all but unsinkable, so when El Faro sank in 2015 during a hurricane in the Caribbean it was international news.  The author does an excellent job of walking newcomers through the souls on the ship, the weather forecasting of shipping, the shipping industry, and how this became the perfect storm."