Hillbilly Elegy, A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis By J. D. Vance Hillbilly Elegy is a memoir by J. D. Vance, a thirty-one year old self-described “hillbilly” from Kentucky. After a stint in the Marines, Yale Law School, and Silicon Valley, Vance hardly qualifies as a hillbilly ... [Continue Reading]
The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore
The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore When my friend Ginna gave me this book (non-fiction), I was a bit mystified. Not having read comic books as a child, I didn’t know anything about Wonder Woman (Linda Carter notwithstanding), and the synopsis on the back cover of the book was ... [Continue Reading]
Victoria, The Queen by Julia Baird
Don’t let the frumpy photos fool you-- Queen Victoria was a piece of work. As Prime Minister William Gladstone said with feeling, “The Queen alone is enough to kill any man.” Victoria was self-pitying, stubborn, highly critical (especially of her children), partisan, humorless, selfish, prudish, ... [Continue Reading]
Books for the Guest Room
Books for the Guest Room Tis the season for overnight guests! In addition to a variety of pillows and good lighting, you can make your guests feel extra special by offering a selection of reading material in the guest room. Here are five books which offer something for everyone. Escape ... [Continue Reading]
NCN Book Club Reading List 2017
NCN Book Club Reading List 2017 For those of you who read along with my book club, below are our selections for this year. We tried to “lighten up” for 2017, but I’m not sure we entirely succeeded! A Man called Ove by Fredrik Backman Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Wilson Bettyville by ... [Continue Reading]
Midnight’s Furies, The Deadly Legacy of India’s Partition by Nisid Hajari
Midnight’s Furies, The Deadly Legacy of India’s Partition by Nisid Hajari Midnight’s Furies by Nisid Hajari is a grim account of the final year of the British Raj and the birth of an independent India and Pakistan. Until the massacres in Rwanda in 1994, the Partition conflict stands as the ... [Continue Reading]
The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan
The Girls of Atomic City, The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan What are the odds today of the Federal government funding, constructing, and populating a secret city of 75,000 people without the general public knowing about it or its top secret ... [Continue Reading]
Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill by Sonia Purnell
When you are married to a legend, you get short shrift in the great one’s biography. And if that legend is Winston Churchill, you are truly an afterthought. While there are scores of Churchill biographies, there are precious few Mrs. Churchill biographies. In this excellent and long-overdue ... [Continue Reading]
Shanghai Diary by Ursula Bacon
Shanghai Diary by Ursula Bacon For those who wanted out of Nazi Germany in the Spring of 1939, the options were limited, dangerous, and expensive. The only country who had not closed their doors to refugees was Shanghai. Thus in March of 1939, eleven-year-old Ursula Blomberg and her parents ... [Continue Reading]
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande Our book club selection this month was Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, author of three bestsellers, Complications, Better, and The Checklist Manifesto. Described by one reviewer as the Malcolm Gladwell of medicine, Dr. Gawande’s ... [Continue Reading]