Empress of the Nile
Empress of the Nile by Lynne Olson I love Lynne Olson’s nonfiction books, Citizens of London, Those Angry Days, Madam Fourcade’s Secret War. Like Madam Fourcade, Olson’s latest book, Empress […]
Empress Dowager Cixi
Empress Dowager Cixi, The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang The daughter of a government worker, Empress Dowager Cixi was not an heir to the throne of China […]
Deep Down Dark
Deep Down Dark: The Untold Story of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free by Hector Tobar If you were alive in August […]
Clementine
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 […]
Catherine the Great
Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie Like many rulers before her, Catherine the Great of Russia muscled her way into the job. A German born princess with no hereditary […]
Book of Ages
Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore Have you ever found yourself deep in a project, having devoted countless hours and valuable resources, only […]
Black Maestro
Black Maestro, The Epic Life of an American Legend by Joe Drape Before the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, and NASCAR, the national sport in the United States was horse racing. […]
All In by Billie Jean King
I was inspired to read Billie Jean King’s autobiography, All In, after listening to a terrific interview with eighty-year-old BJK on the Wiser Than Me podcast. Other than the highlights, […]
The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym by Paula Byrne
As much as I love buying a new book, the chance to “shop my bookshelves” often provides equal joy! Recently a new biography of the British novelist Barbara Pym (1913-1980) […]
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell
EARLY YEARS Mrs. Edwin Lee Hall of Baltimore had high hopes for her only daughter Virginia, born April 6, 1906. That her ambitions for her child were limited solely to […]
A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre
I am a big fan of the non-fiction works of Ben Macintyre, Operation Mincemeat and Double Cross, and his latest, A Spy Among Friends, doesn’t disappoint. Ken Philby was one […]