The Books of Jacob is a superb masterpiece. In my humble, layperson’s opinion, the book is in the same class as Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

I enjoyed reading about life in Jordan, the country always fascinated me with its culture and history. From legends about Petra, stories of King Hussain

How Beautiful We Were is, in a word, fatalistic. The villagers are fighting a lost cause,– The David vs. Goliath story slowly morphs into a nuanced conflict.

Solovyov and Larionov by Eugene Vodolazkin (translated from Russian by Lisa C. Hayden) – A Russian novel which is part military history, part academic satire.

Zuleikha by Guzel Yakhina is a novel about a Tartar widow who has been exiled to Siberiawinner of the Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award & other Russian book awards

Chinonso is a poultry farmer living in Nigeria, when his stops the suicide attempt of Ndali, an upper class, educated woman from a rich family

Amazing Jewish Heroes Down Through The Ages by David Richard Goldberg – short biographies of famous Jews meant as an introduction to these ground-breakers

The Cook by Maylis de Kerangal (translated by Sam Taylor) is a fictional biography of Mauro, a young man who dreams of working as a cook / chef.

A historical fiction book taking place in 1793, following the life of Hercules, a slave in Mt. Vernon, as well as President George Washington’s chef.

The book shows us the same traveling experience through three sets of eyes, Mrs. Sengupta, Satya, and the American Rebecca Elliot.