The Rain God by Arturo Islas is a complex and layered novel beautifully portrays family dynamics and assimilation struggles in a small immigrant town.

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.