I found the book quite boring in the beginning, but the story got better when the narrative was moved from San Francisco to Chile

The highlight of the book was when it explored issues such as privilege, responsibilities, and what happens when all things you though secure were taken away

The captivating richly detailed saga of three generations of a cursed South Indian family cursed for generations in Abraham Verghese’s The Covenant of Water

The research the author did shine, and I’ve learned several things about Latvia, the region, the way Latvian Jews viewed the Soviets, and a bit of history

An Israeli novel about a woman who finds letters her late father left her from her birth, to his death, discovering a family saga from previous generations

The novel is strongest in its depiction of the day-to-day living with a person suffering from Alzheimer’s. An undignified way to slowly die for those affected.

While this is certainly not a history book, the lives of the women follow the national struggles (civil rights for example) which got national attention

The book touches on a part of American history which is rarely talked about, the internment camps built for Japanese Americans

The making of a writer. Daniel Baciagalupo and his father flee a 1950’s New Hampshire logging town after Daniel accidentally killed his father’s lover.