The Warmth of Other Suns. I’ll never forget this book.
White Houses by Amy Bloom. It is historical fiction and is based on the (true) story of the longtime relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena Hickok. It begins in 1945 but then looks back to Hickok’s childhood and her path to becoming a newspaperwoman. She was assigned to interview Eleanor Roosevelt when FDR was first running for president. The women became friends and later, lovers, and when FDR won the election, Lorena was moved into the White House . A sad, funny, warm story that made me want to read more about Eleanor Roosevelt.
Echoing what @intparent wrote, I also enjoyed Comey’s A Higher Loyalty. More than anything else, it is about his views on moral decision making, leadership, and justice. I am having my entire family read it.
Hands down, the best book I’ve read in the last six months is Laura Lippman’s “Sunburn.” I love her stand-alone novels, and she just keeps getting better and better.
One of the few authors whose books I buy in hardcover.
Agreed on The Warmth of Other Suns. I think back on that book quite often, though read it years ago.
Reading The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin and enjoying it. Dark Matter has been suggested to me as my next book, but may skip to The Warmth of Other Suns first.
Just finished “Anatomy of Innocence: Testimonies of the Wrongly Convicted” by Laura Caldwell and Leslie Klinger. It is stories of innocent people who have been convicted, then exonerated over the past 15 years or so. Some due to DNA evidence, some because of misconduct by police or witnesses or an attorney, some based on mistaken or false eyewitness testimony. It was not quite as dark than I expected – I mean, the stories are awful, but they all have one thing in common, and that is that in the end each person was exonerated of their crime. I definitely recommend this one.
I really, really liked a few books recently.
I agree with @VaBluebird on The Flight Attendant.
I just ordered The Flight Attendant for my Kindle.
Interesting side note - the author, Chris Bohjalian, also wrote a novel called Skeletons at the Feast. It was fictionalized, but based on the life of a good friend’s MIL! They were German and had to flee the Soviets at the end of WWII. The MIL was 11 or 12 when she fled with her family. A lot of events in the book really did happen. Our book club (my friend is a member) read the book and got to talk to the MIL last year. The lady was in good health when we spoke with her and was sharp as a tack. She went downhill quickly after that, though, and passed away a couple of months later. It was an honor to talk to her.
Could someone please recommend a good book about the history of Isreal? It doesn’t need to go into every little detail, I want something readable that will help me understand. Thanks.
@busyparent, do you mean since 1948? If so, Herman Wouk “The Hope” and “The Glory”.
I just placed a hold on The Flight Attendant at my local library. I’ve read two of Chris Bohjalian’s previous novels, The Sandcastle Girls about the Armenian genocide and Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands about a teenage girl in Vermont surviving on her own after a nuclear meltdown. He’s a wonderful writer and I’m looking forward to reading his newest book!
Thank you @Virginiabluebird
@VaBluebird I love the sound of this book and just requested it from the library
@MaineLonghorn Fascinating side note. I’ll check this one out, too 
@MaineLonghorn Skeletons at the Feast is my absolute favorite Bohjalian novel (I have read eight of his books). It was one of the first, if not the first, of his books I read years ago. That is interesting to hear that parts were based on someone with whom you have a connection. I wish I could say that I’ve enjoyed all of his books but unfortunately there are several I just didn’t care for, and one that I could not even finish.
I have heard great things about The Flight Attendant and just picked it up at the library to bring on my flight to CA this weekend. Several friends read it and said it was pretty engrossing which will hopefully keep me entertained on the cross country flight.
My book club and myself really enjoyed this book- I Will Always Write Back - How one letter changed two lives by Martin Ganda, Caitlin Alifirenka, Liz Welch. It is a young adult book but it is a true story about how a penpal exchange changed two (and more) lives. Really good!
I just read The Heart Is A Shifting Sea, by Elizabeth Flock. It’s a nonfiction portrait by a young American journalist of three marriages between people somewhat older than she who live in and around Mumbai. Two Hindu, one Muslim; two arranged, one not. (Although as the book makes clear, the current meaning of “arranged” is very different from what it once was, and really amounts to going through something like J-Date with your parents looking over your shoulder and kibbitzing, and otherwise treating your parents as meaningful participants in an abbreviated dating process.) It’s very detailed and nuanced, so nuanced in fact that there’s no real lesson to be drawn from it, except perhaps to be grateful if you are lucky enough to live in a culture that does not expect women to share homes with their parents-in-law too often or too long. It’s an interesting, engaging read, even if ultimately I didn’t particularly like any of the six main figures.
Busyparent, it is an old book, but The Source was an important piece of my early knowledge of Israel. James Michner, so you get the geology first, if I am remembering correctly, and of course it goes on and on… My Promised Land by Avi Shavit was a read that I taught me a lot a few years ago.
Reading Bad Blood. It should be called “how NOT to run a biotech company.” Parts of it sound like description of some of my (now defunct) former employers.