Recommended Reads: Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

Recommended Reads: Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer (289.33 KRA)

Under the Banner of Heaven is an intriguing blend of true crime narrative and religious history. The book opens with the murder of Brenda Lafferty and her baby daughter by two of her brothers-in-law who claim that they were following a commandment from God. Krakauer then traces the founding of Mormonism by Joseph Smith and the contemporary practice of Mormon fundamentalism. The fascinating page turner explores the boundaries between faith and insanity in contemporary America while explaining the influence of the past.

Recommended Reads: Imperial Life in the Emerald City

Recommended Reads: Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (956.7044 CHA)

This suspensful, true life story tells of life in Baghdad's Green Zone during the American occupation of Iraq. After toppling Saddam's regime, American forces set up their headquarters in a protected bubble away from the turmoil and uncertainity that Iraqis faced daily. The narrative details the numerous mistakes the Americans made early in the occupation from spending billions of dollars to make the Green Zone just like America (complete with GMC Suburbans and bottomless quantities of pork available at every meal) to hiring people for important positions based on political affiliation. A movie based on the book and starring Matt Damon will soon be in theaters; read the book before heading to the show!

Recommended Reads: The Slippery Year

Recommended Reads: The Slippery Year by Melanie Gideon (BIO GID)

This is an enjoyable reflection written by a 44-year old mother and wife trying to determine what is important in life, and what it means to be happy with the life you find yourself in. It’s her uplifting and funny story of how she deals with her husband’s midlife crisis when he buys an atrocious-looking camper RV that he insists on parking in the driveway of their affluent suburb, or tries to recapture her passionate feelings for this otherwise-practical husband who insists on wearing a safety helmet while surfing, or missing her nine-year old son when he goes off to camp for the first time. As she says in the introduction, “The Slippery Year is the story of how I come to terms with my happily ever after. It’s a conversation – personal and universal, funny and heartrending – about all the things that matter: children, the Sunday paper, sisters, good-hair days, dogs, love, loss, the passage of time, and all the reasons to go on living even when the only thing we can be sure of is that one day it will all end."

Recommended Reads: When Everything Changed

Recommended Reads: When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women From 1960 to the Present by Gail Collins (305.4 COL)

This fascinating history of American women in the late 20th Century opens with a 28 year old secretary being lectured by a male judge for wearing slacks to traffic court. The year was 1960. Through a combination of interviews with women and contemporary magazine and newspaper accounts, the author shows how the status of women in society has changed over the past 50 years. From stories of flight attendants who were fired for marrying to Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign for President, Gail Collins sympathetically details the challenges women have faced. The interesting women from the Mad Men era through the Internet era described in this book makes history truly come alive.

Recommended Reads: The Monuments Men

Recommended Reads: The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert M Edsel (940.53 EDS)

During WWII, thousands of cultural artifacts were destroyed or stolen, and many remain missing today. Saving and preserving some of Europe's greatest masterpieces was the job of a few curators and archivists call the Monuments Men. Understanding that culture is connected to the success of warfare, these unique soldiers and citizens worked hard long after the Nazi defeat to recover the missing treasures. This exciting story reads like the latest thriller by Ken Follett but it is a true story of a little known episode of World War II.

Recommended Reads: What I Thought I Knew

Recommend Reads: What I Thought I Knew by Alice Eve Cohen (306.874 COH)
Alice has long since reconciled with her infertility. Although she is recently divorced, she is planning to marry her boyfriend who loves her 9-year old adopted daughter as much as she does. At the age of 44, she is finally beginning to feel happiness as she plans her wedding. However, she begins to suffer strange abdominal symptoms from an illness her doctor cannot seem to diagnose. Although the doctor tells her she is not, she begins to suspect she is pregnant. However, the pregnancy test comes back negative. An ultrasound performed for the purpose of looking for a tumor reveals that she is almost 20 weeks pregnant (turns out that a pregnancy test only works in the first trimester). The rest of this incredible story deals with her struggles to accept what a pregnancy means for her at her advanced maternal age, and the real possibility of severe complications to the fetus. This, compounded by the fact that no doctor, even a high-risk pregnancy doctor, would accept her as a patient at such a late stage of the pregnancy. Spell-binding…

Recommended Reads

Recommended Reads:

The Healing of America: a Global Quest For Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care by T.R. Reid (362.109 REI)

What to do about the state of health care in America? This is a question that has been dominating today's headlines. Washington Post journalist Reid approaches the issue from an unique angle--he travels to several countries with different health insurance systems to find relief for his aching shoulder. Along the way, Reid describes the differences among the systems focusing on coverage, cost, and quality. From the private non-profit health insurance plans of France and Germany to the goverment financed National Health Insurance system in Great Britain, Reid visits highly regarded doctors and explores what works and what does not about each plan. This thought provoking book asks the question, "Does a wealthy country have an ethical obligation to provide access to health care for everybody?"