book recommendations

The novel The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker experiments with several different genres but is primarily fantasy historical fiction. Taking place in New York in 1899, the story follows the paths of two supernatural characters. Chava, a Golem, from Jewish culture (a creature created from clay for the purpose of following a human’s bidding) and a man named Ahmed, a Jinni, from the Syrian desert. Becoming unlikely friends, the Golem and the Jinni bond over their sleeplessness and their efforts toward pretending to be human. 

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Prior to the pandemic, Yale historian Timothy Snyder fell gravely ill. Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary, is his account of a near death experience and follow-up treatment he received in five hospitals within three months. Paying a visit to the emergency room for a baseball-sized abscess in his liver from an overlooked burst appendix he suffered from in fall 2019, Snyder’s writings waver between explanations of his unresolved medical condition, his reflection on his past life experiences and thoughts of how his family would be without him. Read more about Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary

If your idea of a good read is a story to help you your mind unwind, then try The Big Four by one of the world’s greatest mystery authors, Agatha Christie.

This novel is a change from her usual storyline. While it is a Hercule Poirot novel, it involves an organization of world dominance—without giving away any spoilers, I will leave it at that. Read more about Make The Big Four Your Number One Read

Microhistory is a non-fiction genre that takes a comprehensive look at a single event, topic or concept but reads more like novels or memoirs. Even for those who do not typically read non-fiction books, microhistories can prove interesting.

To start, consider some of my favorite microhistory selections:

Read more about Favorite Microhistory Titles Cover Several Topics

Stacey Potter has been writing stories since she was a child. “In my 20s, I tried to submit articles to magazines, thinking that would land me a writing career, and then I’d have time to write the great American novel. That didn’t pan out,” she says. Read more about The Write Stuff

At once a study of generational mother-daughter relationships and a tightly-knit family mystery, Eve Chase’s The Daughters of Foxcote Manor travels through time to ask how families are constructed, taken apart and rebuilt—and what it means to belong to one. Read more about Family Mystery Underscores Maternal Love