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In Erik Larson’s latest book, The Splendid and the Vile, we join Winston Churchill on the day he is sworn in as Prime Minister of England, momentous as it is the same day that Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium.

Reading The Henna Artist, first novel by Alka Joshi , transported me to 1956, post independence India. Main character, Lakshmi, after fleeing from her arranged marriage to an abusive husband, makes her way to rural India, learning to be a henna artist on the way , serving the wealthy who believe henna artistry has magical powers.

Blinded by the Light, based on the memoir of Sarfraz Manzoor, tells the story of Javed, a young man growing up with his traditional Pakistani Muslim family in 1980s-era Luton, England.

Dave Barry turns seventy, not happily, he realizes that his elderly dog, Lucy, is dealing with old age far better that he is. She has more friends, fewer worries, and way more fun. So Dave decides to figure out how Lucy manages to stay so happy, to see if he can make his own life happier by doing the things she does.

Micah Mortimer is a self-contained man who repairs computers for a living and is maintenance man for his apartment building. Amused and annoyed simultaneously by his family of sisters, he is unnerved by any changes to his schedule. Suddenly confronted with his past, he is forced to look at his present and future.

In The Bromance Book Club, Gavin, a professional baseball player, is having marriage troubles: his wife, Thea, wants a divorce and has asked him to move out. He wants to save their relationship but only succeeds in making it worse… until one of his teammates invites him into a secret book club.

The Disappearing Spoon takes readers on a strange and wonderful tour of the periodic table. Touching on history, politics, medicine, art, economics, and more, Kean tells fascinating anecdotes about every single element, often recounting the unusual ways that an element has been used or odd details about the scientist who discovered it.

Elizabeth Berg is one of my favorite authors.

First published in 1989, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change is

Although Case Histories is technically fiction, it is also a mystery. Or actually, mysteries. But what makes this book really stand out are the characters. The reader gets to know them, their thoughts, their flaws (and strengths), what motivates them, and what they feel. They are multilayered and complex, and most importantly for the reader, fascinating.

If you love to read memoirs, you will love Maybe You Should Talk to Someone. Gottlieb does a wonderful job with making the topic of therapy fun, engaging, human and relatable.

In these turbulent times of rapid crisis and change, masterful leadership is vital. Key faculty members of the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative at Harvard University present a framework and practice method called Meta Leadership in which the leader seeks a bigger picture of the intricate complexity of the problems, opportunities, and solutions of a crisis in order to take decisive action. This holistic leadership view consists of three connected elements – the person or leader, the situation, and those the leader leads or the team.