The Best Eleven Books I Read in 2019Like this list

11 items

• Becoming

  Obama, Michelle, 1964-

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  In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Mistress of the Ritz

  a Novel

  Benjamin, Melanie, 1962-

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  Nothing bad can happen at the Ritz; inside its gilded walls every woman looks beautiful, every man appears witty. Favored guests like Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Coco Chanel, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor walk through its famous…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• How to Forget

  A Daughter’s Memoir

  Mulgrew, Kate

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  When her father is diagnosed with aggressive lung cancer and her mother with atypical Alzheimer’s, New York–based actress Kate Mulgrew returns to Dubuque, Iowa, to care for her parents in the time they have left together. In the months she spends…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Madame Fourcade's Secret War

  the Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler

  Olson, Lynne,

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  A brilliant, cinematic biography of resistance leader Marie-Madeleine Fourcade . . . Olson’s weaving of Fourcade’s diary artfully and liberally into her own writing and her heart-stopping descriptions of Paris, escapes, and internecine warring…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Fascism

  a Warning

  Albright, Madeleine

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  The twentieth century was defined by the clash between democracy and Fascism, a struggle that created uncertainty about the survival of human freedom and left millions dead. Given these horrors, one might expect the world to reject the spiritual…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Woman of No Importance

  The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II

  Purnell, Sonia

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  Based on new and extensive research, Sonia Purnell has for the first time uncovered the full secret life of Virginia Hall--an astounding and inspiring story of heroism, spycraft, resistance, and personal triumph over shocking adversity. A Woman of…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Five Presidents

  My Extraordinary Journey With Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford

  Hill, Clint,

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  After an extraordinary career as a Special Agent on the White House Detail, Clint Hill retired in 1975. His career spanned the administrations of Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, and Gerald R. Ford. A…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Say Nothing

  a True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

  Keefe, Patrick Radden, 1976-

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  As the narrator of a whodunit. . .[Keefe] excels, exposing the past, layer by layer, like the slow peel of a rotten onion, as he works to answer a question that the British government, the Northern Irish police and the McConville family has been…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Library Book

  Orlean, Susan

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  In the exquisitely written, consistently entertaining The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries; brings each…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Five

  the Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

  Rubenhold, Hallie,

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  The five London women murdered by Jack the Ripper, in 1888, were long assumed to be prostitutes. This history shows otherwise, presenting deeply researched portraits of the victims as they lived: they were all poor, some to the point of…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Tattooist of Auschwitz

  A Novel

  Morris, Heather

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  This beautiful, illuminating tale of hope and courage is based on interviews that were conducted with Holocaust survivor and Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooist Ludwig (Lale) Sokolov—an unforgettable love story in the midst of atrocity.