Governerd Fall Fun discussion

Would love to hear fellow governerd recommendations for books on interesting bits of history.

The Alice Network is awesome—about young girls who worked as spies against the Germans in WWI.
Quite a different story is Moloka’i, about lepers who were banished to live on the title island.
Both were very good and have stayed with me long after reading them.

Oops-I posted in the wrong place. These should have been in your historical fiction post. 🤦🏼‍♀️

That’s ok!
I really though Killers of the Flower Moon was so interesting. In an early chapter, there was a brief reference to someone who was often referred to as the American Sherlock. And around that time is when the SSS summer book club was announced!

Sort of History/Modern Journalism was: Empire of Pain about the history of the Sackler family, opioid epidemic, but you also get to see how the Sacklers influenced modern methods of pharmaceutical marketing.

Ohh definitely going to add Moloka’i to my list!

Killers of the Flower Moon was fascinating! I hated how little I knew before that book. That book actually led me to read a biography of J. Edgar Hoover… very long but crazy how one man obtained so much power!

Empire of Pain is on my list to read!

Omgosh… just realized I’ve already marked Moloka’i as want to read 😂😂

I also really enjoyed Killers of the Flower Moon!

I would add many of Erik Larson's books to the list (Devil in the White City and In the Garden of Beasts are my two favorites).

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson are also great.

For those of you interested in medical history, the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks might also be good.

I really enjoyed Destiny of the Republic. I don't remember learning much about President Garfield but after that I wonder how our country would be different if he hadn't been assassinated.

David McCullough is famous for his longer histories, but you'll find a gem if you read his collection of some of his best speeches: The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For.

King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild about the exploitation of the Congo by Belgian colonizers. I had no idea about any of this before reading.

The Plague and I by Betty McDonald is a fantastic Covid read. It's a surprisingly hilarious book about the author's experience in a sanitorium to be treated for tuberculosis.

I enjoy reading about British history as well as American history and I read a fascinating book a few years ago called For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History by Sarah Rose. It tells the story of the incredibly lucrative tea trade and how Britain sent a botanist to China to steal tea plants so they could establish their own tea plantations in India (part of the British empire at the time). Very interesting story!

Kristen wrote: "The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper was very interesting. I knew nothing of them really, we just hear about the murderer, not the victims. The author really paints a v..."

Love Erik Larson! His book Dead Wake is about the deliberate sinking of the passenger ship Lusitania during WWI. Fascinating!