Books like Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund

A Tale of Two Cities is a historical novel published in 1859 by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie whom he had never met. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. In the Introduction to the Encyclopedia of Adventure Fiction, critic Don D'Ammassa argues that it is an adventure novel because the protagonists are in constant danger of being imprisoned or killed. As Dickens's best-known work of historical fiction, A Tale of Two Cities is said to be one of the best-selling novels of all time. In 2003, the novel was ranked 63rd on the BBC's The Big Read poll. The novel has been adapted for film, television, radio, and the stage, and has continued to influence popular culture.

From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, a stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). When she is six, she goes blind, and her father builds her a model of their neighborhood, every house, every manhole, so she can memorize it with her fingers and navigate the real streets with her feet and cane. When the Germans occupy Paris, father and daughter flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure's agoraphobic great uncle lives in a tall, narrow house by the sea wall. In another world in Germany, an orphan boy, Werner, grows up with his younger sister, Jutta, both enchanted by a crude radio Werner finds. He becomes a master at building and fixing radios, a talent that wins him a place at an elite and brutal military academy and, ultimately, makes him a highly specialized tracker of the Resistance. Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth to the far-flung outskirts of Russia, and finally into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure. Doerr's gorgeous combination of soaring imagination with observation is electric. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is his most ambitious and dazzling work

A story about the early life of Jeannette Walls. The memoir is an exposing work about her early life and growing up on the run and often homeless. It presents a different perspective of life from all over the United States and the struggle a girl had to find normalcy as she grew into an adult.

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance. This New York Times bestseller takes readers on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers filled with HeLa cells, from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia, to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew. It’s a story inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we’re made of. ([source][1]) [1]: http://rebeccaskloot.com/the-immortal-life/

When Breath Becomes Air is a non-fiction autobiographical book written by American neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi. It is a memoir about his life and illness, battling stage IV metastatic lung cancer. It was posthumously published by Random House on January 12, 2016.

The highly anticipated follow-up to the 2,000,000 copy bestselling inspirational book, The Power of NowWith his bestselling spiritual guide The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle inspired millions of readers to discover the freedom and joy of a life lived "in the now." In A New Earth, Tolle expands on these powerful ideas to show how transcending our ego-based state of consciousness is not only essential to personal happiness, but also the key to ending conflict and suffering throughout the world. Tolle describes how our attachment to the ego creates the dysfunction that leads to anger, jealousy, and unhappiness, and shows readers how to awaken to a new state of consciousness and follow the path to a truly fulfilling existence.The Power of Now was a question-and-answer handbook. A New Earth has been written as a traditional narrative, offering anecdotes and philosophies in a way that is accessible to all. Illuminating, enlightening, and uplifting, A New Earth is a profoundly spiritual manifesto for a better way of life—and for building a better world.

Continuing the epic adventure begun in the bestselling QUICKSILVER!In the year 1689, a cabal of Barbary galley slaves -- including one Jack Shaftoe, a.k.a. King of the Vagabonds, a.k.a. Half-Cocked Jack, lately and miraculously cured of the pox -- devises a daring plan to win freedom and fortune. A great adventure ensues, rife with battles, chases, hairbreadth escapes, swashbuckling, bloodletting, and danger -- a perilous race for an enormous prize of silver ... nay, gold ... nay, legendary gold that will place the intrepid band at odds with the mighty and the mad, with alchemists, Jesuits, great navies, pirate queens, and vengeful despots across vast oceans and around the globe.Meanwhile, back in Europe ...The exquisite and resourceful Eliza, Countess de la Zeur, master of markets, pawn and confidante of enemy kings, onetime Turkish harem virgin, is stripped of her immense personal fortune by France's most dashing privateer. Penniless and at risk from those who desire either her or her head (or both), she is caught up in a web of international intrigue, even as she desperately seeks the return of her most precious possession -- her child.While ...Newton and Leibniz continue to propound their grand theories as their infamous rivalry intensifies, stubborn alchemy does battle with the natural sciences, nobles are beheaded, dastardly plots are set in motion, coins are newly minted (or not) in enemy strongholds, father and sons reunite in faraway lands, priests rise from the dead ... and Daniel Waterhouse seeks passage to the Massachusetts colony in hopes of escaping the madness into which his world has descended.

*Educated* is a 2018 memoir by the American author Tara Westover. Westover recounts overcoming her survivalist Mormon family in order to go to college, and emphasizes the importance of education in enlarging her world. She details her journey from her isolated life in the mountains of Idaho to completing a PhD program in history at Cambridge University. She started college at the age of 17 having had no formal education. She explores her struggle to reconcile her desire to learn with the world she inhabited with her father. ---------- «Podéis llamarlo transformación. Metamorfosis. Falsedad. Traición. Yo lo llamo una educación.» Uno de los libros más importantes del año según The New York Times, que ya ha cautivado a más de medio millón de lectores. Nacida en las montañas de Idaho, Tara Westover ha crecido en armonía con una naturaleza grandiosa y doblegada a las leyes que establece su padre, un mormón fundamentalista convencido de que el final del mundo es inminente. Ni Tara ni sus hermanos van a la escuela o acuden al médico cuando enferman. Todos trabajan con el padre, y su madre es curandera y única partera de la zona. Tara tiene un talento: el canto, y una obsesión: saber. Pone por primera vez los pies en un aula a los diecisiete años: no sabe que ha habido dos guerras mundiales, pero tampoco la fecha exacta de su nacimiento (no tiene documentos). Pronto descubre que la educación es la única vía para huir de su hogar. A pesar de empezar de cero, reúne las fuerzas necesarias para preparar el examen de ingreso a la universidad, cruzar el océano y graduarse en Cambridge, aunque para ello deba romper los lazos con su familia. Westover ha escrito una historia extraordinaria -su propia historia-, una formidable epopeya, desgarradora e inspiradora, sobre la posibilidad de ver la vida a través de otros ojos, y de cambiar, que se ha convertido en un resonante éxito editorial. ** Mejor libro del año 2018 por Amazon. La crítica ha dicho...«Prodigioso libro de memorias [...] con prosa cristalina, lúcida distancia e incluso sentido del humor. [...] El dolor de esta soledad indescriptible, de la profunda herida de tener quedesgajarte de todo lo que has sido, palpita de manera estremecedora en el libro. La mayor heroicidad consiste en ser la única voz que dice basta».Rosa Montero, El País «Tara Westover ha escrito un libro único, [...] un desnudo integral, bellísimo y estremecedor. [...] Esa historia es tan grande, tan única y a la vez tan vital que se convierte en una vibrante lección de superación. Desde el aislamiento, la opresión y la ignorancia, hacia la construcción de una gran personalidad.»Berna González Harbour, El País «Westover se reconstruyó a sí misma a través de la educación, pero en su fría dulzura laten años de aislamiento salvaje que analiza con clarividencia.»Ima Sanchís, La Vanguardia «Te atrapa, te abraza, te golpea y te conmueve. Por muy distinta que sea tu vida de la de Tara, su historia nos habla a cada uno de nosotros. Es imposible salir indemne de su lectura.»Javier Ruescas «Un descarnado relato en el que muestra su metamorfosis.»Luigi Benedicto Borges, El Mundo «Una educación es aún mejor de lo que os han contado.»Bill Gates «El testimonio de quien, para contar, se deja el alma en el alambre de espino de su propia biografía.»Karina Sainz Borgo, Zenda Libros «Fascinante y desgarrador. [...] [Westover] se las ha arreglado no solo para retratar una educación de una excepcionalidad insuperable, sino también para hacer que su situación actual no parezca excepcional en absoluto.»Alec Macgillis, El Cultural de El Mundo «Testimonio desgarrador, pero sin estridencias: [...] el relato de la traumática adquisición de libertad mediante una apuesta por el conocimiento que implicó sacrificar a los suyos se ha propulsado a las listas de lo mejor del año.»CULTURAS de La Vanguardia «Un canto a la educación y el conocimiento y las posibilidades de abrir los ojos al mundo. Un texto que constituye una grata sorpresa.»Qué

Chad Newsome has gone to Paris. He is charmed by Old World fascinations and caught up in the leisurely craft and bohemian direction of European worldliness. An older woman of rank and adventurous but subtle skill, Madame de Vionnet, strokes his ego and does her best to keep Chad in Paris indefinitely. Chad's mother lives in Woollett, Mass., and wants her son to return to run the family business. Mrs. Newsome is an invalid and cannot go to Paris to fetch her son herself, so she employs Lambert Strether and Sarah Pocock to return Chad to Massachusetts. Sarah has been to Paris before and is aware of its attractiveness, so her determination to succeed in this task is fixed and uncompromising. Strether is of later middle age, however, and inspired by the fairytale of a beautiful life in Europe. Mrs. Newsome has promised to marry Strether if he can bring Chad home. Strether is completely enamored by the Parisian character and its enchantments and has a difficult time completing his mission. The drama of reestablishing Chad in business in America and of coming to terms with the mythological romance of France leaves the reader unbalanced, trying to recover equilibrium in the real world. Those involved with Chad's rescue are compelled to recognize the deep intimacies of personal attachment and the accepted proprieties of direct consequence. The success and failures of such an undertaking are unpredictable. The result of every character's attempt to steer Chad rightly is a strange conglomeration of role reversal, fantasy, and truth.

IN A LIFE filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America—the first African American to serve in that role—she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. 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 balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same. ([source][1]) [1]: https://becomingmichelleobama.com/

What is a family? Mario Puzo first answered that question, unforgettably, in his landmark bestseller The Godfather; with the creation of the Corleones he forever redefined the concept of blood loyalty. Now, thirty years later, Puzo enriches us further with his ultimate vision of the subject, in a masterpiece that crowns his remarkable career: the story of the greatest crime family in Italian history -- the Borgias.

Hugh De Luc returns from the Crusades to discover that his terrifying nightmare has just begun. Merciless killers have slain his young son, kidnapped his wife, Sophie, and destroyed his town in their search for a priceless relic from the Crucifixion. Hugh's quest to find Sophie is one of the most pulse-pounding adventures, mysteries, and unforgettable love stories in all of fiction.

When I look back over my long and tempestuous life, I can see that much of what happened to me--my triumphs and most of my misfortunes--was due to my passionate relationships with men. I was a woman who considered herself their equal--and in many ways their superior--but it seemed that I depended on them, while seeking to be the dominant partner--an attitude which could hardly be expected to bring about a harmonious existence.Eleanor of Aquitaine was revered for her superior intellect, extraordinary courage, and fierce loyalty. She was equally famous for her turbulent relationships, which included marriages to the kings of both France and England. As a child, Eleanor reveled in her beloved grandfather's Courts of Love, where troubadours sang of romantic devotion and passion filled the air. In 1137, at the age of fifteen, Eleanor became Duchess of Aquitaine, the richest province in Europe. A union with Louis VII allowed her to ascend the French throne, yet he was a tepid and possessive man and no match for a young woman raised in the Courts of Love. When Eleanor met the magnetic Henry II, the first Plantagenet King of England, their stormy pairing set great change in motion--and produced many sons and daughters, two of whom would one day reign in their own right.In this majestic and sweeping story, set against a backdrop of medieval politics, intrigue, and strife, Jean Plaidy weaves a tapestry of love, passion, betrayal, and heartbreak--and reveals the life of a most remarkable woman whose iron will and political savvy enabled her to hold her own against the most powerful men of her time.From the Trade Paperback edition.

At one of Robespierre’s “Fraternal Suppers,” a young man denounces Robespierre but is saved by an asthmatic vagabond. The young man flees to the home of his friend Theresia Cabarrus, who is engaged to one of the most important men in the government, and who is also desired by Robespierre himself. When the young man disappears from her home, allegedly at the hands of the Scarlet Pimpernel, the ever-present Chauvelin enlists her help in trying to capture the elusive Pimpernel. Events lead to the Pimpernel’s wife being kidnapped, and once again the Pimpernel has to use all of his wits to escape Chauvelin’s clutches with his life, and wife, intact.

As she has done throughout the series, Baroness Orczy weaves the Scarlet Pimpernel into the threads of the history of the Revolution. In this entry, it is the Pimpernel’s interactions with the leading players of the day that eventually leads to Robespierre’s downfall.

France eagerly awaits the day the young King, Louis XV, comes of age and breaks free from the rule of his ministers. The country hopes Louis will bring back glory and prosperity to France. However, he is too preoccupied with the thrills of hunting and gambling to notice the power struggle going on in his own court. Soon, the King is introduced to the pleasures of mistresses and a succession of lovers follow. From the gentle persuasions of Madame de Mailley to her overtly ambitious sister, Madame Vintimille, France stands by and watches a King ruled by his women ...

When the women of the patriarchal Tribe of the Horse are fatally poisoned by tainted water, the men kidnap the women of the matriarchal Tribe of the Red Deer. A timeless tale of conflict between two societies set against a backdrop of ancient magic, mammoth hunts, and secret rituals. (The first book in the Reindeer Hunters series)

Set in the underworld of Paris in 1941. Reluctant spy Jean Casson returns to occupied Paris under a new identity. He is wanted by the Gestapo therefore must stay away from the civilised circles he knew as a film producer and learn to survive in the shadowy backstreets and cheap hotels of Pigalle. Yet as the war drags on, he finds himself drawn back into the dangerous world of resistance and sabotage.

Reminiscent of the films noir of the 1940s, Alan Furst's World War II spy novels are classics of the form, widely praised as the most authentic and best-written espionage fiction today. In The World at Night Furst brings his extraordinary touch to a story of honor and lost love set against one of the twentieth century's great battlegrounds of intrigues - the German-occupied Paris of 1940. On the surface, film producer Jean Casson is a typical Parisian male: dark eyed, more attractive than handsome, well dressed, well bred. With his wife he has an "arrangement" - shared circle of friends, separate apartments - while he meets actors' agents and screenwriters in the best cafes' and bistros, spends evenings at dinner parties and nights in the beds of his women friends. Stunned at first by the German victory of 1940, Casson and others of his class are to learn, in the first months of occupation, that with enough money, compromise, and connections, one need not deny oneself the pleasures of Parisian life. But somewhere inside Casson is a stubborn romantic streak. It's what rekindles his passion for Citrine, the beautiful streetwise actress who was perhaps his only real love. And when he's offered the chance to take part in an operation of the British secret intelligence service, it's what gives him the courage to say yes. A simple mission, but it goes wrong, and Casson suddenly realizes he must gamble everything - his career, the woman he loves, his life itself.

Set in 17th-century France against a backdrop of witch trials, regicide and religious frenzy, this is the story of Juliette, a travelling actress and rope-dancer.Set in seventeenth-century France against a backdrop of witch trials, regicide and religious frenzy, this is the story of Juliette, one-time actress and rope-dancer.Forced by circumstance to seek refuge with Fleur, her young daughter, in the remote abbey of Sainte Marie-de-la-Mer, Juliette reinvents herself as Soeur Auguste under the tutelage of the kindly Abbess. But times are changing: the murder of Henri IV becomes the catalyst for massive upheaval in France.A new appointment is made, and Juliette's new life begins to unravel. For the new Abbess is Isabelle, the eleven-year-old child of a corrupt, noble family. Worse, Isabelle has brought with her a ghost from Juliette's past, masquerading as a cleric, a man she has every reason to fear...

“Above All Things” relates the gripping story of Mallory's third and final attempt to conquer Mount Everest. He wass 37 and married, with three small children.