Every year I find more and more book lists; best books, most popular, best selling, books recommended by a celebrity or other famous person, etc. I can’t possibly read them all, but some of them sound so interesting I wish I could.
In this post I’m listing some books from these lists, all medical/health-related books, a designation I tend to interpret loosely.
(These are affiliate links to sites where you can buy something which pays a small commission to this blog to pay expenses and donate to health-related causes worldwide.)
Here is one book I read recently
The NOTE THROUGH the WIRE
In this true love story that defies all odds, Josefine Lobnik, a Yugoslav partisan heroine, and Bruce Murray, a New Zealand soldier, discover love in the midst of a brutal war.
In the heart of Nazi-occupied Europe, two people meet fleetingly in a chance encounter. One an underground resistance fighter, a bold young woman determined to vanquish the enemy occupiers; the other a prisoner of war, a man longing to escape the confines of the camp so he can battle again. A crumpled note passes between these two strangers, slipped through the wire of the compound, and sets them on a course that will change their lives forever.
Woven through their tales of great bravery, daring escapes, betrayal, torture, and retaliation is their remarkable love story that survived against all odds. This is an extraordinary account of two ordinary people who found love during the unimaginable hardships of Hitler’s barbaric regime as told by their son-in-law Doug Gold, who decided to tell their story from the moment he heard about their remarkable tale of bravery, resilience, and resistance.
Although published in 2020, the author wrote it in 2019, not realizing how timely it would be.
The Orphan Collector
A Heroic Novel of Survival During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic
In this well researched novel about the influenza pandemic of 100 years ago, Ms. Wiseman takes us into the heartbreak of the thousands of children orphaned by both the pandemic and the world war.
I started reading the book late in the year, by the time the COVID-19 cases and deaths were surging in number. I thought about all the people being left orphaned now, although they are not all children. Some are middle-aged adults losing their elderly parents, while others are older adults losing their young adult children.
(As of January 25, 2021, in the United States 25 million persons have been infected with COVID-19, and 420,000 have died.)
Whatever one’s age, losing loved ones to an out of control disease is heartbreaking. The Orphan Collector does not have a fairytale “happy ending”. But the main character Pia, a 12-year-old immigrant girl in Philadelphia, learns an ending different than one hoped for can be satisfying in unexpected ways.
Best Books from Amazon
Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World
In Praise of Walking: A New Scientific Exploration
Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art
Listen to an excerpt at the link.
Best Books from People Magazine
Hidden Valley Road
Inside the Mind of an American Family
Hamnet
Penny who blogs at grownchildren.net wrote this about Hamnet
The author paints a detailed portrait of Shakespeare’s wife as an herbalist; …he grows and culls her herbs for various ailments and dispenses them as a pharmacist today would do.
But the story is about grief and how the Shakespeares, man and wife, separately worked their way through the immense loss of their son. The portrait of her grief–we don’t learn much about his–is thrilling in its sensitivity. You don’t have to be in the medical or health field to be fascinated by this book.
What Are You Going Through
Notes on a Silencing: A Memoir
New from Tyndale
The Anxiety Reset
A Life-Changing Approach to Overcoming Fear, Stress, Worry, Panic Attacks, OCD and More
exploring the HEART of health in literature
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More recommendations from Smithsonian Magazine.com
The Ten Best Children’s Books of 2020
These top titles deliver history lessons, wordplay and a musical romp through the animal kingdom
The Ten Best Science Books of 2020
New titles explore the mysterious lives of eels, the science of fear and our connections to the stars
Use these links to share the heart of health wherever you connect.
watercress words by Dr Aletha 
I had to laugh at the first paragraph because when I was a kid I was on a mission to read every book ever written. I made card catalogs from the encyclopedia of all the authors that were listed in there. I really had no idea how impossible it would be to read every book ever written! This book list has a lot of really fascinating titles. I have not read any of them, but I am really interested in checking out The Orphan Collector, Hamnet, and The Anxiety Reset. Thanks for sharing and linking with me!
Shelbee
http://www.shelbeeontheedge.com
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This gives me a chuckle too Shelbee. When I go into a bookstore, I feel overwhelmed, I want to read them all, lol. Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope you check out some of my other reviews of some equally fascinating books.
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Thank you for sharing at #OverTheMoon. Pinned and shared. Have a lovely week. I hope to see you at next week’s party too! Please stay safe and healthy. Come party with us at Over The Moon! Catapult your content Over The Moon! @marilyn_lesniak @EclecticRedBarn
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I read Hamnet and consider it the best book I read last year. The author paints a detailed portrait of Shakespeare’s wife (she calls her agnes, not anne) as an herbalist. If you’ve read Educated, Agnes is the forerunner of Tara Westover’s mother: she grows and culls her herbs for various ailments and dispenses them as a pharmacist today would do. But the story is about grief and how the Shakespeare’s, man and wife, separately worked their way through the immense loss of their son. The portrait of her grief–we don’t learn much about his–is thrilling in its sensitivity. You don’t have to be in the medical or health field to be fascinated by this book.
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Thank you Penny, your input is welcome and helpful. Now I think I will read it for sure.
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