First Time Reads
Conclave (Robert Harris)
Following the death of an unnamed pope, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Jacopo Cardinal Lomeli, is tasked with overseeing the conclave to elect the next pontiff. Over a prolonged voting period, the conclave exposes the sins and failings of each frontrunner, paving the way for a mysterious newcomer to shake the foundations of the Roman Catholic Church.
”Certainty is the great enemy of unity. Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance. Even Christ was not certain at the end…let us pray that God will grant us a Pope who doubts. And let him grant us a Pope who sins and asks for forgiveness and who carries on.”
White Noise (Don DeLillo)
White Noise is a 1985 novel by American author Don DeLillo. A significant entry in the canon of postmodern literature, White Noise tells the story of a small-town college professor whose suburban routine is shattered when a train crash results in a massive chemical spill. As the characters struggle to accept their own mortality, the book explores a range of contemporary issues including consumerism, mass media, and conspiracy theories.
“California deserves whatever it gets. Californians invented the concept of life-style. This alone warrants their doom.”
Lysistrata (Aristophanes)
Lysistrata by Aristophanes follows an Athenian woman named Lysistrata who, fed up with the ongoing Peloponnesian War, organizes a meeting with Greek women to propose a bold plan: they will withhold sex from their husbands until peace is agreed upon. Despite initial resistance, they all agree and take a solemn oath. The women also seize the Acropolis treasury to financially cripple the war, leading to clashes and comedic debates as they push for peace. Explicit sexual content.
“What matters that I was born a woman, if I can cure your misfortunes? I pay my share of tolls and taxes, by giving men to the State. But you, you miserable greybeards, you contribute nothing to the public charges; on the contrary, you have wasted the treasure of our forefathers, as it was called, the treasure amassed in the days of the Persian Wars. You pay nothing at all in return; and into the bargain you endanger our lives and liberties by your mistakes. Have you one word to say for yourselves?… Ah! don’t irritate me, you there, or I’ll lay my slipper across your jaws; and it’s pretty heavy.”
The Rape of Nanking (Iris Chang)
The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang chronicles the 1937 Nanking massacre, where the Imperial Japanese Army, over six weeks, killed between 260,000 and 400,000 Chinese noncombatants and violated between 20,000 and 80,000 women. Published in 1997, the book is lauded for highlighting Japanese wartime atrocities and has significantly impacted awareness and understanding of these events.
“As the Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel warned years ago, to forget a holocaust is to kill twice.”
I promessi sposi, The Betrothed (Manzoni)
The Betrothed follows Renzo and Lucia, a young couple in 1600s Lombardy, whose planned marriage is thwarted by the powerful Don Rodrigo. Forced to flee, they navigate numerous dangers, including kidnapping, political unrest, and the plague in Milan, ultimately overcoming these challenges to reunite and marry. Themes of social injustice and personal resilience are central to the narrative. The novel includes depictions of abduction and plague-related suffering.
“Love each other as fellow travelers, with the thought that one day you will have to leave each other, and the hope that you will meet again in eternity”
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William L. Shirer)
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer meticulously chronicles the origins, rise, and ultimate demise of Nazi Germany, drawing on the author’s first-hand experiences and extensive documentation, including German Foreign Office records and diaries of key figures. The narrative follows Adolf Hitler’s ascent, the Nazi Party’s consolidation of power, their aggressive expansion and war efforts, the Holocaust, and concludes with the fall of the Reich and the Nuremberg Trials.
“No class or group or party in Germany could escape its share of responsibility for the abandonment of the democratic Republic and the advent of Adolf Hitler.”
Yorkshire Mystery Series, J.R. Ellis (12 volumes)
Yorkshire Murder Mysteries is a British crime fiction/cozy police procedural series written by J. R. Ellis. The books are known for combining traditional detective work with intriguing puzzles, strong sense of place, and character-driven storytelling. The mysteries often give readers dual puzzles: who committed the crime, and how it was done — a nod to classic locked-room and Golden Age detective traditions.
“We should never judge, really; we never know the full circumstances and it’s easy to become self-righteous. We should always think: ‘There but for the grace of God’” (The Body in the Dales)
Finding Me (Viola Davis)
Finding Me chronicles her journey from growing up in poverty in Rhode Island, facing racial discrimination and family challenges, to becoming a globally renowned and award-winning actor. Through perseverance, academic and artistic achievements, and the support of loved ones, she overcomes immense personal and professional obstacles while embracing her identity and heritage.
“Forgiveness is giving up all hope of a different past.”
Religio Medici (Thomas Browne)
Religio Medici by Sir Thomas Browne, translated as “The Religion of a Doctor,” is a spiritual memoir showcasing Browne’s musings on scientific and religious topics, emphasizing the separation of science and religion, and highlighting the moral and compassionate responsibilities of physicians. The book’s themes include religious tolerance, deep Protestant faith, and the integration of scientific methods with moral service.
“The finger of God hath left an inscription upon all his works, not graphical or composed of letters, but of their several forms, constitutions, parts and operations, which, aptly joined together, do make one word that doth express their natures.”
The False Clue of the Twisted Red Herring’s Footprint (Fitzsimmons)
In the tenth entry of the Anty Boisjoly Mysteries, the charmingly irreverent sleuth Anty Boisjoly faces his most confounding conundrum yet: a locked-room murder where his long-time friendly rival, Inspector Wittersham, becomes the only viable suspect. Anty, driven by loyalty and an abiding belief in his rival’s innocence, embarks on a whimsical, twist-laden investigation. What begins as a seemingly straightforward rescue mission descends into a labyrinth of misdirection, subterfuge, and ludicrous clues, including: Eccentric witnesses and suspects, Family secrets rooted in medieval lore, Hidden treasures and bizarre historical puzzles, A loyal goat whose loyalties are, at best, questionable, Anty’s judgmental mum and wool-clad valet offering both help and comic relief.
“He withdrew his pipe and pouch with the casual ease of a man who carefully practices casual ease before a mirror every morning.”
“You regard it as among your duties as personal secretary to Lord Bunce to document the movements of his goat?” “You needn’t make it sound so absurd.” “No, you’re right, I don’t,” I agreed. “It rather stands on its own in that regard.”
Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane (Andrew Graham-Dixon)
Andrew Graham-Dixon’s Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane is a narrative biography that treats Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610) as both revolutionary painter and volatile man—tracking how his radical realism, theatrical light, and sympathy for ordinary bodies emerged from (and collided with) the violence, honor-culture, and religious pressures of Counter-Reformation Italy. Graham-Dixon leans hard on archival traces—especially police reports, depositions, and court records—to reconstruct a life that often appears in “flashes” rather than a steady autobiographical voice.
“Caravaggio’s images freeze time but also seem to hover on the brink of their own disappearance. Faces are brightly illuminated. Details emerge from darkness with such uncanny clarity that they might be hallucinations. Yet always the shadows encroach, the pools of blackness that threaten to obliterate all. Looking at his pictures is like looking at the world by flashes of lightning.”
Also Starred*
No Country for Old Men (Cormac McCarthy)
Tom Lake (Ann Patchett)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
Rereads
Letter from a Birmingham Jail (Martin Luther King)
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly”.
Lying Awake (Mark Salzman)
“In the beginning we all feel a bit like imposters in our capes and veils and being called ‘sister’. But don’t worry about it — just act like you think a nun should when you’re not sure what to do, and you’ll find that through grace and love you become one.”
Out of the Silent Planet (C. S. Lewis)
“A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered. When you and I met, the meeting was over very shortly, it was nothing. Now it is growing something as we remember it, what will it be when I remember it as I lie down to die, what it makes in me all my days till then – that is the real meeting.”
Perelandra (C. S. Lewis)
“The world is so much larger than I thought. I thought we went along paths–but it seems there are no paths. The going itself is the path.”
That Hideous Strength (C. S. Lewis)
“There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there’s never more than one.”
Traitor’s Purse (Margaret Allingham)
“His mistaken belief in his own superiority cut him off from reality as completely as if he were living in a colored glass jar.”
Many Dimensions (Charles Williams)
“For as you cannot know any study but by learning it, or gain any virtue but by practicing it, so you cannot be anything but by becoming it. And that sounds obvious enough, doesn’t it? And yet… by becoming one thing a man ceases to be what he was, and no one but he can tell how tragic that change may be.”
The Place of the Lion (Charles Williams)
“No mind was so good that it did not need another mind to counter and equal it, and to save it from conceit and blindness and bigotry and folly,”
The Greater Trumps (Charles Williams)
It’s said that the shuffling of the cards is the earth, and the pattering of the cards is the rain, and the beating of the cards is the wind, and the pointing of the cards is the fire. That’s of the four suits. But the Greater Trumps, it’s said, are the meaning of all process and the measure of the everlasting dance.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (John Le Carré)
“Don’t you think it’s time to recognize that there is as little worth on your side as there is on mine?”
The Honourable Schoolboy (John Le Carré)
“What else has a journalist to do these days, after all, but report life’s miseries?”
Smiley’s People (John Le Carré)
“You just happened to put your hand to your face and find it damp and you wondered what the hell Christ bothered to die for, if He ever died at all.”
The Hobbit (J. R. R. Tolkien)
“It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.”
The Fellowship of the Ring (J. R. R. Tolkien)
“So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you”.
The Two Towers (J. R. R. Tolkien)
“I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”
The Lord of the Rings (J. R. R. Tolkien)
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
Sherlock Holmes Complete (Arthur Conan Doyle)
“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”
The Assault (Harry Mulisch)
“Hate is the darkness, that’s no good. And yet we’ve got to hate Fascists, and that’s considered perfectly all right. How is that possible? It’s because we hate them in the name of the light, I guess, whereas they hate only in the name of darkness. We hate hate itself, and for this reason our hate is better than theirs. But that’s why it’s more difficult for us. For them everything is very simple, but for us it’s more complicated. We’ve got to become a little bit like them in order to fight them so we become a little bit unlike ourselves. But they don’t have that problem; they can do away with us without any qualms.”
Body and Soul (Frank Conroy)
“What you are looking for is authentication… Forget about authentication. When it comes to writing music, all you can do is sign on for a way of life, and do the work. Do the work for its own sake.”
Dream Days (Kenneth Graham)
“Truly wise men called on each element alike to minister to their joy, and while the touch of sun-bathed air, the fragrance of garden soil, the ductible qualities of mud, and the spark-whirling rapture of playing with fire, had each their special charm, they did not overlook the bliss of getting their feet wet.
The Plague (Albert Camus)
“I have no idea what’s awaiting me, or what will happen when this all ends. For the moment I know this: there are sick people and they need curing.”
Silence (Shusaku Endo)
“It was to be trampled on by men that I was born into this world. It was to share men’s pain that I carried my cross”.
War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy)
“We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.”
Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
“There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to”.