Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory

by Ben Macintyre

In February of 1943, a cast of colorful oddballs developed and carried out one of the most elaborate deceptions of WWII, a plan to disguise the impending Allied invasion of Sicily, framed around the body of a dead man. In OPERATION MINCEMEAT: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre, a deceased man who would wash up on the Spanish coast, was a complete fraud, but the lies that he would carry from room 13 of the British Admiralty all the way to Hitler's desk would help win the war.

House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris & Wretched Excess on Wall Street

by William Cohan

Order HOUSE OF CARDS: A Tale of Hubris & Wretched Excess on Wall Street by William Cohan, and mark it all up with your questions. Literary Matters is thrilled that William Cohan will be with us on Thursday evening, October 7th, for a discussion and a Q and A about this blistering narrative account of the negligence and greed that pushed all of Wall Street into chaos and the country into a financial crisis. Better yet- buy the book and a ticket to the event!

At the beginning of March 2008, the monetary fabric of Bear Stearns, one of the world's oldest and largest investment banks, began unraveling. After ten days, the bank no longer existed, its assets sold under duress to rival JPMorgan Chase. The effects would be felt nationwide, as the country suddenly found itself in the grip of the worst financial mess since the Great Depression. William Cohan exposes the corporate arrogance, power struggles, and deadly combination of greed and inattention, which led to the collapse of not only Bear Stearns but the very foundations of Wall Street.

The Good Son

by Michael Gruber

In THE GOOD SON, his superb seventh novel, bestseller Michael Gruber (FORGERY OF VENUS) explores America's political involvement in South Asia and the bloody religious and ethnic fanaticism associated with the region. Sonia Laghari, a Pakistani-American writer and psychologist, sets up a conference on peace in Kashmir, the most terrorist-infested place on earth, only to have her and her small group of pacifists abducted and held captive by terrorists, who may or may not be manufacturing nuclear weapons. All but doomed to a public beheading, Sonia uses her familiarity with Islamic doctrine as well as her knowledge of Jungian psychology in an attempt to enlighten her deeply conflicted captors. Though the numerous bombshells at the end may strain credulity, the brilliant character development and labyrinthine plot line, not to mention the absorbing history of modern jihadism and the US war on terrorism, make this a provocative thriller that readers won't soon forget.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

by Rebecca Skloot

The woman who provided this book its title, THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS by Rebecca Skloot, was a poor and largely illiterate Virginia tobacco farmer, the great, great granddaughter of slaves. Born in 1920, she died from aggressive cervical cancer at 31, leaving behind five children. No obituaries of Mrs. Lacks appeared in newspapers; she was buried in an unmarked grave.

To scientists, however, Henrietta Lacks almost immediately became known simply as He-La, from the first two letters of her names. Cells from Mrs. Lacks's cancerous cervix, taken without her knowledge, were the first to grow in culture, becoming "immortal" and changing the face of modern medicine. Skloot's narrative is an engrossing read that rightfully raises questions about disparity in treatment because of race and class, invasion of privacy, who owns our body parts after they're removed from our bodies, and how patenting cells affects medical research. Laura Miller in Salon.com said that this book is "a heroic work of cultural and medical journalism. With it, Skloot reminds doctors, patients, and outside observers that however advanced the technology and esoteric the science, the material they work with is humanity, and every piece of it is precious."

Living on the Black

by John Feinstein

If your father can't get enough about sports facts, figures, and anecdotes, then wrap up LIVING ON THE BLACK for him! The title of John Feinstein's Living on the Black refers to the area on the outer edges of the strike zone where veteran pitchers whose fast ones have slowed to under 90 mph must consistently place the ball. The term also reflects the precarious situation that the New York Yankees' right-hander Mike Mussina and former New York Mets left-hander Tom Glavine were in at the start of the 2007 season.

Mussina and Glavine, then 38 and 41 respectively, were struggling to hold on to their jobs and keep batters off balance with a guile accumulated during a total of 36 years in the majors. Both men made it, but just barely; their personal milestones -- Glavine passed the 300 mark in total victories, and Mussina reached number 250 -- were overshadowed by their teams' dismal finishes.

For baseball loving Dads - and especially Yankee and Mets fans, this book will hold particular interest.

The Lost City of Z

by David Grann

In 1925, the legendary British explorer Percy Fawcett ventured into the Amazon jungle, in search of a fabled civilization. He never returned. Over the years countless perished trying to find evidence of his party and the place he called “The Lost City of Z.” In this masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, journalist David Grann interweaves the spellbinding stories of Fawcett’s quest for “Z” and his own journey into the deadly jungle, as he unravels the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century.