Books of May

Written by the author of The Emperor of All Maladies, a book about cancer, this book is about the history of our knowledge of genes, beginning with Mendel's pea plants and continuing through the successful mapping of the human genome.  It's very long, but it reads like an adventure story and is well worth the reader's time.

Not long after the publication of her successful book, Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg's husband died suddenly.  She said, with no more Option A, she was left with Option B, and her book takes us through her grieving process.  As  a long-time widow, I was interested in adding this to my collection of how-to-survive-widowhood books.  It was interesting but it didn't tell me much I didn't already know.  Okay for a new widow but not so much for someone like me, who's been around the block.