Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

A stunning novel about family secrets, hailed nationwide as a masterpiece. Ram Karan, a corrupt official in the New Delhi school system, lives in one of the city's slums with his widowed daughter and his little granddaughter. Bumbling, sad, ironic, Ram is also a man corroded by a terrible secret. With the assassination of the politician Rajiv Gandhi, Ram is plunged into a series of escalating and possibly... (more)

The Beans of Egypt, Maine

by Carolyn Chute

The Beans of Egypt, Maine introduced the world to the notorious, unforgettable Bean clan of small town Egypt, Maine—from wild man Reuben, an alcoholic who can’t seem to keep himself out of jail; to his cousins, the perpetually pregnant Roberta, and Beal, a man gentle by temperament but violent in defeat who marries his pious neighbor, Earlene Pomerleau before poverty kills him. Through her story of the Beans’s... (more)

The Assassination of Lumumba

by Ludo de Witte

Patrice Lumumba, first prime minister of the Republic of Congo and a pioneer of African unity, was murdered on 17 January 1961. Lumumba was at the center of the country's popular defiance towards the relentless exploitation of its Belgian colonizer. When independence was finally won in June 1960, his unscheduled speech at the official ceremonies in Kinshasa, which described Belgian rule as 'a humiliating slavery... (more)

Sick to Death: A Manipulative Surgeon and a Healthy System in Crisis-a Disaster Waiting to Happen

Sick to Death: A Manipulative Surgeon and a Healthy System in Crisis-a Disaster Waiting to Happen

by Hedley Thomas

Dr. Jayant Patel, better known as “Doctor Death,” shocked a nation when the truth came to light that he may have killed as many as 87 people under his care. This true-life account told by the journalist who broke the story details the horrifying actions of this deviant doctor whose patients suffered serious infections, internal bleeding from nicked arteries, and the mutilation of healthy organs. Banned from... (more)

Mussolini

by Pierre Milza

Text: French

Your Government Failed You: Breaking the Cycle of National Security Disasters

Your Government Failed You: Breaking the Cycle of National Security Disasters

by Richard A. Clarke

Richard Clarke's dramatic statement to the grieving families during the 9/11 Commission hearings touched a raw nerve across America. Not only had our government failed to prevent the 2001 terrorist attacks, but it has proven itself, time and again, incapable of handling the majority of our most crucial national security issues, from Iraq to Katrina and beyond. This is not just a temporary failure of our current... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: incompetence

An Obedient Father

by Akhil Sharma