The Black Angels

The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis

By Maria Smilios

This was so interesting. It tells the history of tuberculosis in the first half of the 20th century by following the lives of a few of the nurses, some of the patients, and a few scientists and doctors who were involved in the search for cure. The focus is on Seaview hospital in Staten Island, the nurses who were recruited from the Jim Crow South, and the struggles to fight racism and hospital segregation in the north. [non-fiction; 428pp. including notes and index]

My Friends

By Fredrik Backman

A novel about 2 artists, a generation apart, one who is just starting her journey, and the other at the end of his. Their chance encounter serves as the beginning of a cross-country adventure young artist and the friend of the belated-artist, as they each remember their friends. [fiction; 436pp.]