11/17/2019

Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu by Laurence Bergreen

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

First novel since the Week of Whimpering Women and it was just the thing. This was an accident. I picked it up on Saturday morning and, boom!, it was done. I admire EG’s versatility as a writer. Aside from her tone and writing style, her books are nothing alike.

This week I got a last minute ticket to a sold out book talk held at the New York Historical Society, hosted by General David Petraeus and (my new favorite author) David L. Roll. They offered lots of extra details and many (though not nearly enough) book recommendations. I came away with American Caesar, Eisenhower in War and Peace, and Roll’s other book, The Hopkins Touch. Roll mentioned his belief that General Marshall did not actually want command of Operation Overlord, which threw General Petraeus into a line of questioning that we didn’t get to the end of.