Gentleman from Moscow by Amor Towles

In 1922, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is placed under house arrest for being a member of the former aristocracy and authoring a "dangerous" poem.  His "house" is the Metropol Hotel - a grand world unto its own directly across the street from the Kremlin.  Banned from his elegant suite, he continues life in the servants quarters in the hotels upper floor.  But Rostov is the least isolated person imaginable.  Observant, thoughtful, wise in so many ways, and friends to the hotel staff as well to the Metropol's visitors of importance - he is the person you would most want to share a table with in the fine dining rooms of the Metropol or share a chat in the second chair of his "suite" both of which can be completely imagined thanks to the rich detail provided by Towles.  With humor and frequent philosophical insights - reading this book is chance to ponder both history and life with one of the most engaging of gentlemen.  On my list of favorites.

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

As a young girl, Li-Yan gathered tea with her family in the hill country of China just north of what was then Burma.  As members of the Akha minority, they were both isolated from and victims of the changes in 20th century China.  The Akha people are ruled by the stern hand of tradition - traditions that force Ahka out of her village and on a long journey to the cities of China and eventually to the United States in search of a daughter she thought might have been lost forever.  As much as this is Li-Yan's story it is also about the tea - ancient tea cakes that carry the history of the owner as well as the finest flavor in the leaves.  There may be a few too many coincidences to make this completely believable but it reads like a fascinating multi-layered family history of a part of China we rarely hear about.

Hamilton by Ron Chernow

This is a chunk of a book but since I was getting a chance to see the amazing Broadway version of this history, I vowed to read it first.  I figured I was going to be schooled but I was not prepared to be both enlightened and disturbed by our early history and to see the weaknesses in the early thinking of the founding fathers so eerily played out today. Worth every minute and every page.