Books | In the 10 best best books of November, humility changes lives

A thread of humility weaves through many of November’s 10 best books.

In fiction, U.S. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant examines his Civil War career and tries to make peace with his failures, with the help of his wife.

Two American women look back on their years in South Vietnam, asking whether their behavior toward the Vietnamese people was problematic. 

A single, 20-something Londoner is catapulted into the future and learns to curb her impatience to get to the “good part” of her life. 

Reckoning with the mistakes of the past allows these characters to set a more authentic course for the future.  

And in nonfiction this month, a determined wildlife officer goes undercover to capture alligator poachers, and an author examines the enduring lore and legends of the Vikings. 

1 Absolution, by Alice McDermott

Alice McDermott delivers a powerful novel of American wives stationed in Saigon, South Vietnam, with their husbands in 1963, shortly before the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War. Nearly 60 years later, two of the women try to sort out what happened and whether they did the right thing.

2 Above the Salt, by Katherine Vaz

Katherine Vaz’s satisfying multigenerational saga follows Portuguese immigrant John Alves and his lifelong soulmate, plantswoman
Mary Freitas, from 1840 Madeira through late 1910s America. Filled with poetic flights and freewheeling prose, the tale packs in thwarted love, the tug of family, the waste of war, and the satisfactions of art. 

3 The General and Julia, by Jon Clinch

The general at the helm of Jon Clinch’s affecting novel is none other than Ulysses S. Grant; Julia is the practical, perceptive young woman he marries. As the story shifts between Grant’s arduous final days penning his memoirs and scenes from his life as war hero and president, a portrait emerges of realization, regret, and newfound humility.