Book description
Only one hundred years ago, even in the world's wealthiest nations, children died in great numbers-of diarrhea, diphtheria and measles, of scarlet fever and meningitis. Culture was shaped by these deaths; diaries and letters recorded them, poets and writers wrote about and lamented them. Not even the high and mighty…
Why read it?
1 author picked A Good Time to Be Born as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I met Perri Klass several times back in the 1990s, and I was struck by how well she managed to be a mother to young children, a full-time pediatrician, and an author.
That connection inspired me to buy this book, but what started as a merely curious read soon turned into a gripping one. This is a solid work of historical scholarship, but Klass expertly turns the topic into a story that is variously shocking, moving, alarming, and uplifting—while deftly inserting occasional moments from her own experiences as a doctor.
I’m very far from being an expert on this topic,…
If you love A Good Time to Be Born...
These Blue Mountains
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
Want books like A Good Time to Be Born?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like A Good Time to Be Born.
Share your top 3 reads of 2025!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,340
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like A Good Time to Be Born, you might also like...
Foxfire in the Snow
It's a time of change, between magic and alchemy.
Born the heir of a master woodcutter in a queendom defined by guilds and matrilineal inheritance, nonbinary Sorin can’t quite seem to find their place. At seventeen, an opportunity to attend an alchemical guild fair and secure an apprenticeship with the…
The Main Gate
Dr. Elise Marquette has spent years burying the past—until the past refuses to stay buried.
Hired to join Earth’s first interstellar contact team, she hopes the vastness of space will finally offer distance from the ghosts of war and the wounds left by a mother who never let her be…
