Yet another book where I liked the premise, but not so much the execution. The backbone of the story describes Dr. Hanna Heath's studies of a rare illuminated haggadah that has surfaced in Sarajevo. I did not like Heath at all, so those parts of the story left me cold, despite the delicious descriptions of the haggadah itself. 
 Overall, I liked the historical flashbacks, but one of them in particular had a pretty high squick factor. I found myself flipping through the pages to get the gist of it and calling it done. 
 Perhaps the best thing was learning that this was based on a real book referred to as the Sarajevo Haggadah. I've since read about the history of that book's survival to the present day (without the aid of Brooks' annoying protagonist). 
 Oddly enough, I came away with a similar feeling after the other Brooks book I read a few years ago, Year of Wonders. (Maybe historical fiction just isn't my thing?) I liked the protagonist (and story) better than People of the Book, but in the end was still more fascinated by the fact that it was based on a real town that made the difficult decision to quarantine themselves when they discovered the plague had arrived to them. Of the two books, I preferred Year of Wonders, but naturally, your mileage may vary.