Robert B. Parker’s Old Black Magic, by Ace Atkins

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This week I was feeling like a fun mystery story, and Robert B. Parker’s Old Black Magic fit the bill perfectly! The writer Ace Atkins has taken over writing the series, and has breathed new life into it. This book tells a fictionalized story of the robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardner art museum. This is one of the most famous art robberies, and the unsolved case is still a big mystery. In this fictionalized world,  Spenser of course, can help to find the lost art and solve the 20 year old mystery. Nobody knows the thugs and mobsters of Boston the way Spenser does, so it’s fun to see him take on a mystery that resonates with the real world!

From Amazon:
“The heist was legendary, still talked about twenty years after the priceless paintings disappeared from one of Boston’s premier art museums. Most thought the art was lost forever, buried deep, sold off overseas, or, worse, destroyed as incriminating evidence. But when paint chips from the most valuable piece stolen, Gentlemen in Black by a Spanish master, arrives at the desk of a Boston journalist, the museum finds hope and enlists Spenser’s help.

Soon the cold art case thrusts Spenser into the shady world of black market art dealers, aged Mafia bosses, and old vendettas. A five-million-dollar-reward by the museum’s top benefactor, an aged, unlikable Boston socialite, sets Spenser and pals Vinnie Morris and Hawk onto a trail of hidden secrets, jailhouse confessions, and decades-old murders.

Set against the high-society art scene and the low-life back alleys of Boston, this is classic Spenser doing what he does best.”

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

We love to read books, and to talk about books. Check out our entire series here! Need more book chatting and suggestions in your life? Our book group podcast Reading with Libraries resumes this Thursday! Listen to the previous season here.

When it starts to feel like summer, a lighthearted romance that takes place in Paris is always a good idea! I first heard about this book during our book group podcast episode about the genre of Romance, and have since noticed it on numerous lists of “feel-good” books. So far it is definitely an enjoyable story, perfect to read while relaxing in your hammock!

From Goodreads: “Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris–until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all…including a serious girlfriend.

But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?”

Noir, by Christopher Moore

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If you have read any Christopher Moore, you know you are in for a funny adventure when you get started! Some are laugh-out-loud funny, some are more subdued but entertaining and a fun story. This is the second type. Many of Moore’s stories are set in San Francisco, and this one is set back in 1947. WWII is recently over, and the characters are coping with the ramifications. Add in some snappy dialog, a lost snake, a mysterious narrator, a horrible kid, and hey – what’s going on with that mysterious flying object over in Roswell, New Mexico? It all ties together for Sammy and his best girl: the Cheese!

From Amazon:

“The absurdly outrageous, sarcastically satiric, and always entertaining New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore returns in finest madcap form with this zany noir set on the mean streets of post-World War II San Francisco, and featuring a diverse cast of characters, including a hapless bartender; his Chinese sidekick; a doll with sharp angles and dangerous curves; a tight-lipped Air Force general; a wisecracking waif; Petey, a black mamba; and many more.

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

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Magical realism is such an intriguing genre! This book incorporates magical realism into the story of a traditional Mexican family, particularly the youngest daughter Tita. Tita can’t marry the man she loves because of the custom that says as the youngest daughter she must stay home to care for her mother. Tita has amazing cooking skills and the book includes several recipes as well as detailed descriptions of how the food is prepared. So be warned, your stomach may start growling while reading!

From Goodreads:
“Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico became a best-selling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit.

A sumptuous feast of a novel, it relates the bizarre history of the all-female De La Garza family. Tita, the youngest daughter of the house, has been forbidden to marry, condemned by Mexican tradition to look after her mother until she dies. But Tita falls in love with Pedro, and he is seduced by the magical food she cooks. In desperation, Pedro marries her sister Rosaura so that he can stay close to her, so that Tita and Pedro are forced to circle each other in unconsummated passion. Only a freakish chain of tragedies, bad luck and fate finally reunite them against all the odds. “

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

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I don’t read a lot of nonfiction, so this book is honestly not one that I’d normally pick out, but I’m trying to widen the scope of the genres that I read and this book had some great reviews on Goodreads. Plus, the author grew up in small town Minnesota! It’s fun to read about her childhood helping her father in his lab, and walking home all bundled up against the winter weather. I also nodded with understanding when she described a particularly nasty May snowstorm! I’m looking forward to learning more about the world of science and the travels that the author takes through the course of her work.

From Goodreads: “Lab Girl is a book about work, love, and the mountains that can be moved when those two things come together. It is told through Jahren’s stories: about her childhood in rural Minnesota with an uncompromising mother and a father who encouraged hours of play in his classroom’s labs; about how she found a sanctuary in science, and learned to perform lab work done “with both the heart and the hands”; and about the inevitable disappointments, but also the triumphs and exhilarating discoveries, of scientific work.

Yet at the core of this book is the story of a relationship Jahren forged with a brilliant, wounded man named Bill, who becomes her lab partner and best friend. Their sometimes rogue adventures in science take them from the Midwest across the United States and back again, over the Atlantic to the ever-light skies of the North Pole and to tropical Hawaii, where she and her lab currently make their home. ”