The next new book this week is an interesting one: The Repurposed Library: 33 Craft Projects That Give Old Books New Life. I love the book sculptures and altered books you find online, and I always have a few books sitting around that I didn’t love and might make great art projects. I thought this might be fun to tackle. We… Read more

What a way to start the week! My package from Amazon showed up (and that’s a whole ‘nother story – they get a rare “F” in customer service on this one) and I can’t wait to start this one: I’ll Never Write My Memoirs by Grace Jones Legendary influential performer Grace Jones offers a revealing account of her spectacular career and… Read more

More great new books this week! First up, Killers by Howie Carr: Whitey Bulger is gone from Boston, but Bench McCarthy is here to take his place. Bench McCarthy is a thug’s thug, a hitman, an underworld jack-of-all-trades running his own mob out of Winter Hill in Somerville while simultaneously handling “wet work” for Sally Curto, a half-demented, totally obscene… Read more

I’ve been busy and I’ve gotten behind schedule, but I’ve got a stack of new books to tell you about, as well as some things I’ve finished that I want to review. But let’s start out with an easy one –  can’t wait to get this one on the TBR list! Menagerieby Rachel Vincent: When Delilah Marlow visits a famous… Read more

This came in while I was out of town and I can’t wait to start on this one: All by Adriana Trigiani Adriana Trigiani, the New York Times bestselling author of the blockbuster epic The Shoemaker’s Wife, returns with her biggest and boldest novel yet, a hypnotic tale based on a true story and filled with her signature elements: family ties,… Read more

More new books – this time, a legal thriller. (Love those!) From Kevin Egan, The Missing Piece: The Salvus Treasure is a fabulous hoard of ancient Roman silver, worth a total of seventy million dollars. Uncovered decades ago under disputed circumstances, the treasure has been claimed by various parties, some of whom will stop at nothing to secure full ownership of… Read more

This one comes from my local library. I heard a bit about it on the radio and was so intrigued I ran right to my computer and requested it: My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family’s Nazi Past by Jennifer Teege: When Jennifer Teege, a German-Nigerian woman, happened to pluck a library book from the shelf,… Read more

This week in New on the Shelves, I’ve got the final installment in Gillian Philip’s Rebel Angel series, Icefall: Death stalks Seth MacGregor’s clan in their otherworld exile. Kate NicNiven is close to ultimate victory, and she is determined that nothing will keep her from it. Not even the thing that took her soul: the horror that lurks in the sea caves. But… Read more

And the latest from my mailbag, The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach by Pam Jenoff: Young Adelia Montforte flees fascist Italy for America, where she is whisked away to the shore by her well-meaning aunt and uncle. Here, she meets and falls for Charlie Connally, the eldest of the four Irish-Catholic boys next door. But all hopes for a future together… Read more

Let’s start the week with a new book! From the weekend’s mail bag, I’ve got All That Followed by Gabriel Urza: A psychologically twisting novel about a politically-charged act of violence that echoes through a small Spanish town; a dazzling debut in the tradition of Daniel Alarcón and Mohsin Hamid It’s 2004 in Muriga, a quiet town in Spain’s northern Basque… Read more