Sandra's Picks

Elizabeth Strouts's stories and novels are always strong with deep detail and plot.  The Burgess Boys is no exception as this is a story of a dysfunctional family and the ethnic differences in a small Maine town that is intertwined with the drama of a very bad juvenile prank. Both love and hatred within the family and community are what help begin to heal wounds that could occur in any fmily or town.

Thomas Jefferson a foodie?  More than a century before Julia Child taught us the art and science of French cooking, Thomas Jefferson took his slave, James Hemings, to Paris to be trained by the finest Paris chefs in haute cuisine.  He came back with new foods and great meal ideas which would  be served at Monticello and later the White House, along with fine wine that he brought from the grand cru vineyards he toured.  This is a book for all history  buffs!

I can see a party game based on this book:  I'll tell you about a specific Paris/New York image, and you tell me the New York/Paris equivalent.  This is a book for lovers of one or both of these cities that weaves a series of comparisons and connections for travelers.  You'll want to visit each again.

Chris Bohjalian's account of the gruesome killing of over a million people in the Armenian genocide weaves between past and present as he tells of this little known event in two stories. One is of an American who goes to Syria in 1915 for a philanthropic expedition. Another is how her descendant looks for the truth of what her grandparents experienced. Readers will be engrossed with the descriptions of atrocities that are brought to life yet are told with compassion and grace.

Add one part 19th century French art history (pictures included), another part Parisian culture, and mix  in a whole lot of humor.  All of this  adds up to a tale of the powers of the intoxicating color blue that begins on the night that Vincent Van Gogh committed suicide.  Or did he?