Weekend picks for book lovers

What should you read this weekend? Paste BN's picks for book lovers include a journalist's compelling investigation into his father's early death, and two new Black History Month books for young readers.

After Visiting Friends by Michael Hainey; Scribner, 320 pp.; non-fiction

Do any of us really know who our parents are? Certainly not if one of them dies young.

That's Michael Hainey's story. His father, veteran Chicago newspaperman Bob Hainey, died on the street of an apparent heart attack in 1970 "after visiting friends." Add to that he was in a section of the city he had no reason to be. He was 36. His son was 6.

As years passed, Michael Hainey, also a journalist, became obsessed with his father's death. Too many unanswered questions. Too many things that didn't add up. Who were these "friends"?

So he heads out, notepad in hand, reporting on the biggest story of his life. Who was his father, really? How did he live? How did he die? Was he with anyone at the time? A woman perhaps? Or was he murdered?

Paste BN says *** ½ out of four. "Hainey's tale reads like a good mystery, the truth slowly emerging, one interview at a time…A well-reported story beautifully told."

The Vatican Diaries: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Power, Personalities and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church by John Thavis; Viking, 306 pp.; non-fiction

By sheer coincidence, Vatican Diaries arrives just over a week after Pope Benedict's shocking resignation announcement; journalist John Thavis offers an insider's look at what goes on behind those huge Vatican doors.

***. "Fascinating… (an) amazingly informative, and at times humorous, tour given by a true insider."

Schroder: A Novel by Amity Gaige; Twelve, 272 pp.; fiction

Gaige's third novel is inspired by the true story of Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, the German-born man who re-invented himself as "Clark Rockefeller" and kidnapped his own daughter.

Paste BN says *** ½. "Gaige has achieved a remarkable feat. How impressive to have created a protagonist who's brilliant, narcissistic, creepy and unhinged, yet somehow sympathetic."

I Have a Dream: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , illustrated by Kadir Nelson; Schwartz & Wade, 32 pp., for all ages; non-fiction

Illustrated through paintings of the scene at the Lincoln Memorial, Nelson captures Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic "I have a dream" speech about racial equality.

Paste BN says *** ½. "Majestic."

Unspoken: A Story From the Underground Railroad by Henry Cole; Scholastic, 38 pp., ages 4 and up; fiction

With simple but elegant drawings and not one word of dialogue, Henry Cole imagines a dramatic encounter during the Civil War between a young white girl on a Southern farm and a runaway slave.

Paste BN says *** ½. "Cole's drawings are as expressive as those of Brian Selznick (The Invention of Hugo Cabret)."

Contributing reviewers: Craig Wilson, Carmela Ciuraru and Bob Minzesheimer