Weekend picks for book lovers
What should you read this weekend? Paste BN's picks for the weekend include Dennis Lehane's new Mob novel, and two cute picture books for kids.
World Gone By by Dennis Lehane; William Morrow; 320 pp.; fiction
There's a deadly war fermenting in the post-bootlegger underworld of Tampa, a year after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Joe Coughlin is the 37-year-old "retired" gangster, now a partly legit businessman who, a decade earlier, stepped back from the life of violence when his wife was shot dead in a gangland ambush.
Now Joe's a widowed father of a bright 9-year-old son, Tomas. Joe's trying to follow a less violent path as the consigliere to Tampa's ruling Bartolo crime family. He is widely respected. He has acquired wealth, power, even a wonderfully frisky but risky mistress who makes him believe happy endings really are possible. But, most importantly, Joe has no enemies.
Then he hears someone has put a contract out on him.
That scenario ignites a bloody tale of mobster loyalties, betrayals, murder, and some sort of honor among killers, gangsters, smugglers, drug dealers, pimps and thieves. World Gone By is the final volume in a trilogy; Ben Affleck is set to direct and star in a film version of the second book, Live by Night.
Paste BN says ***1/2 out of four. "An exceptional read …Lehane writes convincingly, tensely, tersely, powerfully, about the fatal tensions of daily Mob life."
Yeti and the Bird; written and illustrated by Nadia Shireen; Atheneum Books, 32 pp., for ages 4-8
A giant white teardrop of a beast, Yeti is the loneliest monster around. Until, that is, a lost tropical bird drops in. It's a joy to witness pensive Yeti making a new friend, as is watching him learn that he belongs somewhere.
Paste BN says ****. "Kids who themselves feel lonely or worried will be glad to hug Yeti and the Bird to their chests."
Worst in Show; written by William Bee, illustrated by Kate Hindley; Candlewick, 40 pp., for ages 3-7
A televised competition is being held to name the world's best pet monster, and Albert is sure that his will fit the bill perfectly. His monster is an adorable presence on the page. But adorable is the worst thing for a monster to be in a competition with categories that include "Hairiest Warts" and "Most Parasites."
Paste BN says *** ½. "Full of witty treats that will make reading (and rereading, and rereading) a pleasure. Parents beware!"
Every Day I Fight by Stuart Scott with Larry Platt; foreword by Robin Roberts; Blue Rider Press, 320 pp.; non-fiction
A posthumous memoir by ESPN SportsCenter anchor Stuart Scott, who died in January at age 49 after a protracted battle with cancer.
Paste BN says ***½ out of four. Scott "makes you enjoy the ride, even at its rougher points."
A History of Loneliness by John Boyne; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 337 pp.; fiction
The author of the best-selling The Boy in the Striped Pajamas takes on the sexual-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church in Ireland in this new novel.
Paste BN says *** 1/2 stars. Boyne "sheds light, not heat, on the subject."
Contributing reviewers: Don Oldenburg, Eliot Schrefer, Gene Seymour, Kevin Nance