SPRING READS - posted 4.4.26

This is a short list of some very special books I'm happy to share with you. It's a wonderful time of year, Spring, to get lost in some lovely writing and stories. I look forward to hearing your reactions to these books!

Bread of Angels - Patti Smith

If you read Patti Smith's 2010 memoir "Just Kids," you'll want to read her latest memoir, which she referred to as a continuation of "Just Kids" in her March 2026 book tour appearance at Ann Arbor's Michigan Theater. Including her books of poetry, screenplays, photography and essays, "Bread of Angels," her 20th published book, is an intimately deep dive into her life, starting with her childhood. She reveals much about her inner self, the deep thoughts and curiosity of the world around her, as well as the close relationship she's had with her siblings and parents. We learn that her discovery of the poet Rimbaud at an early age has influenced her writing and intellectual pursuits throughout her life. Her move to NYC in 1967 at age 20 was life-changing. She met Robert Mapplethorpe that year, becoming lovers and life-long best friends, Smith calling him "the artist of her life." The two became immersed in New York's counter-culture scene, leading them to meet the artists and musicians whose friendships directed them both to fame and fortune. One isn't born a famous musician and writer. Her memoir is an eye-opener to Patti Smith's quick road to becoming the revered songwriter, performer and writer she is. Meeting Fred "Sonic" Smith was even more life-changing. He became the love of her life, the husband she'd never imagined, the father of the children she'd never imagined having in her life. She writes tenderly of the joy of their life in Detroit, before and after having their two children, and of their deep connection with each other in their short 15 years together before Fred's death in 1994. The tone of the book changes as she writes of the grief she becomes mired in after losing Fred and, shortly after, her brother's untimely sudden death. I appreciate Patti Smith's candor and honesty. She writes beautifully, proving that she's so much more than a punk rocker musician, though as that musician she's able to spread her message of fighting the fight against politicians, corruption and hatred, as she also sings of love, compassion and gratitude.

Bumblebee Season - Eileen Garvin

Eileen Garvin returns to Jake and Alice, the main characters from her debut novel "The Music of Bees," the tender story about beekeepers in Hood River, Oregon. This is a good time to honor the world of beekeeping, what with the non-stop demise of bees worldwide. Jake is now the 23-year old Jacob. He and Alice have become business partners of the highly successful Queen of G Honey Farm. Their story is not only a deep-dive into beekeeping and honey farming, it's also about the terror of undocumented Mexican farmworkers and the dichotomy between those who strive to protect our natural world and those who want to destroy it for their own self-serving desires. Kudos to Garvin for yet again sharing her love of the natural world, her respect for the real Jacob's and Alice's beekeepers, and her page-turning writing skills. 

The Astral Library - Kate Quinn

This isn't the Kate Quinn I know. The Kate Quinn I know tells stories about real people - heroines - and turns their stories into page-turning scintillating historical fiction. But this Kate Quinn did something even better. In "Astral Library" she took other writers' stories and gave her readers the fantasy of their dreams: to live inside a book. To wear the clothing, talk the talk, meet the good guys and the bad guys  and experience the vision authors conjure from their minds to enter our minds and imaginations. Wrote Kate Quinn: "Have you ever wanted to live inside a book?" Absolutely! "Astral Library" is a wonderful fantasy of a book in which people at risk are saved by a fantasy library that hides them in their favorite books. This was a joy to read.

The Paris Express - Emma Donoghue

A terrific portrait of 19th century class bias - both the upper echelon and the underprivileged - who share a days-long packed train ride through France into Paris. Inspired by an 1895 train disaster at the Paris Montparnasse train station, author Emma Donoghue of the blockbuster "Room," created an engrossing historical novel inspired by photographs and records of the bizarre train wreck. She built the story around an impoverished, angry, and anarchistic young French woman who boards the train with the intention of blowing it up as it fills up with members of Parliament who board at different stations. The reader is left to their imagination as to when . . . and if . . . she sets off the bomb she hides in her lunch bucket.

The Berry Pickers - Amanda Peters

As was the tradition of Indigenous workers from Nova Scotia, a Mi'kmaq family spends every summer picking blueberries in Maine. After a day of picking fruit in 1962, the family's four-year-old daughter Ruthie goes missing, subjecting a lifelong sense of guilt on her six-year-old brother Joe who was responsible for watching his sister. The family never gives up in their search for Ruthie, believing she is alive somewhere. Even 50 years after her disappearance, they believe they will find her. The story transitions to Norma, a young girl in Maine who grows up with a sense that her affluent parents aren't completely honest with her. As a child, Norma has inexplicable recurring dreams about a life elsewhere, with a different family . . . which her overbearing mother and distant father refuse to discuss with her. This is a story about the dichotomy in how families are raised and the lengths people will go to keep a family's love alive . . . or not.