GET THE PICTURE: A MIND-BENDING JOURNEY AMONG THE INSPIRED ARTISTS AND OBSESSIVE ART FIENDS WHO TAUGHT ME HOW TO SEE by Bianca Bosker

I consumed Cork Dork, Bianca Bosker’s first book, a wine-fueled adventure among the obsessive sommeliers, big bottle hunters and rogue scientists who taught her how to live for taste. She made sipping and reading about wine fun and educational. Bosker is back with the same gorgeous writing, humor and obsessive research and deep dive into a subject, but this time she encases us in the art world. Bosker throws herself and by proxy the reader into the nerve center of art and the people who live for it. You’ll be introduced to gallerists, collectors, curators and artists and examine art through history, our culture and our hearts. I promise to never enter a gallery or look at a piece of art the same way again, and I’m sure you will agree. Get the picture!

Bianca Bosker will be joining us for the Nantucket Book Festival next month. Save the date: June 13-16, 2024

THE TITANIC SURVIVORS BOOK CLUB by Timothy Schaffert

I will read anything with Titanic in the title, but add in a tale about the life-changing power of books and you have one of my favorite novels of the spring! Yorick, an apprentice librarian for the White Star Line, spots his own name among the list of those lost at sea after the Titanic sinks. Luckily for Yorick, he missed the doomed voyage. However, this twist of fate leads him to own a bookshop in Paris where he meets a secret society of fellow survivors who form a book club together. This motley crew of memorable and lovable

characters (and voracious readers) discuss literature, grapple with their own brush with death, and reflect on love, chance and the transformative magic that inspires us all when we open a book. It’s the perfect selection for your own book clubs and reading groups this month.

GOOD MATERIAL by Dolly Alderton

This isn’t just good material, it’s great material! Say hello to Dolly Alderton, a popular British journalist for The Sunday Times. Her column “Dear Dolly” offers advice to people with personal problems, and her wisdom and experience shine brightly in her books. Her newest novel, Good Material, out earlier this year, has a simple premise: Andy and Jen were together, and now they are not. This premise reveals to us so much about relationships, love, life, friendship, family, really everything that makes us tick. If you have ever gone through a breakup, watched friends go through one or are just looking for a good read, you will want to pick up Good Material. I was laughing out loud at one page and holding back tears on the next.

EVERYONE ON THE TRAIN IS A SUSPECT by Benjamin Stevenson

It’s not a mystery that I love a good whodunit. I have been writing this column for almost a decade, and I always feature a mystery in

this spread. When I was younger, I devoured every Agatha Christie case. I would write all the suspects on a piece of paper and attempt

to guess the culprit before the big reveal. (Who am I kidding? I still do this.) Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect has everything I like in my mystery fiction: a locked-room murder that needs to be solved with multiple suspects, red herrings and detectives; an interactive narrator; and a twist ending! This novel also has one of the best setups I’ve read in a while. The victim and suspects are all writers traveling on a train for a Mystery Writers’ Society Festival. It’s Murder on the Orient Express meets Clue, where each character and the reader need to become their own best detective to solve the crime. It’s right up my alley and pure fun from beginning to end.

WANDERING STARS by Tommy Orange

Another favorite novel from earlier this year is Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange. Vividly written, the story traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which forced the assimilation of Native American children into white society, through to the shattering events in Orange’s award-winning debut, There, There. Characters in this stunning prequel discuss how stories do more than comfort: “They take you away and bring you back better made.” This is an important look back at America’s war on its own people and what it means to be descendants of a legacy of massacre and institutional violence. While not an easy read by any means, it’s poetically told (I felt like I was reading

JAMES by Percival Everett

I remember reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain in a high school literature class. It was the first classic I remember enjoying, and I personally reflected on its prose, themes and historical context. James by Percival Everett is a reimagining of Twain’s novel, one told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view. I loved spending time in the mind of James and seeing the story of Huck Finn in a different light. His personality, insights, humor and the unspeakable brutality he faces are evident in every turn of phrase and plot twist. Reminiscent of Gregory Maguire’s Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, another favorite retelling of mine, James has the potential to become a classic on its own, realizing everyone has a side and perspective to a story we think we know.

THE SUMMER WE STARTED OVER by Nancy Thayer

Spring has officially sprung when we see the new Nancy Thayer novel on bookshelves. Similar to the daffodils and cherry blossoms

that cover the island this month, Thayer brightens up our days with her whimsical and comforting Nantucket stories and characters. In The Summer We Started Over, we meet two sisters, Eddie and Barrett, who are no strangers to life’s challenges. They reconnect on Nantucket to help their eccentric father and face old resentments, family secrets, old loves and new professional and personal opportunities. This novel sets the scene for another Nantucket summer to remember and reminds us that there truly is no place like home and family, especially when that home is Nantucket Island.

You can meet Nancy Thayer at Mitchell’s Book Corner on Saturday, April 27, from 10 a.m. to noon to get your copy signed, or order an

autographed copy with exclusive extras while supplies last online at nantucketbookpartners.com.