We enjoyed reading these books on holiday. You might, too
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. This is the first book in a series featuring Easy Rawlins, an African-American private detective working in mid-century Los Angeles. Rawlins and his fearsome sidekick, Mouse, navigate America’s treacherous racial terrain with wit and grace.
Every book in the series is worth reading, but start with this one. Two ordinary Germans take it upon themselves to resist Hitler. A husband and wife begin writing postcards urging people to defy the Nazis, scattering them throughout Berlin, until a Gestapo detective hunts them down.
A historical page-turner that trades the banality of evil for the stubborn persistence of good. A spare, lean thriller, first published in 1970, about the workaday drudgery of the criminal underworld. Higgins was a prosecutor as well as a novelist, and he has an unfailing ear for dialogue.
The title is ironic: Coyle has no friends, only people to betray or be betrayed by. Slim and elegant, this atmospheric novel evokes the lost world of interwar Italy and its Jewish population. The narrator recounts his lifelong love affair with the wealthy and refined Finzi-Continis, and especially with Micòl, the daughter of the family, as fascism slowly begins to restrict their lives.
After a bombing at an art museum, a teenage boy makes an impulsive decision to steal a painting. In the years that follow, he has to deal with growing up, bereavement and protecting a priceless artwork. At almost 800 pages, this immersive novel is designed for long days by the pool.
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