Downtown & Business Staff Picks

Nearing the end of his life, Enzo, a dog with a philosopher's soul, tries to bring a family together who has been pulled apart by a 3-year custody battle between daughter Zoe's maternal grandparents & her father Denny, a race car driver. A compassionate read with a heart-tugging storyline told from a different point of view.

Learn the intriguing stories of the men in charge of the four principal central banks of the world after World War I, Montagu Norman of the Bank of England, Émile Moreau of the Banque de France, Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank in Germany, and Benjamin Strong of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. They attempted to reconstruct international finance after World War I and return to the gold standard. In the mid-1920s, they appeared to succeed in stabilizing the world's currencies, aiding the flow of capital, and creating economic growth. This fascinating book includes a discussion of economist John Maynard Keynes' dissenting views.

Set during the early years of the civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi, college graduate Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan becomes intrigued by the plight of black maids who work in white families homes and embarks on a risky writing project of stories that bring the maids' abuse, mistreatment and heartbreaking experiences to light. Authenic and compassionate, this is a story of "social awakening as seen from both sides of the racial divide" in the South.

A haunting tale that tells the story of two generations of twin sisters, their struggles for independence, and the secrets that have shaped their lives. The sisters Valentina and Julia have inherited their estranged Aunt's London flat with the conditions that they live there for a year before selling and that their parents never step inside. The year culminates in some unexpected ways, revealing that the best laid plans rarely turn out as imagined.

Shortly after midnight on March 18, 1990, two men broke into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and stole priceless masterworks by Vermeer, Rembrandt and Degas. The author, a crime writer, inherited the case files from a leading fine arts claims adjuster, Harold Smith, upon his death. Hundreds of interviews with suspects linked to the Boston mob, the FBI and the Irish Republican Party have offered tantalizing clues but little solid evidence. Although the Gardner Museum is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to the safe return of the paintings, the greatest art theft in history remains unsolved.