Welcome back to Get Rec’d! As a refresher, this is where I talk about book recommendations I’ve either given or received.
We have an eclectic mix this time with sci-fi Shakespearean retellings to short story collections to art theft!
Have you received any great book recs lately? Any books you want to put on our radar? Tell us in the comments!
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The Art Thief
If you like true crime, but with more of a heist vibe rather than serial killers, check this one out! I personally love learning about interesting art theft.
One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first century: the story of the world’s most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser.
In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, the best-selling author of The Stranger in the Woods brings us into Breitwieser’s strange world—unlike most thieves, he never stole for money, keeping all his treasures in a single room where he could admire them.
For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly eight years—in museums and cathedrals all over Europe—Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion.
In The Art Thief, Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser’s strange and fascinating world. Unlike most thieves, Breitwieser never stole for money. Instead, he displayed all his treasures in a pair of secret rooms where he could admire them to his heart’s content. Possessed of a remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to circumvent practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtaking number of audacious thefts. Yet these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict’s need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend’s pleas to stop—until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down.
This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.
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The Death I Gave Him
This is a trippy mix of queer Hamlet retelling in a sci-fi, locked room mystery package.
A lyrical, queer sci-fi retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a locked-room thriller
Hayden Lichfield’s life is ripped apart when he finds his father murdered in their lab, and the camera logs erased. The killer can only have been after one thing: the Sisyphus Formula the two of them developed together, which might one day reverse death itself. Hoping to lure the killer into the open, Hayden steals the research. In the process, he uncovers a recording his father made in the days before his death, and a dying wish: Avenge me…
With the lab on lockdown, Hayden is trapped with four other people—his uncle Charles, lab technician Gabriel Rasmussen, research intern Felicia Xia and their head of security, Felicia’s father Paul—one of whom must be the killer. His only sure ally is the lab’s resident artificial intelligence, Horatio, who has been his dear friend and companion since its creation. With his world collapsing, Hayden must navigate the building’s secrets, uncover his father’s lies, and push the boundaries of sanity in the pursuit of revenge.
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As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu
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Murder on the Red River
This is book one in a quasi-procedural mystery series, set in the 70s and starring an Indigenous woman helping solve crimes within her community. There are currently three books in the series.
One Book, One Minnesota Selection for Summer 2021
Introducing Cash Blackbear, a young Ojibwe woman whose visions and grit help solve a brutal murder in this award-winning debut.
1970s, Red River Valley between North Dakota and Minnesota: Renee “Cash” Blackbear is 19 years old and tough as nails. She lives in Fargo, North Dakota, where she drives truck for local farmers, drinks beer, plays pool, and helps solve criminal investigations through the power of her visions. She has one friend, Sheriff Wheaton, her guardian, who helped her out of the broken foster care system.One Saturday morning, Sheriff Wheaton is called to investigate a pile of rags in a field and finds the body of an Indian man. When Cash dreams about the dead man’s weathered house on the Red Lake Reservation, she knows that’s the place to start looking for answers. Together, Cash and Wheaton work to solve a murder that stretches across cultures in a rural community traumatized by racism, genocide, and oppression.
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As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Murder on the Red River by Marcie R. Rendon
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Tomb Sweeping
This is a collection of short stories on the theme of generation divides and how that comes up in things like technology, life experiences, etc. The author also focuses on these things through the lens of being Chinese American. I enjoyed Chang’s debut novel Days of Distraction (A little meandering but felt really thoughtful and nostalgic for 2010s era pop culture). Last I checked, this collection was on sale!
A playful and deeply affective short story collection about the histories, technologies, and generational divides that shape our relationships—from the award-winning writer of Days of Distraction
Compelling and perceptive, Tomb Sweeping probes the loyalties we hold: to relatives, to strangers, and to ourselves. In stories set across the US and Asia, Alexandra Chang immerses us in the lives of immigrant families, grocery store employees, expecting parents, and guileless lab assistants.
A woman known only to her neighbors as “the Asian recycling lady” collects bottles from the streets she calls home. A young college grad ponders the void left from a broken friendship. An unfulfilled housewife in Shanghai finds a secret outlet for her ambitions in an undercover gambling den. Two strangers become something more through the bond of mistaken identity.
These characters, adeptly attuned to the mystery of living, invite us to consider whether it is possible for anyone to entirely do right by another. Tomb Sweeping brims with remarkable skill and talent in every story, keeping a definitive pulse on loss, community, and what it means to feel fully alive.
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This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Tomb Sweeping by Alexandra Chang
“If you like true crime, but with more of a heist vibe rather than serial killers” – I don’t want to read about serial killers, which really limits me with mysteries of all kinds lately, so this sentence jumped out at me. Happily my library has it, and I’m really looking forward to finding out what exactly he wanted to steal for his own personal collection. Thank you for the recommendation.
LisaM I don’t want to read about serial killers either or authors whose victims are always female, so both your highlight, and the victim being male leapt out at me.
Haven’t read the book, but I followed the Art Thief story when it broke, and it’s fascinating.
Did anyone else snort laugh over The Sisyphus Project? Like yes, Sisyphus tried to end death, but it went so terribly wrong and he was so horribly punished that his name now means a crushingly futile endeavor. So of all the weirdly self-sabotaging hubristic name choices…which actually kinda tracks with Hamlet, at least the more modern anti-hero interpretations of him. But wow do I not want to spend a book with that dude. Idk if I can resist Polonius the security guard, which idea also made me laugh.
@LisaM: I read it in one sitting. It really does read like a heist caper.
The art is exquisite. No killers of any kind.