In this third installment of the books that are on The Globe Arts team's 2021 reading lists, we hear from art critic Kate Taylor and music critic Brad Wheeler.

Kate Taylor: I have just started One Madder Woman by B.C. writer Dede Crane, a fictionalized biography of the Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot. Perhaps because she is known for such luminescent domestic scenes, I had sort of assumed Morisot had a light or gentle personality ... not at all. High drama in artistic circles in fin de siècle Paris.

Brad Wheeler: I’m currently reading The Mobster’s Lament, the third installment in Ray Celestin’s City Blues Quartet of atmospheric historical crime novels that plot the intertwined history of jazz and organized crime through six decades in the 20th century. The latest is set in New York in the 1940s. Previous books in the series (which I plan to read next) live in the New Orleans of the 1910s (The Axeman’s Jazz) and the Chicago of the 1920s (Dead Man’s Blues). By the time I finish them, perhaps author Celestin will have finished the finale, set in 1960s Los Angeles. New releases that interest me include Johnny Cash: The Last Interview and Other Conversations (March 16, published by Melville House), Dave Bowler’s Music is the Drug: The Authorised Biography of Cowboy Junkies (Feb. 11, Omnibus Press), Peter Ames Carlin’s Sonic Boom: The Impossible Rise of Warner Bros. Records, from Hendrix to Fleetwood Mac to Madonna to Prince (Henry Holt and Co.) and The Spotify Play: How CEO and Founder Daniel Ek Beat Apple, Google, and Amazon in the Race for Audio Dominance, by Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud (Jan. 26, Diversion Books).

Also in this week’s newsletter, we have a new crop of thriller reviews from Margaret Cannon, and for fans of Netflix’s Bridgerton, a roundup of the best of this winter’s historical fiction. Find the weekly Bestsellers lists at tgam.ca/bestsellers, and keep up to date @globebooks. For more Globe arts and lifestyle newsletters in your inbox, please visit our signup page. – Lori Fazari