PA Books: Fiction Updates

I had hoped to attend a townhall meeting held by State Rep. Bryan Lentz this evening but a stuffy head has me home and not thinking especially clearly.

So in lieu of politics I bring you brief mentions of two new-ish books with Pennsylvania connections.

Victoria Thompson lives in PA but writes a mystery series set in late 1800's New York City. The latest edition, Murder in Chinatown, is a good read and a good introduction to Chinese-Irish intermarriage when immigration laws forbade Chinese women to legally come to the U.S.

Susan Muaddi Darraj, who grew up in Philadelphia but now lives in Maryland, has written The Inheritance of Exile: Stories of South Philly, about the Palestinian community there. She was on PCN talking about the book earlier this summer.