Pat Daly Books & Crannies will host a luncheon at the Middleburg Country Inn Wednesday, March 5th from 1 to 3 p.m. for author Susan Vreeland who wrote Girl in Hyacinth Blue, a wonderful novel that tells the story of a Vermeer painting—in reverse.

In her new novel, Vreeland focuses on Luncheon of the Boating Party, a fictionalized but well-researched novel about Auguste Renoir's famous painting.

Instantly recognizable, Renoir's masterpiece depicts a gathering of his real friends on a summer Sunday, on a café terrace along the Seine near Paris. Narrated by Renoir and seven of the models, Vreeland illuminates the era through the use of her own gorgeous palette of vibrant, captivating characters.

The ticket price of $35 for luncheon with Susan Vreeland includes the price of her new book.

Perfect reading for this gray, snowy season includes Winter in Madrid (Penguin) by C.J. Sansom. A love story set in 1940, at the end of the Spanish Civil War, this is a moving and intimate tale that recreates the sad, cynical and disenchanted Spain under Franco.

The Accident Man (Penguin) by Tom Cain is a first novel with a very clever premise: What kind of man would kill Princess Diana? Samuel Carver is your guy, but when things go wrong in a Paris tunnel, he finds himself a hunted man.. Suspend that disbelief and enjoy the ride!

Robert Parker's back, this time with Jesse Stone, chief of police in Paradise, Massachusetts. In Stranger in Paradise (Penguin), Chief Stone is confronted by the one who got away, Wilson "Crow" Cromartie, an Apache hit man who escaped with a boat full of cash after executing the biggest robbery in Paradise.. If you like the Spencer novels but haven't yet met Jesse Stone, you'll enjoy this.

John Grisham's new book, The Appeal (Doubleday) takes us back to the courtroom, where a jury has returned a verdict against a chemical company that happens to be owned by one nasty Wall Street predator. Not happy with the verdict, the bad guy sets out to buy himself a Mississippi Supreme Court justice in hopes of subverting the appeals process in his favor.

Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy in America After the Cold War (Penguin) by Pete Earley is the story of Sergei Tretyakov, Russia's top spy in America from 1995 to 2000. An inside look at the spy business it is a chilling story. Tretyakov, the Comrade J of the title, defected to the U.S. in 2000 when he became disenchanted with Yeltsin and Putin. This lets us see inside the spy game and it is a fascinating scary tale.

Now, let's take a step or two back in time. In Bloody Shirt: Terror after Appomattox (Penguin), by Stephen Budiansky, we learn about brutal terrorist organizations that operated with impunity in our own country. From 1866 to 1876, more than 3,000 free African Americans and their white allies were murdered by highly organized terrorist groups operating in the South. The author maintains that not only was this bloody decade forgotten, but a series of exculpatory myths were created to cover the tracks of the murderers. The story is told through the lives of five men who tried to stop the violence. William Grimes of The New York Times calls this "an inspiring yet profoundly dispiriting story."

How the South Could Have Won the Civil War: The Fatal Errors that Led to the Confederate Defeat, (Crown Publishing) by Bevin Alexander, is a provocative look at how the South could have won the war and, in fact, came close to doing so, only to fall victim to key mistakes that ultimately spelled defeat.