Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the Cityof Light (and Dark Chocolate)By Amy Thomas; Sourcebooks, 280 pp., $14.99, paperback original; *** out of four  What if Carrie Bradshaw were transplanted to Paris. … Wait a minute, Carrie Bradshaw was transplanted to Paris, and we saw how that turned out.  You can't help but think of Sex and the City as you peruse Amy Thomas' breezy, likable ode to the City of Light — because along with the sweet come some dark moments for this thirtysomething New York ad exec who gets a "dream job" in Paris.  Romance and friendships with the "Frenchies" (her term) may elude the appealing author (who has a blog called Sweet Freak), but her love affair with French patisseries and boulangeries never wavers.  A bonbon of a book. — Jocelyn McClurg  Panther Baby: A Life of Rebellion & ReinventionBy Jamal Joseph; Algonquin, 272 pp., $23.95 hardcover, $14.95 paperback; ***½ out of four  Jamal Joseph wrote plays and poetry while incarcerated at Leavenworth Federal Prison. He's now a film professor at Columbia University.  As a 15-year-old straight-A Bronx high school student, Jamal Joseph joined the Black Panthers. Today he is a film professor at Columbia, the same university he advocated burning down in 1970. He earned his college degree in Leavenworth Federal Prison. (He was convicted of aiding an FBI fugitive.)  Panther Baby is both a compelling personal memoir and an astonishing evocation of the 1960s — the riots, the rage, the radical chic. Though he was brought up with love by an adoptive African-American couple, the orphan forged a powerful family-like bond with the Panthers.  The most striking segment is Joseph's time in prison, where he began writing and directing plays for the inmates. The experience transformed him into a poet, director and writer. — Deirdre Donahue  Immortal BirdBy Doron Weber; Simon & Schuster, 358 pp., $25; **½ out of four  Damon Weber was born in 1989 with one ventricle, rather than two, in his heart. He survived after a radical operation and became a disarming boy — whimsical, theatrical and brave.  But at 12, he was struck by a little-understood medical condition that led to a heart transplant. His father, Doron Weber, director of the Alfred P. Stone Foundation, has written a heartbreaking and bitter memoir. It's a love letter to his son and an attack on the New York doctors he's suing.  Only heartless readers wouldn't be sympathetic, but in the end, I concluded Weber is a better father than writer. The book's liveliest prose is found in the blog kept by Damon, a teen forever. — Bob Minzesheimer  Charlotte au ChocolatBy Charlotte Silver; Riverhead Books, 258 pp., $25.95; **½ out of four  Pink linens, black velvet party dresses, sugary violets, buttery almonds and lemon cream are all part of the colorful story Charlotte Silver tells of growing up at Upstairs at the Pudding, a famous Harvard Square restaurant.  Sous chefs, bartenders and waiters came and went. All left their mark on Silver who never ceased to be fascinated by their personalities and perspectives on life. "Every meal began with a Shirley Temple. … It passed through the dining room like a brightly plumed bird" captures the flavor of the writing in Silver's first book.  This memoir is bright and vivacious but focuses more on Silver's exterior life. Chocolat would have been more delicious if she had delved as deeply into her feelings as she does into the lovely dishes served at the Pudding. — Carol Memmott
The City of Light, Black Panthers in the '60s, the heartbreaking story of a son, and tasty Pudding perspectives mix it up this week.