Leading Bostonians told me what to do around the city. Now it’s your turn.

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Last week, I asked leading Bostonians — including Mayor Michelle Wu, Red Sox manager Alex Cora, and James Rooney of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce — to recommend things to read, see, eat, and do to get to know the city better before I move there.

Today I’m supplementing their list with suggestions from Starting Point readers who wrote in to share their own ideas — and, in some cases, to disagree with the recommendations others gave.

If my first list didn’t strain your nightstand enough, readers suggested other Boston-based books that may. Steve Immerman recommends “Common Ground,” J. Anthony Lukas’s Pulitzer-winning study of race relations in the city during the busing crisis in the 1960s and ‘70s.

If true crime is more your speed, Adam Senesi suggests “Black Mass” by Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill, two former Globe journalists who covered James “Whitey” Bulger, the notorious Boston-area gangster who became an FBI informant. The book became the source material for a 2015 movie starring Johnny Depp as Bulger.

Speaking of movies: Anne Grauso — a recent New York-to-Boston transplant like me — recommends the Coolidge Corner Theatre, an independent, nonprofit cinema in Brookline that dates to the 1930s. Its new lobby and expansion, completed last year, include stylistic throwbacks to the original Art Deco design. Odie Henderson, the Globe’s film critic, recently wrote about the Coolidge’s upcoming retrospective on the actor Gene Hackman.

Just because the State House building is still in use doesn’t mean it’s not history. Below its golden dome, the 227-year-old Beacon Hill building’s interior is “an absolute must-see,” reader David Littleboy says. It features intricately marbled floors, stained glass, portraits, and statues. No time to visit in person? Take a virtual tour.

And if you prefer your history tangible, a commenter named SOXINPA suggests the USS Constitution, the world’s oldest commissioned warship still afloat. The ship, launched in 1797 and currently docked in the Charlestown Navy Yard, is still crewed by active-duty Navy sailors. But you can visit the museum if you’d prefer not to enlist.

Books, movies, and museums are all good, but several readers urged me to get outside.

Linda Boston (yes, her real name) recommends The Fenway Victory Gardens, the country’s oldest surviving example of a World War II initiative meant to boost food production. She calls it a “reminder of how we Americans are able to come together when we want to.”

For more record-setting greenery, try the Public Garden, the country’s first public botanical garden. Reader Phil Webber called it “the single best place to be on a warm, sunny day.”

And Sylvia Salas suggests strolling the Charles River Esplanade, a Back Bay park between the river and Storrow Drive. “When I first arrived in Boston in 1979, it was a drive past the Esplanade at sunset that made me fall in love with the city,” Sylvia writes.

On my original list, Alex Cora recommended an Italian joint, the cuisine being a fixture of the city’s culinary history for more than a century. Several readers suggested an even older Boston staple: seafood.

Jean Gibran recommends The Boston Sail Loft, a casual spot on a Boston Harbor pier (Jean’s email to me included a mouthwatering photo of a mug full of clam chowder, with the sea in the background).

David Littleboy recommends taking in a free recital at Berklee College of Music, many of which showcase students, faculty, or alumni.

When the weather gets warmer, try the Hatch Shell, a famed outdoor venue along the Charles where the Boston Landmarks Orchestra holds free summer concerts. “The diversity of programming is world-class, from Korean dance to Haitian drumming,” Rachel Perry told me. “Plus you can bring your dog!” (I plan to.)

Some readers offered supplements to my leading Bostonians’ suggestions. After you’ve read “Dark Tide,” about Boston’s Great Molasses Flood of 1919, Hattie Barnett recommends visiting 529 Commercial St., where you’ll find a plaque commemorating the spot where the viscous disaster originated.

There’s no culture without criticism, so other readers wrote in to protest my original list. “Great man, great couple. Awful art,” SOXINPA wrote of “The Embrace,” a bronze sculpture on Boston Common that honors Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. (The piece has proven controversial with other Bostonians, too.)

Feeling overwhelmed? Don’t worry: the best way to explore Boston may be to wander without a destination in mind. “Jump on the T downtown somewhere, any station, go two stops, get out and walk around a bit,” a commenter named GardenFan64 wrote. “See all the different people out and about. Visit a random shop. Sit on a bench and just chill.”

🧩 8 Across: Take five | ☀️ 48º Plenty of sun

Boston

• Measles: Amtrak is contacting passengers who may have been exposed to the virus by an infected person on a train traveling from Boston to D.C. last week.
• Arm yourself: More Black Americans, worried about crime and racism, are buying guns. The city’s Black gun instructors have benefited.
• Coming to town: Boston will get a BIG3 franchise, part of an eight-team three-on-three pro basketball league.
• Own goal: The city’s professional women’s soccer team has a new name: Boston Legacy FC. The original name, BOS Nation FC, was widely panned.

Massachusetts and New England

• Don’t bet on it: Massachusetts lawmakers introduced legislation that would strictly limit online sports betting.
• Kristen’s Law: A Rhode Island man who delivered drugs that caused a woman’s fatal overdose in 2022 received 40 years in prison.
• Labor pains: When Clark University students with campus jobs moved to unionize, the school pushed back. Some fear it’s the start of a broader backlash against student organizing.
• ‘Extremely disturbing’: A Marlborough man faces nearly 200 charges of animal cruelty after authorities found 96 dead animals at a property he was renting.

Trump administration

• More tariffs: Trump will impose a 25 percent tariff on imported cars and car parts next week, which will likely raise prices for Americans. (NYT)
• Rejected: An appeals court declined to lift a judge’s order that blocks the administration from deporting people using an 18th-century wartime law. (MSNBC)
• ‘Potentially devastating’: The CDC is terminating tens of millions of dollars in funding for public health in New England.
• Résumé booster? The staffer for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency known as “Big Balls” once aided a cybercrime gang that bragged about stealing data. (Reuters)
• Display Cabinet: Trump’s top officials know he’s a showman, so they’re supplying plenty of made-for-TV moments.

The Nation and the World

• Ghost hunters: The Supreme Court upheld Biden-era restrictions on “ghost guns,” untraceable firearms that can be assembled from kits bought online. (SCOTUSblog)
• Alarming: Avoidable deaths — from car crashes, among the unvaccinated, and more — rose in the United States during the 2010s, a study found, unlike in most other rich countries.
• Patriot games: As the 250th anniversary of the start of the Revolution approaches, Americans are divided over what makes someone patriotic.
• Missing: The US Army is searching for four soldiers who disappeared during a training mission in Lithuania. (CNN)
• Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil’s former president must stand trial for allegedly trying to overturn his 2022 reelection loss, the country’s top court ruled. (NPR)

By Teresa Hanafin, Globe Staff

🏠 Spruce it up: Money-saving tips from designers, renovations in Charlestown and East Boston, and ideas from an empty-nester: The Magazine’s Home issue is here.

👶🏼 Call me: A baby names site lists the most stylish up-and-coming choices for 2025, including Dove, Abner, Rio, Dot, and Zinnia. (Nameberry)

🎮 Two-player game: Meredith Goldstein lists the best video games for improving relationships, including “The Last of Us,” “It Takes Two,” and ... “Pac-Man”?

💰 Slam dunk: Billionaire Warren Buffett gave one of his employees $1 million for correctly guessing 31 of the 32 first-round games in March Madness. (CNBC)

📱 Big brother: A Boston-based cybersecurity company made an app that uses AI to help parents monitor their kids’ phone behavior.

✈️ Oops: A United Airlines flight from LA to Shanghai had to turn around over the Pacific because the pilot forgot his passport. They eventually got to China six hours late. (Guardian)

🍀 Drinking out loud: Ed Sheeran will open a pop-up Irish pub on the North Shore tomorrow.

☕️ Chill out: Starbucks’ chief executive wants to return to the chain’s roots: that of a comfy college coffeehouse where people linger — and buy more. (Quartz)

🎥 On demand: If you always wished you could rewatch “The Adventures of Pluto Nash,” it’s one of several movies you can watch for free on YouTube, thanks to Warner Bros. Entertainment. (YouTube)

Thanks for reading Starting Point.

This newsletter was edited by Teresa Hanafin and produced by Bill Geshwender and Diamond Naga Siu.

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Ian Prasad Philbrick can be reached at ian.philbrick@globe.com.