Mr. Fooster Traveling on a Whim by Tom Corwin, illustrated by Craig Frazier (Flying Dolphin Press, $14.95). Mr. Fooster seems like your average fellow, albeit one who travels with an old bottle of bubble soap. One Tuesday morning he takes into a rich and vivid world unlike any we've seen before. Mr. Fooster shows us that pondering the little things in life can a reward unto itself. Tom Corwin's lyrical prose, paired with Craig Frazier's enchanting illustrations, create a world where believing is seeing. SIGNED by both author and illustrator.

America America by Ethan Canin (Random House, $27). In the early 1970s, Corey Sifter, the son of working-class parents, becomes a yard boy on the grand estate of the powerful Metarey family. Soon, through the family's generosity, he is a student at a private boarding school and an aide to the great New York senator Henry Bonwiller, who is running for president of the United States. Before long, Corey finds himself involved with one of the Metarey daughters as well, and he begins to leave behind the world of his upbringing. As the Bonwiller campaign gains momentum, Corey finds himself caught up in a complex web of events in which loyalty, politics, sex, and gratitude conflict with morality, love, and the truth. There are two great big American novels this summer -- this is the first. Very highly recommended.

The Marchesa by Simonetta Agnello Hornby (Picador, $14). Costanza endures the travails of her marriage, fighting to preserve the family's household and way of life against the tide of revolution and change. Set against the fall of the Bourbon monarchy, and the rise of the mafia, The Marchesa is a scintillating family drama, and a masterly fresco of a now vanished world.

The Lemur by Benjamin Black (Picador, $13). When a shifty young researcher -- a man he calls "The Lemur" -- turns up some unflattering information about the family, John Glass's whole easy existence is threatened. Then the young man is murdered, and it's up to Glass to find out what The Lemur knew, and who killed him, before any secrets come out -- and before any other bodies appear. Short, sharp, and smart, The Lemur is a gem.

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (Anchor Books, $13.95). In 1962, Florence and Edward celebrate their wedding in a hotel on the Dorset coast. Yet as they dine, the expectation of their marital duties weighs over them. And unbeknownst to both, the decisions they make this night will resonate throughout their lives. With exquisite prose, Ian McEwan creates in On Chesil Beach a story of lives transformed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken. Both Julie and I loved this brief, beautiful, and sad story.

Soon I Will Be Invicible by Austin Grossman (Vintage, $14.95). Doctor Impossible -- evil genius, diabolical scientist, wannabe world dominator -- languishes in a federal detention facility. He's lost his freedom, his girlfriend, and his hidden island fortress. Fatale is a rookie superhero on her first day with the Champions, the world's most famous superteam. Soon I Will Be Invicible is a thrilling first novel; a fantastical adventure that gives new meaning to the notions of power, glory, responsibility, and (of course) good and evil. One of the hits of last summer, this treat is now in paperback.

Away by Amy Bloom (Random House Trade, $14). Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. All of the qualities readers love in Amy Bloom's work -- her humor and wit, her elegant and irreverent language, her unflinching understanding of passion and the human heart -- come together in the embrace of this brilliant novel, which is at once heartbreaking, romantic, and completely unforgettable.

The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton (Ballantine, $23). Friendship, loyalty, and love lie at the heart of Meg Waite Clayton's beautifully written, poignant, and sweeping novel of five women who, over the course of four decades, come to redefine what it means to be family. Humorous and moving, The Wednesday Sisters is a literary feast for book lovers that earns a place among those popular works that honor the joyful, mysterious, unbreakable bonds between friends.

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . . by Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein (Penguin, $12). Outrageously funny, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . . has been a breakout bestseller ever since authors-- and born vaudevillians -- Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein did their schtick on NPR's Weekend Edition. Lively, original, and powerfully informative, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . . is a not-so-reverent crash course through the great philosophical thinkers and traditions, from Existentialism (What do Hegel and Bette Midler have in common?) to Logic (Sherlock Holmes never deduced anything). Philosophy 101 for those who like to take the heavy stuff lightly, this is a joy to read -- and finally, it all makes sense!

What You Have Left by Will Allison In 1976, on the day of his wife's funeral, Wylie Greer drops off his five-year-old daughter, Holly, at his father-in-law's dairy farm on the outskirts of Columbia, South Carolina. Wylie tells her he just needs a little time to clear his head, but thirty years pass before Holly sees her father again -- "time I spent wondering what I'd done to make him leave," she says, "and what I could do to make him come back." This stunning debut brims with an affection for humanity exactly as it is -- in all its ignorance and awareness, its swagger and humility, its despair and hope.

The God of War by Marisa Silver (Simon & Schuster, $23). Where birds fly by day across the desert sky, by night government fighter planes and helicopters make training runs using live ammunition, and an anonymous dead body floats in from the sea. These events inspire Ares, on the cusp of his adolescence, to enact elaborate fantasies of mortal combat. His membership in a troubled family marks Ares as a casualty of a different kind of war. What a great read!

More Than It Hurts You by Darin Strauss (Dutton, $24.95). The acclaimed author of Chang and Eng returns with a literary showstopper -- a beautifully realized novel that at its heart is the story of a woman who will risk everything to feel something; a doctor whose diagnosis brings her entire life into question; and a man who suddenly realizes that being a good husband and a good father can no longer comfortably coexist. Darin Strauss's extraordinary novel is set in a world turned upside down -- where doctors try to save babies from their parents, police use the law to tear families apart, and the people you know the best end up surprising you the most.