Everything Matters by Ron Currie, Jr. (Penguin, $15). While Junior searches for meaning in a doomed world, his loved ones tell an all-American family saga of fathers and sons, blinding romance, lost love and reconciliation — culminating in one final triumph that reconfigures the universe. A tour de force of storytelling, Everything Matters is a genre-bending potpourri of alternative history, sci-fi, and the great American tale in the tradition of John Irving and Margaret Atwood.

Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer (Anchor Books, $15.95). Pat Tillman walked away from a multimillion-dollar NFL contract to join the Army and became an icon of post-9/11 patriotism. When he was killed in Afghanistan two years later, a legend was born. But the real Pat Tillman was much more remarkable, and considerably more complicated than the public knew . . . A stunning account of a young man's heroic life and death, from the bestselling author of Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and Under the Banner of Heaven.

The Vintage Caper by Peter Mayle (Vintage, $14.95). The Vintage Caper begins high above Los Angeles with a world-class heist at the impressive wine cellar of lawyer Danny Roth. Enter Sam Levitt, former lawyer and wine connoisseur, who follows lead to Bordeaux and Provence. The unraveling of the ingenious crime is threaded through with Mayle's seductive rendering of France's sensory delights — from a fine Lynch-Bages to the bouillabaisse of Marseille — to charm and inform even the most sophisticated palates.

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper Perennial, $16.99). In this powerfully imagined, provocative novel, Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. The Lacuna is the poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as well as an unforgettable portrait of the artist — and of art iteself.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer (Harper Perennial, $14.99). Though William Kamkwamba's neighbors in a small village in Malawi called him crazy, William refused to let go of a big dream. With a small pile of once-forgotten science books, some scrap metal, tractor parts, and bicycle frames; and an armory of curiosity and determination, he embarked on a daring plan to forge an unlikely contraption that would forever change lives of those around him. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is a remarkable true story about human inventiveness and its power to overcome crippling adversity. It will inspire anyone who doubts the power of one individual's ability to change his community and better the lives of those around him.

Twelve by Nick McDonell (Grove Press, $14). Twelve follows prep school dropout White Mike as takes a year off to deal an alluring new drug to his privileged peers on Manhattan's Upper East Side. But Twelve is not a coming-of-age story, because these kids never had a childhood — their parents are off on holiday in Bali or business in Brussels, leaving hired help to look the other way as the kids stay home alone in their multimillion-dollar town houses, sleeping around, getting high, and finally losing all control. It's strong stuff — sex, drugs, violence, teenagers — but it's also raw and brilliant.

Gloryland by Shelton Johnson (Sierra Club Books, $14.95). The powerful fictional memoir of a "buffalo soldier" who, forty years after Emancipation, finds freedom in Yosemite. "This is a work of extraordinary imagination and sympathy, a journey from slavery to the mountaintop, perfectly realized, with a voice so new and honest and insightful that the forward momentum which is Elijah Yancy will not long leave you." — Ken Burns.

Talking to Girls about Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut by Rob Sheffield (Dutton, $25.95). From Bowie to Bobby Brown, from hair metal to hip-hop, he loved them all. Talking to Girls about Duran Duran is a journey through pop culture of an American adolescence that will remind you of your first crush, first car, and first kiss. But it's not just a book about music. This is a book about moments in time, and the way we obsess over them through the years. Every song is a snapshot of a moment that helps form the rest of your life. Whenever you grew up, and whatever your teenage obsessions, Talking to Girls about Duran Duran brings those moments to life.

Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America's Greatest Bridge by Kevin Starr (Bloomsbury Press, $23). The Golden Gate Bridge links the urbanity of San Francisco with the wild headlands of Marin County, as if to suggest the paradox of California and America itself — the place that Fitzgerald saw as the last spot commensurate with the human capacity for wonder. The bridge, completed in 1937, also announced to the world America's engineering prowess and full assumption of its destined continental dominance. The Golden Gate is a counterpart to the Statue of Liberty, pronouncing American achievement in an unmistakable American fashion. The nation's very history is expressed in the bridge's art deco style and stark verticality. Kevin Starr's Golden Gate is a brilliant and passionate telling of the history of the bridge, and the rich and peculiar history of the California experience. The Golden Gate is a grand public work, a symbol and a very real bridge, a magnet for both postcard photographs and suicides. In this compact but comprehensive narrative, Starr unfolds the hidden-in-plain-sight meaning of the Golden Gate, putting it in its place among classic works of art. Very highly recommended.

Rickwood Field: A Century in America's Oldest Ballpark by Allen Barra (Norton, $27.95). Allen Barra has journeyed to his native Alabama to capture the glories of a century of baseball lore. In chronicling Rickwood Field's history, he also tells of segregated baseball and the legendary Negro Leagues while summoning the ghosts of the players themselves — Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Ted Williams, and Willie Mays — who still haunt baseball's oldest Cathedral. But Rickwood Field, a place where the Ku Klux Klan once held rallies, has now become a symbol of hope and triumph, a stadium that reflects the evolution of a city where baseball was, for decades, virtually the sole connecting point between blacks and whites. This is a great baseball story and a great American story: a home run.

The Doctor and the Diva by Adrienne McDonnell (Pamela Dorman Books/Viking, $26.95). It is 1903. Dr. Ravell is a young Harvard-educated obstetrician with a growing reputation for helping couples conceive. He has treated women from all walks of Boston society, but when Ravell meets Erika — an opera singer whose beauty is surpassed only by her spellbinding voice — he knows their doctor-patient relationship will be like none he has ever had. After struggling for years to become pregnant, Erika believes there is no hope. Her mind is made up: she will leave her prominent Bostonian husband to pursue her career in Italy, a plan both unconventional and risky. But becoming Ravell's patient will change her life in ways she never could have imagined. Julie started talking about The Doctor and the Diva even before she had finished the manuscript, even though it was publishing for months. Now that it's here, she's been singing its praises.

Prospect Park West by Amy Sohn (Downtown Press, $15). Brooklyn's famed Park Slope neighborhood has it all: majestic Prospect Park, acclaimed public schools, historic brownstones, and progressive values. Among bohemian, bourgeois breeders, claiming a stake in Park Slope is a competitive sport. Amy Sohn's new novel is one of the dishiest of the season. Perfect to tuck into your beach bag or just read on the back patio.

The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker (Simon & Schuster, $15). Paul Chowder is trying to write the introduction to a new anthology of rhyming verse, but he's having a hard time getting started. The result of his fitful struggles is The Anthologist, Nicholson Baker's brilliantly funny and exquisite love story about poetry. Unabashedly intellectual, this is also one of the funniest books I've read in ages.

Stardust by Joseph Kanon (Washington Square Press, $15). Hollywood, 1945. Ben Collier has just arrived from war-torn Europe to find his brother has died in mysterious circumstances. Why would a man with a beautiful wife, a successful movie career, and a heroic past choose to kill himself? Rich with atmosphere and period detail, Stardust flawlessly blends fact and fiction into a haunting thriller evoking both the glory days of the movies and the emergence of a dark strain of American political life.

The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman (The Dial Press, $26). Passionate, surprising, rich in ideas and characters, The Cookbook Collector is a novel about getting and spending, and about the substitutions we make when we can't find what we're looking for: reading cookbooks instead of cooking, collecting instead of living. But above all, it is about holding on to what is real in a virtual world: love that stays. Julie loved this ambitious and beautifully realized novel.

Twain's Feast: Searching for America's Lost Foods in the Footsteps of Samuel Clemens by Andrew Beahrs (Penguin Press, $25.95). In the winter of 1879, Mark Twain paused during an European tour to compose a fantasy menu of the American dishes he missed the most. He was desperately sick of European hotel cooking, and his menu, made up of some eighty regional specialties, was a true love letter to American food: Lake trout, from Tahoe. Hot biscuits, Southern style. Canvas-back-duck, from Baltimore. Black bass, from the Mississippi. In Twain's Feast, Beahrs chooses eight of these forgotten regional specialties, retracing Twain's footsteps as he sets out to discover whether the great author's favorite foods can still be found on American tables. What a great read!

I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle (Ecco, $13.99). Denis Cooverman wanted to say something really important in his high school graduation speech. So, in front of his 512 classmates and their 3000 relatives, he announced, "I love you, Beth Cooper." It would have been such a sweet, romantic moment. Except that Beth, the head cheerleader, has only the vaguest idea who Denis is. And Denis, the captain of the debate team, is so far out of her league that he is barely the same species. And then there's Kevin, Beth's remarkably large boyfriend, who's in town on furlough from the US Army. Complications ensue.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger (Scribner, $15). Julia and Valentina Poole are twenty-year-old sisters with an intense attachment to each other. One morning the mailman delivers a thick envelope to their house in the suburbs of Chicago. Their English aunt Elspeth Noblin has died of cancer and left them her London apartment. There are two conditions for this inheritance: that they live in the flat for a year before they sell it and that their parents not enter it. Julia and Valentina are twins. So were the girls' aunt Elspeth and their mother, Edie. The girls move to Elspeth's flat, which borders the vast Highgate Cemetery, where Christina Rossetti, George Eliot, Stella Gibbons, and other luminaries are buried. Julia and Valentina become involved with their living neighbors: Martin, a composer of crossword puzzles who suffers from crippling OCD, and Robert, Elspeth's elusive lover, a scholar of the cemetery. They also discover that much is still alive in Highgate, including — perhaps — their aunt.

This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper (Plume, $15). The death of Judd Foxman's father marks the first time that the entire Foxman family-including Judd's mother, brothers, and sister-have been together in years. Conspicuously absent: Judd's wife, Jen, whose fourteen-month affair with Judd's radio-shock-jock boss has recently become painfully public. This Is Where I Leave You is Jonathan Tropper's most accomplished work to date, a riotously funny, emotionally raw novel about love, marriage, divorce, family, and the ties that bind-whether we like it or not.

The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds (Penguin, $15). Foulds's erudite, Booker-shortlisted debut follows three men — Dr. Matthew Allen, mad peasant poet John Clare, and prodigious pipe-smoking poet Alfred Tennyson — as their fates intertwine at the High Beach mental institution outside of 1837 London. Worried over the cost of the wedding for his eldest daughter, Matthew invents a machine to mass-produce filigreed wood furniture. Ignoring the asylum for his business pursuits, Matthew seeks investors, including the Tennyson family, of whom Alfred's brother, Septimus, is a patient at High Beach. John, meanwhile, spirals into a fantasy world fueled by his obsession with a dead childhood sweetheart, Mary. Things become complicated when John deludes himself into thinking a fellow patient is his dead love. All the while, Alfred, who is at the asylum to be near his brother, is fruitlessly pursued by Matthew's adolescent daughter, Hannah. While Alfred, unfortunately, is the least convincing character, John's madness is richly imagined, and Matthew comes off as powerfully sympathetic as he grows ever more desperate to raise funds for his business gamble. There's a manneredness to the storytelling that devotees of 19th-century British literature will appreciate.

The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson (New York Review of Books, $17.95). Frans Gunnar Bengtsson's The Long Ships resurrects the fantastic world of the tenth century AD when the Vikings roamed and rampaged from the northern fastnesses of Scandinavia down to the Mediterranean. Packed with pitched battles and blood feuds and told throughout with wit and high spirits, Bengtsson's book is a splendid adventure that features one of the most unexpectedly winning heroes in modern fiction. This fine new edition has a terrific introduction by Michael Chabon.

South of Broad by Pat Conroy (Dial Press, $16). It's a love letter to Charleston. It's a big, sweeping novel of friendship and marriage. It's a rich story of social change and the dark legacy of racism in this country. It's vintage Pat Conroy and a rich treat for fans and new readers alike.

An Expensive Education by Nick McDonell (Grove Press, $14). Nick McDonell's third novel might remind readers of Graham Greene or John LeCarre and that's fair because at times, his spy, Harvard-educated Michael Teak, seems to be consciously fulfilling his assignment in Somalia as though he were the jaded creation of one of those earlier masters. Make no mistake though, An Expensive Education is very much a story of our time, a story of American eagerness, passion, do-goodism, and of the very real cost of American ignorance and arrogance. It's a great read.

Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden (Picador, $14). "Resembles a box in which keepsakes have been carefully packed away: over the course of a day, the significant memories of three lives are taken out and examined, giving rise to satisfying tension between the deceptive simplicity of the setup and the subtle impacts of each successive 'reveal' . . . [an] elegant novel of contained power." -- The Guardian (UK)

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters Riverhead, $16). It's the kind of atmospheric read that seems made for a foggy night: a crumbling great house; dark secrets; enigmatic characters; lightning flashes at every opportunity. Sarah Waters takes the elements that made Daphne DuMaurier famous and make them her own. As I like to say this is a door locked, lights on, back to the wall, and if you read it in the house alone you have only yourself to blame kind of read. Great stuff.

Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder (Random House, $14). Tracy Kidder gives us the story of one man's inspiring American journey and of the ordinary people who helped him, providing brilliant testament to the power of second chances. Deo arrives in the United States from Burundi in search of a new life. Having survived a civil war and genocide, he lands at JFK airport with two hundred dollars, no English, and no contacts. How he transforms his life is a powerful and inspiring story.

The New Valley by Josh Weil (Grove Press, $14). The three novellas that make up The New Valley are a compassionate exploration of resilience, isolation, and the consuming ache for human connection. Weil's deeply American tone, focused attention to story, and veneration for character make this award-winning trinity of stories a stunning debut. A Rakestraw Book of the Year 2009.

The Domino Men by Jonathan Barnes (Harper, $14.99). In an earlier century, Queen Victoria made a Faustian bargain, signing London and all its souls away to a nefarious, inhuman entity. Now, generations later, the bill has finally come due. . . . An amiable, unambitious London file clerk, Henry Lamb leads an unremarkable life — until the day he learns he's expected to assume the covert responsibilities of his universally despised, now comatose grandfather. London is at war, and a shadowy organization known (to a very few) as the Directorate wishes to recruit Henry to the cause. All he has to do is find "the girl," save the world from the monster Leviathan, and defeat the unspeakable evil lurking in the cellar of 10 Downing Street: the serial-slaying schoolboy twins known as the Domino Men.

The Devil's Company by David Liss (Ballantine Books, $15). The year is 1722. Ruffian for hire and master of disguise Benjamin Weaver finds himself pitted against a mysterious mastermind who holds the lives of Weaver's friends in the balance. To protect the people he loves, Weaver must stage a daring robbery from the headquarters of the ruthless British East India Company, but this theft is only the opening move in a dangerous game of secret plots, corporate rivals, and foreign spies. With the security of the nation — and the lives of those he loves — in the balance, Weaver must navigate a labyrinth of political greed and corporate treachery.

The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found by Mary Beard (Belknap Press, $17.95). Pompeii is the most famous archaeological site in the world, visited by more than two million people each year. Yet it is also one of the most puzzling with an intriguing and sometimes violent history, from the sixth century BCE to the present day. This book shows us how much more and less there is to Pompeii than a city frozen in time as it about its business on 24 August 79.

Peep Show by Joshua Braff (Algonquin Paperbacks, $13.95). Peep Show is the bittersweet story of a young man torn between a mother trying to erase her past and a father struggling to maintain his dignity in a less-than-savory business. As David peeps through the spaces in the screen that divides the men and the women in Hasidic homes, we can't help but think of his father's Imperial Theatre, where other men are looking at other women through the peepholes. As entertaining as it is moving, Peep Show looks at the elaborate ensembles, rituals, assumed names, and fierce loyalties of two secret worlds, stripping away the curtains of both.

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Anchor Books, $15.95). In this powerful, labyrinthian thriller, David Martin is a pulp fiction writer struggling to stay afloat. Holed up in a haunting abandoned mansion in the heart of Barcelona, he furiously taps out story after story, becoming increasingly desperate and frustrated. Thus, when he is approached by a mysterious publisher offering a book deal that seems almost too good to be real, David leaps at the chance. But as he begins the work, and after a visit to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, he realizes that there is a connection between his book and the shadows that surround his dilapidated home and that the publisher may be hiding a few troubling secrets of his own. Once again, Ruiz Zafon takes us into a dark, gothic Barcelona and creates a breathtaking tale of intrigue, romance, and tragedy. A Rakestraw Book of the Year 2009.

Sunnyside by Glen David Gold (Vintage, $16.95). A quintessentially American epic, Sunnyside stars the one and only Little Tramp, Charlie Chaplin. It?s 1916 and, after an extraordinary mass delusion where Chaplin is spotted in more than eight hundred places simultaneously, his fame is at its peak but his inspiration is at a low. As he struggles to find a film project as worthy as himself, we are introduced to a dazzling cast of characters that take us from the battlefields of France to the Russian Revolution and from the budding glamour of Hollywood to madcap Wild West shows. The result is a spellbinding novel about dreams, ambition, and the birth of modern America.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman (Plume, $16). Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. He's a senior in high school, and a certifiable genius, but he's still secretly obsessed with a series of fantasy novels he read as a kid, about the adventures of five children in a magical land called Fillory. Compared to that, anything in his real life just seems gray and colorless. Everything changes when Quentin finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the practice of modern sorcery. He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. But something is still missing. Magic doesn't bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he thought it would. Then, after graduation, he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. A Rakestraw Book of the Year 2009.

The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron by Howard Bryant (Pantheon, $29.95). Ken Burns writes, "No one was more important to the game of baseball in the last half of the twentieth century than Henry Aaron, and no one writes about that supremely talented man, that tumultuous time, and this treasure of a game better than Howard Bryant. Together, they are an extraordinary combination, and the book Bryant has written gets to the heart of the complicated and dignified, patient and consistent genuine hero that is Henry Aaron.

Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son by Michael Chabon (Harper Perennial, $14.99). In these insightful, provocative, slyly interlinked essay, one of our most brilliant and humane writers (and one of Rakestraw's favorite people ever) addresses with his characteristic warmth and lyric wit the all-important question: What does it mean to be a man today?

BBQ 25 by Adam Perry Lang (Harper Studio, $19.99). Inspired, easy, ideal! Introducing a book that streamlines the barbecue process. A collection of the 25 recipes that we cook 95 percent of the time, using accessible, not too pricey, quality ingredients. Here Adam will guide you through the entire process, from buying to serving, showing you how to deliver mind-blowing results for your friends and family. So relax, start up the BBQ — it's time to get hands-on and learn techniques that will bring out the maximum flavors, under Adam's expert, easy-to-follow guidance.

Heroes for My Son by Brad Meltzer (Harper Studio, $19.99). "I remember looking up at the crisp black sky and thinking about this baby boy we were just blessed with. That's when I asked myself the question for the first time: What kind of man did I want my son to be?" Heroes for My Son is an unforgettable book of timeless wisdom, one that families everywhere can share again and again.

Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters by Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger (Harper $15.99). Highest Duty is Sully's story — a story of dedication, hope, and preparedness, revealing important lessons he learned through childhood, in his military service, and in his work as a commercial airline pilot. It reminds us all tht, even in these days of war, tragedy, and economic uncertainty, there are values still worth living for — that life's challenges can be met if we're ready for them.

Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival by Norman Ollestad (Ecco, $14.99). From the age of three, Norman Ollestad was thrust into the world of surfing and competitive downhill skiing by the intense and charismatic father he both idolized and resented. Yet it was these exhilarating tests of skill that ultimately saved his life when the chartered Cessna carrying them to a ski championship ceremony crashed 8,000 feet up in the California mountains, leaving his father and the pilot dead. The devasted, eleven-year-old Ollestad had to descend the treacherous, icy mountain alone.

The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto by Bernard DeVoto (Tin House Books, $16.95). One part celebration, one part history, two parts manifesto, Bernard DeVoto's The Hour is a comic and unequivocal treatise on how and why we drink — properly. The Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner turns his shrewd wit on the spirits and attitudes that cause his stomach to turn and his eyes to roll (Warning: this book is NOT for rum drinkers). DeVoto instructs his readers on how to drink like a gentlemen (lessons that apply to ladies as well!) and sheds new light on the simple joys of the cocktail hour. The introduction by Daniel Handler alone is worth the price of admission.

Scotland: Where Golf is Great by James W. Finegan (Artisan, $25.95). This entertaining, informative, lavishly illustrated, and award-winning volume takes you around dozens of the best courses in Scotland, the birthplace of golf — from the historic splendor of St. Andrews to the regal luxury at Gleneagles, from the majestic lighthouse at Turnberry to the challenging linksland at Muirfield. With its indispensable advice on courses as well as on the sights, restaurants, and hotels, Scotland: Where Golf is Great showcases the best of the best. Whether golfer actually make the pilgrimage or arm-chair it, this is an unsurpassed celebration of the places where golf is, indeed, great.

Ox-Tales: Earth; Ox-Tales: Air; Ox-Tales: Fire; and Ox-Tales: Water by various contributors (Profile Books, $9.95). A major publishing event, Ox-Tales is a remarkable collaboration between Profile Books, the Hay Festival, Oxfam and 30 of the leading fiction writers based in Britain and Ireland. The project launches with a set of four stunningly produced books, each containing eight original stories. Each book is themed on one of theelements — Earth, Fire, Air and Water — and features work from a dream cast of authors. The big idea is to raise money for Oxfam and along the way to highlight the charity's work in project areas: agriculture in Earth, water projects in Water, conflict aid in Fire, and climate change in Air. The four books played a central role in the first ever Oxfam Book Fortnight, a new annual event launched in July 2009. The fortnight was co-ordinated by Hay and brought together dozens of UK literary festivals, who were each being asked to put on one Oxfam event during the fortnight. Contributors include: Nicholas Shakespeare; Vikram Seth; Helen Simpson; Alexander McCall Smith; Helen Fielding; Sebastian Faulks; Ali Smith; John Le Carre; Mark Haddon; Lionel Shriver; Zoe Heller; and William Boyd.

Dylan Thomas Collected Poems intro. by Paul Muldoon (New Directions Press, $14.95). Since its initial publication in 1953, this book has become the definitive edition of the poet's work. Thomas wrote "Prologue" addressed to "my readers, the strangers" — an introduction in verse that was the last poem he would ever write. Also included are classics such as "And Death Shall Have No Dominion," "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night," and "Fern Hill" that have influenced generations of artists from Bob Dylan (who changed his last name from Zimmerman in honor of the poet), to John Lennon (The Beatles included Thomas' portrait on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band); this collection even appears in the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road when it is retrieved from the rubble of a bookshelf.

Lighting Out for the Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain by Roy Morris, Jr. (Simon & Schuster, $26.00). Lighting Out for the Territory is a fascinating, even inspiring, account of how an unemployed riverboat pilot, would–be Confederate guerrilla, failed prospector, neophyte newspaper reporter, and parttime San Francisco aesthete reinvented himself as America's most famous and beloved writer. With the frequent help of Twain's own words, Morris follows his subject on a winding journey of self–discovery filled with high adventure and low comedy, as Clemens/Twain dodges Indians and gunfighters, receives marriage advice from Brigham Young, burns down a mountain with a frying pan, gets claim–jumped by rival miners, narrowly avoids fighting a duel, hikes across the floor of an active volcano, becomes one of the first white men to try the ancient Hawaiian sport of surfing, and writes his first great literary success, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." It's a good story, and mostly true — with some stretchers thrown in for good measure.

Shakespeare's Lost Kingdom: The True Story of Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth by Charles Beauclerk (Grove, $26). Shakespeare's Lost Kingdom delves deep into the conflicts and personalities of Elizabethan England as well as into the plays themselves to tell the true story of the "Soul of the Age." From the queen whose sexual escapades threatened to tear the curtain from the royal stage, to the poet whose identity crisis fueled a body of incomparable works, and the controversy that survived both of them, springing up again and again down through the centuries, this is a compelling, convincing history. You'll never look at Shakespeare the same way again.

The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O'Connor McNees (Amy Einhorn Books, $24.95). Millions of readers have fallen in love with Little Women. But how could Louisa May Alcott – who never had a romance – write so convincingly of love and heartbreak without experiencing it herself? Deftly mixing fact and fiction, Kelly O'Connor McNees imagines a love affair that would threaten Louisa's writing career – and inspire the story of Jo and Laurie in Little Women. Stuck in small–town New Hampshire in 1855, Louisa finds herself torn between a love that takes her by surprise and her dream of independence as a writer in Boston. The choice she must make comes with a steep price that she will pay for the rest of her life.

Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape ed. by Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney (Trinity, $19.95). Home Ground brings together 45 poets and writers to create more than 850 original definitions for words that describe our lands and waters. The writers draw from careful research and their own distinctive stylistic, personal, and regional diversity to portray in bright, precise prose the striking complexity of the landscapes we inhabit. Home Ground includes 100 black-and-white line drawings by Molly O'Halloran and an introductory essay by Barry Lopez.

The Apple Trees at Olema: New and Selected Poems by Robert Hass (Ecco, $34.99). Hass's work is grounded in the beauty of the physical world. His familiar landscapes — San Francisco, the northern California coast, the Sierra high country — are vividly alive in his work. His themes include art, the natural world, desire, family life, the life between lovers, the violence of history, and the power and inherent limitations of language. He is a poet who is trying to say, as fully as he can, what it is like to be alive in his place and time. His style — formed in part by American modernism, in part by his long apprenticeship as a translator of the Japanese haiku masters and Czeslaw Milosz — combines intimacy of address, a quick intelligence, a virtuosic skill with long sentences, intense sensual vividness, and a light touch. It has made him immensely readable and his work widely admired.

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Robert Holmes (Vintage, $17.95). When young Joseph Banks stepped onto a Tahitian beach in 1769, he hoped to discover Paradise. Inspired by the scientific ferment sweeping through Britain, the botanist had sailed with Captain Cook in search of new worlds. Other voyages of discovery — astronomical, chemical, poetical, philosophical — swiftly follow in Richard Holmes's thrilling evocation of the second scientific revolution. Through the lives of William Herschel and his sister Caroline, who forever changed the public conception of the solar system; of Humphry Davy, whose near-suicidal gas experiments revolutionized chemistry; and of the great Romantic writers, from Mary Shelley to Coleridge and Keats, who were inspired by the scientific breakthroughs of their day, Holmes brings to life the era in which we first realized both the awe – inspiring and the frightening possibilities of science — an era whose consequences are with us still.

In the Green Kitchen by Alice Waters (Potter, $28). Alice Waters has been a champion of the sustainable, local cooking movement for decades. To Alice, good food is a right, not a privilege. In the Green Kitchen presents her essential cooking techniques to be learned by heart plus more than 50 recipes — for delicious fresh, local, and seasonal meals — from Alice and her friends. She demystifies the basics including steaming a vegetable, dressing a salad, simmering stock, filleting a fish, roasting a chicken, and making bread. An indispensable cookbook, she gives you everything you need to bring out the truest flavor that the best ingredients of the season have to offer.

Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin (Vintage, $15). Weaving together memories, recipes, and wild tales of years spent in the kitchen, Home Cooking is Laurie Colwin's manifesto on the joys of sharing food and entertaining. From the humble hotplate of her one-room apartment to the crowded kitchens of bustling parties, Colwin regales us with tales of meals gone both magnificently well and disastrously wrong. Hilarious, personal, and full of Colwin's hard-won expertise, Home Cooking will speak to the heart of any amateur cook, professional chef, or food lover.

Molto Gusto: Easy Italian Cooking by Matio Batali (Ecco, $29.99). Chef Mario Batali's zest for life infuses the casual Italian fare that has made his restaurant Otto Enoteca Pizzeria a perennially popular New York City destination. Now you can have the flavors of Otto at home, with Molto Gusto, a collection of recipes for everyone's favorites, from pizza, pasta, and antipasti to gelati and sorbetti. Filled with Mario's infectious personality and love of robust flavors, and illustrated with luscious full-color photos, Molto Gusto makes it easy to spend a night on the town without leaving home.

American Taste by James Villas (Lyons Press, $16.95). In American Taste, James Villas shares his passions for food and drink – both the humble and the sophisticated – in essays including 'Understanding Fried Chicken,' 'Upgrading Hash,' and 'Cornflakes Be Damned!' From his homage to asparagus to his treatise on French fries, Villas regales us with tales of American gastronomy from the perspective of a respectful gourmand and hired palate. American Taste is a new American classic.

Lift by Kelly Corrigan (Voice, $16.99). Written as a letter to her children, Kelly Corrigan's Lift is a tender, intimate, and robust portrait of risk and love; a touchstone for anyone who wants to live more fully. In Lift, Corrigan weaves together three true and unforgettable stories of adults willing to experience emotional hazards in exchange for the gratification of raising children. If you lived The Middle Place, then you simply must try Lift. Perfect for Mothers' Day.

On a Dollar a Day by Christopher Greenslate and Kerri Leonard (Hyperion, $14.99). What happens when two high school teachers get fed up with their soaring grocery bills and decide to try to fee themselves on one dollar each, per day? Authors Kerri Leonard and Christopher Greenslate describe how they did it. In addition, they include sections about eating on $4.13 (the food stamp allotment with personal contributions), and on the cost of eating a healthy diet. On a Dollar a Day incorporates fascinating facts about the way our food gets to the table aand the hidden costs — both personal and financial.

The Tourist by Olen Steinhauer (Minotaur Books, $14.99). Milo Weaver is the kind of character we all long for: the man of principled action. In The Tourist, Olen Steinhauer — twice nominated for the Edgar Award — tackles and intricate story of betrayal and maniupulation, loyalty and risk, in an utterly compelling novel that is both thoroughly modern and yet also reminscent of espionage fiction's most touted luminaries.

All Other Nights by Dara Horn (WW Norton, $14.95). How is tonight different from all other nights? For Jacob Rappaport, a Jewish soldier in the Union Army, it is a question his commanders have answered for him: on Passover, 1862, he is ordered to murder his own uncle, who is plotting to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. After this harrowing mission, Jacob is recruited to pursue another enemy agent — this time not to murder the spy, but to marry her. Based on real historical figures, this eagerly awaited novel from award-winning author Dara Horn delivers multi-layered, page-turning storytelling at its best.

The Ides of March by Valeo Massimo Manfredi (Europa, $16.00). March, 44 BC. Rome, in all her glory, has expanded her territories beyond the wildest dreams of her citizens, led by Caius Julius Caesar — Pontifex Maximus, dictator perpetuo, invincible military leader and only fifty-six years old. He is a man in command of his destiny, who wields enormous power throughout the vast empire. However his god-given mission — to end the blood-splattered fratricidal wars, reconcile implacably hostile factions and preserve Roman civilization and world order — is teetering dangerously close to collapse? His power is draining away. None of his supporters can stop the inexorably evolving plot against him and prophecy will explode into truth on the Ides of March and the world will change forever. This is political thriller laced through with all the intrigue and action surrounding one of the most crucial turning points in the history of western civilization.

Keeping the Feast by Paula Butturini (Riverhead Books, $25.95). A story of food and love, injury and healing, Keeping the Feast is a memoir of nourishment and restoration in Italy after a long period of tragedy, and a contemplation of the extraordinary sustaining powers of food, family, friendship, and grace. It's the story of Paula Butturini's family, and what happened to it after a single bullet, fired by a sniper two days before Christmas 1989 in the brief mayhem of Romania's overthrow of its Communist dictator, nearly killed her husband, John Tagliabue of The New York Times. It's the story of the reverberations set off by that one bullet up and down the generations of their entire family, and how they fought for nearly twenty years to find the new place in the world to which that bullet sent them all.

Mrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon by Michael O'Brien (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, $27.00). Early in 1815, Louisa Catherine Adams and her young son left St. Petersburg in a heavy Russian carriage and set out on a difficult journey to meet her husband, John Quincy Adams, in Paris. She traveled through the snows of eastern Europe, down the Baltic coast to Prussia, across the battlefields of Germany, and into a France then experiencing the tumultuous events of Napoleon's return from Elba. Along the way, she learned what the long years of Napoleon's wars had done to Europe, what her old friends in the royal court in Berlin had experienced during the French occupation, how it felt to have her life threatened by reckless soldiers, and how to manage fear. The prizewinning historian Michael O'Brien reconstructs for the first time Louisa Adams?s extraordinary passage. An evocative history of the experience of travel in the days of carriages and kings, Mrs. Adams in Winter offers a moving portrait of a lady, her difficult marriage, and her conflicted sense of what it meant to be a woman caught between worlds.

House Rules by Jody Picoult (Atria Books, $28.00). House Rules is about Jacob Hunt, a teenage boy with Asperger's Syndrome. He's hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, and like many kids with AS, Jacob has a special focus on one subject — in his case, forensic analysis. He's always showing up at crime scenes, thanks to the police scanner he keeps in his room, and telling the cops what they need to do?and he's usually right. But then one day his tutor is found dead, and the police come to question him. All of the hallmark behaviors of Asperger's — not looking someone in the eye, stimulatory tics and twitches, inappropriate affect — can look a heck of a lot like guilt to law enforcement personnel — and suddenly, Jacob finds himself accused of murder. House Rules looks at what it means to be different in our society, how autism affects a family, and how our legal system works well for people who communicate a certain way — but lousy for those who don't.

Wild Child by TC Boyle (Viking, $25.95). In the title story of this rich new collection, T.C. Boyle has created so vivid and original a retelling of the story of Victor, the feral boy who was captured running naked through the forests of Napoleonic France, that it becomes not just new but definitive: yes, this is how it must have been. The tale is by turns magical and moving, a powerful investigation of what it means to be human. Brilliant, incisive, and always entertaining, Boyle's short stories showcase the mischievous humor and socially conscious sensibility that have made him one of the most acclaimed writers of our time.

The Essential Engineer by Henry Petroski (Knopf, $26.95). The Essential Engineer is an eye-opening exploration of the ways in which science and engineering must work together to address our world's most pressing issues, from dealing with climate change and the prevention of natural disasters to the development of efficient automobiles and the search for renewable energy sources. While the scientist may identify problems, it falls to the engineer to solve them. It is the inherent practicality of engineering, which takes into account structural, economic, environmental, and other factors that science often does not consider, that makes engineering vital to answering our most urgent concerns.

Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life by Frances Mayes (Broadway, $25). "Italy has proven to be inexhaustible. To take the gift of a new and very old country " a whole other sphere of language, literature, architecture, art: it falls over me like a shower of gold. The giving, the fun, and the spontaneity of everyday life shock me and return me immediately to a munificent state of being." I took this home last night and nearly finished it before bed. It's just like catching up with an old friend " lovely writing and happy memories.

Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein (Harper, $14.99). From the author of the beloved bestseller, The Art of Racing in the Rain, comes an extraordinary tale of grief, devotion, redemption, and timeless mystery. As beautiful as today is, there are still some grey and rainy days in our future. This gripping mystery set in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska is perfect for those days.

Spade and Archer by Joe Gore (Vintage Crime, $15). A wonderfully dark, pitch-perfect noir prequel to The Maltese Falcon, featuring Dashiell Hammett's beloved detective, Sam Spade. It's 1921 " seven years before Sam Spade will solve the famous case of the Maltese Falcon. He's just set up his own agency in San Francisco and things just starting to get interesting . . . . and dangerous!

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Elizabeth Strout had this to say, "In the noisy world of today it is a delight to find a novel that dares to assert itself quietly with the lovely rhythm of Helen Simonson's funny, comforting, and intelligent debut, a modern-day story of love that takes everyone " grown children, villager, and the main participants by surprise, as real love stories tend to do." If you loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, then you must check out this fine first novel.

The Surrendered by Chang-Rae Lee (Riverhead, $26.95). The bestselling, award-winning writer of Native Speaker, A Gesture Life, and Aloft returns with his biggest, most ambitious novel yet: a spellbinding story of how love and war echo through an entire lifetime. With his three critically acclaimed novels, Chang-rae Lee has established himself as one of the most talented writers of contemporary literary fiction. Now, with The Surrendered, Lee has created a book that amplifies everything we've seen in his previous works, and reads like nothing else. It is a brilliant, haunting, heartbreaking story about how love and war inalterably change the lives of those they touch.

Lift by Kelly Corrigan (Voice, $16.99). Written as a letter to her children, Kelly Corrigan's Lift is a tender, intimate, and robust portrait of risk and love; a touchstone for anyone who wants to live more fully. In Lift, Corrigan weaves together three true and unforgettable stories of adults willing to experience emotional hazards in exchange for the gratification of raising children. If you lived The Middle Place, then you simply must try Lift. Perfect for Mothers' Day.

On a Dollar a Day by Christopher Greenslate and Kerri Leonard (Hyperion, $14.99). What happens when two high school teachers get fed up with their soaring grocery bills and decide to try to fee themselves on one dollar each, per day? Authors Kerri Leonard and Christopher Greenslate describe how they did it. In addition, they include sections about eating on $4.13 (the food stamp allotment with personal contributions), and on the cost of eating a healthy diet. On a Dollar a Day incorporates fascinating facts about the way our food gets to the table aand the hidden costs — both personal and financial.

The Tourist by Olen Steinhauer (Minotaur Books, $14.99). Milo Weaver is the kind of character we all long for: the man of principled action. In The Tourist, Olen Steinhauer — twice nominated for the Edgar Award — tackles and intricate story of betrayal and maniupulation, loyalty and risk, in an utterly compelling novel that is both thoroughly modern and yet also reminscent of espionage fiction's most touted luminaries.

All Other Nights by Dara Horn (WW Norton, $14.95). How is tonight different from all other nights? For Jacob Rappaport, a Jewish soldier in the Union Army, it is a question his commanders have answered for him: on Passover, 1862, he is ordered to murder his own uncle, who is plotting to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. After this harrowing mission, Jacob is recruited to pursue another enemy agent — this time not to murder the spy, but to marry her. Based on real historical figures, this eagerly awaited novel from award-winning author Dara Horn delivers multi-layered, page-turning storytelling at its best.

The Ides of March by Valeo Massimo Manfredi (Europa, $16.00). March, 44 BC. Rome, in all her glory, has expanded her territories beyond the wildest dreams of her citizens, led by Caius Julius Caesar — Pontifex Maximus, dictator perpetuo, invincible military leader and only fifty-six years old. He is a man in command of his destiny, who wields enormous power throughout the vast empire. However his god-given mission — to end the blood-splattered fratricidal wars, reconcile implacably hostile factions and preserve Roman civilization and world order — is teetering dangerously close to collapse? His power is draining away. None of his supporters can stop the inexorably evolving plot against him and prophecy will explode into truth on the Ides of March and the world will change forever. This is political thriller laced through with all the intrigue and action surrounding one of the most crucial turning points in the history of western civilization.

Keeping the Feast by Paula Butturini (Riverhead Books, $25.95). A story of food and love, injury and healing, Keeping the Feast is a memoir of nourishment and restoration in Italy after a long period of tragedy, and a contemplation of the extraordinary sustaining powers of food, family, friendship, and grace. It's the story of Paula Butturini's family, and what happened to it after a single bullet, fired by a sniper two days before Christmas 1989 in the brief mayhem of Romania's overthrow of its Communist dictator, nearly killed her husband, John Tagliabue of The New York Times. It's the story of the reverberations set off by that one bullet up and down the generations of their entire family, and how they fought for nearly twenty years to find the new place in the world to which that bullet sent them all.

Mrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon by Michael O'Brien (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, $27.00). Early in 1815, Louisa Catherine Adams and her young son left St. Petersburg in a heavy Russian carriage and set out on a difficult journey to meet her husband, John Quincy Adams, in Paris. She traveled through the snows of eastern Europe, down the Baltic coast to Prussia, across the battlefields of Germany, and into a France then experiencing the tumultuous events of Napoleon's return from Elba. Along the way, she learned what the long years of Napoleon's wars had done to Europe, what her old friends in the royal court in Berlin had experienced during the French occupation, how it felt to have her life threatened by reckless soldiers, and how to manage fear. The prizewinning historian Michael O'Brien reconstructs for the first time Louisa Adams?s extraordinary passage. An evocative history of the experience of travel in the days of carriages and kings, Mrs. Adams in Winter offers a moving portrait of a lady, her difficult marriage, and her conflicted sense of what it meant to be a woman caught between worlds.

House Rules by Jody Picoult (Atria Books, $28.00). House Rules is about Jacob Hunt, a teenage boy with Asperger's Syndrome. He's hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, and like many kids with AS, Jacob has a special focus on one subject — in his case, forensic analysis. He's always showing up at crime scenes, thanks to the police scanner he keeps in his room, and telling the cops what they need to do?and he's usually right. But then one day his tutor is found dead, and the police come to question him. All of the hallmark behaviors of Asperger's — not looking someone in the eye, stimulatory tics and twitches, inappropriate affect — can look a heck of a lot like guilt to law enforcement personnel — and suddenly, Jacob finds himself accused of murder. House Rules looks at what it means to be different in our society, how autism affects a family, and how our legal system works well for people who communicate a certain way — but lousy for those who don't.

Wild Child by TC Boyle (Viking, $25.95). In the title story of this rich new collection, T.C. Boyle has created so vivid and original a retelling of the story of Victor, the feral boy who was captured running naked through the forests of Napoleonic France, that it becomes not just new but definitive: yes, this is how it must have been. The tale is by turns magical and moving, a powerful investigation of what it means to be human. Brilliant, incisive, and always entertaining, Boyle's short stories showcase the mischievous humor and socially conscious sensibility that have made him one of the most acclaimed writers of our time.

The Essential Engineer by Henry Petroski (Knopf, $26.95). The Essential Engineer is an eye-opening exploration of the ways in which science and engineering must work together to address our world's most pressing issues, from dealing with climate change and the prevention of natural disasters to the development of efficient automobiles and the search for renewable energy sources. While the scientist may identify problems, it falls to the engineer to solve them. It is the inherent practicality of engineering, which takes into account structural, economic, environmental, and other factors that science often does not consider, that makes engineering vital to answering our most urgent concerns.

The Discreet Pleasures of Rejection by Martin Page (Penguin, $14). Virgil comes home from work one day to a message on his answering machine — his girlfriend is breaking up with him. This news should be devastating for the obvious reasons, but instead it's deeply troubling because Virgil doesn't know the woman and doesn't have any memory of going out with her. The unreal message sends Virgil into a tailspin of self-analysis, causing him to question his memory, his sanity, and even his worth as a lover.

Pictures at an Exhibition by Sara Houghteling (Vintage, $15). Max Berenzon's father is the most successful art dealer in Paris, owner of the Berenzon Gallery, home to both Picasso and Matisse. To Max's surprise, his father forbids him from entering the family business, choosing instead to hire a beautiful and brilliant gallery assistant named Rose Clement. When Paris falls to the Nazis, the Berenzons survive in hiding, but when they return in 1944 their gallery is empty, their priceless collection has vanished. In a city darkened by corruption and black marketers, Max chases his twin obsessions: the lost paintings and Rose Clement.

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See (Random House, $15). In 1937 Shanghai — the Paris of Asia — twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree — until the day their father tells them he has gambled away their wealth and that to repay his debts, he must sell his girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from Los Angeles to find Chinese brides. From the Chinese countryside to the shores of America, the two sisters face impossible choices, but through it all they hold fast to who they are — Shanghai girls.

The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Ken Robinson (Penguin, $15). The Element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the Element, they feel most themselves, most inspired and achieve at their highest levels. With a wry sense of humor, and drawing on the stories of a wide range of artists, scientists, athletes, business leaders, academics, and many others, Ken Robinson shows why finding your Element is essential for all of us and explores the conditions that lead us to live lives that are filled with passion, confidence, and personal achievement.

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann (Vintage, $15.95). In 1925, the legendary British explorer Percy Fawcett ventured into the Amazon jungle, in search of a fabeled civilization located deep in the deadly wilderness. He never returned. In this masterpiece of nonfiction, journalist David Grann tells the epic story of Fawcett's quest for this "Lost City of Z," as he unravels the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century.

The Butcher and the Vegetarian: One Woman's Romp through a World of Men, Meat, and Moral Crisis by Tara Austen Weaver (Rodale, $23.99). "Butchers know all about the sins of the flesh." Tara Weaver's journey toward meat eating — following a life of vegetarianism — begins with that witty and disconcerting observation. There is no simple answer to the question of whether or not we should eat meat, and Weaver never shies away from that problem. Honest, smart, and funny.

Americans in Paris by Charles Glass (Penguin, $32.95). William Boyd's review of Americans in Paris says it all, "Charles Glass's fascinating and absorbing account of American civilians trapped in Paris under the Nazi occupation . . . . he makes us think again about the nature of life in occupied Paris and refreshes what many would consider something of a tired and overworked period of contemporary history . . . . Glass writes with great fluency and verve and evident scholarship and has unearthed facts and figures that both illuminate and perturb."

How to Host a Killer Party by Penny Warner (Obsidian, $6.99). Danville's favorite mystery writer, Penny Warner, is back with a brand-new mystery series and we couldn't be happier about it. Mixing fun and and fund-raising seems like the perfect job for Presley Parker, which is why she starts her event-planning business to raise money for charities. But the good times end when she finds herself hosting a killer party. As the bodies start turning up, Presley finds herself the prime suspect.

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake (Putnam, $25.95). Alternating between an America still cocooned in its inability to grasp the danger at hand and a Europe being torn apart by war, The Postmistress gives us two women who find themselves unable to deliver the news, and a third woman desperately waiting for news yet afraid to hear it. Sarah Blake's The Postmistress shows us how we bear the fact that war goes on around us while ordinary lives continue. Filled with stunning parallels to today. Julie loved this one.

Nothing But a Smile by Steve Amick (Anchor, $15). Mustered out following injury, Wink looks up his army buddy's wife, Sal. Wink is surprised at how Sal is making ends meet: producing pinup photos for soldiers' girlie magazines. In fact, she's using herself as a model. When Wink becomes her partner in her covert enterprise, it's the beginning of a collaboration that is both wonderfully sexy and pure. Great fun!

Pride and Avarice by Nicholas Coleridge (St. Martin's Press, $25.99). Called a "master of the social romp" by Graydon Carter, Nicholas Coleridge packs scandal, revenge, and devilishly smart social observation into the roller-coaster ride that is Pride and Avarice. Generations, class, old money and new, this is a sharp, funny, and thrilling tale of two men locked in mortal combat.

The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes (Viking, $26.95).Set in a Dublin townhouse, The Brightest Star in the Sky eeminds us of the renewal that love brings. An ambitious and delightful that neatly straddles the comic and tragic, this is the perfect way to pass the kinds of sunny-rainy-bright-cloudy afternoons that this time of year brings us. Just make yourself a pot of tea first (and pick up some of Katrina Rozelle's shortbread too!).

Little Bee by Chris Cleave (Simon & Schuster, $14). This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice, the kind of choice we hope you never have to face. Two years later, they meet again the story starts there . . . . Once you have read it, you'll want to tell about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens. The magic is in how the story unfolds.

Union Atlantic by Adam Haslett (Doubleday, $26). Seventy-five years ago the English novelist Ivy Compton Burnett observed that there are "far too many novels about sex and not nearly enough money." Adam Haslett's debut is about both. And it's a story that could have been ripped from the headlines of the financial section of any newspaper of the past couple years. Turns out that too big to fail is a maxim that might not apply only to banks, but to men. Great stuff.

Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich (Harper, $25.99). When Irene America discovers that her husband, Gil, has been reading her diary, she begins a secret Blue Notebook, stashed securely in a safe deposit box. There she records the truth about her life and her marriage, while turning her Red Diary — hidden where Gil will find it — into a manipulative farce. Alternating between these two records, comlemented by unflinching third-person narratvie, Shadow Tag is an eerily gripping read.

The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson by Jerome Charyn (Norton, 24.95). This is an audacious novel about the inner imaginative world of America's greatest poet. Channeling the devilish rhythms and ghosts of a seemingly buried literary past, Charyn has removed the mysterious veils that have long enshrouded Dickinson, revealing her passions, inner turmoil, and powerful sexuality.

Blue Mauritius by Helen Morgan (Overlook Press, $15.95). Follow the adventures of the world's most sought-after postage stamps — from a tropical Indian Ocean island — the hushed atmosphere of the modern auction room — in a dramatic and gripping tale of the first stamp hunters. Helen Morgan tells the story of the most coveted scraps of paper in existence and their effects on the fantasies and imagination of stamp collectors everywhere.

Saplings by Noel Streatfield (Persephone Classics, $18.00). Noel Streatfield takes a happy, successful, middle class pre-war English family and then tracks in miserable detail the disintegration and devastation which war brought to thousands of such families. Her supreme gift was her ability to see the world from a child's perspective. What makes Saplings special is her use of that skill to explore a very adult problem — the psychological impact of war and trauma on family life.

Blindspot: A Novel of Art, Passion, and Politics in the Age of the American Revolution by Jane Kamensky & Jill Lepore (Spiegel & Grau, $15). Written with wit and exuberance by accomplished historians, Blindspot is an affection send-up of the best of eighteenth-century fiction. It celebrates the art of the Enlightenment and the passion of the American Revolution by telling stories of ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary time.

True Confections by Katharine Weber (Shaye Arehart Books, $22). Take chocolate candy, add a family business at war with itself, and stir with an outsider's perspective. This is the recipe for True Confessions, the irresistible new novel by Katharine Weber, a writer whose work has won accolades from Iris Murdoch, Madeline L'Engle, Wally Lamb, and Kate Atkinson, to name a few.

Birthright: The True Story That Inspired Kidnapped by A. Roger Ekirch (W. W. Norton, $24.95). No saga of personal hardship so captivated the British public in the eighteenth century as that of James Annesley, the presumptive heir of five aristocratic titles and scion of the mighty house of Annesley. Kidnapped at twelve years of age by his uncle, James was shipped from Dublin to America in 1728 as an indentured servant. Only after thirteen years did he finally manage to escape, returning to Ireland to bring his blood rival, the Earl of Anglesea, to justice in one of the epic trials of the century.

Balcony of Europe by Aidan Higgins (Dalkey Archive, $15.95). Aidan Higgins's greatest novel has long been unavailable, and is here reissued in a new and revised edition. Balcony of Europe tells the story of a complacent young Jewish wife from San Francisco and a middle-aged Irish painter who meet in a village on the coast of Spain, beginning an affair during the coldest European winter in two hundred years — all the while surrounded by a cast of characters as bizarre and hilarious as they are, finally, touching. Lyrical and humorous, heartbreaking and hopeful, Balcony of Europe is Aidan Higgins's crowning achievement.

The Butterflies of the Grand Canyon by Margaret Erhart (Plume, $15). When Jane Merkle arrives in the tiny town of Flagstaff, Arizona, with her much older husband on a summer day in 1951, she hasn't any idea that her life is about to change forever. After all, one of Jane's favorite sayings is "When in Rome, remember that you're from St . Louis." But over a summer spent with her sister-in-law, Dotty, and Dotty's lepidopterist husband, Oliver, in a village perched on the rim of the Grand Canyon, Jane discovers her latent ability with a butterfly net and her attraction to a handsome young ranger.

Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd (HarperPerennial, $14.95). Young, alone, and far from her family in Britain, Hope Clearwater contemplates the extraordinary events that left her washed up like driftwood on Brazzaville Beach. It is here, on the distant, lonely outskirts of Africa, where she must come to terms with the perplexing and troubling circumstances of her recent past. For Hope is a survivor of the devastating cruelities of apes and humans alike. And to move forward, she must first grasp some hard and elusive truths: about marriage and madness, about the greed and savagery of charlatan science . . . and about what compels seemingly benign creatures to kill for pleasure alone.

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister (Berkley, $15). The School of Essential Ingredients follows the lives of eight students who gather in Lillian's Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class. It soon becomes clear, however, that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. Students include Claire, a young mother struggling with the demands of her family; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer learning to adapt to life in America; and Tom, a widower mourning the loss of his wife to breast cancer. Chef Lillian, a woman whose connection with food is both soulful and exacting, helps them to create dishes whose flavor and techniques expand beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of her students' lives.

The Women by T. C. Boyle (Penguin, $16). T.C. Boyle now turns his fictional sights on an even more colorful and outlandish character: Frank Lloyd Wright. Boyle's account of Wright's life, as told through the experiences of the four women who loved him, blazes with his trademark wit and invention. Wright's life was one long howling struggle against the bonds of convention, whether aesthetic, social, moral, or romantic. He never did what was expected and despite the overblown scandals surrounding his amours and very public divorces and the financial disarray that dogged him throughout his career, he never let anything get in the way of his larger-than-life appetites and visions.

Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris (Mariner, $13.95). When sixteen-year-old Nouf goes missing, along with a truck and her favorite camel, her prominent Saudi family calls on Nayir al-Sharqi, a desert guide, to lead a search party. Ten days later, just as Nayir is about to give up in frustration, her body is discovered by anonymous desert travelers. But when the coroner's office determines that Nouf died not of dehydration but from drowning, and her family seems suspiciously uninterested in getting at the truth, Nayir takes it upon himself to find out what really happened to her.

Cats' A. B. C. by Beverly Nichols (Timber Press, $12.95). Are you concerned that your friends would melt away if they overheard your conversations with your kitties? Do you worry that it's not natural to know — really know — exactly what your cats are thinking? If so, Beverley Nichols is a kindred spirit with delightfully witty and utterly absorbing tales about his three cats, Four, Five, and Oscar. Three unique cats shared a home with the late Beverley Nichols, who wrote dozens of books on topics ranging from politics to gardens. In this playful book, he muses on his feline companions' charms, proper care, and appreciation.

Get a jump start on your New Year's Resolutions by checking out this collection of books on healthy eating, working out, and generally living a more fulfilling life.

101 Things To Do Before You Diet by Mimi Spencer (Rodale Press, $23.99). Because looking great is more than just about losing weight, Mimi Spencer has created a simple, sign-posted guide to creating a whole new you. She gently leads you to a place where you'll look, feel and be better than you ever have before. The difference is that she knows you can do all this without dieting.

59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot by Richard Wiseman (Knopf, $24). From mood to memory, persuasion to procrastination, resilience to relationships, Wiseman outlines the research supporting the new science of "rapid change" and, with clarity and enthusiasm, describes how these quirky and counter-intuitive techniques can be effortlessly incorporated into your everyday life. Or, as he likes to say, "Think a little, change a lot."

True Food: 8 Steps to a Healthier You by Annie Bond; Melissa Breyer; and Wendy Gordon (National Geographic, $26). Full of ideas as basic as choosing fresh, local foods and as innovative as cleaning your kitchen with natural ingredients, this book demonstrates how suprisingly easy, immeasurably important, and scrumptiously fun it is to choose, prepare, share, and enjoy true food. Mouthwatering recipes that highlight fresh, seasonal ingredients will further whet your appetite.

The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk, and Adventure in the 25 Years After 50 by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot (FSG, $15). As 10,000 baby boomers turn 60 every day, the timing of this insightful and thoughtful book could hardly be better. Lawrence-Lightfoot deftly navigates the landscape emerging between the time one's children are grown and the onset of old age. While Lawrence-Lightfoot's observations dominate the book, she is careful to ballast it all with the experiences of many people.

The Men's Health Big Book of Exercises and The Women's Health Big Book of Exercises both by Adam Campbell (Rodale, $24.99 each). These are the essential workout guides for anyone who wants a better body. They are among the most comprehensive exercise guides ever created. Each bulges with hundreds of helpful tips, the latest findings in exercise science, and cutting edge workouts from the world's top trainers. All to give you thousands of ways to add muscle, definition, and achieve the body you've always wanted.

The Athlete's Plate by Adam Kelinson (Velo Press, $24.95). No matter what endurance sport you love, eating right makes a big difference in how you perform. But active lifestyles don't always leave time to prepare great meals. The Athlete's Plate solves the no-time-for-mealtime problem with 85 recipes that are quick to prepare, nutritionally complete, and seasonally fresh. Whatever your sport, this cookbook will provide the information and inspiration you need to get your nutrition program on the right track.

The Athlete's Palate Cookbook by Yishane Lee & the Editors of Runner's World (Knopf, $25.99). Training hard doesn't have to mean fueling up for workouts with flavorless foods. Just ask the all-star roster of chefs who contribute to Runner's World magazine's popular monthly column "The Athlete's Palate." For 5 years, the likes of Bobby Flay, Jacques Torres, Charlie Trotter, Mark Bittman, Dan Barber, Cat Cora, and many more have contributed to the column with the dishes they use to fuel their own runs.

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin (Harper, $25.99). If you asked her Gretchen Rubin would have said that what she wanted most was to be happy. Realizing that "the days are long, but the years are short," she set out to do what she could to become happy. The result was a year spent cleaning her closets, singing in the morning, reading Aristotle, and trying to have more fun. For the rest of us, Rubin's particular journey is one that may inspire us to make our own.

The Power of Slow: 101 Ways to Save Time in Our 24/7 World by Christine Louise Hohlbaum (St. Martin's Press, $24.99). Slow does not mean stop; it means to be mindful. The power of slow can be defined as the unmatchable force unleashed when you embrace your truest purpose in life. Mindfulness coupled with a positive relationship with time will make you unstoppable. It offers 101 ways to check in with your power without checking out of life. Time will help you do this, if you let it.

Food Rules: An Eater's Manual by Michael Pollan (Penguin, $11). Eating doesn't have to be so complicated. In this age of ever-more elaborate diets and conflicting health advice, Food Rules brings a welcome simplicity to our daily decisions about food. Written with a clarity, concision, and wit that has become bestselling author Michael Pollan's trademark, this indispensible handbook lays out a set of straightforward, memorable rules for eating wisely, one per page, accompanied by a concise explanation. Whether at the supermarket or an all-you-can-eat buffet, this is the perfect guide for anyone who ever wondered, "What should I eat?"