The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender (Anchor, $15). On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents' attention, bites into her mother's homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother's emotions in the cake. She discovers this gift to her horror, for her mother--her cheerful, good-with-crafts, can-do mother--tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her life, food becomes a peril and a threat to Rose.The curse her gift has bestowed is the secret knowledge all families keep hidden--her mother's life outside the home, her father's detachment, her brother's clash with the world. Yet as Rose grows up she learns to harness her gift and becomes aware that there are secrets even her taste buds cannot discern.The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is a luminous tale about the enormous difficulty of loving someone fully when you know too much about them.

The Uncoupling by Meg Wolitzer (Riverhead, $25.95). When the elliptical new drama teacher at Stellar Plains High School chooses for the school play Lysistrata-the comedy by Aristophanes in which women stop having sex with men in order to end a war-a strange spell seems to be cast over the school. Or, at least, over the women. One by one throughout the high school community, perfectly healthy, normal women and teenage girls turn away from their husbands and boyfriends in the bedroom, for reasons they don't really understand. As the women worry over their loss of passion, and the men become by turns unhappy, offended, and above all, confused, both sides are forced to look at their shared history, and at their sexual selves in a new light.

Once Upon a Time, There Was You by Elizabeth Berg (Random House, $26). Even on their wedding day, John and Irene sensed that they were about to make a mistake. Years later, divorced, dating other people, and living in different parts of the country, they seem to have nothing in common — nothing except the most important person in each of their lives: Sadie, their spirited eighteen-year-old daughter. Feeling smothered by Irene and distanced from John, Sadie is growing more and more attached to her new boyfriend, Ron. When tragedy strikes, Irene and John come together to support the daughter they love so dearly. What takes longer is to remember how they really feel about each other. Elizabeth Berg has once again created characters who embody the many shades of the human spirit. Reading Berg's fiction allows us to reflect on our deepest emotions, and her gifts as a writer make Once Upon a Time, There Was You a wonderful novel about the power of love, the unshakeable bonds of family, and the beauty of second chances.

Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz & David Hayward (Putnam. $24.95). Meet Paul and Lacey Hansen: orphaned, pot-growing twentysomething siblings eking out a living in rural Northern California. When a headless corpse appears on their property, they can't exactly dial 911, so they move the body and wait for the police to find it. Instead, the corpse reappears, a few days riper . . . and an amateur sleuth is born. Make that two. When collaborators Lutz and Hayward (former romantic partners) start to disagree about how the story should unfold, the body count rises, victims and suspects alike develop surprising characteristics (meet Brandy Chester, the stripper with the Mensa IQ), and sibling rivalry reaches homicidal intensity. This is a deeply funny and unique book that Julie has been championing for weeks.

My New American Life by Francine Prose (Harper, $25.99). Lula, a twenty-six-year-old Albanian woman living surreptitiously in New York City on an expiring tourist visa, hopes to make a better life for herself in America. When she lands a job as caretaker to Zeke, a rebellious high school senior in suburban New Jersey, it seems that the security, comfort, and happiness of the American dream may finally be within reach. But things take a sinister turn when Lula's Albanian "brothers" show up in a brand-new black Lexus SUV. Hoodie, Leather Jacket, and the Cute One remind her that all Albanians are family... Lula's new American life suddenly becomes more complicated as she struggles to find her footing as a stranger in a strange new land. Is it possible that her new American life is not so different from her old Albanian one?

The Anatomy of Influence by Harold Bloom (Yale, $32.50). For more than half a century, Bloom has shared his profound knowledge of the written word with students and readers. In this, his most comprehensive and accessible study of influence, Bloom leads us through the labyrinthine paths which link the writers and critics who have informed and inspired him for so many years. The result is "a critical self-portrait," a sustained meditation on a life lived with and through the great works of the Western canon: "Why has influence been my lifelong obsessive concern? Why have certain writers found me and not others? What is the end of a literary life?" Each chapter maps startling new literary connections that suddenly seem inevitable once Bloom has shown us how to listen and to read. A fierce and intimate appreciation of the art of literature on a scale that the author will not again attempt, TheAnatomy of Influence follows the sublime works it studies, inspiring the reader with a sense of something ever more about to be.

Tender by Nigel Slater (Ten Speed, $40). A comprehensive, deeply personal, and visually stunning guide to growing and cooking vegetables from Britain's foremost food writer. An instant classic when it was first published in the UK, Tender is a cookbook, a primer on produce, and above all, a beloved author's homage to his favorite vegetables. Slater's inspired and inspiring writing makes this a book to sit with and savor as much as one to prop open in the kitchen. With wit, enthusiasm, and a charming lack of pretension, Slater champions vegetables--through hands-on nurturing in the garden and straightforward preparations in the kitchen--with this truly essential book for every kitchen library.

Salad As A Meal by Patricia Wells (William Morrow, $34.99). Culinary legend Patricia Wells is back with the definitive guide to creating delicious and hearty salads for any occasion. It's a simple yet compelling concept: enjoying a light and delicious main-course salad as a healthy, fresh alternative to more conventional and traditional fare. You can experience a whole world in a salad--with tender greens, savory meat, seafood, and vegetable accompaniments, and versatile dressings--and salad-friendly sides such as homemade bread and home-cured olives. In Salad As A Meal, Patricia Wells gives readers hundreds of delectable ideas, with concepts inspired by her ProvenCal garden and the interests of students in her high-demand cooking classes.

The Siege of Washington by John Lockwood (Oxford, $27.95). On April 14, 1861, following the surrender of Fort Sumter, Washington was "put into the condition of a siege," declared Abraham Lincoln. Located sixty miles south of the Mason-Dixon Line, the nation's capital was surrounded by the slave states of Maryland and Virginia. With no fortifications and only a handful of trained soldiers, Washington was an ideal target for the Confederacy. The South echoed with cries of "On to Washington!" and Jefferson Davis's wife sent out cards inviting her friends to a reception at the White House on May 1. Drawing on firsthand accounts, The Siege of Washington tells this story from the perspective of leading officials, residents trapped inside the city, Confederates plotting to seize it, and Union troops racing to save it, capturing with brilliance and immediacy the precarious first days of the Civil War.

True (... sort of) by Katherine Hannigan (Greenwillow, $16.99). True: Delly Pattison likes surpresents (presents that are a surprise). The day the Boyds come to town, Delly's sure a special surpresent is on its way. But lately, everything that she thinks will be good and fun turns into trouble. She's never needed a surpresent more than now. True: Brud Kinney wants to play basketball like nothing anybody's ever seen. When the Boyds arrive, though, Brud meets someone who plays like nothing he's ever seen. True: Ferris Boyd isn't like anyone Delly or Brud have ever met. Ferris is a real mysturiosity (an extremely curious mystery). True: Katherine Hannigan's first novel since her acclaimed Ida B is a compelling look at the ways friendships and truths are discovered. It's all true (sort of).

Troubletwisters by Garth Nix & Sean Williams (Scholastic, $16.99). The Evil has been trying to break into our dimension and dominate the earth for centuries. Unbeknownst to most of us, there are Wardens all over the globe, who protect humanity from the Evil that asserts itself at the Portals, which are the only places through which the Evil may pass into our world. Jaide and Jack Shield don't know that the world is under attack. They don't know that their dad and their Grandma X, who they move in with, are Wardens, or that they themselves are troubletwisters, young Wardens just coming into their powers.

Amanda & Her Alligator by Mo Willems (Balzar+Bray, $17.99). Having a stuffed alligator for a best friend can be surprising. Sometimes Amanda surprises her alligator with books. Sometimes Alligator surprises Amanda by "eating them." But what happens when Amanda brings home a special--and not entirely welcome--surprise? The result might be unexpected indeed. Beloved author-illustrator Mo Willems has created a funny and tender portrait of friendship that readers of any age will love.

The Watcher by Jeanette Winter (Schwartz & Wade, $17.99). Acclaimed picture book biographer Jeanette Winter has found her perfect subject: Jane Goodall, the great observer of chimpanzees. Follow Jane from her childhood in London watching a robin on her windowsill, to her years in the African forests of Gombe, Tanzania, invited by brilliant scientist Louis Leakey to observe chimps, to her worldwide crusade to save these primates who are now in danger of extinction, and their habitat. Young animal lovers and Winter's many fans will welcome this fascinating and moving portrait of an extraordinary person and the animals to whom she has dedicated her life.

The Umbrella by Ingrid & Dieter Schubert (Lemniscaat, $16.95). Filled with gorgeous illustrations, The Umbrella tells the story of when a little dog finds an umbrella in the garden on a windy day. The moment the dog picks up the umbrella, it catches the wind and pulls the dog skywards. This is the start to fantastic journey around the world. The wind carries the umbrellas and the dog all over the world, from the desert to the sea, from the jungle to the north pole.

This Plus That by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (Harper, $14.99). What comes after 1 + 1? Just about anything! In this fanciful collection, Amy Krouse Rosenthal puts together unexpected combinations that always add up to something special. Whether it's "wishes + frosting = birthday" or "birds + buds = spring," each equation is a small delight. This Plus That shows again and again that life's total experience is always greater than the sum of its parts.

Pearl of China by Anchee Min (Bloomsbury, $15). In the small southern China town of Chin-kiang, in the last days of the nineteenth century, two young girls bump heads and become thick as thieves. Willow is the only child of a destitute family. Pearl is the headstrong daughter of Christian missionaries-and will grow up to become Pearl S. Buck, Nobel Prize-winning writer and activist. This unlikely pair becomes lifelong friends, confiding their beliefs and dreams, experiencing love and motherhood, and eventually facing civil war and exile. Pearl of China brings new color to the remarkable life of Pearl S. Buck, illuminated by the sweep of history and an intimate, unforgettable friendship.

Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende (Harper Perennial, $14.99). Born a slave on the island of Saint-Domingue--the daughter of an African mother she never knew and a white sailor who brought her into bondage--Zarité, known as Tété, survives a childhood of brutality and fear, finding solace in the traditional rhythms of African drums and in her exhilarating initiation into the mysteries of voodoo. When twenty-year-old Toulouse Valmorain arrives on the island in 1770, he discovers that running his father's plantation is neither glamorous nor easy. Marriage also proves problematic when, eight years later, he brings home a bride. But it is his teenaged slave, Tété, upon whom Valmorain becomes most dependent, as their lives intertwine across four tumultuous decades. In Island Beneath the Sea, internationally acclaimed author Isabel Allende spins the unforgettable saga of an extraordinary woman determined to find love amid loss and forge her own identity under the cruelest of circumstances.

My Name Is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira (Penguin, $15). Mary Sutter is a brilliant young midwife who dreams of becoming a surgeon. Eager to run away from recent heartbreak, Mary travels to Washington, D.C., to help tend the legions of Civil War wounded. Under the guidance of two surgeons, who both fall unwittingly in love with her, and resisting her mother's pleas to return home to help with the difficult birth of her twin sister's baby, Mary pursues her medical career against all odds. Rich with historical detail — including cameo appearances by Abraham Lincoln and Dorothea Dix, among others — My Name Is Mary Sutter is certain to be recognized as one of the great novels about the Civil War.

The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell (Mariner, $14.95). Lexie Sinclair is plotting an extraordinary life for herself. Hedged in by her parents' genteel country life, she plans her escape to London. There, she takes up with Innes Kent, a magazine editor who introduces her to the thrilling, underground world of bohemian, post-war Soho. She learns to be a reporter, to embrace her life fully. And when she finds herself pregnant, she doesn't hesitate to have the baby on her own terms. Later, in present-day London, a young painter named Elina dizzily navigates the first weeks of motherhood. She doesn't recognize herself: she finds herself walking outside with no shoes; she goes to the restaurant for lunch at nine in the morning; she can't recall the small matter of giving birth. But for her boyfriend, Ted, fatherhood is calling up lost memories, with images he cannot place. As Ted's memories become more disconcerting and more frequent, it seems that something might connect these two stories — these two women — something that becomes all the more heartbreaking and beautiful as they all hurtle toward its revelation.

Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott (Riverhead Books, $15). A powerful and redemptive novel of love and family-from the beloved bestselling author. Seventeen-year-old Rosie Ferguson is smart, athletic, and beautiful- everything her mother, Elizabeth, and stepfather, James, hoped she would be. But as the school year draws to a close, there are disturbing signs that the well-adjusted teenage life that Rosie claims to be leading is a sham. Slowly and painfully, Elizabeth and James are forced to confront the fact that Rosie has been lying to them-and that her deceptions have profound consequences for them all. Imperfect Birds is Anne Lamott's most honest and heartrending novel, exploring our human quest for connection and salvation as it exposes the traps that life sets.

Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson (Ten Speed, $23). Heidi Swanson's approach to cooking whole, natural foods has earned her a global readership. In Super Natural Every Day, Heidi helps us make nutritionally packed meals part of our daily repertoire by sharing a sumptuous collection of nearly 100 of her go-to recipes. These are the dishes that Heidi returns to again and again because they're approachable, good for the body, and just plain delicious. This stylish cookbook is equal parts inspiration and instruction, showing us how to create a welcoming table filled with nourishing food for friends and family. Gorgeously illustrated with over 100 photos that showcase the engaging rhythms of Heidi's culinary life and travels, Super Natural Every Day reveals the beauty of uncomplicated food prepared well and reflects a realistic yet gourmet approach to a healthy and sophisticated natural foods lifestyle.

The Essential Tagore edited by Fakrul Alam (Belknap/Harvard, $39.95). Marking the 150th anniversary of Tagore's birth, this ambitious collection — the largest single volume of his work available in English —attempts to represent his extraordinary achievements in ten genres: poetry, songs, autobiographical works, letters, travel writings, prose, novels, short stories, humorous pieces, and plays. In addition to the newest translations in the modern idiom, it includes a sampling of works originally composed in English, his translations of his own works, three poems omitted from the published version of the English "Gitanjali," and examples of his artwork.

The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel (Crown, $30). The highly anticipated sixth book of Jean Auel's Earth's Children series, The Land of Painted Caves, is the culmination fans have been waiting for. Continuing the story of Ayla and Jondalar, Auel combines her brilliant narrative skills and appealing characters with a remarkable re-creation of the way life was lived more than 25,000 years ago. The Land of Painted Caves is an exquisite achievement by one of the world's most beloved authors.

Sugar Baby by Gesine Bullock-Prado (Stewart Tabori & Chang, $29.95). In "Sugar Baby," Gesine Bullock-Prado offers totally unintimidating step-by-step advice; the simplest instructions; recipes for candy, confections, and treats that integrate stovetop work into finished desserts; and a hilarious voice. Organized by temperature and chemical stages, here are more than 100 recipes for lollipops, caramel, rock candy, chocolate mousse, macaroons, marshmallows, pudding pops, cakes, and much more. Sugar Baby will satisfy even the most demanding sweet tooth.

The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine (Picador, $14) Jane Austen's beloved "Sense and Sensibility" has moved to Westport, Connecticut, in this enchanting modern-day homage to the classic novel. In Schine's story, sisters Miranda, an impulsive but successful literary agent, and Annie, a pragmatic library director, quite unexpectedly find themselves the middle-aged products of a broken home. Dumped by her husband of nearly fifty years and then exiled from their elegant New York apartment by his mistress, Betty is forced to move to a small, run-down Westport, Connecticut, beach cottage. Joining her are Miranda and Annie, who dutifully comes along to keep an eye on her capricious mother and sister. As the sisters mingle with the suburban aristocracy, love starts to blossom for both of them, and they find themselves struggling with the dueling demands of reason and romance.

We, The Drowned by Carsten Jensen (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $28). Carsten Jensen's debut novel has taken the world by storm. Already hailed in Europe as an instant classic, We, the Drowned is the story of the port town of Marstal, whose inhabitants have sailed the world's oceans aboard freight ships for centuries. Spanning over a hundred years, from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of the Second World War, and from the barren rocks of Newfoundland to the lush plantations of Samoa, from the roughest bars in Tasmania, to the frozen coasts of northern Russia, We, the Drowned spins a magnificent tale of love, war, and adventure, a tale of the men who go to sea and the women they leave behind.

A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Anchor Books, $14.95). Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Here Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, along with the inner lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs. With music pulsing on every page, National Book Critics Circle Award winner, A Visit from the Goon Squad is a startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption.

The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano (Penguin, $15). A prime number is a lonely thing. It can only be divided by itself or by one, and it never truly fits with another. Alice and Mattia are both "primes"-misfits haunted by early tragedies. When the two meet as teenagers, they recognize in each other a kindred, damaged spirit. Years later, a chance encounter reunites them and forces a lifetime of concealed emotion to the surface. But can two prime numbers ever find a way to be together? Julie loved this brilliantly conceived and elegantly written debut novel. The Solitude of Prime Numbers is a stunning meditation on loneliness, love, and what it means to be human.

Jane Eyre by Charolotte Brontë (Penguin, $16). Jane Eyre is a wildly emotional romance with a lonely heroine and a tormented Byronic hero, pathetic orphans, dark secrets, and a madwoman in the attic. When it was published in 1847, it was a great popular success. The power of the writing, the masterly handling of the narrative, and the boldly realistic style were much admired. But many found it difficult to believe that Currer Bell, the pseudonymous author, was Charlotte Brontë, a young woman from a bleak Yorkshire parsonage.

Every Last One by Anna Quindlen (Random House, $15) Mary Beth Latham has built her life around her family, around caring for her three teenage children and preserving the rituals of their daily life. When one of her sons becomes depressed, Mary Beth focuses on him, only to be blindsided by a shocking act of violence. What happens afterward is a testament to the power of a woman's love and determination, and to the invisible lines of hope and healing that connect one human being to another. Ultimately, as rendered in Anna Quindlen's mesmerizing prose, Every Last One is a novel about facing every last one of the things we fear the most, about finding ways to navigate a road we never intended to travel.

Born To Run by Christopher McDougall (Vintage, 15.95). Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: "Why does my foot hurt?" In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world's greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong. Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico's deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it. Born to Run is that rare book that will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that the secret to happiness is right at your feet, and that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.

The Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin ( Bantam Books, $17). Here is the first volume in George R. R. Martin's magnificent cycle of novels that includes A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords. As a whole, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Magic, mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill these pages and transport us to a world unlike any we have ever experienced. With the long anticipated next chapter due this summer and forthcoming HBO adaptation, there has never been a better time to immerse yourself into this incredibly imaginative series.

Hank Greenberg by Mark Kurlansky (Yale, $25). One of the reasons baseball fans so love the sport is that it involves certain physical acts of beauty. And one of the most beautiful sights in the history of baseball was Hank Greenberg's swing. His calmly poised body seemed to have some special set of springs with a trigger release that snapped his arms and swept the bat through the air with the clean speed and strength of a propeller. But what is even more extraordinary than his grace and his power is that in Detroit of 1934, his swing--or its absence--became entwined with American Jewish history. Though Hank Greenberg was one of the first players to challenge Babe Ruth's single-season record of sixty home runs, it was the game Greenberg did not play for which he is best remembered. With his decision to sit out a 1934 game between his Tigers and the New York Yankees because it fell on Yom Kippur, Hank Greenberg became a hero to Jews throughout America. In Hank Greenberg Mark Kurlansky explores the truth behind the slugger's legend: his Bronx boyhood, his spectacular discipline as an aspiring ballplayer, the complexity of his decision not to play on Yom Kippur, and the cultural context of virulent anti-Semitism in which his career played out.

The Alice Behind Wonderland by Simon Winchester (Oxford, $16.95). On a summer's day in 1858, in a garden behind Christ Church College in Oxford, Charles Dodgson, a lecturer in mathematics, photographed six-year-old Alice Liddell, the daughter of the college dean. Simon Winchester deftly uses the resulting image--as unsettling as it is famous, and the subject of bottomless speculation--as the vehicle for a brief excursion behind the lens, a focal point on the origins of a classic work of English literature. Dodgson's love of photography framed his view of the world, and was partly responsible for transforming a shy and half-deaf mathematician into one of the world's best-loved observers of childhood. Little wonder that there is more to "Alice Liddell as the Beggar Maid" than meets the eye. Using Dodgson's published writings, private diaries, and of course his photographic portraits, Winchester gently exposes the development of Lewis Carroll and the making of his Alice.

Summerland by Michael Chabon (Disyney Hyperion, $8.99). Ethan Feld is bad at baseball. Hopeless, even. But when his father mysteriously disappears, Ethan is recruited to save him and the world by traveling the baseball-obsessed Summerlands to stop Coyote, the trickster, from unmaking existence. With help from a ragtag group of friends he meets along the way, Ethan must not only find his father and stop Coyote, but also master his position on the field. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon has created a distinctly American fantasy experience with baseball at its heart. One of Rakestraw's all-time bestselling, and most-loved, children's books — a must read!

The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming (St. Martin's Press, $24.99). From the dark days of the Cold War to the darker days of Tony Blair's Britain, Trinity Six crackles with intelligence and action. Following in the footsteps of John le Carre and Len Deighton, Cumming creates an intriguing thriller that seamlessly blends history and fiction. Professor Sam Gaddis's bookish life falls away as he attempts to uncover the truth about a dead man who isn't really dead, and a parallel reality in which nothing is what seems. Classic, compelling espionage from a new master!

Founding Gardeners by Andrea Wulf (Knopf, $30). For the founding fathers, gardening, agriculture, and botany were elemental passions, as deeply ingrained in their characters as their belief in liberty for the nation they were creating. Andrea Wulf reveals for the first time this aspect of the revolutionary generation. She describes how, even as British ships gathered off Staten Island, George Washington wrote his estate manager about the garden at Mount Vernon; how a tour of English gardens renewed Thomas Jefferson's and John Adams's faith in their fledgling nation; how a trip to the great botanist John Bartram's garden helped the delegates of the Constitutional Congress break their deadlock; and why James Madison is the forgotten father of American environmentalism. These and other stories reveal a guiding but previously overlooked ideology of the American Revolution.

Morning, Noon, and Night: Finding the Meaning of Life's Stages Through Books by Arnold Weinstein (Random House, $27). From Homer and Shakespeare to Toni Morrison and Jonathan Safran Foer, major works of literature have a great deal to teach us about two of life's most significant stages--growing up and growing old. Distinguised scholar Arnold Weinstein's provocative and engaging new book, Morning, Noon, and Night, explores classic writing's insights into coming-of-age and surrendering to time, and considers the impact of these revelations upon our lives.

The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious – and Perplexing City by David Lebovitz (Broadway, $14). Like so many others, David Lebovitz dreamed about living in Paris ever since he first visited the city in the 1980s. Finally, after a nearly two-decade career as a pastry chef and cookbook author, he moved to Paris to start a new life. Having crammed all his worldly belongings into three suitcases, he arrived, hopes high, at his new apartment in the lively Bastille neighborhood. But he soon discovered it's a different world en France. From learning the ironclad rules of social conduct to the mysteries of men's footwear, from shopkeepers who work so hard not to sell you anything to the etiquette of working the right way around the cheese plate, here is David's story of how he came to fall in love with — and even understand — this glorious, yet sometimes maddening, city.

The Madonnas of Echo Park by Brando Skyhorse (Free Press, $14). "We slipped into this country like thieves, onto the land that once was ours." With these words, spoken by an illegal Mexican day laborer, The Madonnas of Echo Park. Like the Academy Award-winning film "Crash," The Madonnas of Echo Park follows the intersections of its characters and cultures in Los Angeles. In the footsteps of Junot Diaz and Sherman Alexie, Brando Skyhorse in his debut novel gives voice to one neighborhood in Los Angeles with an astonishing — and unforgettable — lyrical power.takes us into the unseen world of Los Angeles, following the men and women who cook the meals, clean the homes, and struggle to lose their ethnic identity in the pursuit of the American dream.

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde (Penguin, $15). Welcome to Chromatacia, where the societal hierarchy is strictly regulated by one's limited color perception. And Eddie Russet wants to move up. But his plans to leverage his better-than-average red perception and marry into a powerful family are quickly upended. Juggling inviolable rules, sneaky Yellows, and a risky friendship with an intriguing Grey named Jane who shows Eddie that the apparent peace of his world is as much an illusion as color itself, Eddie finds he must reckon with the cruel regime behind this gaily painted façade.

Union Atlantic by Adam Haslett (Anchor, $15). From the author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist You Are Not A Stranger Here, a stunning, masterful portrait of our modern gilded age. At the heart of Union Atlantic lies a test of wills between a retired history teacher, Charlotte Graves — who has suddenly begun to hear her two dogs speaking to her in the voices of Cotton Mather and Malcolm X — and an ambitious young banker, Doug Fanning, who is building an ostentatious mansion on what was once Charlotte's family land. Drawn into the conflict is Nate Fuller, a troubled high-school student who stirs powerful emotions in both of them. What emerges is a riveting story of financial power, the defense of tradition, and the distortions of desire these forces create. With remarkable scope and precision, Union Atlantic delivers a striking vision of the violent, anxious world we've come to inhabit.

Life, on the Line: A Chef's Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat by Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas (Gotham Books, $27.50). "One of America's great chefs" (Vogue) shares how his drive to cook immaculate food won him international renown-and fueled his miraculous triumph over tongue cancer. Life, on the Line tells the story of a culinary trailblazer's love affair with cooking, but it is also a book about survival, about nurturing creativity, and about profound friendship. Already much- anticipated by followers of progressive cuisine, Grant and Nick's gripping narrative is filled with stories from the world's most renowned kitchens-The French Laundry, Charlie Trotter's, el Bulli- and sure to expand the audience that made Alinea the number-one selling restaurant cookbook in America last year. I read the advance reading copy of this flying home from Waikiki and found it just riveting. Very highly recommended indeed.

When the Killing's Done by T.C. Boyle (Viking, $26.95). From the bestselling author of The Women comes an action-packed adventure about endangered animals and those who protect them. Principally set on the wild and sparsely inhabited Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara, T.C. Boyle's powerful new novel combines pulse-pounding adventure with a socially conscious, richly humane tale regarding the dominion we attempt to exert, for better or worse, over the natural world. Alma Boyd Takesue is a National Park Service biologist who is spearheading the efforts to save the island's endangered native creatures from invasive species like rats and feral pigs, which, in her view, must be eliminated. Her antagonist, Dave LaJoy, is a dreadlocked local businessman who, along with his lover, the folksinger Anise Reed, is fiercely opposed to the killing of any species whatsoever and will go to any lengths to subvert the plans of Alma and her colleagues.

A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley (Delacorte Press, $23). Award-winning author Alan Bradley returns with another beguiling novel starring the insidiously clever and unflappable eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce. The precocious chemist with a passion for poisons uncovers a fresh slew of misdeeds in the hamlet of Bishop's Lacey &mdashl mysteries involving a missing tot, a fortune-teller, and a corpse in Flavia's own backyard. Flavia had asked the old Gypsy woman to tell her fortune, but never expected to stumble across the poor soul, bludgeoned in the wee hours in her own caravan. Was this an act of retribution by those convinced that the soothsayer had abducted a local child years ago? Certainly Flavia understands the bliss of settling scores; revenge is a delightful pastime when one has two odious older sisters. But how could this crime be connected to the missing baby?

Growing at the Speed of Life: A Year in the Life of My First Kitchen Garden by Graham Kerr (Perigee, $27). With more than two dozen cookbooks and hundreds of television shows, lectures, and personal appearances devoted to promoting healthful cooking, award-winning chef and former "Galloping Gourmet" Graham Kerr literally starts from the ground up in this engaging, inspiring, and highly informative introduction to the joys of the kitchen garden-and the pleasures of the table that start with growing your own food. While Kerr taps into the current trend of sustainability, eating locally and organically, and eschewing fast food, he recognizes that today's home cooks are savvier and more discerning than their predecessors in the back-to-the-land movement. And in this day of rampant obesity and related diseases, he understands how critical taking these vital steps toward wellness can be.

Swamplandia by Karen Russell (Knopf, $24.95). From the celebrated twenty-nine-year-old author of the everywhere-heralded short-story collection St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves ("How I wish these were my own words, instead of the breakneck demon writer Karen Russell's . . . Run for your life. This girl is on fire" — Los Angeles Times Book Review) comes a blazingly original debut novel that takes us back to the swamps of the Florida Everglades, and introduces us to Ava Bigtree, an unforgettable young heroine. The Bigtree alligator-wrestling dynasty is in decline, and Swamplandia!, their island home and gator-wrestling theme park, formerly #1 in the region, is swiftly being encroached upon by a fearsome and sophisticated competitor called the World of Darkness.

Lost & Found by Shaun Tan (Scholastic, $21.99). A collection of three jaw-dropping stories: "The Red Tree", "The Lost Thing", and "The Rabbits," by New York Times bestselling author and illustrator Shaun Tan. A girl finds a bright spot in a dark world. A boy leads a strange, lost creature home. And a group of peaceful creatures loses their home to cruel invaders. Three amazing stories, written and illustrated by Academy Award-winner Shaun Tan, about how we lose and find what matters most to us. Never widely available in the U.S., these tales are presented in their entirety with new artwork and author's notes. If you're having a bad day, I can think of no better salve than reading "The Red Tree."

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova (Gallery, $25)."Sarah is the typical working mother -- too busy, multi-tasking, trying to be all things to her family and her co-workers. While driving on a busy, rain-slickened highway, she fumbles with her cellphone and, glancing up, sees nothing but red brake lights in front of her. She survives the rollover accident but is subsequently diagnosed with 'left neglect,' a condition in which her mind is unable to recognize anything left of the center of her body. The story of Sarah's fight through rehabilitation, her determination to get back to work, and her family's support and understanding is one of willpower and resolve that engages the reader from beginning to end." -- Nancy Simpson, The Book Vault, Oskaloosa, IA

The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards (Viking, $26.95). "When Lucy Jarrett returns to her childhood home in upstate New York to visit her mother, she is forced to confront the ghosts of her past. Lucy discovers that an ancestor was involved in the suffragette movement and was romantically connected with a well-known stained glass artist, even while Lucy herself reconnects with a former boyfriend who is now a local stained glass artist. In researching the past, Lucy must come to terms with her present, including confronting her long-withheld grief over her father's death under mysterious circumstances. This is a captivating novel from the best-selling author of The Memory Keeper's Daughter. -- Karen Vail, Titcomb's Bookshop, East Sandwich, MA

Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland (Random House, $26). "This compelling novel tells the story of Clara Driscoll who is employed by Louis Tiffany during New York City's 'Gilded Age.' As head of his glasswork's women's department, she achieves recognition for her design for the first leaded stained glass lamp. However, her desire for artistic success and personal happiness is thwarted by Tiffany's company policy against hiring married females. Vreeland masterfully shows an emotional picture of the glamorous world of the privileged class as set against the poverty of immigrants struggling to sustain hope and survive in their 'new world'. A must read!" -- Carol Hicks, Bookshelf At Hooligan Rocks, Truckee, CA

The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly (Pamela Dorman Books/Viking, $26.95). "This atmospheric and beautifully written debut opens with a woman who is heading out to face an unnamed crisis with 'the strength of a woman who has everything to lose.' As the story slowly builds with delicious tension, alternating between present and past, the reader is taken on a powerful journey. Revealing that a tragedy has occurred, Kelly relentlessly builds the psychological pressure between the vividly developed characters to a powerful and surprising ending. This book is about love and pain and the lengths to which a woman will go to protect her family." --Lanora Hurley, Next Chapter Bookshop, Mequon, WI

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua (Penguin Press, $25.95). "Yale Law professor and history scholar Chua bravely and honestly relates her experiences in raising two daughters with her husband. Her self-defined 'Chinese parenting' approach presents a challenge to readers to understand how her unconditional love for her children can translate into such 'foreign' parental strategies that, from a Western perspective, seemingly impose stringent strictures on her children's development. Their accomplishments in violin, piano, and academics strongly argue for the effectiveness of her method, although the pitfalls of the approach manifest themselves, and the difficult process of reevaluation results in a provocative and instructive work." --Ed Conklin, Chaucer's Books, Santa Barbara, CA

Bird Cloud by Annie Proulx (Scribner, $26). "Annie Proulx, one of America's best-loved authors, shares her adventures of moving from the East Coast to Wyoming, finding a 640-acre property, and beginning to build the perfect home. Situated at the foot of a 400-foot cliff, the scenery is breathtaking and filled with wildlife: eagles, mountain lions, herons, elk, deer, and antelope. Her home was planned to be 'a wooden poem,' and Proulx's experience of building what came to be called 'Bird Cloud' will keep you engrossed through writing that is both riveting and revelatory." --Lillian Kinsey, The Morris Book Shop, Lexington, KY

American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee by Karen Abbott (Random House, $26). "Reading American Rose, you can almost hear the clink of champagne glasses and the excited buzz of a full house at the Minsky brothers' famous burlesque club -- the place where the shy Rose Louise Hovick evolved into enigmatic burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee. Abbott uncovers tales of her famously manipulative mother and a childhood lost to vaudeville before she becomes the 'most private public figure' in America. This is a compelling, vivid homage to the Roaring Twenties." --Beth Champion, The Velveteen Rabbit Bookshop, Fort Atkinson, WI

The Recipe Club by Andrea Israel & Nancy Garfinkle (Harper, $15.99). Lifelong friends Lilly and Val are united as much by their differences as by their similarities. In childhood, "LillyPad" and "ValPal" form an exclusive two-person club, writing intimate letters in which they share hopes, fears, deepest secrets . . . and recipes — from Lilly's "Lovelorn Lasagna" to Valerie's "Forgiveness Tapenade." The Recipe Club sustains Lilly and Val's bond across the decades: through the challenges of independence, the joys and heartbreaks of first love, and the emotional complexities of family relationships, identity, mortality, and goals deferred — until the fateful day when an act of kindness becomes an unforgivable betrayal.

Too Much Money by Dominick Dunne (Ballantine Books, $15). The last two years have been monstrously unpleasant for high-society journalist Gus Bailey. When he falls for a fake story and implicates a powerful congressman in some rather nasty business on a radio program, Gus becomes embroiled in a slander suit. The stress makes it difficult for him to focus on his next novel, which is based on the suspicious death of billionaire Konstantin Zacharias. The convicted murderer is behind bars, but Gus is not convinced that justice was served. There are too many unanswered questions, and Konstantin?s hot-tempered widow will do anything to conceal the truth.

Homer & Langley by E. L. Doctorow (Random House, $15). Homer and Langley Collyer are brothers?the one blind and deeply intuitive, the other damaged into madness, or perhaps greatness, by mustard gas in the Great War. They live as recluses in their once grand Fifth Avenue mansion, scavenging the city streets for things they think they can use, hoarding the daily newspapers. Yet the epic events of the century play out in the lives of the two brothers and their housebound lives are fraught with odyssean peril as they struggle to survive and create meaning for themselves.

Just Enough Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse (Norton, $18.95). Bertie Wooster is an amiable young gentleman of excellent and ancient family – so he says– with plenty of money and no professional ambitions. Jeeves is his gentleman's gentleman, the soul of discretion, and a deep thinker, at least compared to Wooster. Jeeves brings tea and hangover cures in the morning, tempers his master's dubious taste in clothes, and invariably manages to extricate Wooster from fantastic predicaments of his own devising. Without Jeeves, Wooster would either be in jail or married to one or another terrifying young woman of his Aunt Agatha's choosing. Unlike life, a Wodehouse story always works out well in the end.

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, translated by Lydia Davis (Viking, $27.95). When Emma Rouault marries dull, provincial doctor Charles Bovary, her dreams of an elegant and passionate life crumble. She escapes into sentimental novels but finds her fantasies dashed by the tedium of her days. Motherhood proves to be a burden; religion is only a brief distraction. She spends lavishly and embarks on a series of disappointing affairs. Soon heartbroken and crippled by debts, Emma takes drastic action with tragic consequences for her husband and daughter. When published in 1857, Madame Bovary was embraced by bourgeois women who claimed it spoke to the frustrations of their lives. Davis's landmark translation gives new life in English to Flaubert's masterwork. For serious readers, this extraordinary translation will be an essential addition to their permanent library.

The Best American Short Stories 2010 edited by Richard Russo (Mariner, $14.95). Longtime Rakestraw favorite, and one of the most respected men in American letters, Richard Russo is the guest editor for this year's showcase for the finest short fictions published in this country during the past year. This year's volume contains contributions by Charles Baxter, Jennifer Egan, Ron Rash, Jim Shepherd, and many others. Very highly recommended.

The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais (Scribner, $23). "That skinny Indian teenager has that mysterious something that comes along once a generation. He is one of those rare chefs who is simply born. He is an artist." And so begins the rise of Hassan Haji, the unlikely gourmand who recounts his life's journey in Richard Morais's charming novel, The Hundred-Foot Journey. Lively and brimming with the colors, flavors, and scents of the kitchen, The Hundred-Foot Journey is a succulent treat about family, nationality, and the mysteries of good taste.

A Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay (St. Martin's Press, $24.99). This stunning new novel from Tatiana de Rosnay, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestseller Sarah's Key, plumbs the depths of complex family relationships and the power of a past secret to change everything in the present. By turns thrilling, seductive and destructive, with a lingering effect that is bittersweet and redeeming, A Secret Kept is the story of a modern family, the invisible ties that hold it together, and the impact it has throughout life.

Bob Dylan in America by Sean Wilentz (Doubleday, $28.95). Growing up around his family's bookshop in Greenwich Village, Sean Wilentz discovered the music of Bob Dylan as a young teenager; almost half a century later, he revisits Dylan's work with the skills of an eminent American historian as well as the passion of a fan. Bob Dylan in America is unique blend of fact, interpretation, and critical attachment. — a book that, much like its subject, shifts gears and changes shape as the occasion warrants. Totally absorbing, it is the result of an author and a subject brilliantly met.

Stealing the Mystic Lamb: The True Story of the World's Most Coveted Masterpiece by Noah Charney (Public Affairs, $27.95). Jan Van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece is on any art historian's list of the ten most important paintings ever made. Often referred to by the subject of its central panel, The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, it represents the fulcrum between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It is also the most frequently stolen artwork of all time. Charney tells a great story here, illuminating an honor roll of history's greatest thieves and their obsession with this amazing painting.

The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of the Homer's Illiad and the Trojan War by Caroline Alexander (Penguin, $16).Written with the authority of a scholar and the vigor of a bestselling narrative historian, The War That Killed Achilles is a superb and utterly timely presentation of one of the timeless stories of Western civilization. As she did in The Endurance and The Bounty, New York Times bestselling author Caroline Alexander has taken apart a narrative we think we know and put it back together in a way that lets us see its true power. In the process, she reveals the intended theme of Homer's masterwork — the tragic lessons of war and its enduring devastation.

The Tree by John Fowles (Ecco, $13.99). First published a generation ago, it is a provocative meditation on the connection between the natural world and human creativity, and a powerful argument against taming the wild. In it, Fowles recounts his own childhood in England and describes how he rebelled against his Edwardian father's obsession with the "quantifiable yield" of well-pruned fruit trees and came to prize instead the messy, purposeless beauty of nature left to its wildest. The Tree is an inspiring, even life-changing book one that reaffirms our connection to nature and reminds us of the pleasure of getting lost, the merits of having no plan, and the wisdom of following one's nose wherever it may lead — in life as much as in art.

The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey (Doubleday, $27.95). From Susan Casey, bestselling author of The Devil's Teeth, an astonishing book about colossal, ship-swallowing rogue waves and the surfers who seek them out. For centuries, mariners have spun tales of gargantuan waves, 100-feet high or taller. Until recently scientists dismissed these stories — waves that high would seem to violate the laws of physics. But in the past few decades, as a startling number of ships vanished and new evidence has emerged, oceanographers realized something scary was brewing in the planet's waters. They found their proof in February 2000, when a British research vessel was trapped in a vortex of impossibly mammoth waves in the North Sea — including several that approached 100 feet. Like Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, The Wave brilliantly portrays human beings confronting nature at its most ferocious.

Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons for Making Life Work by Tim Gunn (Gallery Books, $23.99). You've watched him mentor talented designers on the hit television show Project Runway. Now the inimitable Tim Gunn shares his personal secrets for "making it work" — in your career, relationships, and life. Filled with delightfully dishy stories of fashion's greatest divas, behind-the-scenes glimpses of Runway's biggest drama queens, and never-before-revealed insights into Tim's private life, Gunn's Golden Rules is like no other how-to book you've ever read. Living a well-mannered life of integrity and character is hard work, he admits, but the rewards are many: being a good friend, being glamorous and attractive, and being a success — much like Tim himself!

Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse by James Swanson (Morrow, $27.99). On the morning of April 2, 1865, Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, received a telegram from General Robert E. Lee. There is no more time — the Yankees are coming, it warned. Shortly before midnight, Davis boarded a train from Richmond and fled the capital, setting off an intense and thrilling chase in which Union cavalry hunted the Confederate president. Two weeks later, President Lincoln was assassinated, and the nation was convinced that Davis was involved in the conspiracy that led to the crime. Lincoln's murder, autopsy, and White House funeral transfixed the nation. His final journey began when soldiers placed his corpse aboard a special train that would carry him home on the 1,600-mile trip to Springfield. It was the largest and most magnificent funeral pageant in American history. To the Union, Davis was no longer merely a traitor. He became a murderer, a wanted man with a $100,000 bounty on his head. Davis was hunted down and placed in captivity, the beginning of an intense and dramatic odyssey that would transform him into a martyr of the South's Lost Cause. James Swanson masterfully weaves together the stories of two fallen leaders as they made their last expeditions through the bloody landscape of a wounded nation.

Fifty Places to Hike Before You Die by Chris Santella (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $24.95). Fifty Places to Hike Before You Die is the latest offering in the bestselling Fifty Places series. Chris Santella, along with top expedition leaders, explores the world?s greatest walking adventures. Some, such as the Lunana Snowman Trek in Bhutan and the Kangshung Valley Trek in Tibet, are grueling multiweek adventures at high altitudes. Others, such as Japan's Nakesando Trail, move leisurely from village to village, allowing walkers to immerse themselves in the local culture. Whether it's climbing the Rwandan mountains to view mountain gorillas or strolling through bistros along Italy's Amalfi Coast, there's a memorable hike at everyone?s level within these 50 chapters. With commentaries from expert trekkers and insider tips that lead the reader off the beaten path, Santella has again captured the special characteristics that make these must-visit destinations.

If summer cooking is all about ease — simply prepared fruit and vegetables, quick grills, dining under the stars — then autumn cooking is slower and more thoughtful — braises and stews, the thoughtful use of preserved foods, dining fireside. Either way though, it's seasonal, it's generous, and there is the pure pleasure of looking down the long table shared with friends and family.

This month's cookbooks are each so richly the way I like to cook — casual and welcoming, flavorful and bold — that it's a pleasure to share them with you.

Michael Chiarello's Bottega: Bold Italian Flavors from California's Wine Country by Michael Chiarello (Chronicle Books, $40). Open only a little longer than a year, Chiarello's restaurant, Bottega, is already one of must-go destinations of the Wine Country. This lavishly illustrated volume contains all the recipes that have made it so beloved, so quickly. There's the Adriatic Brodetta (a sensual seafood stew), the whole-pig Porchetta, Green Eggs and Ham, lusciously silken Goat's Milk-Braised Lamb Shanks, and the recipe for which the chef is renowned: Smoked and Braised Short Ribs with Roasted Cipollini Onions and Smoky Jus.

Around My French Table: More than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (HMH, $40). From Goat Cheese Mini Puffs to Peach Melba, Around My French Table is a glorious banquet of French recipes. From the classic to contemporary, Dorie Greenspan provides a collection that will inspire you to work your way through each easy, delicious recipe. And the recipe for Celery-Celery Soup looks perfect for a cool Thursday evening at home (don't worry, there's bound to be a cool Thursday evening sometime soon!).

D. I. Y. Delicious: Recipes and Ideas for Simple Food from Scratch by Vanessa Barrington (Chronicle, $24.95). Revive the lost arts of the kitchen and learn how to bring real, homemade food back into your life on a daily basis. Jams, granola, and pickles can be made in a snap. For a slow food project, culture simple cheeses and yogurts with a pure, creamy flavor. Learn to brew root beer. Put up fresh fruits in season. Bake crackers to pair with your own jam. In addition to the benefits of healthier food and much reduced packaging, you will gain the satisfaction of having done it yourself!

Ethan Stowell's New Italian Kitchen by Ethan Stowell and Leslie Miller (Ten Speed Press, $35.00). I'd never heard of him before this book was announced, but Ethan Stowell's recipes are warm and welcoming and just plain soulful. And I think a couple of these recipes may well show up at my next dinner party: "Beef Carpaccio with Preserved Pecorino Sardo and Arugula" and "Seared Scallops with Chanterelles adn Parsnip and Pear Purée." Very highly recommended.

Cooking with Italian Grandmothers: Recipes and Stories from Tuscany to Sicily by Jessica Theroux (Welcome Books, $40). Chef Jessica Theroux spent a year traveling throughout Italy, cooking and talking with Italian grandmothers, learning their secrets and listening to their stories. The result is a charming and authentic collection of recipes, techniques, anecdotes, and photographs that celebrate the rustic and sustainable culinary traditions of Italy's home cooks. Don't let the quiet brown paper cover with sketch art fool you, this a sophisticated and beautiful book.

The Food Matters Cookbook: 500 Revolutionary Recipes for Better Living by Mark Bittman (Simon & Schuster, $35). Please don't mistake me when I say that recipes for losing weight and healing the planet are not always at the fore when I choose what to cook. So often food with a healthy agenda is food that doesn't taste as good as it could. BUT, Mark Bittman is here to prove me wrong. And, his recipes are so often fast as well. This book is a boon to anyone who wants to eat well, healthfully, and is crunched for time (when does dinner have to be on the table?). Besides, "Fish Kebabs over Warm Olive Tabbouleh" are just plain yummy.

Canning for a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry by Liana Krissoff (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $24.95). This hip, modern handbook is filled with fresh and new ways to preserve nature's bounty (remember that big garden you planted in May?) throughout the year. Organized by season and illustrated with 100 beautiful photographs, it offers detailed instructions and recipes for making more than 150 canned, pickled, dried, and frozen foods, as well as 50 inventive recipes for dishes using these foods.

Heart of the Artichoke and Other Kitchen Journeys by David Tanis (Artisan, $35). Nobody embodies the present-day mantra "Eat real food in season" better than David Tanis, one of the most original voices in American cooking. For more than a quarter century, Tanis has been the chef at the groundbreaking Chez Panisse, where the menu consists of a single perfect meal that changes each evening. His sensibility and deft hand result in recipes that are down-to-earth yet sophisticated, easy to prepare but impressive on the plate. Heart of the Artichoke is the logical progression from Tanis's acclaimed Platter of Figs, taking you on another marvelous culinary journey. We are thrilled to invite you to a luncheon with David Tanis on Sunday, 24 October 2010 at 1 PM. Find more details here.

The Widower's Tale by Julia Glass (Pantheon, $25.95). With equal parts affection and satire, Julia Glass spins a captivating tale about the loyalties, rivalries, and secrets of a very particular family — parents and children; lovers and friends. Yet again, she plumbs the human heart brilliantly, dramatically, and movingly. Both Michael and Julia loved this powerful, but beautiful novel. If you loved Julia's earlier novels, you must check out The Widow's Tale. Julia Glass is speaking at Rakestraw Books on 15 September 2010 at 7 PM.

The Creative Collection of American Short Stories illustrated by Yan Nascimbene, introduction by Ray Bradbury (Creative Editions, $28.95). From Ray Bradbury's introduction: "You may choose, as I do, to look upon this collection as one might an emerald. This is a fitting metaphor, I think, for a couple reasons. First, writing a short story masterpiece is not unlike cutting and polishing a gemstone — both tasks require a keen eye, practiced technique, and a confident hand. Second, reading this anthology is akin to examining a cut emerald with any surfaces: depending on how you hold and look at it, you'll see many different facets. In short stories, each of these facets can reflect its own truths about life." Quite simply, this is a book for your permanent library: an extraordinary collection of writers from Edgar Allan Poe to Joyce Carol Oates decorated with fine illustrations by Nascimbene and a truly graceful design. Very highly recommended.

The Violin of Auschwitz by Maria Àngels Anglada (Bantam, $20). Written with lyrical simplicity and haunting beauty — and interspersed with chilling, actual Nazi documentation — The Violin of Auschwitz is more than just a novel: It is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the power of beauty, art, and hope to triumph over the darkest adversity. Tatiana De Rosnay, author of Sarah's Key, writes "Read this little book and it will haunt you forever. It vibrates with the sheer horror of inhumanity and the beautiful power of music. Remember, never forget."

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $28). In his first novel since The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen gives us an epic of contemporary love and marriage. Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire. In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedom's characters as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, Franzen has produced an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time.

Tears on the Mountain by John Addiego (Unbridled Books, $25.95). Set in Sonoma in the mid-1800s and steeped in history, Tears on the Mountain focuses on California's pioneer beginnings, its early conflicts and settlement, while chronicles a single day in one man's life — July 4, 1876 — as the town is preparing for a surprisingly mysterious and eventful Centennial Independence Day celebration that cause Jeremiah McKinley to revisit the past and the long road that has brought him to an unexpected and dangerous moment in his life.

Getting to Happy by Terry McMillan (Viking, $27.95). Terry McMillan's Waiting to Exhale was more than just a bestselling novel &mdash its publication was a watershed moment in literary history. McMillan's vibrant story about four African American women struggling to find love and their place in the world touched a nerve and changed American fiction forever. In Getting to Happy, McMillan revisits Savannah, Gloria, Bernadine, and Robin fifteen years after we parted ways with their stories. All four women are learning to heal past hurts, reclaim their joy and their dreams; but they return to us full of spirit, sass and faith in one another. They've exhaled, now they are learning to breathe.

Aurorarama by Jean-Christophe Valtat (Melville House Publishing, $25.95). New Venice, Pearl of the Arctic — a place of sparkling frozen canals and gorgeous architecture laced in ice, of elegant sleighs and ingenious technology, of music and literature, and fashionable policemen in chic top-hats . . . . Also, of extreme cold, food shortages and drug problems, of a restless populace, secret police and anarchist terrorism, of snowcaine gangsters and the occasional phantom. In short, a place where bad things happen after dark. The thing is . . . . it's dark all the time.

The Elephant's Journey by José Saramago (HMH, $24). In 1551, King João III of Portugal decided to give Archduke Maximilian an unusual wedding present: an elephant named Solomon, along with his keeper Subhro. Accompanied by the archduke, his new bride, and the royal guard, our unlikely heroes traverse a continent riven by the Reformation and civil war. They make their way through the storied cities of northern Italy: Genoa, Piacenze, Mantua, Verona, Venice, and Trent, where the Council of Trent is in session. They brave the Alps and the terrifying Isarco and Brenner passes; they sail across the Mediterranean Sea and up the Inn River. (Elephants, it turns out, are natural sailors.) At last they make their grand entry into the imperial city of Vienna. Both a fine historical travelogue and an unusual meditation on friendship, The Elephant's Journey is a lovely final gift from an European master.

Ape House by Sara Gruen (Spiegel & Grau, $26). Author Vanessa Woods writes, "I read Ape House in one joyous breath. Ever an advocate for animals, Gruen brings the apes to life with the passion of a scientist . . . . The novel is immaculately researched and lovingly crafted. If people fall in love with our forgotten, fascinating, endangered relative, it will be because of Ape House. If you loved Water for Elephants, you must look at Ape House.

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson (Random House, $30). I'm going to let Isabel Wilkerson introduce her remarkable book, "The actions of the people in this book were both universal and distinctly American. Their migration was a response to an economic and social structure not of their making. They did what humans have done for centuries when life became untenable — what the pigrims did under the tyranny of British rule . . . what the Irish did when there was nothing to eat, what the European Jews did during the spread of Nazism . . . They did what human beings looking for freedom, throughout history, have often done. They left." The Warmth of Other Suns is a brilliant and wonderfully readable addition to American history.

Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril edited by Kathleen Dean Moore & Michael P. Nelson (Trinity University Press, $24.95). Moral Ground brings together the testimony of over eighty visionaries — theologians and religious leaders, scientists, elected officials, business leaders, naturalists, activists, and writers — to present a diverse and compelling call to honor our individual and collective moral responsibility to our planet. In the face of environmental degradation and global climate change, scientific knowledge alone does not tell us what we ought to do. The missing premise of the argument and much-needed center piece in the debate to date has been the need for ethical values, moral guidance, and principled reasons for doing the right thing for our planet, its animals, its plants, and its people.

True Prep: It's a Whole New Old World by Lisa Birnbach with Chip Kidd (Knopf, $19.95). I don't know about you, but I'm ready for a giggle (or at least a rueful, self-mocking chuckle). Fortunately for all of us, Lisa Birnbach (remember The Official Preppy Handbook that darling of 1980?!), has a perfectly priceless book out this season. And, dahlings, it's marvelous! Whether your name was down for the Bohemian Club before you were born (if you have to ask . . . .) or you just wish it had been, this is the book for you. Birnbach and Kidd reveal how the traditional world of natural-fiber and dog-loving, G&T-soaked Muffies and Kips have adapted to life in this modern world. Shetland is out, cashmere is in. Smoking isn't cool any more, but NPR has stood the test of time. Very highly recommended. Mix yourself a proper drink and prepare to wince with laughter.

The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss by Edmund de Waal (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26). The Ephrussis were a grand banking family, as rich and respected as the Rothschilds, who "burned like a comet" in nineteenth-century Paris and Vienna society. Yet by the end of World War II, almost the only thing remaining of their vast empire was a collection of 264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox. The renowned ceramicist Edmund de Waal became the fifth generation to inherit this small and exquisite collection of netsuke. Entranced by their beauty and mystery, he determined to trace the story of his family through the story of the collection. In The Hare with Amber Eyes

Turkish Delight & Treasure Hunts: Delightful Treats and Games from Classic Children's Books by Jane Brocket (Perigee, $19.95). "'We must do something,' said Alice . . . . 'Yes, but what shall we do?' said Dicky . . . . 'Let's read all the books again. We shall get lots of ideas out of them.'" -- The Story of the Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit. With the delightful activities and delicious recipes in Turkish Delight & Treasure Hunts you'll learn how to follow in the footsteps of your favorite childhood heroes, from the Borrowers and Alice in Wonderland to the Ingalls family and Winnie-the-Pooh. Perfect for that bookish child or for some old-fashioned family fun, this is truly charming book: a nostalgic treat for grown-ups and a thoroughly engaging way to share classic stories with the next generation.

The Farmer's Daughter by Jim Harrison (Grove, $14). Harrison?s latest collection of novellas finds him writing at the height of his powers, and in fresh and audacious new directions. The Farmer's Daughter is a memorable portrait of three decidedly unconventional American lives. With wit, poignancy, and an unbounded love for his characters, Jim Harrison has again reminded us why he is one of the most cherished and important authors at work today.

A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cossé (Europa Editions, $15). Ivan and Francesca open a store where the passion for literature is given free reign. Tucked away in a corner of Paris, the store offers its clientele a selection of literary masterpieces chosen by a top-secret committee of likeminded literary connoisseurs. To their amazement, after only a few months, the little dream store proves a success. And that is precisely when their troubles begin. At first, both owners shrug off the anonymous threats that come their way and the venomous comments concerning their store circulating on the Internet, but when three members of the supposedly secret committee are attacked, they decide to call the police. One by one, the pieces of this puzzle fall ominously into place, as it becomes increasingly evident that Ivan and Francesca?s dreams will be answered with pettiness, envy and violence.

Six Suspects by Vikas Swarup (Minotaur Books, $14.99). Writing in the New York Times, Janet Maslin said "[A] Bollywood version of the board game Clue with a strain of screwball comedy thrown in . . . .[A]lthough the story's geographical span is even bigger than India, the whole thing feels handily confined to the kind of isolated, air-tight setting that Agatha Christies readers love. Thanks to such a schematic setup Six Suspects is gleeful, sneaky fun . . . . . Mr. Swarup, an Indian diplomat, brings a worldly range of attributes to his potentially simple story. [His] style stays light and playful, preferring to err on the side of broad high jinks rather than high seriousness. A fizzy romp seems to be the main thing he has in mind. Oddly enough, that ambition turns this formulaic-sounding book into a refreshing oddity. It bears no resemblance to any of the cookie-cutter genre books of this season."

The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt (Vintage, $16.95). It is both a sweeping epic saga: the story of the British Empire at its golden perfect late nineteenth/early twentieth century height. But it also an intimate family piece: the story of one family and the perfect golden world that one mother has created for her children. If it begins in 1890 in deep summer, then it ends in 1920 in the bleak post-World War I winter. The innocence of the Empire turns out to be no less fragile than the innocence of one family, than that of childhood. Byatt's writing here is stunning. Where so many contemporary writers are spare and almost austere, Byatt is lush and rich. And yet, so perfect is her control that it never veers over the top. The effect is perfect and balanced. And, I loved these characters . . . . A Rakestraw Book of the Year for 2009.

Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby (Riverhead, $15). In a dreary seaside town in England, Annie loves Duncan — or thinks she does, because she always has. Duncan loves Annie, but then, all of a sudden, he doesn't anymore. So Annie stops loving Duncan, and starts getting her own life. Few contemporary novelists are as well-able to capture the nuanced subtleties of relationships between men and women. As in his earlier novel, High Fidelity, Hornby's deep love of and appreciation of music underpins the story. And, no contemporary writer, so well understands the nature of fan-dom and the role it can play in people's lives. Richly funny and terribly perceptive: this is one that will have you reading the best bits aloud to whomever you're with, just to share the laugh. A Rakestraw Book of the Year for 2009.

Hector and the Search for Happiness by François Lelord (Penguin, $14). As Hector travels from Paris to China to the United States, he keeps a list of observations about the people he meets, hoping to find the secret to happiness. Combining the winsome appeal of The Little Prince with the inspiring philosophy of The Alchemist, Hector's journey around the world and into the human soul is entertaining, empowering, and smile inducing-as winning in its optimism as it is powerful in its insight and reassuring in its simplicity.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Picador, $16). England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. The quest for the kings freedom destroys his adviser, the brilliant Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell is a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people and a demon of energy: he is also a consummate politician, hardened by his personal losses, implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph? In inimitable style, Hilary Mantel presents a picture of a half-made society on the cusp of change, where individuals fight or embrace their fate with passion and courage. With a vast array of characters, overflowing with incident, the novel re-creates an era when the personal and political are separated by a hairbreadth, where success brings unlimited power but a single failure means death. I can't believe how much I loved this spectacular novel, I think re-read the last fifty pages at least three times. Winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize.

Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? by Michael J. Sandel (FSG, $15). Affirmative action, same-sex marriage, physician-assisted suicide, abortion, national service, the moral limits of markets — Sandel relates the big questions of political philosophy to the most vexing issues of the day, and shows how a surer grasp of philosIn The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan put the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl at the center of a rich history, told through the characters he brought to indelible life. Now he performs the same alchemy with The Big Burn, the largest-ever forest fire in America and the tragedy that cemented Teddy Roosevelt's legacy as the president who saved our wild places. In The Big Burn, Egan tells an epic story, paints a moving portrait of the people who lived it, and offers a critical cautionary tale. This fine book belongs on the same shelf as Into the Wild and A River Runs Through It ? an extraordinary tale of the American West. ophy can help us make sense of politics, morality, and our own convictions as well. Justice is lively, thought-provoking, and wise — an essential new addition to the small shelf of books that speak convincingly to the hard questions of our civic life.

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham (Basic Books, $15.95). When our ancestors adapted to using fire, humanity began. Once our hominid ancestors began cooking their food, the human digestive tract shrank and the brain grew. Time once spent chewing tough raw food could be sued instead to hunt and to tend camp. Cooking became the basis for pair bonding and marriage, created the household, and even led to a sexual division of labor. Tracing the contemporary implications of our ancestors diets, Catching Fire sheds new light on how we came to be the social, intelligent, and sexual species we are today.

The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America by Timothy Egan (Mariner, $15.95). In The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan put the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl at the center of a rich history, told through the characters he brought to indelible life. Now he performs the same alchemy with The Big Burn, the largest-ever forest fire in America and the tragedy that cemented Teddy Roosevelt's legacy as the president who saved our wild places. In The Big Burn, Egan tells an epic story, paints a moving portrait of the people who lived it, and offers a critical cautionary tale. This fine book belongs on the same shelf as Into the Wild and A River Runs Through It — an extraordinary tale of the American West. A Rakestraw Book of the Year for 2009.

A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster by Rebecca Solnit (Penguin, $16). The most startling thing about disasters, according to award-winning author Rebecca Solnit, is not merely that so many people rise to the occasion, but that they do so with joy. That joy reveals an ordinarily unmet yearning for community, purposefulness, and meaningful work that disaster often provides. A Paradise Built in Hell is an investigation of the moments of altruism, resourcefulness, and generosity that arise amid disaster's grief and disruption and considers their implications for everyday life. It points to a new vision of what society could become-one that is less authoritarian and fearful, more collaborative and local.

Barney's Version by Mordecai Richler (Vintage, $15.95). Barney Panofsky — Canadian expat, wily lover of women, writer, television producer, raconteur — is finally putting pen to paper so he can rebut the charges about him made in his rival's autobiography. Whether it's ranting about his bohemian misadventures during the 1950's in Paris, his tumultuous three marriages, or his successful trashy TV company, Totally Unnecessary Productions, he quickly proves that his memory may be slipping, but his bile isn't. But when he's charged with the murder of his own best friend — caught in bed with the second Mrs. Panofsky — Barney's version of things might not be enough to keep him out of trouble.

Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley (Melville House, $10). "When you sell a man a book," says Roger Mifflin, the sprite-like book peddler at the center of this classic novella, "you don't sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue--you sell him a whole new life." In this beguiling but little-known prequel to Christopher Morley's beloved Haunted Bookshop, the "whole new life" that the traveling bookman delivers to Helen McGill, the narrator of Parnassus on Wheels, provides the romantic comedy that drives this charming love letter to a life in books.

The Romantics by Galt Niederhoffer (Picador, $14). Laura and Lila were college roommates — one brooding and Jewish, the other the epitome of golden WASP-dom. Now it's ten years later, a day before Lila's wedding to Laura's former boyfriend, and as the guests arrive, Laura finds herself the only one not coupled up. Struggling with the traditionally thankless role of maid of honor, Laura realizes for the first time why she can't stop thinking about her long, tangled relationship with the groom. And it appears that he is not entirely ready for the altar himself. Unfolding over two days off the coast of Maine, The Romantics follows the shifting allegiances among an unforgettable set of characters.

Don't Tell Alfred by Nancy Mitford (Vintage, $14.95). Fanny Wincham — last seen as a young woman in The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate — has lived contentedly for years as housewife to an absent-minded Oxford don, Alfred. But her life changes overnight when her beloved Alfred is appointed English Ambassador to Paris. Soon she finds herself mixing with royalty and Rothschilds while battling her hysterical predecessor, Lady Leone, who refuses to leave the premises. When Fanny's tender-hearted secretary begins filling the embassy with rescued animals and her teenage sons run away from Eton and show up with a rock star in tow, things get entirely out of hand. Gleefully sending up the antics of mid-century high society, Don't Tell Alfred is classic Mitford.

The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book with a foreward by M. F. K. Fisher (Harper Perennial, $14.99). The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book is the author's true memoir: a collection of traditional French recipes that predates Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Toklas supplies familiar recipes such as coq au vin, bouillabaisse, and boeuf bourguignon, along with what is perhaps the earliest instructions for haschich fudge ("which anyone could whip up on a rainy day"), and she entertains with fascinating memories of Paris — Toklas' home for most of her life — and of rural France, Spain, and America.

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?"