If you are looking for wit, you could do a lot worse than Fay Weldon. She’s back with “She May Not Leave,” a novel of a couple who get more than they bargain for when they hire an au pair. In nonfiction, John McPhee returns with a story every boy could love. In “Uncommon Carriers,” he tags along on different modes of commerce, including a semi truck, a barge and a train engine. Pulitzer Prize-winner Ron Powers’ highly acclaimed biography, “Mark Twain: A Life,” is finally out in paperback. Jumping ahead to July, you can expect Kathy Reichs’ latest forensic novel, “Break No Bones.”
FICTION
She May Not Leave, by Fay Weldon, Grove/Atlantic, 288 pages, $24|When an unmarried couple gives up their liberal leanings and hire an au pair to take care of their new child, bad things follow.
The Gravedigger, by Peter Grandbois, Chronicle, 256 pages, $23.95|Boulder author Grandbois steps from short stories to the novel with this story of forbidden love and the power of storytelling.
Marked Man, by William Lashner, HarperCollins, 432 pages, $24.95 |Lashner brings back soul-searching defense attorney Victor Carl in this case that may greatly improve his life – or kill him.
NONFICTION
Uncommon Carriers, by John McPhee, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 256 pages, $24|McPhee’s 28th book takes the author into the cab of an 18-wheeler, on a barge up the Illinois River, among other places.
Dispatches From the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival, by Anderson Cooper, HarperCollins, 224 pages, $24.95|The Yale-educated son of heiress Gloria Vanderbilt talks about his life as a journalist with the CNN network.
The Storm: What Went Wrong and Why During Hurricane Katrina – The Inside Story From One Louisiana Scientist, by Ivor Van Heerden with Mike Bryan, Penguin, 320 pages, $25.95|Van Heerden, deputy director of the LSU Hurricane Center, discusses what went wrong and what can be done to protect New Orleans from another such storm.
PAPERBACKS
Mark Twain: A Life, by Ron Powers, Simon & Schuster, 736 pages, $16|The Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s telling of the life of an American icon is remarkably straightforward.
Velocity, by Dean Koontz, Bantam, 496 pages, $7.99|A reclusive bartender is at the heart of a diabolical game being played by a merciless killer.
Angel of Harlem, by Kuwana Haulsey, One World, 368 pages, $13.95 |The author uses the life of May Edward Chinn, the first black female doctor in New York City, to anchor this historical novel.
COMING UP
Break No Bones, by Kathy Reichs, Simon & Schuster, 400 pages, $25.95, July|Temperence Brennan is teaching an archaeology class in South Carolina when she uncovers some human bones that are decidedly not ancient.
To Cherish the Life of the World: The Selected Letters of Margaret Mead, edited by Patricia Francis, Perseus, 480 pages, $26.95, July |In these letters, the world traveler talks about family, friendships, children, sexuality and, of course, her career.
The Afghan, by Frederick Forsyth, Putnam’s, 352 pages, $26.95, Aug. |The master of the international thriller is back, this time with the story of a Westerner who can pass as Arab who is recruited to infiltrate Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda.
