Anna Maxted proves that chick-lit need not be so light that it ignores issues of the day. In her new novel, “A Tale of Two Sisters,” she takes on having or adopting infants. In nonfiction, look for “Enemy Combatant,” in which a British Muslim tells of his years of being held in Afghanistan and Guantanamo. Stephen King’s final take on “The Dark Tower” epic, this one No. 7, is out in paperback. And look for Alice Hoffman’s new novel, “Skylight Confessions,” coming in January.
FICTION
A Tale of Two Sisters, by Anna Maxted, Penguin, 368 pages, $24.95|Maxted specializes in chick-lit with a message. This one is all about babies and the relationship between two very different sisters.
Pound for Pound, by F.X. Toole, HarperCollins, 366 pages, $25.95|This is the late author’s only novel. It centers on the boxing world, much as Hemingway wrote about bullfighting. It’s a gritty tale of two fighters, grandfather and grandson, and of demons and redemption.
Mask Market, by Andrew Vachss, Knopf, 256 pages, $24.95|The shadowy Burke is back in another hard-boiled crime thriller from Vachss. This time he’s on the hunt for a woman he had rescued in the past.
NONFICTION
Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment at Guantanamo, Bagram, and Kandahar, by Moazzam Begg, New Press, 352 pages, $26.95|The author, a British Muslim of Pakastani descent, relates his story of three years’ incarceration in U.S. hands.
A Time for Peace: The Legacy of the Vietnam War, by Robert D. Schulzinger, Oxford University Press, 288 pages, $30|Schulzinger, a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, discusses how memories of Vietnam have shaped the American political, social and cultural attitudes in this country.
A Life in Secrets: Verta Atkins and the Missing Agents of World War II, by Sarah Helm, Doubleday, 528 pages, $27.50|Vera Atkins recruited, trained and dispatched agents behind enemy lines in France. When 12 women didn’t return, she set about to find out their story. But she had her own story that the author divulges.
PAPERBACKS
The Dark Tower: Volume VII, by Stephen King, Pocket, 1,045 pages, $9.99|The final volume in King’s epic seven-volume story that began 30 years ago with “The Gunslinger.” It completes the story of Roland Deschain, the world’s last gunfighter.
My War: Killing Time in Iraq, by Colby Buzzell, Penguin, 368 pages, $15|Buzzell turns his 2004 web log into a memoir of the year he spent in Iraq. It’s a day-to-day portrait of the life of a soldier in today’s conflict.
Wild Ducks Flying Backward, by Tom Robbins, Bantam, 257 pages, $12|Known for his comic novels, like “Still Life With Woodpecker,” Robbins also has written short nonfiction pieces for national publications. Here is a collection of them.
COMING UP
Skylight Confessions, by Alice Hoffman, Little, Brown, 256 pages, $24.99, Jan.|A novel from the author of “Practical Magic,” this one centers on the marriage of Arlyn Singer and John Moody. They are opposites who can’t understand the other and their relationship is bound to lead to grief.
Thunderstruck, by Erik Larson, Crown, 352 pages, $25.95, Oct.|Larson (“The Devil in the White City”) is back with the true story of an Englishman who kills his wife and then travels via ocean liner to America. But Marconi’s new invention – the wireless radio – proves his downfall.
Kidnapped, by Jan Burke, Simon & Schuster, 384 pages, $24, Oct.|The husband-and-wife team of California newspaper reporter Irene Kelly and detective Frank Harriman return in this story of murder and kidnapping.
