EDITOR’S CHOICE
My Sister, My Love, by Joyce Carol Oates, $25.95. Oates revisits in fantastic fashion the JonBenet Ramsey murder, replacing the famous family with the Rampikes — father Bix, a bully and compulsive philanderer; mother Betsey, obsessed with making her daughter, Bliss, into a prize-winning figure skater; and son Skyler, the narrator of this tale of ambition, greed and tragedy. Publishers Weekly
FICTION
Pelican Road, by Howard Bahr, $28. Vivid descriptions of passing landscape, of railroad processes and of the smell and sound of men and trains and life make for a story that will appeal to historical fiction fans and train aficionados alike.Library Journal
Made in the U.S.A., by Billie Letts, $24.99. Letts (“Shoot the Moon,” 2004, etc.) returns with another uplifting tearjerker, this time about an orphaned brother and sister who face travail before finding love and acceptance within a circus family. Kirkus
NONFICTION
Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama That Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11, by Lynn Spencer, 26. Commercial airline pilot Spencer shows how, with an American public stupefied by the unimaginable airline attacks on its homeland on 9/11, civil aviation and military circles joined forces quickly to fathom, manage, and defend against a then-unknown enemy. Library Journal
Voices of Autism, by The Healing Project, $16.95. The fifth entry in the “Voices” anthology project from the Healing Project, this work includes over 40 different stories and vignettes written by parents, teachers, and people with autistic spectrum disorders that showcase how families and caregivers measure perseverance, understanding, and success. Library Journal
Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You, by Sam Gosling, $20. Gosling examines how we use space — be it a dorm room, a house, a desk, or an office cubicle — to project as well as to protect our identities. Gosling contends that all humans leave behind “psychological footprints” and “behavioral residue” in their abodes. Library Journal
PAPERBACKS
The River Wife, by Jonis Agee, $14. Agee (“Sweet Eyes”; “Strange Angels”) delivers an enthralling family saga set in Missouri’s bootheel, a place so remote, “it’s as if the whole state of Missouri has been trying to shake it off for years, like a vestigial tail.” Publishers Weekly
Wonderful Tonight, by Pattie Boyd, with Penny Junor, $14.95. . . . A charming, lively and seductive book, and like all good memoirs, it also works as a cultural history . . . Boyd seems like a real person who happened to be lucky enough to live shoulder-to-shoulder with rock deities.The New York Times
The Pentagon: A History, by Steve Vogel, $18. This concrete behemoth — the largest office building in the world — is also the product of considerable human ingenuity and resourcefulness, as Steve Vogel amply demonstrates in his interesting account . . . This is not, of course, the first account of the ( 9/11) attack, but with its Clancy-esque action and firsthand detail . . . it is surely the most vivid.The New York Times
COMING UP
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, by Annette Gordon-Reed, $35. An epic story of the family whose close ties to our third president had been expunged from the record until recently. (Sept.)
Happy Families, by Carlos Fuentes, $27. A new collection of stories, separated by free-verse choruses, that explore whether, as Tolstoy said, “happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” (Sept.)
