EDITOR’S CHOICE
Yesterday’s Weather, by Anne Enright, $24. The Man Booker Prize-winning Irish writer’s new work (“The Gathering,” is a beguiling collection of 31 short stories. Love — of partners, children, friends, siblings, the afflicted — is the hallmark of this group of rich, often short vignettes. Kirkus
FICTION
The Worst Thing I’ve Done, by Ursula Hegi, $25. Though a bumper crop of tragedy weighs heavily on this controlled and articulate novel, Hegi (“Sacred Time”) is an accomplished storyteller; she inhabits different characters and blends the past with the present to tell a rich story of love, death, loyalty and survival. Publishers Weekly Crime, by Irvine Welsh, $24.95. Welsh’s (“Trainspotting”) most coherent and satisfying novel in a decade showcases the Scottish author’s inimitable combination of dark realism, satire and psychological insight. Welsh offers no easy answers in this complicated, unsettling and at times beautiful novel. Publishers Weekly
NONFICTION
Remembering Sam: A Wartime Story of Love, Loss, and Redemption, by David Everitt, $22.50. A son sensitively reconstructs his mother’s brief first marriage to a soldier killed during World War II. Such tales of lives cruelly foreshortened and of survivors’ destinies abruptly rearranged are common to all wars, but the particulars supplied here render this one especially affecting. Kirkus There’s a Riot Going On: Revolutionaries, Rock Stars, and the Rise and Fall of the ’60s, by Peter Dogget, $27.50. A fan’s lucid notes on a time when the hope or fear, depending on one’s viewpoint, of “a violent assault on the established order” occupied minds, megaphones and microphones. A top-flight interpretation of a time, its music and its strange doings. Kirkus Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives, by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, $25.95. This book is significant in its prompting of readers to consider that these young men and women are charting new territory and facing challenges that are distinctly unique to their era. Library Journal
PAPERBACKS
The Abstinence Teacher, by Tom Perrotta, $13.95. Sex education, soccer and Christian fundamentalism make strange bedfellows in Perrotta’s fifth novel. Ruefully humorous and tenderly understanding of human folly: the most mature, accomplished work yet from this best-selling author. Kirkus Write It When I’m Gone: Remarkable Off-the-Record Conversations With Gerald R. Ford, by Thomas M. DeFrank, $15. DeFrank and Ford met 30 times from 1991 to soon before Ford’s death nearly two years ago. Their talks serve as the core of this engaging account. Library Journal The Wednesday Letters, by Jason F. Wright, $13. Heartening, wholesome, humorous, suspenseful and redemptive. It resonates with the true meaning of family and the life-healing power of forgiveness all wrapped up in a satisfying ending. Publishers Weekly
COMING UP
Somebody: The Reckless Life and Remarkable Career of Marlon Brando, by Stefan Kanfer, $26.95. A new biography of the gifted actor who eventually became self-destructive. (November) Blindspot, by Jane Kamensky and Jill Lepore, 24.95. Set in Boston before the American Revolution, it centers on a portrait painter and libertine and a fallen woman. (December)
