Editor’sChoice
Rain Gods, by James Lee Burke, $25.99. Burke spins a tale replete with colorful prose and epic confrontations in his second novel to feature small-town Texas sheriff Hackberry Holland (after “Lay Down My Sword and Shield”). Three strong female characters complement the full roster of sharply drawn lowlifes. Publishers Weekly
FICTION
Last Light Over Carolina, by Mary Alice Monroe, $25. The tale follows shrimp boat captain Bud Morrison, and his wife, Carolina, through one eventful day. Despite their ardent love for each other, and how wildly passionate their love affair began, after 33 years of marriage, imprudence, distrust, financial strain and poor communication have clouded their relationship. Publishers Weekly
Best Friends Forever, by Jennifer Weiner, $26.99. Chick-lit doyenne Weiner offers airtight proof that the genre thrives with this clever, sad and sweet turn on Thelma and Louise-style rage. Juggling the politics of broken families, heartbreaking betrayal and shaky self-esteem, two girlhood pals reconnect after their high school reunion. Publishers Weekly
NONFICTION
Imperial, by William T. Vollmann, $55. Award-winning writer Vollmann (“Europe Central”) spent more than 10 years researching Imperial County, Calif., and the result is this complex, detailed, but often frenetic look at Southern California’s border region. Vollmann uses Imperial’s history to explore larger issues, such as immigration policies. Library Journal
The Snake Head: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream, by Patrick Radden Keefe, $27.50. Keefe (“Chatter”) examines America’s complicated relationship with immigration in this brilliant account of Cheng Chui Ping, known as Sister Ping, who built a multimillion-dollar empire as a “snakehead,” smuggling Chinese immigrants into America. This exploration of how far people will go to achieve the American dream is a must-read. Publishers Weekly
The First Family: Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder, and the Birth of the American Mafia, by Mike Dash, $27. Decades before the Five Families emerged and more than half a century before Mario Puzo wrote “The Godfather,” Giuseppe Morello and his family controlled all manner of crime in New York City. Best-selling historian Dash (“Satan’s Circus”; “Tulipomania”) presents an enthralling account of this little-known “boss of bosses.” Publishers Weekly
PAPERBACKS
Ground Up, by Michael Idov, $14. A fiercely funny yet frequently touching novel about the nightmare that the American dream can become. The debut novel by Idov, a staff writer for New York magazine and editor of the literary quarterly Russia! strikes all the right chords — both cultural and emotional. Kirkus
The Little Book, by Selden Edwards, $15. Following a physical assault, Stan “Wheeler” Burden is precipitated into the past — 1897 Vienna, to be exact —from 1988 San Francisco. This novel ends up a sweet, wistful elegy to the fantastic promise and failed hopes of the 20th century. Publishers Weekly
The Widows of Eastwick, by John Updike, $16. Three decades after the original release of Updike’s “The Witches of Eastwick” comes this follow-up featuring the same depressed, divorced and devilish ladies of the original. Publishers Weekly
COMING UP
Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger, $26.99. Niffenegger (“The Time Traveler’s Wife”) returns with a story set near Highgate Cemetery in London. Elspeth Noblin dies and leaves her apartment to her two nieces. The girls move in and encounter the living as well as, possibly, the dead. (September)
