Editor’sChoice
Stardust, by Joseph Kanon, $27.99. James Ellroy fans will find a lot to like in this gritty look at post-World War II Hollywood from Edgar-winner Kanon, author of “Los Alamos.” Kanon perfectly balances action and introspection, while smoothly integrating such real-life figures as actress Paulette Goddard into the plot. Publishers Weekly
FICTION
Once Was Lost, by Sara Zarr, $16,99. Faith takes a front seat in National Book Award-finalist Zarr’s hard-hitting third novel. When 13-year-old Jody Shaw is kidnapped in broad daylight, her abduction rocks the once-secure town of Pineview and her church community. Publishers Weekly
Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall, by Kazuo Ishiguro, $25. A collection of five stylish stories from Ishiguro. As indicated by both the title and subtitle, all the stories in this fictional equivalent of a concept album concern musicians and the evening. But even more holds them together. Kirkus
NONFICTION
The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the President, by Taylor Branch, $35. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Branch met regularly with Clinton as interlocutor for a taped “diary” of reflections, distilling from the rambling conversations illuminating commentaries on major issues, including the failed health care reform, budget battles with congressional Republicans, scandals and impeachment, and foreign policy crises. Publishers Weekly
Wandering Souls: Journeys With the Dead and the Living in Vietnam, by Wayne Karlin, $5.95. A moving account of a Vietnam War veteran who returned to face the family of the man he killed. In 2008, he returned to retrace his steps, meet the family and participate in the ceremony in which the man’s remains were brought home. Kirkus
Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits, by Linda Gordon, $35. Historian Linda Gordon presents us with a portrait of the artist as a woman in her fascinating biography of photographer Dorothea Lange, who captured the images of Americans on the move during the Great Depression. Publishers Weekly
PAPERBACKS
The Eleventh Man, by Ivan Doig, $13.95. In the solid latest from veteran novelist Doig, 11 starters of a close-knit Montana college championship football team enlist as the U.S. hits the thick of WWII and are capriciously flung around the globe in various branches of the service. Publishers Weekly
State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey, $16.99. Taking as their inspiration the state guides published by the Federal Writers’ Project during and shortly after the Great Depression, Weiland and Wilsey assembled 50 of America’s finest writers and asked them to contribute essays on the same general theme: why my state is special or not. The result is a funny, moving, rousing collection.The New York Times
The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821-1900. by Mike Cox, $15.99. Cox fleshes out the Rangers’ true-life adventures with mundane realities like chronic underfunding because of public ingratitude. A whopper of a history giving equal credit to the Rangers’s legendary gallantry and the accompanying brutality. Kirkus
COMING UP
The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver, $26.99. In her first novel in nine years, Kingsolver tells the story of a man caught between two worlds leading him into some of the 20th century’s most notable events. (November)
