Editor’s Choice
Rainwater, by Sandra Brown, $23.99. An antiques store owner’s explanation of why he won’t sell his beloved pocket watch to a yuppie couple is the basis of prolific author Brown’s (“Smashcut”) attempt to entertain readers with a sentimental story just in time for Christmas. Actually, it’s a pretty darn good attempt. Library Journal
FICTION
Haiku, by Andrew Vachss, $24.95. Vachss, author of the long-running Burke series that concluded with 2008’s “Another Life,” introduces an engaging if damaged new hero in this soulful thriller. Ho, an elderly martial arts teacher who once was the master of a successful dojo, renounces all worldly goods after one of his students dies because of something he said. Publishers Weekly
Rebel Yell, by Alice Randall, $25. What starts off as a drive from Nashville to Birmingham quickly moves across the globe as Randall (“The Wind Done Gone”) unravels the life of Abel Jones. She successfully creates a family that’s been torn apart and haphazardly put back together by forces sometimes terrifying, sometimes hopeful. Publishers Weekly
NONFICTION
Googled: The End of the World As We Know It, by Ken Auletta, $27.95. A corporate upstart just over a decade old, Google has wormed its way into our lives, our vocabulary, and even the hallowed halls of academe, with Internet dominance and multibillion-dollar advertising revenues that make it one of the largest media entities of all time. Auletta delivers the real scoop on how this Internet giant fits into the larger media landscape. Library Journal
The Secret Lives of Buildings: From the Ruins of the Parthenon to the Vegas Strip in Thirteen Stories, by Edward Hollis, $28. An architect debuts with a look at 13 iconic structures, each of which has altered greatly as newer generations have honored different deities, despots and dreams. A strong, satisfying exploration of the history, beauty and wonder of Western architecture. Library Journal
Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women, by Harriet Reisen, $26. A deliciously palatable biography of the iconic writer whose life was “as full of plot and character as any (she) invented.” Inspired by research from her documentary of Alcott (1832-1888) for the PBS series “American Masters,” Reisen delivers an in-depth portrait of the spirited, sentimental, imaginative, realistic woman. Kirkus
PAPERBACKS
The Glass Room, by Simon Mawer, $14.95. “The Glass Room,” a finalist for Britain’s Man Booker Prize, is a thing of extraordinary beauty and symmetry. It’s a novel of ideas, yet strongly propelled by plot and characterized by an almost dreamlike simplicity of telling. Comparisons to the work of Michael Frayn would not be misplaced, and there are occasional moments of illuminating brilliance. The Guardian
Watch Over Me, by Christa Parrish, $13.99. Benjamin Patil, an Indian-American deputy sheriff in a small South Dakota town who is troubled after a tour of duty in Afghanistan, finds an abandoned baby. He talks his wife, Abbi, a vegetarian war protester and potter, into foster-parenting. Parrish makes a lot of the complications work. Publishers Weekly
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, by Stephen D. Levitt and Stephen J. Durner, $15.99. The authors team up in this intriguing, quirky look at life and how to understand better the world in a new way. This book will appeal to fans of Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point,” as well as to economists. Library Journal
COMING UP
Secrets of Eden, by Chris Bohjalian, $25. When one of his flock is baptized shortly before going home where her husband apparently shoots her and then himself, the Rev. Stephen Drew realizes the woman told him something that only he knows. (February)
