Editor’s Choice
Ford County: Stories, by John Grisham, $24. Grisham took seven of his unused plot ideas and turned each of them into a sharp, lean tale free of subplots and padding. At an average length of slightly over 40 pages, these narratives are shorter than novellas but longer than conventional short stories. His novels sometimes moralize; these short stories don’t need to because they transform their agendas into pure, vigorous plot. The New York Times
FICTION
Knit the Season, by Kate Jacobs, $24.95. In this holiday special from the author of “The Friday Night Knitting Club,” friends brought together by a Manhattan knitting shop continue to gather for their weekly knitting sessions, this time focusing on Dakota, the young daughter of the shop’s original owner. Library Journal
Family Album, by Penelope Lively, $25.95. Employing her trademark skill at honing detail and dialogue, Lively delivers a vigorous new novel revolving around a house outside of London, the sprawling Edwardian homestead of Allersmead and the family of six children who grew up there. Publishers Weekly
NONFICTION
The Fatal Strain: On the Trail of Avian Flu and the Coming Pandemic, by Alan Sipress, $27.95. With the current focus on the H1N1, or swine flu, people may have forgotten about the avian flu scare of a few years ago. In his first book, Sipress, a writer for The Washington Post, comes bearing the unhappy news that the avian-flu threat grows more dire every day (outbreaks reported as recently as this year). Publishers Weekly
Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays, by Zadie Smith, $26.95. The best of these essays are as concerned with the essence of reading well as writing well. And they are written so incisively, and with so much empathy and warmhearted humor, that they show how reading has made Smith the writer that she is. Kirkus
The Arabs: A History, by Eugene Rogan, $35. A straightforward, careful primer on Arab political history from the rise of the Ottoman Empire to the forging of modern fundamentalist Islamic entities. Rogan traces the significant modern themes of nationalism, imperialism, revolution, industrialization, migration and women’s rights over the past five centuries within the Islamic states. Kirkus
PAPERBACKS
Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle, by Daniel L. Everett, $16. In this fascinating and candid account of life with the Pirahã, Everett describes how he learned to speak fluent Pirahã. He also explains his discoveries about the language-findings that have kicked off more than one academic brouhaha. Publishers Weekly
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, $14. The Britisher tells the bittersweet tale of a 15-year- old autistic who’s also a math genius. He’s a kind of Holden Caulfield who speaks bravely and winningly from inside autism. Kirkus
Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World, edited by Eric Foner, $16.95. An award-winning historian assembles 12 essays from distinguished scholars commenting on Lincoln the man, the emancipator and the chief executive. Kirkus
COMING UP
Shades of Grey, by Jasper Fforde, $25.95. Fforde’s books are always creative and always funny. This one promises to be no exception. (January)
