Editor’sChoice
A Good Fall: Stories, by Ha Jin, $24.95. From the National Book Award-winning writer of “Waiting” comes a new collection that focuses on Flushing, one of New York City’s largest Chinese immigrant communities. With startling clarity, Jin explores the challenges, loneliness and uplift associated with discovering one’s place in America.
Publishers Weekly
FICTION
The Humbling, by Philip Roth, $22. Another concise, bruising examination of sexual obsession in early old age from Roth. Allusive, elusive and peppered with mordant wit to a downright Strindbergian degree, one of Roth’s most eloquent, painful and memorable books. Kirkus Broken Jewel, by David L. Robbins, $25. Robbins’ ninth novel, the best World War II Pacific campaign novel in a long time, tells the dramatic story of the 1945 rescue of 2,100 American and Allied prisoners from the Los Baños camp near Manila. This is a terrific story of the triumph of the human spirit, loaded with suspense, historical accuracy and fast-paced action. Publishers Weekly
NONFICTION
Open: An Autobiography, by Andre Agassi, $28.95. The enigmatic tennis great lays it all on the line. Those intrigued by Agassi’s personal life will relish the accounts of his significant romantic liaisons, particularly his obsession with and eventual wooing of current wife Steffi Graf, and his team mentality in building a close support network. An ace of a tale. Kirkus
The Shadows of Youth: The Remarkable Journey of the Civil Rights Generation, by Andrew B. Lewis, $28. With deep admiration and rigorous scholarship, historian Lewis (“Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table”) revisits the “ragtag band” of young men and women who formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Publishers Weekly
The Opposite Field: A Memoir, by Jesse Katz, $25. A journalist turned Little League commissioner reflects on the role of his son’s team in their lives and their community. A surprisingly complex, well-crafted story — much deeper than the average baseball memoir. Kirkus
PAPERBACKS
Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution — And How It Can Renew America, by Thomas L. Friedman, $6. The world is flat, Friedman told us in his best-selling 2005 book of that name. Now things are getting worse, and the clock is ticking. The way out of our tangles, he says, is for America to go green in any way possible — and to do it right away, investing in every kind of alternative and renewable energy form imaginable. Kirkus
Sicilian Tragedee, by Ottavio Cappellani, $15. Cappellani’s second novel (after “Who Is Lou Sciortino?”), a madcap comedy structured as a three-act play and set in contemporary Sicily, pays homage to Shakespeare and bristles with hilariously vulgar stabs at sex, art and family. The sheer energy and velocity of this merry farce will sweep readers away. Publishers Weekly
A Fortunate Life, by Robert Vaughn, $16.99. Television’s superspy had more fun than you ever will. Immortalized as James Bond manque Napoleon Solo, Vaughn gives a spirited account of his life and career as a man-about-Hollywood in the swinging ’60s and beyond. Kirkus COMING UP
Mr. Shivers, by Robert Jackson Bennett, $19.99. A man chases another across Depression-era America to exact revenge, finding allies and enemies along the way. (January)
