Editor’s Choice
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, by Stieg Larsson, $27.95.
Lisbeth Salander is in big trouble. Again. In the third installment of the late journalist Larsson’s unpretty expose of all that is rotten in Sweden (“The Girl Who Played with Fire”), Lisbeth meets her father, who, we learned a couple of books back, is not just her sire, but also her mortal enemy. Patented Larsson, meaning fast-paced enough to make those Jason Bourne films seem like Regency dramas. Kirkus FICTION
Junkyard Dogs, by Craig Johnson, $25.95. Johnson’s sixth mystery featuring Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire (after 2009’s “Dark Horse”) will remind readers that a big city isn’t necessary for a compelling crime story and enduring hero. Publishers Weekly Private Life, by Jane Smiley, $26.95. Smiley roars back from the disappointing “Ten Days in the Hills” with a scarifying tale of stifling marriage and traumatizing losses. Rage and bitterness may not be the most comfortable human emotions, but depicting them takes Smiley’s formidable artistry to its highest pitch. Kirkus
NONFICTION
The Promise: President Obama, Year One, by Jonathan Alter, $28.
Newsweek senior editor Alter (“The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope” turns in a freshman-year report card for the sitting president, with mixed but generally good grades. Kirkus
Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball, by Bill Madden, $26.99.
Veteran New York Daily News sportswriter Madden examines George Steinbrenner, irascible owner of the New York Yankees. Venal and vituperative, generous and loyal, no owner dominated both his team and the headlines as Steinbrenner did. Madden provides a definitive and captivating biography of “The Boss.” Kirkus
Get Capone: The Secret Plot That Captured America’s Most Wanted Gangster, by Jonathan Eig, $28.
Eig rescues the narrative of Al Capone from the realm of pop melodrama, offering vibrant historical storytelling and a nuanced, enigmatic portrait of Capone and his Chicago milieu. An impressive, accessible history of a troubled time. Kirkus
PAPERBACKS
Road Dogs, by Elmore Leonard, $13.99.
Although it isn’t always mentioned, Leonard’s books have subjects. “Road Dogs” is about the varying degrees of truth and baloney in human relationships. Sometimes the truth or the baloney is lethal. The New York Times
Halfway to Heaven: My White-Knuckled — and Knuckleheaded — Quest for the Rocky Mountain High, by Mark Obmascik, $15.
In this hilarious midlife picaresque, former Denver Post reporter Obmascik (“The Big Year”) set himself the goal of climbing all 54 Colorado mountain peaks that are higher than 14,000 feet because it was both hard, and not too hard — thousands have completed the technically undemanding circuit. Publishers Weekly
Methland: The Death and Life of An American Small Town, by Nick Reding, $15.
“Methland” makes the case that small-town America is perhaps not the moral and hard-working place of the public imagination, but it also argues that big-city ignorance — fueled by the media — toward small-town decay is dangerous and appalling. Washington Post
COMING UP
Fall of Giants, by Ken Follett, $36.
The master of the historic novel (“The Pillars of the Earth”) begins a new trilogy about five families as they confront the turbulence of the 20th century. (September)
