Editor’sChoice
An Object of Beauty, by Steve Martin, $26.99.
Martin compresses the wild and crazy end of the millennium and finds in this piercing novel a sardonic morality tale. If “Shopgirl” was about the absence of purpose, this book is about the absence of a moral compass, not just in the life of an adventuress but for an entire era. Publishers Weekly
FICTION
The Emperor’s Tomb, by Steve Berry, $26.
Cotton Malone teams with old heartthrob Cassiopeia Vitt on a dangerous mission to retrieve a priceless Chinese lamp from the third century B.C. in Berry’s rousing fifth thriller to feature the ex-federal agent (after “The Paris Vendetta”). Publishers Weekly
The Half-Made World, by Felix Gilman, $24.
Gilman honors the beauty of the frontier while skewering the colonists who despoil it. Though the story moves slowly, the lyrical descriptions of the harsh, dramatic and mystical frontier compel the reader onward. Publishers Weekly
NONFICTION
Aftermath: Following the Bloodshed of America’s Wars in the Muslim World, by Nir Rosen, $35.
Journalist Rosen distills seven years of reporting on the Middle East into a scathing study of U.S. policy — with a focus on the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He argues that the occupation inflicted daily violence and humiliation on civilians, “divided Iraqis against one another” and catalyzed a devastating civil war. Publishers Weekly
Amelia Earhart: The Turbulent Life of An American Icon, by Kathleen C. Winters, $25.
In this latest installment of Earhart historiography, Winters explores her subject’s skills as an aviator and questions her character, thus providing another corrective to earlier Earhart hagiographies and popular perceptions. Library Journal
Blur: How to Know What’s True in the Age of Information Overload, by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel.
Veteran journalists Kovach and Rosenstiel begin their intelligent guidebook by assuring readers this is not unfamiliar territory. The printing press, the telegraph, radio and television were once just as unsettling and disruptive as today’s Internet, blogs and Twitter posts. But the rules have changed. Publishers Weekly
PAPERBACKS
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, by William Kamkwamba, $8.29.
American readers will have their imaginations challenged by 14-year-old Kamkwamba’s description of life in Malawi. Witnessing his family’s struggle, Kamkwamba’s supercharged curiosity leads him to pursue the improbable dream of using “electric wind” (they have no word for windmills) to harness energy for the farm.Publishers Weekly
Little Bee, by Chris Cleave, $15.
Cleave has carved two indelible characters whose choices in even the most straitened circumstances permit them dignity — if they are willing to sacrifice for it. Little Bee is the best kind of political novel: You’re almost entirely unaware of its politics because the book doesn’t deal in abstractions but in human beings. The Washington Post
The Finkler Question, by Howard Jacobson, $15.
Jacobson summons Philip Roth at Roth’s best. This prize-winning book is a riotous morass of jokes and worries about Jewish identity, though it is by no means too myopic to be enjoyed by the wider world. It helps that Jacobson’s comic sensibility suggests Woody Allen’s, that his powers of cultural observation are so keen and that influences as surprising as Lewis Carroll shape this book. The New York Times
COMING UP
Minding Frankie, by Maeve Binchy, $26.95. When Noel learns that his former flame is terminally ill and pregnant with a child she claims is his, he agrees to take care of the baby girl once she’s born. But as a recovering alcoholic whose demons are barely under control, he can’t do it alone. Luckily, he has an amazing network of family and friends who are ready to help. (March)
