Editor’s Choice
Coming Back, by Marcia Muller, $24.99. Rehab is hard work. Seven months after emerging from Locked-In Syndrome (as recounted in “Locked In”), Sharon McCone has been laboring to regain speech and motor control, working daily at physical therapy alongside Piper Quinn, victim of a devastating car accident. When Quinn misses days of exercise, McCone is worried enough to track her down. Library Journal FICTION
Edge, by Jeffery Deaver, $26.99. Deaver (“The Bodies Left Behind”) unveils some nifty new tricks in this edge-of-your-seat thriller that pits two worthy antagonists against each other. Deaver’s first first-person narrator, Corte, is an exciting new weapon in the author’s arsenal of memorable characters.Publishers Weekly
The Twelfth Imam, by Joel C. Rosenberg, $26.99. Bestseller Rosenberg (“The Last Jihad”) has carved out a deep niche in conservative political fiction, vividly sweeping from 1979 Iran during the hostage crisis to a world-threatening crisis in the present day. Publishers Weekly
NONFICTION
Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia, by Michael Korda, $36. This magisterial biography of British soldier and adventurer T.E. Lawrence celebrates a life spent subverting authority in the most glamorous — and bizarre — ways. Korda (“Ike”) gives a rousing, lucid account of Lawrence’s leadership of the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I and his diplomatic championing of Arab nationalism. Publishers Weekly
The Scorpion’s Tale: The Relentless Rise of Islamic Militants in Pakistan — And How It Threatens America, by Zahid Hussain, $25. Pakistani journalist Hussain (Frontline Pakistan) accurately describes the U.S.-led military action in central Asia not as a war in Afghanistan but “largely a Pashtun war” happening in Afghanistan and Pakistan. These distinctions provide the underpinning for a remarkably comprehensive and well-researched effort. Library Journal
Alphaville: 1988, Crime, Punishment, and the Battle for New York’s Lower East Side, by Michael Codella and Bruce Bennett, $25.99. From dodging Internal Affairs and a hit ordered by a drug kingpin to making a huge dent in New York’s drug trade, Codella’s life makes for a real page-turner. This should be popular with true crime readers whether or not they agree with him that the ends justified the means. Library Journal
PAPERBACKS
Raymond Carver: A Writer’s Life, by Carol Sklenicka, $20. Carol Sklenicka spent 10 years on this compassionate, riveting, page-turner of a biography and it shows with its fluent prose, meticulous research and multitudinous interviews with Carver’s hundreds of friends. The Washington Post
Inside of a Dog, by Alexandra Horwitz, $16. Over eight years of study, Horwitz (a psychology professor) found that, though humans bond with their dogs closely, they’re clueless when it comes to understanding what dogs perceive — leading her to the not-inconsequential notion that dogs know us better than we know them. Publishers Weekly
The Finkler Question, by Howard Jacobson, $15. Jacobson doesn’t just summon (Philip) Roth; he summons 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. The New York Times COMING UP
When the Killing’s Done, by T.C. Boyle, $26.95. A biologist and a local businessman who is opposed to the killing of any species enters into an escalating and dangerous disagreement. (Feb.)
