Editor’s Choice
The Red Garden, by Alice Hoffman, $25
This collection of interrelated stories from the talented Hoffman chronicles the 300-year history of Blackwell, Mass., a mythical town tucked deep in the Berkshire Mountains. Hoffman has done it again, crafting a poignant, compelling collection of fairy tales suffused with pathos and brightened by flashes of magic. Library Journal
Fiction
While Mortals Sleep, by Kurt Vonnegut, $27.
The 16 previously unpublished short stories of this collection, taken from the beginning of Vonnegut’s career, show a young author already grappling with themes and ideas that would define his work for decades to come. Vonnegut’s acute moral sense and knack for compelling prose are very much on display. Publishers Weekly
The Final Reckoning, by Sam Bourne, $26.99.
Warned of a possible terrorist targeting the United Nations building in New York City, a security guard shoots a possible suspect only to discover that he was a senior citizen visiting from London. Working swiftly to avert a media scandal, the U.N. legal counsel brings in a former employee from their department, Tom Byrne, to shadow the NYPD’s lead investigator, Jay Sherrill. Publishers Weekly
Nonfiction
Jackie as Editor: The Literary Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, by Greg Lawrence, $25.99.
Charting Onassis’ impressive legacy as an editor at Viking and Doubleday, Lawrence draws on a wealth of sources, including interviews with more than 125 of her former publishing collaborators and hundreds of notes left to the author by Onassis. Publishers Weekly
Unthinking: The Surprising Forces Behind What We Buy, by Harry Beckwith, $24.99.
A rumination on the psychology behind our responses to advertisements from marketing expert Beckwith. With our susceptibility determined by our childhoods and culture, much of our response is unconscious. We consistently respond positively to any product that reminds us of play — the iPhone with its fun features is a perfect example. Publishers Weekly
Vice: One Cop’s Story of Patrolling America’s Most Dangerous City, by Sgt. John R. Baker, $26.99.
Born and raised in Compton, the city in L.A. county notorious as the home to the Bloods and Crips gangs, Baker traces the history of the city and his own rise from rookie to detective in his gritty memoir. Baker was more often than not outnumbered by criminals but describes a police force dedicated to protecting the community, even if that means doling out some unorthodox justice. Publishers Weekly Paperbacks
Weeping Underwater Looks a Lot Like Laughing, by Michael J. White, $15.
Set in mid-1990s Des Moines, Iowa, White’s debut novel focuses on teen George Flynn and his complex relationship with Emily Schell. Although the story takes a while to gel, at its heart is a romantic and sad love story with a likable narrator. Library Journal
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, by Michael Lewis, $15.95.
If you read only one book about the causes of the recent financial crisis, let it be Michael Lewis’ “The Big Short.” What’s so delightful about Lewis’ writing is how deftly he explains and demystifies how things really work on Wall Street. The Washington Post
Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann, $15.
Through their anguish, McCann’s characters manage to find comfort, even a kind of redemption. Always in the background is a time and a place — the waning days of President Richard Nixon, Vietnam and New York in the 1970s. Library Journal
Coming Up
Live Wire,
by Harlan Coben, $27.95. Here is another in the Myron Bolitar series that the author started in 1995. Myron finds his life’s belief system shattered as events spin out of control. (March)
