Nonfiction
A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother, by Janny Scott.
Barack Obama has written extensively about his father, but little is known about Stanley Ann Dunham, the fiercely independent woman who raised him. Barnes & Noble
This Is a Book, by Demetri Martin.
In this collection of essays, musings and drawings, Comedy Central host Martin gently skewers contemporary social trends, conventions and insecurities, taking on topics from social hotlines to family and relationships. Publishers Weekly
Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography, by Rob Lowe.
Lowe, actor and 1980s teen idol, delivers a keen and insightful look at how the movie industry packages a celebrity, the phenomenon of “objectification,” and being “The Next Big Thing.” Publishers Weekly
What? Are These the 20 Most Important Questions in Human History — Or Is This a Game of 20 Questions? by Mark Kurlansky.
The inquisitive author offers a book written entirely in the form of questions. The Denver Post
Fiction
Beneath a Starlet Sky, by Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Khalighi Hopper.
Will this book do well? Is this a book about the celebrity film world by the authors of the best-selling “Celebutantes”? Come on. Library Journal
Gone With a Handsomer Man, by Michael Lee West.
Teeny Templeton, aspiring Charleston, S.C., pastry chef, is looking forward to her marriage to Bing Jackson, until she catches him playing nude badminton with a pair of lovely ladies. Publishers weekly
The Gods of Greenwich, by Norb Vonnegut.
Vonnegut follows up his debut (“Top Producer”) with a first-rate thriller set in the world of hedge fund managers during the 2008 financial meltdown. Library Journal
My New American Life, by Francine Prose.
Lula, a 26-year-old Albanian woman living surreptitiously in New York City on an expiring tourist visa, hopes to make a better life for herself in America. Barnes & Noble
Paperback
The Midwife’s Confession, by Diane Chamberlain.
Friends discover “the truth about this complex woman who touched each of their lives — and the life of a desperate stranger — with love and betrayal, compassion and deceit. from the publisher
