WHIMSICAL WOMEN’S FICTION features vivid local (Anchorage, Alaska!) color, a memorable single-mom heroine.

COMPELLING, DEEPLY RESEARCHED history of racial segregation and integration in the US military. Eye-opening!

COZY WWII-ERA MYSTERY set in rural Georgia features a spunky old-maid schoolteacher as sleuth. Nicely done.

ENTERTAINING COLLECTION OF Jon Ronson’s diffident-gonzo interviews with unusual types, from robots to psychics.

IN A FLORIDA TOWN haunted by a savage 1930s crime, family histories are revealed and redemptions sought.

ENGAGING BIOGRAPHY OF architect, artist, antiquarian Sarah Losh, whose 1840s church in Wreay still delights.

SHOCKING, TOUCHING, SALTY memoir from singer Bettye LaVette follows the highs and lows of her career and life.

MEMORABLY RESOURCEFUL HEROINE needs every bit of her fierceness to make her way in Victorian England. Engaging!

FIVE STORIES, CONNECTED by big themes like luck, love, and identity, each deftly handled by Sebastian Faulks.

QUIRKY, LAID-BACK HISTORY of gene research has lots of wacky examples of how the building blocks of life work.