THE BASIC EIGHT
By Daniel Handler (St. Martin’s Griffin $13.95)
Set in San Francisco, this first novel depicts teenage misdeeds from a tabloid’s point of view.
LIFE: THE MOVIE
By Neal Gabler (Vintage $14)
A cultural critic explains how, like a movie, life itself has become just one more form of entertainment.
BUY AMERICAN
By Dana Frank (Beacon $17.50)
A labor historian traces the story of economic nationalism, from the Boston Tea Party to today.
LORD OF THE BARNYARD
By Tristan Egolf (Grove $13)
Tristan Egolf’s debut novel is a frenetic tribute to one farm boy, a survivor of the violent Midwest.
CONSUMING PASSIONS
By Michael Lee West (Perennial $13)
A novelist recalls family recipes from her childhood, seasoned by plenty of Southern eccentricity.
THE NUMBER SENSE
By Stanislas Dehaene (Oxford University Press $16.95)
Psychology and arithmetic cross paths in this study of how the brain processes numbers.
A SORT OF HOMECOMING
By Robert Cremins (Norton $13.95)
A new, trendy Dublin rules in this novel, as a slacker discovers when he returns home for Christmas.
FOOD AND WHINE
By Jennifer Moses (Fireside $12)
The domestic adventures of a mother whose world is turned upside down by the arrival of twins.
WRITING AS A WAY OF HEALING
By Louise DeSalvo (Beacon Press $14)
The creative process possesses restorative powers in this writing instructor’s step-by-step guide.
FOR THE RELIEF OF UNBEARABLE URGES
By Nathan Englander (Vintage $12)
A bold collection of modern Jewish fables reveals the bittersweet side of life’s dilemmas.
NINE INNINGS
By Daniel Okrent (Houghton Mifflin $12)
Daniel Okrent picks an ordinary midseason game, takes it apart and explains what makes it tick.
SOUTH OF THE BORDER, WEST OF THE SUN
By Haruki Murakami (Vintage $12)
Childhood sweethearts reunite in this novel, which skips the antics of “The Wild Sheep Chase.”
