The Dissident
By Nell Freudenberger
HarperPerennial, $14.95
A dysfunctional Beverly Hills family plays host to a Chinese artist in this novel.
Sherlock Holmes: The Unauthorized Biography
By Nick Rennison
Grove, $14
Combines historical events with episodes from Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories to examine the life of the renowned fictional detective.
Actors at Work
By Rosemarie Tichler and Barry Jay Kaplan
Faber and Faber, $16
Fourteen conversations exploring the acting craft with Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, among others.
Simon Bolivar
By John Lynch
Yale University Press, $20
Biography of the Venezuelan aristocrat who came to be known as “The Liberator.”
The Humboldt Current
By Aaron Sachs
Penguin, $16
An account of the influence of explorer-scientist Alexander von Humboldt on 19th Century American culture and environmentalism.
Half of a Yellow Sun
By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Anchor, $14.95
Five characters are the focus of this fictional account of political events in 1960s Nigeria.
