30 Days in Sydney: A Wildly Distorted Account
By Peter Carey
Bloomsbury, $13
The Australian native returns to Sydney after 17 years and tries to capture the city’s culture, history and climate in a month.
American Transcendentalism
By Philip F. Gura
Hill and Wang, $15
A look at the roots, growth and eventual withering of an intellectual movement.
Bearing the Body
By Ehud Havazelet
Picador, $14
The Holocaust casts its dark shadow over a troubled family.
Break It Down
By Lydia Davis
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $13
The 2007 National Book Award finalist’s collection of 34 short stories.
A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America
By Ronald Takaki
Back Bay, $17.99
An overview of American history from the perspectives of a variety of cultures.
Disquiet
By Julia Leigh
Penguin, $13
Disturbing family events follow a woman after she leaves her abusive husband and retreats to her family’s French chateau.
The Handmaid and the Carpenter
By Elizabeth Berg
Ballatine, $10
One version of the story of Mary and Joseph’s courtship, marriage and the birth of Jesus.
The History of Danish Dreams
By Peter Hoeg
Picador, $15
This inventive fairy-tale-like account of Danish history was first published in 1988.
How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom
By Garry Kasparov
Bloomsbury, $16
How using the decision-making tools taught by chess can guide you through the complex game of life.
The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus: Exploring and Conserving Our Natural World
By Jacques Cousteau & Susan Schiefelbein
Bloomsbury, $16
The famous adventurer’s take on protecting the environment, conservation, exploration and more.
An Incomplete Revenge
By Jacqueline Winspear
Picador, $14
The fifth book in the Maisie Dobbs mystery series about a psychologist/sleuth during the post-World War I era.
The Man in the Blizzard
By Bart Schneider
Three Rivers, $14.95
Part detective story, part literary fiction, this novel puts private eye Augie Boyer in the “alternative present” of the 2008 Republican National Convention.
The Quiet Girl
By Peter Hoeg
Picador, $15
The author of “Smilla’s Sense of Snow” returns with another sexy, smart thriller.
An Uncertain Inheritance: Writers on Caring for Family
Edited by Nell Casey
Harper Perennial, $14.99
Essays on family caregiving and the relationship between those who give care and those who receive it.
