Lena Respass is the last transcriptionist at the Record, New York City's largest and oldest newspaper. Each day, she hooks herself to a Dictaphone in an otherwise empty 11th-floor room overlooking Times Square and transcribes the voices of reporters calling in stories. Her only conversations are with a pigeon on her window ledge and an occasional harried editor with instructions to "just slug it, type it, dump it. We need it." Few at the paper even know her "office" exists, fewer still know her name. When her shifts end, she calls the news desk to report only that "this is the Recording Room calling in for a goodnight."

With Lena, Amy Rowland--an editor (and former transcriptionist) at the New York Times Book Review--updates a long line of isolated underground literary protagonists that includes Ralph Ellison's invisible man and Colson Whitehead's intuitionist. She even flavors this first novel with a taste of Kafka, as in her description of the Record newsroom with its "well-medicated activity, soundless keypads, and clusters of low-partitioned cubicles... like a benign government agency in a bad budget cycle."

Rowland's The Transcriptionist is a behind-the-firewall look at a traditional newspaper's death spiral. More memorably, however, it is the story of a sensitive, observant woman who finally decides to disconnect from the disembodied voices reporting war, suicide and suffering--"listening to people's tragedies all day"--and reconnect with the people on the streets who actually experience them. It's not such a reach to bookend Amy Rowland's debut contemporary existential novel with the original: Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground. It's that good. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.

"Listen. Every author wants to write at least one time-travel novel," says an aging Huck Finn, the narrator of Norman Lock's remarkable A Boy in His Winter. It is 2077, and Huck is now a retired yacht salesman named Albert Barthelmy. He is recounting his boyhood on the Mississippi, where he floated through history, perpetually 13, until Hurricane Katrina washed him ashore, thrusting him back into time.

In the story as Albert tells it, the raft itself is the time machine for two mythic literary characters; Huck and Jim step off the raft for brief periods but always return. The pair floats past Lincoln's assassination, the Industrial Revolution, the Jim Crow South, the birth of jazz. Huck loves Jim and resents him in equal measure, and never more so than when Henry, a black jazz musician, joins them and becomes Jim's close confidant. The tragic consequences of Huck's resentment haunt him for the rest of his life.

The span of his life may be epic but Albert is more interested in his story's odd synchronicities and its truth than in its facts. His goal is lofty: "I'll try to study cruelty (I regret my own) and render it in more familiar terms."

Lock (Love Among the Particles) writes some of the most deceptively beautiful sentences in contemporary fiction. Beneath their clarity are layers of cultural and literary references, profound questions about loyalty, race, social progress and the nature of truth. They merge with an iconic American character, tall tales intact, to create something entirely new--an American fable of ideas. --Jeanette Zwart, freelance writer and reviewer

Joshua Ferris's wry, intelligent novel To Rise Again at a Decent Hour adroitly navigates the borderland between the demands of faith and the persistence of doubt.

Paul O'Rourke, a Park Avenue dentist, is cynical about nearly everything, save his beloved Boston Red Sox. One day Paul finds his office website appropriated by someone posting biblical-sounding messages. To his dismay, he soon becomes an unwilling presence in the online world, his name attached to posts and tweets that take on an increasingly disturbing, even vaguely anti-Semitic, tone. Paul's distaste for our absorption in social media and for electronic devices like our smartphones--what he calls his "me-machine"--only deepens his distress.

The members of the group who've reached out to him consider themselves descendants of the Amalekites, the hated tribe whose extermination God decrees in the Book of Samuel. Paul, an atheist, eventually learns the tragic story of the religious seeker whose research fuels the activities of the group he laments has "hijacked my life" and he comes to understand their effort is less about preserving some tiny cult than it is in defining the dimensions of religious practice amid skepticism.

In seizing upon both the transitory oddities of contemporary life and our enduring search for meaning, Joshua Ferris has created a winning modern parable--a welcome return to the spirit of his first novel, Then We Came to the End. Ferris is a gifted satirist with a tender heart, and if he continues to find targets as worthy as the ones he skewers here, his work should amuse and enlighten us for many years to come. --Harvey Freedenberg, attorney and freelance reviewer

One rite of passage many American teenagers hold in common is striking out on their own in the transition to adulthood. Angst, festering from those final years under their parents' roofs, jettisons them into a realm of self-discovery and self-reliance requiring hearty determination to embody their own distinct identities. For Ari, a Chinese orphan adopted in infancy by Charlie Kong--a Chinese-American woman in San Francisco--a frustrating lack of information about her birth family compounds her already dubious sense of belonging and she tumbles into orbit far beyond the reach of family and friends.

Kathryn Ma's incandescent debut novel, The Year She Left Us, is a stirring excavation of adolescent, familial and racial identity. Ari's depression looms over her every move, threatening to fracture her relationships and her body; sometimes it succeeds, brutally. But those around her are not as stable as Ari enviously suspects. Ma mediates the tensions facing three generations of Kong women as judiciously as an attorney with her clients; Gran Kong refuses to acknowledge her aging disposition; and sisters Charlie and Lesley find their sibling rivalry bleeds into their courtroom professions. Tempers blossom fresh when Ari, obsessed with finding her father, disappears.

The Year She Left Us is difficult and lovely, wild and endearing. Families both chosen and biological can often feel that way, too, but their true mark is discovered in challenging moments, the darkest years, when their most tender members are put to the knife. --Dave Wheeler, publishing assistant, Shelf Awareness

Zelda McFigg has a need to set straight the record of her life. In her seriocomic fictional memoir, the 4' 11", 237-pound, single 49¼-year-old maps her inauspicious life. Her story begins in 1975, when 14-year-old Zelda ran away from her upstate New York home and a neglectful, drunken, single mother and was forced to "pursue alternate routes of survival." With acting aspirations, she headed for Manhattan, becoming a cleaning lady and an assistant to a washed-up poet who once appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Afterward, she meets a "baby-doll-faced" heroin addict committed to animal rights; confronts a mouse-phobia; acts in avant-garde, Off-Off Broadway theater showcases for no pay; lives in "concentration camp" barracks while doing props for a New England summer stock theater company; and winds up as a part-time hall monitor-turned-English teacher in the Moose Country, Vt., school system. There, she mentors a student of Native-American descent, who, like those in the rest of the town, harbors secrets.

Zelda's life journey is circuitous and paved with a slew of absurd, comic blunders. "Invention is the most valuable life skill one can have or teach," she explains as she copes with three decades of chronic disappointments and disingenuous people. Yet, she remains resilient, undaunted by the fact that wherever life takes her, she's a misfit and a loner. In the end, the wit of Zelda's narrative voice as created by novelist/playwright Betsy Robinson will finally allow her to connect and be recognized in the world of readers' imaginations. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

American Innovations, novelist Rivka Galchen's (Atmospheric Disturbances) first collection of short stories, defies categorization, varying in tone from coolly surreal to nakedly emotional. While not all of the 10 stories will appeal to every reader--owing simply to the collection's sheer variety--Galchen consistently delivers interesting work.

The title piece reimagines Nikolai Gogol's short story "The Nose," in which the protagonist loses his olfactory appendage. Here, the narrator is a graduate student who discovers one day that she has become "sideways pregnant," with a third breast growing out of her lower back. Galchen's protagonist treats her "supernumeraryness" with the sharp wit that's shared by many of her characters. Trish, the narrator of "The Entire Northern Side Was Covered by Fire," is a writer who observes that "the nicest reader letters I've received--also the only reader letters I've received--have come from prisoners."

Galchen best reconciles the tension between fabulism and realism in "Real Estate." After moving into her aunt's nearly empty town house, that narrator encounters her father--who has been dead for more than a decade--and wonders if she has "slipped through a wormhole of time." Even after he disappears, she resolves to remain in the building because she has the "sense that ghosts like to return to the same place."

Though occasionally perplexing, her stories are grounded in a keen grasp of detail and crisp, lively prose. The bracing originality of Galchen's work merits favorable comparison to adventurous contemporaries like Aimee Bender and Kevin Brockmeier and assures she'll continue to be a writer who deserves our attention. --Harvey Freedenberg, attorney and freelance reviewer

Branching off from his Sigma Force novels, James Rollins and co-writer Grant Blackwood introduce ex-Army Ranger Tucker Wayne and his working dog, Kane. In a mixture of thriller, adventure and mystery, the freelancing duo is called on by Sigma Force covertly to escort Dr. Abram Bukolov, a Russian scientist, to the United States.

Bukolov has uncovered what he believes is the stem cell-equivalent for plant life--LUCA. For pharmaceutical purposes, Bukolov envisions amazing medical advances and life-saving discoveries. However, a Russian general sees the potential for a biological weapon: "It could wipe out the country's entire agricultural industry, devastating the land without a single shot being fired."

People are racing to find a sample of LUCA growing somewhere in a volatile region of Namibia, because what both sides lack is the "kill switch" for this life-altering plant. From Russia to Africa in planes, trains and even submarines, Wayne and Kane struggle to stay ahead, retrieve the sample and get Bukolov safely to the U.S. But the Russian forces know their every move. Someone is feeding them information. Can they discover the mole before everyone winds up dead?

The Kill Switch is a smart, exciting start to a new thriller series. Tucker Wayne is a compassionate hero whose relationship with his canine partner is as engaging as the book’s action sequences. His adventures take readers off the beaten path to exotic locales and keep them guessing with explosive plot devices. Here's hoping there's no kill switch to this series any time soon. --Jen Forbus of Jen's Book Thoughts

Leela Punyaratabandhu started her blog, shesimmers.com, in 2008 to honor her mother's memory through her best Thai recipes. Now Punyaratabandhu, who lives in Bangkok and Chicago, has written Simple Thai Food to "show readers how easy it is to re-create traditional flavors--at home."

Punyaratabandhu chose recipes that were not only familiar to her from childhood--and will be familiar to readers who frequent Thai restaurants in the U.S.--but were feasible for kitchens not necessarily outfitted to make traditional Thai dishes. She breaks down what equipment is helpful (like why a granite mortar and pestle is best), offers information on locating such hard-to-find ingredients as kaffir lime rind or galangal, and covers how to prepare and store essential ingredients like long-grain white and Thai glutinous rices; coconut milk; chile jams; ready-made curry pastes; and fish, soy and oyster sauces.

The recipes are organized according to the Thai way of cooking: Noshes and Nibbles/khong wang (between-meal snacks and appetizers, like sweet potato fritters with peanut-sweet chile sauce); Rice Accompaniments/kap khao, also known as samrap (like Son-in-Law Eggs and Shrimp Curry Stir-Fry), which are eaten with rice as part of a meal; One-Plate Meals/ahan jan diao (complete dishes containing rice or noodles, like Pad Thai with Shrimp; and Sweets (often eaten between meals as snacks in Thailand), like Chewy Banana-Coconut Griddle Cakes. What began as a personal culinary journey to honor her mother's memory has evolved into an accessible embrace of her country's cuisine. --Kristen Galles from Book Club Classics

As Eating Wildly begins, Ava Chin's beloved grandmother is dying. They were quite close; her mother's parents had helped raise Chin after her father walked out on the family. Trying to make sense of life without her grandmother, Chin muses on her childhood, her complicated relationship with her uptight mother, her memories of her grandfather and her own string of failed romantic relationships.

Chin's stories of her grandparents and the Chinese culture they passed on are touching and funny. Many readers will relate to her romantic setbacks and may identify with Chin's frustration with the omnipresent string of boyfriends in her mother's life.

Permeating all of these reminiscences are a love of eating and a realization that the cyclical nature of food is echoed in many areas of her life. Remembering hunting for obscure ingredients like cloud ear (an edible jelly fungus) in Chinese grocery stores with her grandfather; Chin begins to search through backyards and parks in the New York City area for edible items like mustard garlic, wild honey and mushrooms. She finds comfort in the rhythm of the seasons and the ebb and flow of plants' growth. Foraging through weeds and grass for edible treasures brings her new friends, earns her a New York Times blog column and helps her search for the beauty in her own complicated memories.

Eating Wildly includes suggestions to help the novice forager: tips on drying herbs such as motherwort, ways to clean and serve wood sorrel and recipes for dishes like Wild Morel Linguine and Field Garlic and Hummus. A collection of touching memories and delicious recipes, Eating Wildly will likely please memoir readers, locavores and cooks alike. --Jessica Howard, blogger at Quirky Bookworm

James R. Hansen (First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong) believes Robert Trent Jones, Sr., the subject of this definitive biography, was the greatest golf course architect of the 20th century. After reading this superb chronicle, it's hard to disagree.

The title comes from the architect's adage that every golf hole should be a "difficult par but an easy bogey." Trent (as he came to be known) emigrated from England to East Rochester, N.Y., and learned to play while caddying. He became quite good and soon decided golf course architecture was his calling. He attended Cornell University, creating his own curriculum (landscape architecture, hydraulics, surveying, agronomy, etc.), which gave him the skills he needed. In the 1930s, any kind of job was hard to get. He started out doing course remodeling, then got his first 18-hole design job in Penfield, N.Y. At that time, courses were built with New Deal and WPA labor using simple farm machinery.

His big breakthrough came in 1948 when the great Bobby Jones (no relation) asked him to help design the Peachtree course in Atlanta, Ga. It was there that his signature design elements took shape, especially his idea of "runway tees"--long teeing strips that can accommodate all levels of players. After doing some significant remodels of famous layouts (Winged Foot, Southern Hills) his greatest designs followed (Hazeltine, Spyglass Hill). It's likely every golfer and reader of this fine book has played one of Trent's courses--he designed more than 400 worldwide. For anyone serious about golf, the history of the game or course design, this fine biography is a must. --Tom Lavoie, former publisher

The three books that constitute Tony DiTerlizzi's futuristic classic chart an unforgettable journey, masterfully told. Its conclusion is well worth the wait.

In The Search for WondLa, heroine Eva Nine appeared to be the last human in a world of creatures, raised in an underground Sanctuary by a robot. She learns there's a city of humans when teenage pilot Hailey Turner takes her to New Attica in A Hero for WondLa. But the beautiful future promised her comes with a price. This final installment finds Eva and Hailey on the run from the warbots of visionary Cadmus Pryde, and the two are immediately in danger from a hungry beast in the wilds. Alongside this cinematic action, DiTerlizzi prepares readers for the moral dilemmas to come with his overarching themes of trust and truth. Eva and Hailey meet an artifact collector, Caruncle, an alien who joins them on their quest to prevent Cadmus Pryde and the otherworldly Loroc from enacting the Age of Man.

Eva Nine has matured in DiTerlizzi's black-and-orange illustrations. Readers will detect her distress on the page, as she faces situations that call for sacrifice and evaluating her morality ("What is 'right'? What might be 'right' for me may not be 'right' for you?"). Readers will cheer on Eva as her expression switches to determination during her final battle to preserve a harmonious coexistence between humankind and aliens. The end to Eva's search for her WondLa is deeply touching. Victory has never looked this good. --Adam Silvera, children's bookseller

As with so many of Shaun Tan's (The Arrival) creations, this magnetic picture book with minimal text allows readers to enter a world with limitless interpretations.

The text sends up the requisite "What I Did on My Summer Vacation." Before the story begins, readers see two children, backlit by the summer sun in a gray cityscape. The taller one, crouching, whispers to the shorter one. Are they siblings? Friends, and the taller one is the alpha? The title page explodes in golden sun, the taller child blowing a horn, the shorter one behind him, beating a red drum, dropping a drumstick. "This is what I learned last summer: Never leave a red sock on the clothesline," opens the narrator, cowering by a fence as the larger child covers his mouth. A menacing red rabbit stares over the fence with eyes that match the sock, dangling from a clothespin. "Never eat the last olive at a party," reads the text as the narrator reaches for it and the taller child pulls him back; giant hawks with olive-shaped eyes keep watch, dressed in tuxedos.

Each directive begins with "never"; each illustration depicts the consequences of the transgression. Tan alters perspective and palette, keeping the narrative structure constant. The book comes to a climax when the smaller child fights the larger child ("Never ask for a reason"), with the rabbit, hawks and other creatures from previous pages as spectators. The hard-won resolution brings hope, as the small boy, with a horn, leads their two-boy band, and the larger boy plays drums. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness

This second charming installment of the Three-Ring Rascals series, begun with The Show Must Go On, brings back lovable Sir Sidney and his circus performers. 

Sir Sydney learns of a special contest being run by the Circus Times newspaper to name the Greatest Star on Earth. But he thinks all of his performers are the greatest, from unlikely best friends Leo the Lion and Elsa the Elephant to the acrobatics of the Famous Flying Banana Brothers, and begins to worry about how this will upset their cheerful and cooperative circus. As he worries, he develops a worrywart, and his doctor prescribes some R&R at a peanut farm in Georgia. This gives Barnabas Brambles a second chance to run the circus, and he says he'll "try" to follow Sir Sydney's kind rules. Secretly, clever mouse siblings Bert and Gert use reverse psychology on Barnabas, as each of the circus acts tries to show that they are truly The Greatest Star. Again silliness and humor reign as this story unfolds. In the end, with Barnabas Brambles's lessons learned, Sir Sydney returns and harmony is restored. The wonderful line drawings, cartoon illustrations and diagrams on every page skillfully tell much of this story. The artist incorporates zany site gags, rhymes, jokes, made-up words, even math concepts. 

This popular author-illustrator team (43 Old Cemetery Road series) succeeds again with their cast of quirky and endearing characters. This fun series continues to be spot-on for early chapter book readers. --JoAnn Jonas, children's librarian, freelance reviewer