The title of Josip Novakovich's collection Heritage of Smoke is fitting. Its 16 stories swirl around in the head like smoke, pungent and wondrous, leaving a dizzy impression of the mutability and evanescence of all things.

Novakovich (Infidelities) has emerged as one of the most uncompromising short fiction writers of his generation. A Croatian expatiate who resides in Canada, Novakovich routinely delves into the often violent clashes of different cultures and ethnicities. Several stories in Heritage of Smoke explore the Yugoslav wars and their horrific legacy of ethnic cleansing and genocide. A gleeful contrarian, however, Novakovich breaks from the strictures of social realism to conjure stories full of ghosts, bizarre histories, moral paradoxes and deadpan irony. Religious themes of redemption and resurrection abound; such aspirational ideas work through various characters, though not always toward pleasant ends. Novakovich seems to savor the grit and dregs left in the wake of disillusionment and violence. His best stories, like "Dutch Treat" and "Acorns," analyze this human detritus and locate commonalities of shame and humiliation.

At its most unrestrained, Novakovich's prose turns disturbingly mythic, creating its own savage strain of magical realism. In the last story, "In the Same Boat," hunger and cannibalism bind two men in a relationship both primal and mystical: "They watched each other through a prism of blood, all the salty rainbows of the world collected in one color, rusty red." That Novakovich can find lyrical beauty in the macabre is his greatest feat. By rubbing wounds, Heritage of Smoke finds the other side of pain, luminous and transcendent. --Scott Neuffer, freelance journalist and fiction author.

For the characters in Jon Raymond's third novel, Freebird, decisions are difficult to come by, but when they're made, it's in a flash, regardless of forethought. The novel revolves around the Singers, a modern Jewish family in Los Angeles. "They were Californians above all else," untethered by tradition and the certainty it affords.

Anne Singer, a single mom working in government, is approached by a charismatic entrepreneur for help developing a plan to buy up the city's wastewater. While handwringing over the ethics of this, she contends with her aging father, Sam, a laconic Holocaust survivor, and her slacker son, Aaron, who wishes that "fate might intervene and decide his future for him without any conflict or choice or rejections on his part at all." Slipping through the cracks is Anne's brother Ben, a Navy SEAL alone in the desert, dogged by PTSD and an instinct for action. The Singers pursue their own private needs to conclusions that are funny and devastating. Even Anne, who prides herself on being savvy, ultimately succumbs to life's irrational forces.

Raymond (The Half-Life), who has also written for film and TV, rotates among characters, zipping through their stories in clear prose and a casual tone that adds incisiveness to the satire, but which occasionally robs more fraught scenes of their emotional heft. The finale feels attenuated, laden with references to songs and lyrics. That's forgivable, though. Freebird is ultimately a binge-worthy novel, lightly satirical and compulsively readable. --Zak Nelson, writer and bookseller

"I do not believe to this day that Placidia Fincher Hockaday murdered her own child and buried it on Holland Creek," a witness says. Based on a true story, this gripping debut novel by Susan River unravels the mystery of what happened to a teenage bride left for two years to manage her husband's South Carolina farm while he fought for the Confederacy. The Second Mrs. Hockaday begins in 1863, but it isn't until her son discovers her journal in 1892 that the truth comes to light.

The first third of the book consists of letters from 1865 between the jailed Placidia and her cousin. These offer rich details about her deep love for widower Gryffth Hockaday and his infant son, her brutal life on the isolated farm--everything except her alleged crime. She even admits to bearing a child during her husband's absence. When Gryffth returns, gossiping neighbors disclose the baby's birth--and death--before he gets home, and when Placidia refuses to explain, he brings charges against her. Placidia is likable, resilient, stoic and fair; Rivers maintains the novel's tension in the book's first half and doesn't reveal Mrs. Hockaday's fate after her arrest. It is, however, reassuring that the second section, set in 1892, is the story of Placidia and Gryffth's children--apparently the truth freed rather than confined her.

In a complex, credible plot twist, Achilles Fincher Hockaday discovers a leather-bound copy of David Copperfield among his late mother's belongings. Faded writing on the back of its illustrations reveals her full story. Achilles, his siblings and characters from Placidia's era now enjoy a peaceful, refined world, and it's a fitting coda to the story of a woman buffeted by wartime horrors. --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, manager, Book Passage, San Francisco

Former attorney Ron Liebman's third novel (after Jersey Law) delves into the dirty dealings of giant American law firms. Big Law introduces Carney Blake, a junior partner at the behemoth New York firm Dunn & Sullivan.

Dunn & Sullivan typically defends corporations, many of which have questionable business practices, but Carl Smith, the firm's chairman, has asked Carney to take the lead on a plaintiff's class-action lawsuit. Flattered that he's been given this level of responsibility as a young partner, he sets aside his misgivings about the peculiarity of the case and gets to work. Carney may be young, but he's also smart and determined. He has the qualities that his highly respected and experienced opposing counsel recommends:

"...lawyering was made up of a mix of ingredients. Like a potent drink. Understanding the law, knowing how to use the law, how to argue it when necessary--all were part of the mix. So were assertiveness, aggression, creativity. Put all that into a cocktail shaker. Add a splash of deviousness. Shake and pour."

So when Smith's behavior toward Carney and the case starts raising red flags and the defendant serves Carney with a personal lawsuit, he makes it his mission to uncover the truth, if for no other reason than to save his career.

Big Law should appeal to fans of John Grisham and Michael Connelly's legal thrillers. It's smart and complex, with authentically flawed characters. Liebman develops a convincing plot, pulling his readers into the legal world without bogging down the momentum with a lot of industry jargon. The verdict is in on Big Law, and it's a winner. --Jen Forbus, freelancer

Peter Ash hasn't slept inside anything but a tent or his truck for two years. Suffering from PTSD, he roams the Northern California redwoods contemplating a crime that could lock him away and force him to "get over" his disorder-related claustrophobia. Instead, Ash stumbles upon investigative journalist June Cassidy secreting herself among the trees.

June is also trying to outrun forces beyond her control. Unlike Ash, she's not sure what or who they are, only that they appear connected to her mother, a tenured Stanford professor recently killed in a hit-and-run.

It becomes evident June is being hunted, and in short order she and Ash team up in a dangerous race to figure out what June has or knows before it gets her killed. June's investigative prowess coupled with Ash's resourcefulness make them a compelling team, bound to spark friendly conflict and a connection they each need.

In Burning Bright--the second Peter Ash novel, following his first-class debut, The Drifter--Nick Petrie shows no signs of letting up on the action or character development. While the suspense genre has no shortage of veterans suffering from PTSD, Ash feels different and true, his symptoms neither overblown nor imparting superhuman skills, but nevertheless unsettling.

The investigation is fraught with mercenary violence and heady computer technology, but the characters' talents always feel righteously earned. Backed by a cadre of appealing secondary characters, June and Ash's chase leads to a place they never expected and a satisfying conclusion worthy of the risks. --Lauren O'Brien of Malcolm Avenue Review

Richard North Patterson's 2007 thriller The Race presented a U.S. presidential election steeped in drama. Had that novel included the actual events of the 2016 United States presidential election, readers would likely have found it too far fetched to believe. Now, 10 years after the novel, Fever Swamp considers the unprecedented contest last year for the highest political office of the most powerful country in the world.

Throughout the 2016 race, Patterson published his essays online at the Huffington Post. With the combined experience of his years as an attorney and his copious research for many politically themed novels, Patterson is able to offer intelligent, perceptive commentary on what he terms the fever swamp--two years of political contagion "where lies blossomed, anger thrived, conspiracy theories mushroomed, and reason went to die."

Fever Swamp is the complete collection of Patterson's columns, supplemented with margin notes and section introductions that evaluate his thoughts and predictions. Patterson is unapologetically liberal and supports his words with evidence from reliable research, including data and historical precedents. Armed with facts and an insider's knowledge, he offers witty insights, sharp rebukes and shrewd analysis. Patterson covers it all: candidates, their platforms, their scandals and what they mean to the states, the political parties, the Supreme Court and, of course, the citizens, from the beginning of the primaries to the startling results of November 8, 2016. Fever Swamp is a primer for future generations to avoid the spectacle better known as the election of the 45th president of the United States. --Jen Forbus, freelancer

Harvard historian and Pulitzer-winning author Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (Tangible Things) is also the feminist and Mormon who coined the phrase "Well-behaved women seldom make history." A House Full of Females examines Mormon history from the perspective of the women who made the hard migration west, lived in plural marriages, built grassroots community organizations and achieved women's suffrage in Utah--decades before their daughters and granddaughters would be key in achieving it nationally.

Using the diaries, letters and even quilts of these women, Ulrich tells an impartial, complex story of many strong personalities who struggled to build new forms of private and community life. She writes that traditional versions of the religion's early history often leave out these women or reduce them to props and pawns; including them, however, humanizes the true story of the Mormon expansion and highlights the fundamental dependence of male preachers on the practical support of their wives and non-Mormon relatives. Plural marriage households were often a morass of dramatic emotions, "anger, ambivalence, confusion, instability and anxious acceptance." But when the federal government moved to ban polygamy and remove women's suffrage in Utah, Mormon women rose up in outraged protest, believing they had more choice and autonomy in their system than they would in the mainstream monogamous one. This expert and deeply researched history sheds new light on U.S. history in general as well as feminist and Mormon history in particular. --Sara Catterall

Similarities between such disparate items as popcorn and steam engines, ketchup and snails, cell phones and pearls, cotton towels and redwood trees are highlighted in Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life. Physicist Helen Czerski uses what's right in front of us to explain fundamental concepts of physics in a way that's accessible, entertaining and rooted in research.

Storm in a Teacup is a delightful read that manages to be comprehensive. Sections divided by overarching themes take on topics including gas laws, atomic theory, thermodynamics, magnetism, surface tension and other concepts that become easier to grasp through examples and humorous anecdotes. Czerski uses the classic British tea break as a motif throughout, both as a symbolic rest between topical units and as a way to review how diverse aspects of physics affect the simple cup of tea. She ties the small examples to large-scale natural systems like weather patterns and tectonic plate movement, as well as human innovations like wind turbines and space stations.

Storm in a Teacup is charming and useful--great for those who like to know how things work but didn't necessarily excel in high school science classes. Science experts will be in familiar territory, but may still enjoy how Czerski presents her material in a fresh, digestible way. Readers will benefit from gaining more insight into how our world works and the ways that humans have harnessed physics to create the kind of society that supports us today. --Richael Best, bookseller, The Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, Wash.

Boo eats, sleeps, reads and plays on his favorite little blue chair. When he finally outgrows it, his mom puts it outside with a sign that says "PLEASE TAKE ME." A man in a truck picks it up, and so begins the little blue chair's journey around the world.

The man sells it to a junk shop, where a woman discovers it: "This chair will be perfect, she thought." Its next owner is a boat captain who gets it for his daughter to sit on, right next to him by the ship's wheel. Once on shore, "across the ocean," the captain puts the chair out on the beach with a sign that says "DO YOU NEED THIS?" A man with an elephant does need it, so he can give children elephant rides, which he does for years until he "wrapped it up in brown paper, stuck a lot of stamps on it and put it in the mail to his sister." The chair is perfect for her, too, for use as a bird feeder. Its travels continue.

In Canadian author Cary Fagan's (Mr. Zinger's Hat) Little Blue Chair, children may find deep comfort in the idea that something can move from place to place and still be cherished, in a different way, by each person who encounters it. Canadian debut illustrator Madeline Kloepper's childlike ink and pencil artwork is thoroughly charming, and readers will love tracking the chair all the way back to its original owner, now grown up with a daughter of his own: " 'This chair is perfect,' she said." A scrumptious morsel, both nutritious and delicious. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness