Sigrid Nunez (Sempre Susan) has not graced the literary world with a novel in almost a decade--but the wait has surely been worth it. In The Friend, she takes readers on a reflective journey through a labyrinth of grief, loss and loneliness. This meditative, beautifully written novel reads as intimately as a memoir. It is narrated by a sensitive intellectual, an unnamed woman--a writer and teacher--who lives an isolated life in a tiny, barely 500-square-foot, rent-controlled New York City apartment.

The suicide of her mentor--a writer and teacher, one of the narrator's closest and oldest friends--forces her to grapple with the role he played in her life, the meaning of his life and death, as well as her own existence in the world. When she is ultimately asked to take in the deceased's dog--a 180-pound Harlequin Great Dane named Apollo--she is reluctant. The narrator lives alone and works mostly at home. Although she prefers cats, the affection and devotion her mentor had for Apollo sways her decision. Despite her building not allowing pets, she agrees to take the dog temporarily. His entrance adds a new dimension to the landscape of loss, as he mourns his master in his own way. But, as the narrator says, "You cannot explain death to a dog."

The pain of the narrator's bereavement is dealt with through remembering and writing. But the bond she forms with the dog--how they adapt to each other and a world darkened by an aching void--forges this thought-provoking, philosophical story. Ultimately, The Friend ponders the meanings of loyalty, love, friendship and a buoyant creative spirit. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines.

Dara Horn's fifth novel, Eternal Life, is a beautiful but melancholy exploration of mortality as the element of human existence that's essential to life's meaning.

Rachel, an 18-year-old woman living in the first century of the Common Era, is mother to Yochanan ben Zakkai, who will one day become an eminent Talmudic scholar. When her infant son becomes desperately ill, she strikes a terrible bargain with Elazar, the son of the Temple high priest and her lover, agreeing to endure eternal life in exchange for her son's recovery. Over the next 2,000 years, Rachel experiences repeated cycles of death and rebirth.

In the portion of the novel set in the present, Rachel spars with her granddaughter Hannah, a genetics researcher and someone who Rachel calls one of the "new high priests," over the young woman's project to unlock the secrets of, and attempt to defeat, the aging process. Acutely conscious of the passage of time, Hannah bemoans the "secret passage underneath everything that's always flowing with this constant stream of sorrow, and no one can see it, but we all know it's there," as she watches her young children move through life's stages. But far worse, based on Rachel's bitter experience, is the pain of an unending existence.

For a short novel, Eternal Life swiftly traverses an impressive swath of history. Horn (In the Image) is well versed in Jewish religion and culture, and brings that knowledge to bear on her story unobtrusively and effectively, making this a novel that will appeal to both Jewish and non-Jewish readers. --Harvey Freedenberg, attorney and freelance reviewer

Emma Glass is a research nurse specialist in London. Peach is her first novel, and it reveals an author already in fierce command of her own style. Like a bruised piece of fruit, it oozes with ruined sweetness that one can't wash off after reading. The novel's moral lessons stick, and they're meant to.

The plot is straightforward: a British teen named Peach is sexually assaulted and must cope with the trauma. She placates the concerns of her parents, who believe she's just going through normal sexual feelings, and also indulges her nice but clueless boyfriend, Green. Unfortunately the trauma takes on a life of its own, and Peach's tender world begins an inward putrefaction.

Writing in the first-person, Glass revels in rhythmic fragments, rhyme and alliteration that create an uncanny stream-of-consciousness: "I stutter. I splutter.... My heart batters my lungs and my breath bursts out in little bullets. I want to tell him. I was taking care of Baby. Weak words." The novel makes surrealistic, dream-like leaps when nonliving objects also begin to resemble the food chain: "I watch cars roll in rows in the street on sushi wheels."

All this adds up to a macabre playfulness that keeps the prose lively and luridly engaging throughout. Glass's imaginative wordplay opens up the very serious subject matter of sexual assault in new, frightening dimensions. Peach is a deceptively short, hugely provocative novel worth every bite. --Scott Neuffer, writer, poet, editor of trampset

Little Tiger is different. She does not want to claim a kingdom for herself and spend her time hunting big game. "She had no desire to tear or mangle, or display any form of supremacy. The hunger that consumed her was, rather, for knowledge." What makes a tiger a tiger, and what makes a man a man, and what makes a hare a hare? Why does the sun never grow closer, no matter how far we travel towards it? What is the purpose of her life, and how would she know it? This questioning is at the heart of Susanna Tamaro's The Tiger and the Acrobat, translated from the Italian by Nicoleugenia Prezzavento and Vicki Satlow. As her questioning leads her across the wintery forests of Siberia and into the company of Man, Tamaro's simple, almost juvenile language becomes the novel's greatest feature, coloring the innocence and naivety with which Tiger views the world.

The Tiger and the Acrobat is a fable in the truest sense of the word, with human-like animals whose adventures and conversations convey a series of lessons about life to the reader. Though the form can be one-dimensional at times, Tamaro uses it to great effect to explore the power and beauty of the natural world, the place of man in the order of things, and what it means to be true not only to oneself, but to those we love--no matter the cost. Slim but powerful, The Tiger and the Acrobat is rich with reflections on purpose and meditations on what it means to be oneself. --Kerry McHugh, blogger at Entomology of a Bookworm

In Karen Cleveland's accomplished first novel, Need to Know, Vivian is the working mom of four children under eight, trying to balance maternal guilt with professional ambition. Fortunately, her love-at-first-sight husband of 10 years is a software engineer with flexible hours and a home office. Matt gets the kids off to school and daycare, rounds up groceries, prepares meals and does the before-bed reading.

But there are a few kinks in this seemingly satisfying life: one of their infant twins has an expensive congenital heart problem; the overpriced house they bought in Bethesda, Md., has them financially strapped; and Vivian is a veteran CIA counterintelligence analyst about to bust open a Russian sleeper cell with her own innovative algorithm. But her hack into a Russian handler's laptop reveals that one of his longtime agents is unquestionably her husband, Matt.

With eight years of experience in the CIA, Cleveland knows the ins and outs of its clandestine mysteries. More Robert Ludlum than John le Carré, Need to Know is cinematic rather than cerebral (a film starring Charlize Theron is said to be under development). Despite its nonstop plot and what-can-go-wrong-next intrigue, Need to Know is at heart a story of a family coming apart under the shadow of subterfuge and fear. Vivian's struggle is as much with untangling her relationship with Matt as it is with uncovering a spy ring.

As Cleveland accelerates the action from covert digital snooping to overt violence, Vivian becomes a mama bear protecting her cubs. Need to Know is for those who clamber into the front car of a roller coaster waving their arms and lusting for the next gut-sucking, high-speed drop. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.

In A Treacherous Curse, Deanna Raybourn continues the entertaining adventures of the intrepid butterfly hunter Veronica Speedwell and her occasionally gloomy (but always dashing) research partner, noted naturalist Revelstoke Templeton-Vane ("Stoker").

Unfortunately for Stoker, this investigation will focus on painful events in his past. His ex-wife, the alluring and venomous Caroline de Morgan, and her husband, John--who left Stoker for dead in a South American jungle a few years before--were recently part of an archeological expedition to Egypt. But John went missing, along with the diadem of Princess Ankheset, starting rumors that the expedition was cursed by the god Anubis. So when Mrs. de Morgan and an apparent Anubis both pop up in London, the head of Scotland Yard asks Veronica and Stoker to quietly help him investigate.

Alas for Scotland Yard, Veronica and Stoker don't do anything quietly, and their research will take them from exclusive Egyptological societies to sketchy hotels, through fetid sewers, and into the drawing rooms of the highest members of Victorian society. The sexual tension between Stoker and Veronica carried over from the previous novel (A Perilous Undertaking) ratchets even tighter here. Raybourn's witty writing is sure to please her many fans, and also attract new readers who enjoy historical mysteries. Lovers of Elizabeth Peters, C.S. Harris and Charles Finch will enjoy this romp. --Jessica Howard, bookseller at Bookmans, Tucson, Ariz.

Prolific biographer Taraborrelli (After Camelot) writes meticulously researched biographies that read like novels, and his third book covering the Kennedy dynasty is fascinating and absorbing. This hefty volume focuses on the relationships among Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Princess Lee Radziwill and their mother, Janet Lee Bouvier Auchincloss. Early on, Janet tells her daughters the secret to happiness is money and power. All three strong and temperamental women spent their lives pursuing both.

Despite their efforts to rebel against their mother, both daughters ended up following her matrimonial blueprint. All married initially for love (Jackie snagged John F. Kennedy, who would become president of the United States eight years into their marriage) while their second marriages focused on security: Janet to the heir to the Standard Oil fortune; Jackie to billionaire Aristotle Onassis; Lee to a Polish prince. Shipping tycoon Onassis is a fascinating character. Lee was ready to leave her husband for Onassis, but was convinced by her mother that it would ruin JFK's presidency. But five years after her husband's assassination, it was Jackie who ended up marrying him (after demanding a lump payment of $3 million and a monthly $30,000 allowance for expenses).

Taraborrelli captures the glamorous, tragic, seductive and completely absorbing world of the Kennedys and those who married them. With his bite-size chapters, insightful writing and impeccable research, Taraborrelli's Jackie, Janet & Lee is irresistible, intimate and revealing. His massive biography offers a fresh take on the iconic First Lady and her family. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant

In When Montezuma Met Cortés, Mesoamerican scholar and historian Mathew Restall dismantles the 500-year traditional story of the "Conquest of Mexico." It is one "in which civilization, faith, reason, reality and a progressive future are victorious over barbarism, idolatry, superstition, irrationality, and retrogressive past." In short, this historic event stands as a symbol of the whole history of European colonization of the Americas--the United States included.

Restall debunks what he calls "mythistory." A Penn State professor of colonial Latin American history and a prolific author, Restall (The Conquistadors) knows his Mexican history and is sufficiently fluent in a half-dozen languages to do his own translating of primary sources. When Montezuma Met Cortés digs deep into the details of 16th-century exploration and imperialism, but it also rolls along easily with Restall's colloquial asides and skeptical common sense. For example, while Cortés and his Spanish apologists paint him as a loyal heroic soldier with a gift for strategy and diplomacy, Restall uncovers evidence that he was a middling sailor, mediocre leader and voracious womanizer. Similarly, Montezuma was not the submissive sycophant portrayed in the first meeting with Cortés, but rather a shrewd leader checking out his adversaries. As Restall suggests: "Montezuma was not afraid of the Spaniards; he was hunting them." But regardless of the real nature of that historic meeting, the result was a barbaric war with massive casualties on both sides.

Restall acknowledges that the historical details are ambiguous, but "those blurred lines are not just an issue that historians must tackle; they are History." --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.

It's Picture Day and a young boy's llama is in desperate need of a haircut. Speaking directly to the reader, the boy gives step-by-step instructions on how to wash and style your llama--once you can catch it, that is. The cornered llama handles the indignity of having its hair washed and then combed with a rake but begins to lose its cool when the boy starts to show it hairstyles.

The boy goes through a series of potential Llama Looks, with matching outfits: the bowl cut shows the llama in a suit and tie; permed, it strikes a pose in leg warmers; and while sporting a bright green Mohawk, it wears a spiked collar and a "mom" tattoo. 

"A simple trim from nose to tail" it'll have to be. "Make sure he holds still! SNIP! SNIP! Oh no! Stop that wiggling!" Before the boy or llama know it, both have only half a head of hair. The last spread shows the boy and his llama in front of the camera, smiling brightly, giving a thumbs/hoofs up, and showing off their matching buzz cuts. "When your llama needs a haircut, you might just end up with one too!"

This silly board book, much like its sibling books, When Your Lion Needs a Bath and When Your Elephant Has the Sniffles, has amusing illustrations and direct, funny text that will undoubtedly bring children back for repeated readings. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness