Fates and Furies opens on a beach, where young newlyweds Lotto and Mathilde are clutching each other furiously, stripping down behind the dunes to consummate their marriage. Like so many moments in the cinematic novel, it's an image that brands itself upon the brain, wavering in the distance between reader and narrator like a mirage. Pan out and the vision falters; the more the reader sees, the more unknowable these characters become.

Fates and Furies concerns itself principally with this liminal space of the individuals and their marriage, the precipitous balance between information shared and withheld. After the omniscient glimpse at Lotto and Mathilde's coupling, the narrator follows Lotto, whose unhappy Florida childhood and boarding school adolescence culminate in a stint at Vassar as the resident theater ham. There, he meets Mathilde: quiet, mysterious, a devastating wraith. Together, they balance artistic ambitions (often thwarted) with the daunting reality of the electric bill.

From the get-go, Lotto's dog-like bravado and need to be liked proves irksome, and when the novel switches after a bombshell plot twist to Mathilde's savvier perspective, it's a welcome shift. The rosy glow of Lotto's memories are suddenly recast in bare light. Mathilde's realism proves a stark contrast to her husband's romanticism, bordering at times on callousness, but inhabiting two such different minds hammers home Lauren Groff's (Arcadia) elegant examination of marriage's false promises. One can't, after all, ever know someone entirely, and in Groff's capable hands, Lotto and Mathilde prove rife with mysteries beneath their glossy surfaces. --Linnie Greene, freelance writer

Discover: An insightful, suspenseful portrait of a marriage and its secrets from the perspective of its participants, written in wry, lyrical prose.

Using Atlanta's 1881 International Cotton Exposition as the backdrop to his second novel, Matthew Guinn (The Resurrectionist) expertly weaves fact and fiction to create this gripping historical mystery.

Georgia's capital is recovering and finding its way in the post-Civil War era; the exposition is intended to show the world that the South is transforming and using technology to more efficiently handle cotton production. However, a serial killer is striking in Atlanta. If word gets out, it could foil the exposition.

Police chief Vernon Thompson believes the killer is an insider, so he needs an investigator separate from his department, someone he can trust to solve the case quickly and quietly. Thompson summons his friend and disgraced former detective Thomas Canby back to the city and pairs him with Atlanta's first African-American officer, Cyrus Underwood. Together the two outcasts face down a killer who may just embody pure evil.

In his author's note, Guinn admits to taking a few liberties with history's timeline for the sake of his story, but these small creative licenses take nothing from the excitement and suspense of the novel. The atmosphere is as vibrant as the brilliant new electric lights adorning the exposition facilities. It illuminates the dynamic and eclectic cast--from the city's wealthy industrialists to its colorful outliers--as well as the advances and disgraces of the era. Finally, the deeply philosophical theme of good and evil gives the reader meaty food for thought.

Fast-paced, intense and as relevant to today as the 19th century, The Scribe is noteworthy indeed. --Jen Forbus of Jen's Book Thoughts

Discover: In Matthew Guinn's rich historical mystery, a vicious killer threatens to topple Atlanta's International Cotton Exhibition--a display of the city's post-Civil War advancement.

Hit man Michael Hendricks stares through his rifle's scope at a man in Miami. Crack. Hendricks's target is rubbed out. Which makes Hendricks the bad guy, right? Wrong. Hendricks, the protagonist of Chris Holm's The Killing Kind, makes his living as a hit man who kills only hit men. As a former U.S. military operative presumed dead after a mission went awry in Afghanistan, he's specially suited for his work. When he hears a contract has been taken out on someone, he contacts the target and offers his services to remove the threat--but only if the target is someone worth saving.

The Council, an organization of representatives from every crime family in the world, isn't having it. It hires a hit man named Engelmann to stop Hendricks from messing with the group's killing plans. Also on Hendricks's trail is FBI Special Agent Charlotte "Charlie" Thompson, who has a hard time convincing her colleagues that Hendricks even exists. Hendricks is very good at his job, but can he elude his pursuers, who also excel at theirs?

Holm (The Collector Trilogy) is good at his job, too. His prose is lean, his pacing brisk, the suspense high and his plot unpredictable. He encourages the reader to care about characters that aren't normally sympathetic, and if they're not likable, they're at least amusing. There's plenty of violence and dark humor, but heart as well, with Hendricks holding a candle for a love he can't forget. He's not just the killing kind; he's also the romantic kind. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, blogger at Pop Culture Nerd

Discover: A hit man kills other hit men while being pursued by a hit man--and the FBI.

In this sequel to California Bones and Pacific Fire, Greg Van Eekhout has written another captivating and fast-paced narrative that places Daniel and his friends in a race to find Sam, Daniel's adopted son. Though he was consumed by the Pacific firedrake dragon created by Daniel's half-brother, Sam's magic and his essence still live inside the dragon, and Daniel must find a way to release him before the Hierarch of Northern California turns the dragon into a weapon of mass destruction.

In order to succeed with his plan, Daniel must impersonate his half-brother Paul in front of the many who knew him in Northern California, including old lovers and mentors, as he competes for the position of High Grand Osteomancer of the Northern Kingdom. Magical hijinks, thefts and double crosses are interwoven with political intrigue and the highs and lows of personal relationships as Daniel and company search for the one object that will help Sam, the axis mundi bone.

For those familiar with the story, the characters, plot and descriptions of magical bones that can transform a person once ingested are a fun continuation of an already enjoyable fantasy ride. For those who haven't discovered this author's series, beginning with California Bones is a better bet than starting with Dragon Coast. Although the author does a decent job of referencing past plotlines, any new reader will enjoy far more entertainment by starting at the beginning of this complex fantasy, an investment well worth the time and energy. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer

Discover: The third volume of a series set in futuristic Los Angeles, a world of magic, dragons and epic power struggles.

Unlike other cookbook staples for home cooks, The Food Lab is about far more than recipes. Where The Joy of Cooking and How to Cook Everything are primarily sets of step-by-step instructions for preparing a variety of dishes, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt has included a mere 300 recipes in his massive book. The rest of the volume is dedicated to exploring the science of food and recipe construction, as well as recommended tools, tricks and techniques.

Lopez-Alt was previously editor of Cook's Illustrated magazine and is now managing culinary director of SeriousEats.com, where he writes "The Food Lab" column on food science. The Food Lab draws on those experiences to offer readers a guide to improved home cooking through scientific understanding. In the introduction, he writes, "Once you understand the basic science of how and why a recipe works, you suddenly find that you've freed yourself from the shackles of recipes."

Though one could dip into and out of each section on a whim, the book's structure allows for cover-to-cover reading--unusual for a cookbook--and the scientific explanations and theories behind each recipe build over the course of the text. Scattered among humorous and engaging anecdotes about his experiences experimenting with food, Lopez-Alt has included asides on techniques and ingredient-specific recommendations.

With a no-fuss, no-frills approach to cooking, The Food Lab promises to become essential for the cookbook shelf, with thoughtful, reasoned explanations for how to make classic American dishes the best they possibly can be. --Kerry McHugh, blogger at Entomology of a Bookworm

Discover: The Food Lab is an invitation to start asking "what's really going on inside your food while you cook it."

Holly Ricciardi believes that pie is love. An accomplished baker with roots in small-town Pennsylvania and a deep affection for fresh, in-season produce, Ricciardi left her graphic design career to open a pie shop, Magpie, in Philadelphia in 2012. The shop's rotating menu of seasonal offerings has already earned wide acclaim. In Magpie, her first cookbook, Ricciardi shares more than 90 recipes for sweet and savory pies, along with a wealth of baking tips.

Ricciardi begins with a piecrust primer aptly titled "Don't Fear the Piecrust!" She shares the method for Magpie's essential crust, explaining its uses for single- and double-crust pies, lattice-topped pies, mini pies, potpies and quiches. Her informative, no-nonsense directions will give pie novices a confidence boost before they even turn on the oven.

The book's recipes fall into three main categories: fruity pies, creamy pies and savory pies (including quiches and potpies). Ricciardi shares her own twists on classics, such as Lemon Gingersnap Pie and Caramel Apple Pie, before branching out into innovative combinations such as Cafe Mocha Pie, Berry Custard Thyme Crumb Pie and her signature Butterscotch Bourbon Pie. The savory section includes classics such as Quiche Lorraine and inventive dishes such as Smoked Gouda Butternut Squash Pie. Practical baking hints and variations on recipes appear throughout.

Gorgeously illustrated with full-color photographs, Magpie is as informative as it is delicious. The plethora of recipes will have readers reaching for their aprons so they can whip up a pie or two to share with those they love. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Discover: A delicious collection of pie recipes from Philadelphia's Magpie bakery, with an excellent piecrust primer and helpful baking tips.

Kate Christensen (Blue Plate Special) continues her ventures into the slow-food movement in How to Cook a Moose, splitting her time between the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the hip culinary city of Portland, Maine. Divorced and unhappy living in New York City, she longed "for a new life, somewhere else, somewhere clean and quiet." It was with great fortune that she met a man whose family has a farmhouse in the mountains of New Hampshire, which is where Christensen fell in love again, with life and with food.

From these happy moments of rediscovery, Christensen and her new life partner, Brendan, embark on a culinary odyssey. Christensen's conversational tone leads readers through the happy couple's cooking partnerships in the old farmhouse kitchen, where they whip up chicken stews and meals using the mushrooms they've foraged in the woods behind the house, to the streets of Portland, where they buy an older home together. While their Portland kitchen is being renovated, the couple partakes of Maine's bounty in the many restaurants that have given Portland a culinary reputation on par with any large city in the United States.

Throughout the narrative, Christensen expresses the joy she experiences in eating really local, really fresh foods, made with love and care by people who are sincerely happy. As an added bonus, she includes many recipes--ones she and Brendan have cooked together and ones she has been given by other chefs--which allow readers to capture a bit of the happiness that slowly wafts from these pages like a tantalizing scent. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer

Discover: Join a gourmand on the streets of Portland, throughout Maine and parts of New Hampshire, savoring the lush local cuisine.

Robert Schnakenberg (The Encyclopedia Shatnerica; Christopher Walken A to Z), has assembled a compendium about the enigmatic and wisecracking actor known as the "Murricane." The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray, equal parts unauthorized biography and critical film history, promises a "contextualized picture of the man, his work, and his unique approach to life" through Murray's thoughts on aging, death, marriage, Mendelian genetics, marijuana, Mr. Magoo and his love of minor league baseball, as well as fresh takes on Murray's well-known comedic successes (Groundhog Day; Caddyshack) and career-redefining moments as "the sad, old man" archetype (Lost in Translation; St. Vincent).

Culled from published media sources and from interviews that Schnakenberg conducted with more than a dozen of Murray's colleagues, associates and high school acquaintances, he manages to paint a fair assessment of Murray as the "rare celebrity who got more interesting--and more mysterious--the longer he was in the public eye" while retaining an aura of deferential, awestruck adoration. Schnakenberg portrays Murray as a man of endless contradictions, who claims not to want to work hard but often does uncredited cameos out of loyalty to a friend, a man notoriously hard to contact but who reemerges to photobomb and crash private parties, which Schnakenberg highlights in sections called "Tales from Murrayland." One gets the feeling that Murray may be too cerebral for mainstream Hollywood, and that a conversation with him could be equal parts illuminating and frustrating, but worth the effort. Stargazing aside, Schnakenberg has written an indispensable pop culture classic that will earn a place alongside the Murricane's greatest works. --Nancy Powell, freelance writer and technical consultant

Discover: A comprehensive compendium on the life and career of the enigmatic and contradictory Bill Murray.

In Objective Troy: A Terrorist, A President, and the Rise of the Drone, Scott Shane brings his extensive experience covering terrorism and the intelligence community for the New York Times to bear on the complicated story of U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki and the drone strike that killed him. Shane explains early on why the targeted killing of Awlaki was extraordinary: "at least since the Civil War, he was the first American citizen to be hunted down and deliberately killed by his own government, on the basis of secret intelligence and without criminal charges or a chance to defend himself in court." Shane presents the case with a degree of reportorial objectivity--and, perhaps more impressively, a wealth of footnotes and interviews with figures like Awlaki's father--but he cannot quite hide his distaste for what he characterizes as an extrajudicial killing.

For better and for worse, Objective Troy can seem less like a cohesive book than a series of interconnected investigative pieces. Shane is not as adept at wrangling the unruly mess of recent history into a coherent narrative as some other journalists. However, Shane excels at explaining the steps that Awlaki took along the path to radicalization, the behind-the-scenes legal maneuvering that provided justification for the killing, the perils and advantages of drone warfare and the complicated political situation in Yemen that allowed Awlaki to hide there for years. Objective Troy is a valuable addition to the growing War on Terror corpus. --Hank Stephenson, bookseller, Flyleaf Books

Discover: A well-researched survey of the events leading up to the drone strike that killed Anwar al-Awlaki.

Emotional ups and downs are considered the norm when pregnant, but Stephanie Arnold knew the terrifying premonitions she kept having, of dying while delivering her second child, went far beyond anything she had ever experienced before or even heard of. Fortunately, she was persistent in discussing these haunting dreams and flashes of insight with her family and physicians, and one doctor had the foresight to take precautionary measures, which saved Arnold's life when she suffered a rare amniotic fluid embolism (AFE) in the delivery room.

What unfolds in rapid, tense drama are Arnold's memories of the months preceding the birth, her desperate attempts to find someone who would pay attention to her fears, and the ensuing months of recovery after the AFE. Since AFEs are a leading cause of maternal death around the world, Arnold's story is that of a medical phenomenon coupled with her unusual ability to follow through on the forewarnings she received. Her capacity to recall the events that transpired while she was clinically dead are spot-on with what actually happened as confirmed by doctors. This sent Arnold searching for others who might have had similar premonitions. She found several cases where children and adults had foreseen the future, which gave Arnold "great relief and confirmation that we can in fact sense things before they happen." Arnold's explanations are non-melodramatic, illuminating and edifying, and leave the door wide open for new discussions about souls and where the life force of a person goes when the body dies. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer

Discover: The unusual circumstances that enabled a woman to predict her own death--and saved her life.

Eleven-year-old narrator Suzy Swanson will win readers' hearts as she silently struggles to come to terms with the death of her former best friend, Franny Jackson.

The fact that Franny drowned while on her summer vacation makes no sense to Suzy. Franny had been a strong swimmer since she was five, so Suzy feels certain that an Irukandji jellyfish must be responsible for her friend's death. It's the only plausible explanation. In her scientific pursuit to prove this, she finds a reason to keep going, at the same time shifting from a "constant-talking" girl to a selective mute. Suzy toggles between her present--as a grieving seventh-grader at Eugene Field Memorial Middle School in Massachusetts--and the past: her memories of meeting Franny, becoming best friends, and then it all going terribly awry as Franny develops a crush on Dylan Parker and starts sitting with Aubrey and Mollie at lunch. Suzy is convinced that the Franny she remembers (not this new one with barrettes, "the right hair product" and "deadness" in her eyes) is in there somewhere, if she can only reawaken her. It is a year of loss for Suzy: the death of her parents' marriage, the death of her friendship with Franny and, finally, the death of Franny herself. It's how Suzy insulates herself from all this that drives the story.

In The Thing About Jellyfish, debut author Ali Benjamin shows readers that there are many ways to grieve, and, surrounded by people who love her, that Suzy will get to the other side of her complex emotions. Suzy's ability to articulate the tectonic shifts in her world will help readers get through theirs, too. --Jennifer M. Brown, former children's editor, Shelf Awareness

Discover: A powerful debut novel about an 11-year-old girl who tries to make sense of the death of her former best friend.

After winning multiple awards for The Port Chicago 50 and Bomb, Steve Sheinkin turns his talents for nonfiction storytelling to the Vietnam War and the Pentagon Papers in the gripping Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War.

Choosing Washington insider-turned-whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg as the focal point for a narrative about the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War was a genius decision. Ellsberg, the man Henry Kissinger would call "the most dangerous man in America," started high school in Michigan as the Cold War began, went to Harvard, trained as a Marine, worked as a think-tank analyst, then made his way to the Pentagon. His very first day working for Assistant Secretary of Defense John McNaughton, August 2, 1964, was the day the Gulf of Tonkin incident began, precipitating the rapid escalation of U.S. military force in Vietnam. Sheinkin traces Ellsberg’s seven-year transformation from a devoted "cold warrior" into an antiwar activist who spent months stealing and copying the Pentagon Papers (7,000 pages of government secrets) at great personal peril. Readers will also learn about the Watergate scandal and the fumbling antics of G. Gordon Liddy and Howard Hunt, as well as President Richard Nixon's shocking resignation.

Sheinkin makes this behind-the-scenes look at the history of the Vietnam War fresh and accessible through clear writing, a coherent, chronological narrative structure, and black and white photographs. Suspenseful, vivid glimpses into active combat with Marine Lieutenant Philip Caputo and others, dramatic scenes from the "Hanoi Hilton" POW camp, and abundant quotations contribute to the book's energy and immediacy. --Angela Carstensen, school librarian

Discover: Steve Sheinkin shines a light on the Vietnam War and the Pentagon Papers through the life of whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg.