In an accomplished and timely debut, Imbolo Mbue tears away the veil from the American Dream and measures both the uphill grind to achieve it and the lightning-quick ease of losing it.

After three years in Harlem waiting for Immigration Services to process his application for asylum, Cameroonian immigrant Jende Jonga thinks he can see the light at the end of the tunnel. His lawyer assures him asylum will be granted any day, and his wife, Neni, and six-year-old son, Liomi, have joined him at last after years of separation. In the New York City of late 2007, all things seem possible. With Neni in college and on track for pharmacy school, and the plum chauffeur job Jende's cousin Winston found for him, the family's dreams are coming true. Jende admires his new boss Clark Edwards, a senior investment banker at Lehman Brothers, and eventually Neni begins working part-time for the Edwardses at their summer home. But despite their initial impression of the Edwards family as elegant, happy and perfect, the Jongas quickly begin to observe fissures. 

Behold the Dreamers approaches a difficult subject from a vulnerable perspective. Mbue, herself a Cameroonian native who emigrated to New York 10 years ago, keeps her story intimate rather than didactic by focusing tightly on her characters' reactions to their circumstances instead of the politics behind them. At once a sad indictment of the American Dream and a gorgeous testament to the enduring bonds of family, Mbue's powerful first novel will grip and move you right up to its heartfelt ending. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

Discover: The lives of a struggling immigrant family and a wealthy Wall Street family intersect as they try to survive the economic collapse of 2008.

The O'Reilly men have been firefighters in Brooklyn, N.Y., for generations, long before the city's firehouses came under the jurisdiction of the FDNY. As the men pull 24-hour shifts or roll out of bed to answer fire calls in the wee hours, the O'Reilly women--mothers, wives, sisters, daughters--must learn the constant, often bitter lessons of grief and sacrifice. Kathleen Donohoe, a descendant of Irish immigrant firefighters, constructs a sweeping multigenerational story of love, dedication and loss in her debut novel, Ashes of Fiery Weather.

Donohoe's narrative begins with Norah, a young Irish woman who immigrates to the U.S. in her sister's place, ending up as firefighter Sean O'Reilly's wife, and later his widow. Through the intertwined stories of Norah, her daughter Maggie, Sean's mother Delia and four other women, Donohoe explores the difficult legacy of firefighting as a job, a calling and a tightly knit community. Her characters navigate turbulent historical events, including the Irish potato famine and the devastation of 9/11, and Donohoe vividly brings each period to life. But the novel's special strength lies in the quiet moments between characters: intimate exchanges and daily decisions that often ignite far-reaching changes in their lives.

Family, love and legacy are complicated entities, and Donohoe skillfully portrays her protagonists' struggle with each. Her characters vary widely in age and temperament, but they must reckon with their fierce (if complicated) loyalty to the firefighting community, and how their choices will affect those they hold dear. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Discover: Kathleen Donohoe's debut novel is a sweeping multigenerational story of Irish American firefighters in Brooklyn and the women who love them.

Karin Fossum (Broken, The Murder of Harriet Krohn) is one of crime fiction's gems, and Hell Fire continues the stellar Inspector Konrad Sejer series, set in Norway. By all accounts, Bonnie Hayden is simply a single mother eking out a living as a caretaker, beloved by her elderly clientele. But someone was enraged enough to butcher Bonnie and her young son in an abandoned camper, and Inspector Sejer must apprehend the monster with little in the way of evidence.

Alternating between the investigation and the months before the murders, Fossum deftly weaves Sejer's perspective with Bonnie's, and draws in the Malthes as well, Mass and her co-dependent 21-year-old son, Eddie. Though not formally diagnosed, Eddie is troubled and obsessed with death. He searches the Internet for execution methods, dreams of frying newborn chicks and tries desperately to find his father's grave. A connection between the families may begin to seem ominously obvious, but Fossum is crafty enough to create doubt.

Fossum doesn't take violence casually, and while Sejer takes a secondary role in the plot, he effectively illustrates the impact of brutality on those in its wake. Hell Fire is more a compelling study of character and hardscrabble living than a strict procedural, and even the most dismal scenes and mundane tasks are absorbing. The plot is a tight, slow burn that details the hardships of two mothers and their sons, putting them through the wringer as the date of the murders approaches and their lives intersect. --Lauren O'Brien of Malcolm Avenue Review

Discover: Inspector Sejer aims to solve a brutal murder that involves several intertwined Norwegian families.

When former Mossad agent Rachel Goldschmitt makes a mysterious call to Ehud, the man who served as her handler, he immediately contacts the clandestine Israeli organization and they go on full alert. Rachel has knowledge of vital secrets, and no one knows where she is or what her intentions are. She's an explosive liability and must be found, but Ehud has always harbored a secret love for Rachel. He's divided between loyalty to his country and affection for this woman. His goal is to ensure both are safe, but the Mossad leaders want only the potential threat neutralized. In Yiftach Reicher Atir's first work translated into English, the former Israeli Army Brigadier General of Intelligence tells the story of the female spy in a series of flashback episodes, as experienced by both Rachel and Ehud, while the Mossad desperately tries to locate its rogue former agent.

Based on actual events, The English Teacher is a slower-moving spy novel that focuses more acutely on psychological aspects than daring exploits and secret operations. Atir dissects the emotional and mental elements of his characters as they cope with their ambiguous identities. The compassionate depiction of individuals expected to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of their country is deeply moving, and exquisitely reflects the complexities--and commonalities--experienced broadly. The passions are not exclusive to a culture or religion; that universality in this meticulous translation makes The English Teacher both insightful and accessible, a welcome addition to the espionage genre. --Jen Forbus of Jen's Book Thoughts

Discover: The Mossad is in turmoil when a former agent who possesses secrets that could cripple Israel disappears.

Fans of Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Gamache will be thrilled with A Great Reckoning, the 12th entry in her delightful Québécois series. New readers will have no trouble starting with this novel as Armand Gamache leaves his retirement in the idyllic village of Three Pines and takes on a new job--head of Québec's police training academy. Gamache has dedicated his life to catching murderers and quashing corruption within the Sûreté, and now he seeks to discover why Sûreté officers are complaining that recent cadets are boorish and untrainable. Convinced that someone within the academy is brainwashing many trainees to be his or her personal thugs, Gamache undertakes the arduous and ultimately deadly process of revamping the staff and curriculum.

Along the way, a strange map found stuffed into the walls of the bistro in Three Pines will have far-reaching repercussions, drawing the villagers into Gamache's dangerous task.

With her trademark poetry and wit, Louise Penny (The Long Way Home) perfects her portrayal of the quirky villagers, the truculent students, Gamache's charming wife, Reine-Marie, and the philosophical, achingly courteous Gamache himself. His determination to see the good in everyone around him may be his ultimate downfall, however, as he struggles to rehabilitate students who may have already slipped down the slope of sociopathy. Weighing themes of redemption and loss, and whether a reckoning for injustice will always arrive, A Great Reckoning is a gripping mystery. --Jessica Howard, blogger at Quirky Bookworm

Discover: In this tense but beautiful mystery, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache seeks to root out corruption in Québec's police academy.

The plot is simple: Vellitt Boe, an inhabitant of the dream lands, professor at Ulthar Women's College and lifelong traveler, is sent on a mission to find a student who may have eloped with a man from the waking lands. On the way, she dodges ghouls and vengeful gods while subtly coming to terms with aging. Fans of H.P. Lovecraft will recognize nods to The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, right down to the cat that tags along; however, Johnson's luminous prose subverts Lovecraft's racism and misogyny.

Fantasy and science fiction writing can occasionally over-explain; authors will go to great lengths to provide background information. The better ones tuck that information into load-bearing sentences without slowing the drama. The best reveal only what is truly needed, and trust readers to infer--or imagine--the rest. Johnson is one of the best.

The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe gets right down to business. Instead of detailing every zoog and gug, Johnson (At the Mouth of the River of Bees) allows the reader to relish the implications of names and characters' reactions. She is extraordinarily economical that way--she's best known for her Nebula Award-winning short story, "Ponies," and the novella The Man Who Bridged the Mist, which won both Hugo and Nebula awards. She creates enjoyable, dreamlike worlds that simply don't require much explanation. While Dream-Quest doesn't appear to be designed with a series in mind, Johnson certainly leaves enough juicy crumbs to inspire volumes of fanfic. --Zak Nelson, writer and bookseller

Discover: This fast-paced, otherworldly story with a strong female protagonist is perfect for fans of Lovecraft, LeGuin's Earthsea series and The Night Circus.

Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson were showbiz royalty and seldom off the radar of the tabloid press, so it's no surprise that, prior to this dual biography by Donald Bogle (Dorothy Dandridge), there were more than a dozen full-length biographies devoted to their lives--plus Jackson's autobiography and four books written by Taylor. Both led fascinating and compelling lives. Although seemingly dissimilar, Taylor (1932-2011) and Jackson (1958-2009) had a lot in common. Both radiated talent, survived the transition from child star to adult performer (Jackson joined the Jackson 5 at age five, and Taylor made her first movie at nine), produced award-winning work (she won two Best Actress Oscars; he won 13 Grammys), and held the public's fascination for decades with their lavish tastes and outrageous behavior.

More than half of Elizabeth & Michael's nearly 400 pages consists of alternating chapters telling each performer's life story prior to their meeting in 1985. Together or apart, there is no lack of drama, which makes for lively and engrossing reading. Apart, there are Taylor's eight marriages, life-threatening health problems (including scoliosis, a broken back, pneumonia, brain tumor, alcohol and prescription drug addiction, and congestive heart failure) and AIDS activism; and Jackson's dysfunctional early family life, sexual abuse allegations, compulsive plastic surgery, two short marriages and financial woes. Together, they forged a fiercely loyal friendship and, according to Taylor, "told each other everything."

Despite having enough material for two solo biographies, Bogle's compressed merging of these two active lives never feels rushed or perfunctory. Bogle's Elizabeth & Michael is a skillful, fast-paced biography filled with compelling anecdotes. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant

Discover: Donald Bogle's hefty Elizabeth & Michael is a lively and compelling retelling of Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson's separate lives and fiercely loyal friendship.

In the early days of World War II, poet Archibald MacLeish, the director of the Library of Congress, worked with the Secret Service to move the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Gettysburg Address and thousands of other precious documents to hiding places, including Fort Knox, where they would be safe in case of enemy bombing. In American Treasures, Stephen Puleo (The Caning) uses the story of MacLeish's undercover librarianship as a framing device for the documents' history as a whole, from the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, through the development of 21st-century restoration and conservation techniques.

Puleo never loses track of the documents' dual nature as both artifacts and symbols. He describes their drafting and publication as well as the political debates that surrounded their creation, bringing new life to familiar stories in the process. He traces the documents' physical deterioration, attempts to preserve them and bureaucratic infighting over their control. In what is possibly the most fascinating section, Puleo compares the singlehanded efforts of Stephen Pleasonton, a senior clerk in the office of the Secretary of State, to save the documents when the British attacked Washington in 1814, with MacLeish's carefully executed plan. (Pleasonton hid them in an abandoned farmhouse. Not exactly Fort Knox.)

Ultimately, American Treasures is an engaging exploration of Archibald MacLeish's assessment that "they are not important as manuscripts, they are important as themselves." --Pamela Toler, blogging at History in the Margins

Discover: This book surveys the history and care of the United States' most important historical documents.

Sports fans love a winner, but they also love a heroic loser. A standout in the lovable loser ranks was the 1976-1977 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs (tagged the Yucks by loyal fans) launched their NFL franchise with 26 straight losses. Their first ever touchdown was a fumble return. After two games, their announcer Jack Harris commented, "when your punter's your MVP, you've got a problem." On one early season kickoff return, they failed to lay a hand on the ball--leading their acerbic, cigar-smoking, quip-spitting coach John McKay to rant: "These guys are getting paid money. They should at least be able to fall on a football."

Writer, historian and childhood Buccaneer fan, The Yucks author Jason Vuic knows his losers--he wrote the book on the car that Time magazine called "the Mona Lisa of bad cars... [like] something assembled at gunpoint": Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car of All Time. With ample research and abundant quotation, Vuic describes the Bucs' local promoters; its Jacksonville owner--notorious tightwad tax attorney Hugh Culverhouse; the politicized franchise negotiations with iron throne NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle; the antics of coach and curmudgeon John McKay; and the revolving door of has-beens, never-wills, rookies, and Canadian and World Football League cast-offs who had the misfortune of donning helmets bearing the creamsicle orange logo of Bucco Bruce ("a cross between a 1970s Bee Gee and a swashbuckler"). The Yucks is a great way to kick-off the new rock-'em, sock-'em NFL season. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.

Discover: Historian and longtime Bucs fan Jason Vuic has fun with the story of the NFL team everybody (including its coach) loved to lampoon.

In Why Write?: A Master Class on the Art of Writing and Why It Matters, University of Virginia professor Mark Edmundson, author of Why Read? and Why Teach?, first offers readers a multitude of reasons why not to write. The list goes on and on: the lack of any substantial amount of money for most authors; the loneliness inherent in the writing process; the little pleasure revenge writing actually incurs; the probability of receiving a bad review that limits the scope and connotations of one's book. So why do so many people write? Edmundson states, "Because writing is one of the best acts a human being can turn his hand to.... By coming up with fresh and arresting words to describe the world accurately, the writer expands the boundaries of her world, and possibly her readers' world, too."

Edmundson defines writing as that which provides instruction and entertainment, and he offers exemplars of good writers--such as Keats, Yeats, Melville, Whitman, and Woolf--to back his philosophical, sometimes humorous, occasionally snarky, commentary on the writing life. Sex, alcohol, fame and fortune; the ability to think and learn about oneself; and the need for expression play roles and are expanded on in Edmundson's methodical, edifying and pleasurable consideration of the ups and downs of the writing life. Rather than a how-to-write book, Why Write? ponders why so many people try their hand at something that can be so time consuming and contain so many pitfalls, and Edmundson offers satisfying answers for readers and writers alike. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer

Discover: A university professor offers sage commentary on the process of writing and the writer's life.

In her Newbery Honor-winning Turtle in Paradise, Jennifer L. Holm introduced a scrappy bunch of barefoot kids living in Key West during the Depression--including the Diaper Gang that takes care of people's "bad babies" in exchange for candy. Ten-year-old "Beans" Curry is Turtle's cousin and the founder of the Diaper Gang; Full of Beans, the dryly funny prequel to Turtle, is his story.

"Look here, Mac. I'm gonna give it to you straight: grown-ups lie," says the no-nonsense, rather jaded Beans in the novel's first line. Beans has been the "man of the house" for his impoverished family since his father left to find work in New Jersey. This heavy responsibility inspires the boy's "life of crime," helping out a rum-runner named Johnny Cakes. He's trying to do the right thing by earning a buck, but he gets himself into moral hot water that makes coconut ice cream taste like sawdust in his mouth. Beans spends the rest of the book working hard to redeem himself.

Holm's vividly described Key West drips with heat, sways with Cuban music, buzzes with mosquitoes and stinks of garbage. The town is so smelly and decrepit, in fact, that the federal government has taken it over, vowing to shut it down if it's not spruced up. (This really happened, as the author's note explains.) Holm, who has family ties to Key West, captures this colorful slice of Depression history with her usual vivacious wit and colorful expressions like "Mind your own potatoes." Children will love Beans, with his good heart and only occasional bad judgment. A fine and welcome companion to Turtle. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness

Discover: A ragtag posse of barefoot kids in Depression-era Florida's Key West takes center stage in Jennifer L. Holm's lively prequel to the Newbery Honor-winning Turtle in Paradise.

Revered by kids and reviled by (some) adults, Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants series launched a generation of graphic novel-adoring readers. Fans of the misbehaving and occasionally ingenious fourth-graders George and Harold will not be disappointed by Dog Man, which is just as full of farcical superheroes, amazing inventions and funny-bone-tickling adventure.

Here, George and Harold, fictional creators of comics like The Invasion of the Potty Snatchers, revive an "epic novella" they wrote in kindergarten, even before "they" wrote Captain Underpants. Through a stupefying chain of events involving a diabolical cat, an explosive "KA BLOOEY" and a quick-thinking surgical "nurse lady," a crime-fighting hero is born who has the body of a strong but not-so-bright cop and the head of a smart but physically limited dog. As in the Captain Underpants series, action, suspense and "laffs" follow. Dog Man outsmarts a giant vacuum cleaner ("Let's get ready to Roomba!"), a villainous mayor ("So, Dr. Scum... How is our evil robot coming along?") and Petey the cat, whose plot to destroy all the books in the world has disastrous results ("Behold! I just invented the Word-B-Gone 2000™"). Dog Man is also always getting in trouble for licking his boss's face, chewing slippers and peeing on the floor of police headquarters.

Naturally the famous "Extra cheesy Flip-O-Rama" is still part of the mix, and Pilkey offers a laughing nod to grownup readers with lines like "Philly, don't be a gyro! Don't be a fool with your life!" Next up: Dog Man Unleashed. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor

Discover: Captain Underpants creator Dav Pilkey's Dog Man is a hero with the head of a dog, the body of a man and an endless capacity for hilarious hijinks.