Velva Jean Hart has come a long way since Velva Jean Learns to Drive, Jennifer Niven's first novel about her mid-century Appalachian heroine, but it's still a surprise that her commitment to her mama's advice to "live out there" would take her to the front lines of the Second World War as a pilot and, in Becoming Clementine, to a new identity.

After mastering the automobile at 17 and leaving Fair Mountain, N.C., to sing at the Grand Ole Opry, Velva Jean joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots, and as Becoming Clementine opens, she's just become the second woman to fly a B-17 over the Atlantic. Determined to be a "weapon of war," Velva Jean also has a second motive: to find her brother who went missing after D-Day. Fearless in her search for Johnny Clay, she argues her way into a co-pilot's seat of a B-24 mission to drop agents into France. Crash landing in the German-controlled French countryside, the survivors make their way to Paris, sheltered by the Resistance, where she is disguised as "Clementine Roux" and falls in love with the mysterious Emile.

Niven includes plenty of historical details about secret agent action and military operations in the European theater. The throat-clutching close calls and heartbreaking losses of the brave young "weapons of war" propel this novel forward as fast as a B-24. --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, bookseller

Antoine Wilson's delightful Panorama City is a transcript of 10 tapes recorded over one long night in the hospital by Oppen Porter, a 28-year-old, 6'5" "slow absorber" who fears he won't live until morning, laying out for his unborn son an account of the last 40 days of his life.

When his father dies, Oppen buries him as he wished: in the yard, with his two hunting dogs. This provokes concern among the neighbors and the police. Rather than let Oppen live alone, his disciplinarian Aunt Liz summons him to her home in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley, lining him up a job at a fast-food restaurant and sending him to the Lighthouse Christian Fellowship. But, as early as the bus ride to his new home, Oppen falls under the spell of Paul Renfro, an old philosopher who engages him in various unsuccessful schemes and ultimately moves into the crawl space above Aunt Liz's ceiling--without her knowing.

Wilson assembles a hugely likable cast in this oddball coming-of-age tale, starting with Oppen: a special but sheltered kid who's lived most of his life as the town joke. With very dry wit, a cockeyed tolerance for human foibles and a goofy idealism, Oppen painstakingly records his journey, helped along the way by bus drivers, a pretty police officer, a collector of abandoned shopping carts and Carmen, the Mexican prostitute who's carrying his child. Long before the last tape begins, readers will have grown to love Wilson's earnest, well-meaning protagonist, who just wants to learn what it means to be a man of the world. --Nick DiMartino, Nick's Picks, University Book Store, Seattle

Is there any contract tighter than a family recipe? Alex Witchel poses this question early in All Gone, a memoir of her mother's dementia and her efforts to stem the sorrow of watching her slip away. Witchel, the former author of the "Feed Me" column for the New York Times food section, turned to her mother's recipes for solace, and as she shares her heartbreak and her mother's suffering, she comforts the reader with a cherished recipe at each chapter's end.

Witchel doesn't romanticize her mother or her childhood, describing her cooking efforts as an obligation, not a joy, with Accent seasoning a favorite ingredient and "Del Monte her farmer's market." She was a teacher for 52 years and earned a doctorate after marriage and children, a smart, strong woman whose regular request to her daughter to "tell me everything" inspired Witchel's journalism career.

Witchel examines her role during her mother's illness like the reporter she is, with plentiful "should haves" and "could haves." She includes medical details, family reactions and a generous collection of history, humor and reminiscences to round out our understanding of the family. But it's the meatloaf, the cheese blintzes, the latkes and the three-day chicken soup that cement the memories and the mother-daughter bond.

After the last chapter, Witchel shares a chicken recipe that means to her family what her mother's meat loaf represents to her, and we know her mother's spirit lives on. --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, bookseller

World traveler and NPR commentator Craig Childs explores our shifting, unstable world in Apocalyptic Planet--from the star-shaped sand dunes of the Sonoran desert of Mexico to deep glacial crevasses in Chile to the lava fields of Hawaii. In all, he travels to nine locations, "each an apocalyptic landscape in its own right, an analogue for a likely ending to life even remotely as we know it," introducing us to Earth's major geological upheavals along the way. The world has experienced five major near-extinction periods over the course of 4.5 billion years, he tells us, where "up to 90 percent of life in oceans and 75 percent of life on land have been suddenly eliminated."

The next extinction cycle has already begun, he continues, precipitated by human interaction with the planet on multiple levels. Global warming is one of the biggest hazards, with unprecedented glacial melting initiating a series of chain reactions. As ice weight is removed, the earth shifts, triggering earthquakes and tsunamis. The water from melting ice floods narrow river valleys, destroying homes and crops, and the influx of cold water run-off shifts ocean temperatures and changes the direction of ocean currents, affecting weather conditions worldwide. Scientific, yet personal and passionate, Apocalyptic Planet will excite readers as they ponder the question Child poses: "What would it mean to be the last ones standing on an ultimately sere and ruined planet?" --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer

To the uninitiated, the word "vegan" often brings to mind time-consuming recipes with unfamiliar ingredients. Robin Robertson's Fresh from the Vegan Slow Cooker, however, is full of healthy, recipes that can be made using the time-saving kitchen standby for all meals from breakfast to dessert.

Slow cooking was first made popular by busy working parents who could throw a handful of ingredients in the pot in the morning and return after work to a warm dinner. Robertson--the author of 19 vegan and vegetarian cookbooks--recommends several other reasons to use the slow cooker, from saving energy and keeping the kitchen cool in the summer to creating complex combinations of flavor by cooking with low heat for a long period of time. (It's also easier to make large quantities of food that can be spread out over many meals.)

"There is something almost primal about slow cooking that warms the soul," Robertson proclaims in the opening chapter. From there, she provides helpful tips for chefs new to slow-cooking, such as which size and style to buy and how to compensate for cooking time variables. Beyond the expected favorites--chilis, stews and soups--Robertson includes lovely surprises like applesauce-walnut cake, three-way pumpkin bread pudding and piña colada cake. One section focuses entirely on creating condiments like butternut butter, stone fruit jam and barbecue sauce "from the crock."

Any foodie looking to save time (and calories) would love Robertson's venture into vegan slow cooking. --Kristen Galles from Book Club Classics 

Lucy Baker wants us to have fun with kitchen crafts, and promises (1) her recipes can be made in an afternoon and (2) they don't require "fancy kitchen equipment" or rare ingredients. But those lucky recipients of yummy treats from Edible DIY will never guess how easy they were to create.

The user-friendly appeal starts with a calendar of occasions and suggested recipes for each. (Even Rosh Hashanah gets a list, with four apple and honey recipes.) Most can be made year 'round, but, as Baker notes, "just because you can make Chocolate Barbecue Sauce in February doesn't mean you should." The culinary categories include Crunchy, Boozy, Sweet, Spicy and Preserves, with snappy variations on some familiar themes: nut brittle becomes "Spicy Pumpkin Seed and Pecan Brittle," while bacon gives a boost to the classic caramel turtle.

Baker doesn't skimp on quality ingredients, but most of these goodies are economical. She includes mixing directions for a few drinks that deserve their own party, like Cucumber-Jalapeno Vodka and Crema di Limoncello, but stresses that "bottom-shelf" booze works just fine.

Full-page color photos and a short background story accompany each recipe, and tips on simple and tasteful packaging are sprinkled throughout. As rewarding as cooking from this delightful book may be, it might be smart to buy one for a friend and wait for the "share" part to come back your way. --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, bookseller

Lauren Oliver (Delirium; Liesl & Po) will again sweep up younger readers with her dark and illuminating tale about a girl's odyssey into an eerie underworld to rescue her brother. The novel pulses with great adventure and plenty of heart and features elusive enemies such as those of Maurice Sendak's Outside Over There.

Liza instinctively knows the evil spindlers (strange spider-like beings) have stolen her sweet brother Patrick's soul overnight and left a changeling in his place. Even though not-Patrick appears to know everything Patrick does, his eyes are empty of sparkle, his table manners have improved, and he spells I H-A-T-E Y-O-U with his cereal. Courageous Liza falls down a hole in her basement wall and into the world Below where she lands on the eccentric rat Mirabella. Mirabella offers to guide Liza to the spindlers' nest when Liza promises, "I'll do anything!" Liza must succeed in the spindler queen's test of wills in order to save not only Patrick's soul, but her own.

The six-legged, soul-stealing spindlers with human hands at the ends of their legs are one of the many strange creations Below, where "impossible" is an ugly human word. Some creatures prove to be formidable obstacles, such as the ravenous snakelike scawgs. Others are beautiful, such as the shadowy nocturni that sip dreams from the River of Knowledge and fly out to deliver them to the souls to whom they're wedded. Readers will root for this immeasurably hopeful, dauntless heroine to return home with a brother whose eyes sparkle. --Adam Silvera, reviewer and former bookseller

Debut author Corrinne Jackson expertly conveys the vulnerability of a character determined to tell the truth with If I Lie.

Quinn's life changed forever when her boyfriend, Carey, enlisted in the army. It was enough to deal with the emotions surrounding his deployment; it was another thing altogether secretly to break up with him days before he left. And when a picture surfaces on the Internet of Quinn with another boy, everyone in Sweethaven, N.C., labels her a traitor. The book opens as Casey is declared MIA. Shunned by her friends and Carey's family, and even the boy she was caught with, Quinn must decide whether to tell the truth about their breakup (which would reveal even more than anyone else knows) or to protect Carey: "[H]e's not here. And I won't break another promise. So I will pretend we were still together when he deployed, lying to our best friend and everyone who hates me for cheating on him."

Readers will instantly connect with Quinn, a hometown sweetheart condemned by most everyone. Through her authentic thoughts and actions, readers see her shift between her options but stay steadfast to her values. Her involvement in other aspects of her life give Quinn a well-rounded, realistic feel, as she battles with an absent mother and a friendship with a veteran that means more than Quinn realizes. Jackson's ability accurately to convey a wide range of emotions will keep readers invested until the final page. --Shanyn Day, blogger at Chick Loves Lit