Scott Simon's Unforgettable is a heartfelt, nostalgic, funny and uplifting celebration of his mother's life. Simon, host of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, spent his mother's final days with her in an intensive care unit in Chicago, looking back at the life she created for him as a solo parent and working mother.

Patricia Lyons was a glamorous Irish Catholic who married Ernie Simon, an alcoholic Jewish comedian. The suicide of Lyons's mother taught her self-preservation early. When her husband began drinking himself out of jobs and toward an early grave, she left him, determined not to let herself or her son be caught in that spiral.

Working in nightclubs, dress shops and doing some modeling, Lyons created a secure world not only for her son but also for her alternative family of "aunties and uncles"--her circle of tough and funny women pals and gay male friends.

While intermittently detailing the everyday indignities of dying in a hospital, Simon and his mother hopscotch through pivotal and delightfully trivial moments in their life together, remembering numerous gentlemen callers, birthday parties, marriages, jokes and life lessons. Far from depressing, Simon (Pretty Birds) uses precise prose and nimble portraiture to create an inspiring and unforgettable memoir that reassures readers that even the most ordinary life is extraordinary when examined. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant

For those who cringe a bit at their teenage photos, the memoir Unabrow: Misadventures of a Late Bloomer is sure to be a source of enjoyable catharsis. Una LaMarche (writer of the popular blog The Sassy Curmudgeon) specializes in confronting the types of memories most of us try to repress--years of puberty absent from many family albums because they've been "crudely defaced with marker or ripped out in order to be ritually burned." Having sported at various points in her life a thick unibrow, troll doll earrings, prominent acne and "bulbous-toed platform sneakers that looked to have been cobbled by cartoon elves," LaMarche is intimately familiar with shame, and knows how to share hers in a way that's hilarious and accessible. Through clever guides, charts and lists (for instance, "The Seven Deadly Sins of DIY Bangs"), LaMarche provides snappy "advice" on some of life's silliest struggles.

Beneath the continuous humor, Unabrow sends a heartfelt message about self-acceptance. LaMarche offers her own past as evidence of universal imperfection, while including sly allusions to the absurdity of beauty standards in general. Having a unibrow, she points out, was once desirable in ancient Greece, Russia and Iran.

Reading Unabrow can feel akin to flipping through a yearbook with a grounded friend--one who possesses an unusual knack for apt pop-culture references, devising belated comebacks and generally making everyone feel better about themselves. --Annie Atherton

Les Standiford (Bringing Adam Home) honed his chops on his Miami-set John Deal crime novels, and this work of narrative nonfiction ups the ante on his already storied career. Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct and the Rise of Los Angeles is a history of the water wars between Los Angeles and the Owens Valley, but more specifically, it's an ode to William Mulholland. Considered the father of Los Angeles, this towering, no-nonsense Irishman, the superintendent of the Los Angeles City Water Company, turned an arid desert basin into a starry metropolis of 10 million people in an architectural achievement that endures to this day.

Standiford lays bare the struggles Mulholland faced in taming the abundant Owens River, knowing that in benefiting "the greatest good" he would strip away the livelihoods of Owens Valley residents who depended on that water for their own development and prosperity. The only blemish in Mulholland's complicated yet pragmatic career was the collapse of the St. Francis Dam in 1928, which killed 600 and haunted him until his death.

Los Angeles faces the same do-or-die situation today that provoked Mulholland at the turn of the 20th century to brave a buckboard journey in desperate search of a resource needed for the city's survival. "Still, anyone tempted to doubt any Mulholland anecdote should keep in mind the indisputable facts of the man's legacy, which still keep a major city afloat, and which to this day provoke legislative debate, lawsuits and acts of criminal mischief." --Nancy Powell, freelance writer and technical consultant

In her popular lifestyle blog Yvestown, author and photographer Yvonne Eijkenduijn showcases a personal aesthetic that combines serious DIY skills, a passion for organic food and a strong sense of design with international flair. (Think a Gen-X Martha Stewart with Dutch roots, a Belgian home base and Indonesian influences.) Like her blog, Eijkenduijn's first book, Yvestown in the Kitchen, is both practical and aspirational.

Yvestown in the Kitchen includes recipes for 40 dishes, both familiar (apple-pear crumble) and exotic (coconut soup). The recipes are simple and clearly written. Each is accompanied with a photograph designed to make to make the mouth water. Nonetheless, this is not primarily a cookbook; instead it is a book about living in the kitchen--beautifully.

Eijkenduijn takes readers into not only her own kitchen, but those of 12 of her friends, most of whom are young creative entrepreneurs in Belgium or the Netherlands. The demographic of the kitchen owners is not diverse, but the style of their kitchens is, from sleek and professional to cozy and idiosyncratic. Each section begins with a brief bio of both the cook and the kitchen, followed by photographs that will instill envy in even a non-cook's heart. Each section ends with a quirky "interview" with the kitchen's owners, including a list of online inspirations. Too personal simply to copy, these kitchens offer a springboard to reader creativity. As Eijkenduijn says, "A nosy glimpse into someone else's kitchen can be incredibly inspiring." --Pamela Toler, blogging at History in the Margins

Although the Bible employs a staggering array of metaphors for God, Jews and Christians tend to use a handful of them over and over. With her trademark acerbic wit and wry honesty, in Wearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God, Lauren F. Winner delves into a few seldom used--in some cases completely overlooked--biblical images.

Winner (Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis) begins with a confession: even as a professor at Duke Divinity School and a longtime person of faith, she sometimes finds it difficult to think about God. "Sometimes, a hymn gets caught in my hair," she writes, "and I sing it all week long, off and on, without ever thinking hard about what it says about God." Realizing that her images of God were both predictable and somewhat outdated, Winner began mining the Bible for its more unusual or startling depictions of God. In this book, she examines half a dozen of them--clothing, laughter, smell, flame, laboring woman and the intertwined images of bread and vine--pondering the implications of each.

While Winner approaches God through the lens of faith, she has plenty of doubts, and she's not afraid to air them. Throughout Wearing God, she draws on the imaginings of other theologians, both Jewish and Christian; she excerpts several sermons and peppers the book with quotes from mystics and other scholars. Despite its depth, Wearing God never feels dry. It is, at heart, simply the newest chapter in Winner's continuing quest for a deeper relationship with God. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Saul Bellow lived in rarefied air for American writers--he won the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes and three National Book Awards (the only writer to do so). This year marks the centennial of Bellow's birth, a perfect time to publish a collection of his nonfiction, and Benjamin Taylor, who edited Saul Bellow: Letters, is the ideal person to take this on.

There are 57 pieces, from 1948 to 2000: essays, critical and autobiographical pieces, lectures, interviews and speeches. They deal with Chicago, past and present--Bellow was a "child of immigrants who grew up in one of Chicago's immigrant neighborhoods"--his Jewish heritage and Jewish writers; and his concern over the state of the novel, its past, present and future.

Bellow started out as a leftist, but as he grew older he became more conservative, concerned with the viability of civilization (another common topic for his analysis) and the poor state of "high culture" in America. For him, the most important element in a novel (that "latter-day lean-to, a hovel in which the spirit takes shelter," as he described it in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech) was the "stature of characters." Bellow frequently commented on the absence of such in modern literature.

Taylor has done a great job bringing all these pieces together, though a short introduction or brief paragraphs to situate the pieces would have been welcome. Nonetheless, There Is Simply Too Much to Think About provides us with a fine portrait of the artist. --Tom Lavoie, former publisher

Caldecott Medalist Jerry Pinkney's (The Lion and the Mouse) translucent, sumptuous watercolors pay tribute to the seasons in a retelling that extols the virtues of planning ahead as well as living in the moment.

The author-artist introduces the central debate of the famous Aesop fable in the first spread, teeming with ants, flowers and greenery. "Why work so hard?" sings Grasshopper to the Ants. "It's spring and time to go fishing." We sense that Grasshopper would gladly share his catch in return for the Ants' company. "No time to relax," the Ants reply. In summer, Grasshopper invites the Ants to dance and sing, and admires how the autumn leaves "twirl and glide," but the Ants keep on, rolling walnuts and bringing leaves to store. Grasshopper's summons to "Look at this wonderful mountain of leaves. Come play!" will resonate with young readers. They'll discover a ladybug, spider and monarch hidden in the illustration, though nary an Ant in sight. Grasshopper alone witnesses the beauty of the first snow. Pinkney's ingenious use of nature's provisions supply Grasshopper with helicopter maple seeds for snowshoes on his hind legs, as he heads to the Ants' abode to beg for entry.

A cutaway view depicts a thriving underground colony, where the wise and kind Queen Ant offers Grasshopper tea and refuge. They dance and sing to a stream of notes from Grasshopper's accordion and an Ant playing banjo. Without judgment, Pinkney shows that neither extreme pays off--all play or all work. The combination of preparation and enjoying the present makes life worthwhile. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness

This debut graphic novel by Victoria Jamieson--aka Winnie the Pow, a roller derby skater herself--will make readers as fascinated by the world of roller derby as is her 12-year-old heroine, who falls in love with the sport and practices to improve her skills.

Astrid goes from a girl who can barely balance on skates to an "insane" speed demon during her time at Junior Roller Derby Camp. She still struggles with mastering her "plow" (stopping) and falls nearly every time she gets "hit" (blocked) by a teammate. But through practice, she steadily improves in credible ways. As Jamieson explains the sport's juicy language and its mix of skillful skating and aggressive blocking, she also charts the changes in Astrid's friendship with Nicole, her best friend since first grade. Nicole wants to learn to dance en pointe at ballet camp, not master blocking at derby camp. A standout sequence depicts a split-screen of Astrid's growing anger (on the right) as she eavesdrops on Nicole listening to a ballet friend coach her on how to shed Astrid as a friend (on the left). Astrid lets her mother assume she and Nicole are still tight and attending camp together, which results in an emotionally authentic blowout.

In the course of the camp's duration, Astrid learns a great deal about herself as a skater, a daughter and a friend. Jamieson's honest approach and ability to chronicle visually the inner life of her heroine will have readers hoping for more from this talented writer and artist. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness