In researching her family history in the little town of Hamilton, Ga., investigative journalist Karen Branan was surprised to find connections to a 1912 lynching. A nephew of her great-grandfather, the sheriff, was murdered. Days later, a local mob killed three black men and a black woman. Branan digs deeper, expecting to find her forebears innocent of violence. The evidence is far more complex in The Family Tree: A Lynching in Georgia, a Legacy of Secrets, and My Search for the Truth.

In a town where nearly everyone has been related by blood or marriage for generations, Branan's family variously turned a blind eye to the murders, or directly participated. She finds herself related not only to the white mob, but to at least one of the black victims as well. Every new piece of information complicates the story and startles her further, until she has to address her most basic understanding of the world. "I began this journey believing myself to be an unflinching investigative reporter and a nonracist," Branan writes, but must confront a bias in favor of her own family. Admirably, she examines herself and the preconceptions she brings, even to the pursuit of racial justice.

The Family Tree offers an in-depth study of the history of Southern race relations, particularly in Georgia. The narrative of the lynching is told thrillingly, the background more dryly, but it is Branan's personal perspective and soul-searching that makes this history insightful, relevant and memorable. --Julia Jenkins, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

Why do some places produce dozens of geniuses, seeming to carry brilliant ideas in their very air? Is there a certain set of conditions (political, artistic, technological) under which genius is guaranteed to flourish? Traveler and self-confessed non-genius Eric Weiner (The Geography of Bliss) embarks on a physical and historical journey to investigate. Traveling to seven great cities of ideas (past and present), Weiner explores the evolving concept of genius and the places where it has thrived.

Weiner begins in Athens, where he consults modern-day philosophers, including one named Aristotle (yes, really) about the revolutionary ideas produced by the city's ancient thinkers. In each city he visits--Western hotbeds like Florence, Edinburgh and Vienna, plus Eastern genius centers like Calcutta and Hangzhou--Weiner talks to locals who have studied the work of their resident geniuses: Mozart, Freud, Shen Kuo and others.

Taking as his motto Plato's maxim, "What is honored in a country will be cultivated there," Weiner delves into the roles of place and culture in creative innovation. He also asks how our modern-day society (including Silicon Valley, where he ends his "genius tour") can seek to foster creativity. Kicking against the myth of the lone, tortured genius, Weiner demonstrates that personal connections can spark creativity and argues for cultivating ingenuity "not as a private indulgence but as a public good, part of the commons."

Informative and dryly witty, Weiner's odyssey is both an insightful examination of genius and a call to readers to explore their own untapped creative resources. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Political activism can be frustrating and exhausting at times, and the workings of modern radical movements may seem obscure to outsiders. In When We Fight, We Win, activists and anyone new to the social movements of the early 21st century will find first-person insights and a primer on the history of these movements, from the 1960s to 2015.

For five years, Greg Jobin-Leeds (co-chair of the Schott Foundation for Public Education) interviewed working activists, asking, "What are the lessons you've learned?" In chapters on LGBTQ rights, public education, ending mass incarceration, immigrant rights, economic power and the environment, these organizers, artists and musicians tell stories of failure and success, what worked and what didn't, what keeps them going and how anyone can get involved. Their strong awareness of the links between their various causes illuminates a principle Jobin-Leeds calls "transformative organizing." Their common enemy is identified as racist and capitalist mainstream U.S. society. Members of the artist collective AgitArte have illustrated each chapter with examples of didactic art and photographs of "art in action" at demonstrations and in other public venues. Readers will have to contend with a few pages of such jargon as, "My main goal is to create an effective counterproject to hegemony." But for the most part the text is clear and to the point, infused with the passionate and practical voices of many creative effective individuals working toward common goals. "We will fail. We will stumble. We will doubt and we will hesitate. Don't give up." --Sara Catterall

Upon his death, poet Christopher Logue left unfinished a full-length reimagining of Homer's Iliad. His fellow poet and friend Christopher Reid applies a careful editorial hand to the papers Logue left behind to release War Music, which includes both previously published works and new material.

The result is as epic and evocative, as emotional and resounding as the original, yet also surprisingly novel. Logue employs memorable images, as when the two armies meet "like a forest making its way through a forest." He is unafraid of wild anachronisms: "As many arrows on [Hector's] posy shield/ As microphones on politicians' stands"; "Blood like a car-wash." But this is no attempt to modernize; the rage of Achilles, Helen's beauty, capricious gods and customs of battle remain set in Homer's Greece. Rather, it is an enrichment of a well-known and loved story, in swelling verse and with the same clever eye for tragedy and sly humor of its model.

Reid finds Logue's "capacity for the grand conception dashingly and convincingly executed," as near "pure Logue" as possible. His preface and comments in the appendix (where the manuscripts were roughest) offer insight for readers unfamiliar with Logue, who references Dostoyevsky, Shakespeare, Keats and Tennyson, as well as Homer. Expertise with the original is unnecessary to enjoy this version; although such knowledge will increase the impact, the grandeur of War Music is gripping and suspenseful regardless of the reader's background. No fan of Homer will want to miss Logue's contribution. --Julia Jenkins, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

In 1938, Dr. Leo Kanner, a preeminent child psychiatrist in the United States, examined a boy named Donald Triplett. Donald was detached emotionally and didn't show signs of self-sufficiency or ability to recognize danger. He created rituals and expressed a rigid need for "sameness." It would be four years after first seeing Donald before Dr. Kanner coined a term for this collection of irregular behaviors; at that point Donald Triplett became the first person ever diagnosed with autism. His story begins In a Different Key, which is ABC contributing correspondent John Donvan and ABC producer/journalist Caren Zucker's in-depth look at this puzzling disorder.

While Donald's was the first diagnosis, Kanner did not believe he had " 'discovered' autism as much as found the eyes with which to see it." Since that time, the view of this "spectrum" has come into clearer and clearer focus, but it continues to mystify those in the fields of medicine and psychology and, above all, the families of the afflicted.

In a Different Key recounts the many strenuous trials that families have encountered and continue to face. But it also brilliantly illuminates the successes, the strengths and the hope. A cure has not been found, nor a definitive cause isolated, but today the medical field is brimming with research.

This isn't a quick read, but rather a book to be slowly digested and absorbed. Think of In a Different Key as a treatment program for blurred sight. Everyone who reads it will experience newfound clarity. --Jen Forbus of Jen's Book Thoughts

The "Art of" series from Graywolf Press is an acclaimed, ongoing collection of short books on specific elements of literary craft. The Art of Perspective is a remarkably perceptive and gracefully written examination of the role that perspective plays in storytelling.

"There is no more important decision the writer makes than who tells the story," writes novelist Christopher Castellani (All This Talk of Love). "Narration is perspective in action... every story, at its core, [is] an assertion of perspective, with the narrator as the story's prime mover."

This is not a book of prescriptions for writers, but more a study of principles through examples. Castellani describes his way of deciding on the right perspective for one of his story ideas, and examines various strategies in the works of others. Each story has "its own set of requirements, its own moods and vision," and the choice of narrative strategy is key to their successful development. Castellani contrasts the intimate first-person narrator of E.M. Forster's Howards End with the more formal and omniscient one of A Passage to India. He considers the careful narrative distance in a Lorrie Moore story, the "subtle but distinct shift in perspective" in Faulkner's Light in August, and stories by Grace Paley, Tim O'Brien and Tony Kushner that invest "in multiplicity, in a cross section of voices and perspectives and angles." Castellani thinks and writes with great perception and clarity. Anyone with an interest in how good stories are constructed will find this book both enjoyable and useful. --Sara Catterall

Tibble, a shy newspaperman, prefers cats to people. His editor calls him into his office one day to complain: "Your articles are always about cats." The discouraged reporter heads off to look for a cat-free scoop; suddenly, a German shepherd, barking furiously, goes racing after--what? A cat? A stork? The dog chases it into an elm tree. Tibble and his accidental benchmate, Mr. Smith, look up into the tree and see "A leg. A leg in a stylish stocking with a shiny, high-heeled shoe on the foot." " 'Heavens,' " said Mr. Smith. 'It's a lady.' "

So begins The Cat Who Came in Off the Roof, originally published in the Netherlands in 1970 and written by the late Annie M.G. Schmidt, recipient of the 1989 Hans Christian Andersen Award. The young lady chased by a dog up a tree is named Minou, and the reason she's so "cattish" is that she used to be a cat, until she ate out of a rubbish bin at the Institute for Biochemical Research. Tibble takes Minou into his home and, in return, Minou uses her abundant cat contacts to become an excellent source for all the city's breaking news. The genuinely funny story of how these two shy beings make room for each other in their lives is as irresistible as kittens. Schmidt raises questions about what it is to be human, what it is to be a cat, what it is to be something in between, and what it means to accept someone for who she is, even if she is "shilly-shallying" herself. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness

Worm loves Worm, and they agree to marry. Seems simple enough, until the bug brigade gets involved. The bespectacled Cricket declares the worm couple needs someone to marry them, and he volunteers to officiate. "Now can we be married?" asks Worm. The moustachioed Beetle says they need "a best beetle" for their wedding. "Now can we be married?" asks Worm. Cricket tells the couple they must have wedding rings. "But we don't have fingers," says Worm. They agree to wear the gold rings like belts, which end up looking like gilded collars. "Wonderful," says Worm. "Now we can be married."

Not so fast! The "bride's bees" need to know which worm will be the bride, and the best beetle needs to know who the groom is. Turns out, both will be both, one worm wearing a white veil and a bow tie, the other in a top hat and white cape. "Wait! says Cricket. "That isn't how it's always been done." Worm and Worm are okay with that. "And so they were married... because Worm loves Worm." Children don't need to have same-sex marriage on their radar to enjoy this gender-bending tale, nor do they need to know that worms are both male and female (though that's clearly a fun fact for anyone). The bottom line here is, love conquers all.

J.J. Austrian's entertaining refrain "Now can we be married?" makes for a fun read-aloud, and his lively story is the perfect mate for the cartoonish crew of busybody bugs by illustrator Mike Curato (Little Elliot, Big Family). --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness