Night Film

Marisha Pessl (Get this book)
An inventive--if brooding, strange and creepy--adventure in literary terror. Think Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King meet Guillermo del Toro as channeled by Klaus Kinski. In her sophomore effort, Pessl hits the scary ground running.  Pessl's book does a good imitation of a multimedia extravaganza, interspersed with faux web pages and images. All it needs is for a voice to croak out "boo" from the binding, and it'd be complete unto itself. A touch too coyly postmodern at times, but a worthwhile entertainment all the same--Kirkus

UFO Hunters, Book One

William J. Birnes (Get this book)
The official companion to the eponymous hit History Channel TV series, this book is a fun and fascinating peek behind the scenes of the short-lived show, and into the world of real-life UFO hunters. Each chapter focuses on a different episode, covering the sighting in question, background information, the making of the segment, and Birnes's own thoughts on the finished episode and the case itself. The author's attention to detail and dedication to covering every angle makes this a must-have for devotees of the program, and it's engrossing enough to lure newcomers into the weird world of UFOs.--Publisher's Weekly

Claire of the Sea Light

Edwidge Danticat (Get this book)
In this gorgeous, arresting, and profoundly vivid new novel, Danticat once again tells a story that feels as mysterious and magical as a folk tale and as effective and devastating as a newsreel. Claire Limye Lanme ("Claire of the Sea Light") is turning seven, and yet her birthday has always been marked by both death and renewal. Claire's mother died in childbirth, and she has been raised by her fisherman father in a shack near the sea.Danticat (Krik? Krak!) paints a stunning portrait of this small Haitian town, in which the equally impossible choices of life and death play out every day.--Publisher's Weekly

The Case for the Psalms: Why They Are Essential

N. T. Wright (Get this book)
Prolific New Testament scholar Wright fears that the contemporary praise-song is crowding out the ancient Hebrew prayer-songs that have traditionally informed Christian liturgy and personal devotion. The Psalms constituted Jesus' and his followers' hymnal, he reminds us, and then proceeds in three chapters to argue their merits for those who read, recite, and sing them regularly. Wright advances his explanation of the Psalms' special efficacies through generous quotations, and he uses a final chapter to tell some stories of particular psalms' effects on his spiritual development. He also writes a context for what he quotes that is almost as graceful, if not as stunningly beautiful, as the Psalms themselves.--Booklist

Early Decision: Based on a True Frenzy

Lacy Crawford (Get this book)
This entertaining tale of upper class parents and adolescent learning curves points a keen eye at the college application process and the agony and ecstasy of getting that acceptance letter. Sprinkled with tips for writers "it isn't so much about editing as it is about aligning execution to intention," essays in various forms of re-write, and a very satisfying twist at the end, the reader is lead through a long, dark supervised High School hallway and off to the freedom of the great lawn.--Publisher's Weekly

A Beautiful Truth

Colin McAdam (Get this book)
McAdam (Fall) investigates the social dynamics of great apes within the cages of a Florida research institute. Researcher David Kennedy watches over a troupe of chimpanzees, monitoring their interactions, administering social and cognitive tests in order "to defy Noam Chomsky's assertion that humans were unique for being born with language." Weighty themes underlie McAdam's spartan prose depicting the inner lives of research chimps. Craftily blurring species lines, McAdam doesn't limit himself to the chimp colony; alongside scenes at the Girdish Institute runs the story of Vermont couple Walt and Judy Ribke and their adopted chimp, Looee. Brimming with ambition, McAdam delivers a thought-provoking foray into the not-so-dissimilar minds of our ape relatives--Publisher's Weekly

Who Asked You?

Terry McMillan (Get this book)
The years pass, and McMillan's characters have moved from buppiedom to grandmotherhood. Betty Jean is not having a good day when we first meet her. She's in the kitchen, frying chicken, when her wayward 27-year-old daughter, Trinetta, calls, begging for money and adding, "the good news is I might have a job and I was wondering if I could bring the boys over for a couple of days." Moving from character to character and their many points of view, McMillan writes jauntily and with customary good humor, though the sensitive ground on which she's treading is not likely to please all readers; even so, her story affirms the value of love and family, to say nothing of the strength of resolute women in the absence of much strength on the part of those few men who happen to be in the vicinity. McMillan turns in a solid, well-told story.--Kirkus

Political Emotions: Why Love Matters for Justice

Martha Nussbaum (Get this book)
The latest book from University of Chicago law and ethics professor Nussbaum stimulates readers with challenging insights on the role of emotion in political life. Her provocative theory of social change shows how a truly just society might be realized through the cultivation and studied liberation of emotions, specifically love. In contrast to thinkers like John Rawls, who imagined an already just world, Nussbaum addresses how to order our society to reach such a world. A plea for recognizing the power of art, symbolism, and enchantment in public life, Nussbaum's cornucopia of ideas effortlessly commands attention and debate.--Publisher's Weekly

The Maid's Version

Daniel Woodrell (Get this book)
A grandson becomes obsessed with his grandmother's story about a small-town disaster from many years ago. Set in the Ozarks, the book is inspired by history and is far less noir-tinged than the author's earlier works (The Outlaw Album, 2011, etc.). Loosely based on the real-life West Plains Dance Hall Explosion of 1928, it centers on Alma DeGeer Dunahew, a maid with three children in fictional West Table, Mo. A commanding fable about trespass and reconstruction from a titan of Southern fiction.--Kirkus