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The traditional mother-daughter dynamic turned on its head for New York Times columnist Alex Witchel in the wake of her mother's struggle with dementia. But Witchel's memoir, despite its raw honesty, fails to provide the depth needed to make it a standout in a trendy genre.

Michael Chabon's eighth novel, Telegraph Avenue, delves deeply into issues of art, race and sexuality. The book started with a "very tiny world," Chabon says, a vinyl record shop not unlike a Berkeley store that inspired him in the late '90s.

It's been almost 20 years since Irvine Welsh first introduced Rent, Spud and Sick Boy — a group of gritty characters struggling to survive a grim, heroin-fueled existence in late-1980s Edinburgh. Welsh brings the boys back in his new prequel, Skagboys.

In his new book, Doug Saunders says there are those who believe immigration and high birth rates will make Muslims a majority in Europe in coming decades — and their hostility to Western values makes them a threat. Saunders tells Fresh Air that such fears are based on inaccurate assertions of fact.

Five-hundred feet underground in a coal mine in Ohio, Jeanne Marie Laskas realized how dependent Americans are on the work of "unseen" people. In Hidden America, she illuminates those whose jobs are nearly invisible to most of us, from miners to migrant workers to professional football cheerleaders.

It's been almost 20 years since Irvine Welsh first introduced Rent, Spud and Sick Boy — a group of gritty characters struggling to survive a grim, heroin-fueled existence in late-1980s Edinburgh. Welsh brings the boys back in his new prequel, Skagboys.

Zadie Smith returns to old haunts in her latest novel, but it is a sobering homecoming. Where her first novel, White Teeth, was a wild ride into the diverse, vibrant rhythms of a city in transition, NW is a complex exploration of where the inhabitants of that world have landed.

Author Scott Spencer is best known for his literary best-seller Endless Love — now, he's adopted a pseudonym, Chase Novak, to explore darker stories like the tale of baby lust and body horror in his new novel, Breed.

Author John Sandford has written almost two dozen novels and thrillers, most of them as part of the "Prey" series. In his latest book, detective Virgil Flowers sets off into the rural countryside, where, as Sandford says, "every once in a while, things turn ugly, and when they turn ugly, they turn very ugly."

Author Kij Johnson's first short story collection mixes straightforward realism with lyrical science fiction and fantasy. Reviewer Alan Cheuse says the stories bring to mind the work of Ursula Le Guin, and have the power to highlight the marvelous aspects of everyday life.