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Marcus Sakey's new novel, Brilliance, imagines an America where superhumanly talented savants are hunted by a rogue government agency. Sakey says the titular "brilliants" are "objectively superior to the rest of us. Which is a scary concept to normal people."

Novelist Kate Christensen makes a plot line of her own life in a memoir that describes her struggles to come to terms with her family, her relationships and her sometimes violent father. A passionate lover of food, Christensen weaves recipes into a story of survival.

With waters rising and their hospital on the verge of losing power, Memorial Medical Center staff were faced with an ethical question: Who to save first? Sheri Fink reconstructs their decisions — from hastening patients' deaths to evacuating the sickest last — in Five Days at Memorial.

In his book, which has just won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History, Keith Lowe describes a land with no governments, schools, banks or shops, where rape was rampant and women prostituted themselves for food. Flying in the face of usual post-WWII narratives, Lowe sheds light on a complex history.

Emily Croy Barker's debut novel follows a struggling grad student into an otherworldly adventure pitting fairies against magicians. Reviewer Genevieve Valentine says The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic is a classic portal fantasy with occasional stumbles in characterization

The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez takes readers on a journey through Colombia starting in the late '60s — but it's not your average detective story. Reviewer Rosecrans Baldwin says the real mysteries in the book are in the minds of the characters.

Through years of careful research, author Andrea Stuart discovered that her bloodline includes both slaves and slave owners. In her book Sugar in the Blood, she writes about her own family, and about the history of slavery in the Caribbean.

To be or not to be? The choice is yours in Ryan North's Choose Your Own Adventure rewrite of Hamlet. Shakespeare's classic play is humorously re-imagined, but offers a new look at its themes for the modern reader, including a new take on its female characters.

When the economy's dropping like an anvil, young professionals have to find ways to make do — and having friends always helps. Reviewer Alex Espinoza says Choire Sicha's Very Recent History is an insightful tale of friends weathering a tough economy in the big city.

Young Jack hits the road with his cranky, elderly teacher Miss Volker (and a couple of cranky, elderly cars) in From Norvelt to Nowhere, the new young adult novel from Jack Gantos. The sequel to 2011's Newbery-winning Dead End in Norvelt is set in 1962, in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis.