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Thomas Keneally's new novel, The Daughters of Mars, follows two Australian sisters who become nurses during World War I. Naomi and Sally Durance share a guilty secret, but they don't share any sisterly closeness — until the horrors of war begin to bind them together.

Cambridge classics professor Mary Beard's latest book, Confronting the Classics, takes a gleefully contrarian approach to marble-bust greats like Homer and Thucydides. Reviewer Annalisa Quinn says the work "expertly straddles the line between scholarly and accessible."

Michael Gruber's new novel, The Return, is a tale of memory and revenge: hero Rick Marder, a New York literary type with a medical death sentence, heads south to settle old scores with the narcotraficantes who killed his in-laws. Reviewer Alan Cheuse calls Gruber a "master of the genre."

Author Ann Kirschner first read Anthony Trollope's Palliser series as a graduate student. Now, returning to it after more than 20 years, she finds her impression of the Victorian tale has transformed along with her life.

More adult fairy tale than conventional novel, In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods follows an unnamed husband and wife who leave their home to start a new life in the wilderness. Reviewer Michael Schaub says this debut from author Matt Bell is a joy to read.

Stephen King's It showed Erin Morgenstern that the demons and ghouls of childhood stories don't hit the road just because you grow up. Have you read something that both scared and enticed you? Tell us about it in the comments.

Mary Louise Kelly used to cover national security for NPR, but lately she's turned her attention to fiction. Her new novel, Anonymous Sources, draws on Kelly's own reporting experiences, including things she couldn't say when she was a journalist.

Colum McCann won the National Book Award for his 2009 novel, Let the Great World Spin, about a high-wire artist. Critic Maureen Corrigan says McCann's new novel, TransAtlantic, also has its head in the clouds.

In Israeli artist Rutu Modan's The Property, a young woman accompanies her grandmother to Warsaw to reclaim an apartment building their family had to abandon in World War II. As they search through dusty records, family secrets soon come to light in this wryly funny and ultimately wrenching graphic novel.

Kevin West, author and blogger, takes NPR's Lynn Neary to a farmers market to choose the summer's best produce for canning. "You take this experience ... and you put it in the jar. And six months from now we will re-experience that moment," West says.