WRY LOOK AT GENETICS researchers’ appeal to our yen to know more about our family histories and health future.

A FEISTY HEROINE and a vividly depicted blue-collar Pittsburgh setting enliven this somewhat chaotic whodunnit.

GORGEOUS, CHILLING, POETIC evocation of the lives of early 20th-century Japanese “picture brides” in the US.

NOBODY DOES URBAN soap-opera like Kimberla Lawson Roby, and she’s at her most gloriously melodramatic here!

HEARTFELT MEMOIR OF food, family, and love in exile (in Tehran, Santa Cruz, and Paris); yummy Persian recipes!

CHANNELING HUNTER S. THOMPSON for a Lovecraftian retelling of Nixon’s second victory? An idea so crazy it works!

INSIDE CUBA TODAY with a pioneering dissident blogger; insightful and moving prose in unobtrusive translation.

A THOUGHTFUL INVESTIGATION into the mythology of the chupacabra provides context for the legend’s how and why.

STEAMPUNK AND THE TALL TALES of the 19th century American frontier combine in a clever Twain-like picaresque.

THE HISTORY AND FUTURE of urban planning outlined with wit and grace in this informative, highly readable book.