BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN BIO of Pulitzer-winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein is hampered by its subject’s reserve.

AMUSING CHICK-LIT FLUFF about a family whose women are cursed with romantic disaster never quite takes off.

A TOUGH OLD DETECTIVE surrounded by over-the-top theater types and murders in an historic Bath playhouse. Fun!

A WRITER’S LOVE LETTER to the psychiatrist who saved her life is quirkily touching, if a bit chaotic.

SEARING AND ELOQUENT memoir of child sexual abuse, family dysfunction, and the healing power of nature.

FAST-PACED MILITARY science fiction with a vividly drawn future setting. Fights, explosions, adrenaline galore!

FRANK MEMOIR OF a horrific bout of Crohn’s Disease is most affecting when talking about the author’s children.

A NATURE WRITER LOOKS at the social and historical impact of weeds, and offers a defense of their complexity.

INSIDE THE ANTIQUITIES-LOOTING scandal that rocked the Getty Museum and the art world. Detailed but absorbing.

PREP-SCHOOL INTRIGUE, family conflict from parents’ point of view in YA star Sara Shepard’s debut for adults.