AN INTRIGUING TAKE ON SUPERHEROES also shines as a study of family dynamics and generational clashes. Fun! B PLUS

DREAMS OF THE GOLDEN AGE
Tor Fantasy
2014

DREAMLIKE, STIRRING NOVEL from Norway traces the impact of a series of arsons on a close-knit community. B PLUS

BEFORE I BURN: A NOVEL
Graywolf Press
2014

AN ASTRONAUT STRANDED ON MARS becomes a high-tech Robinson Crusoe as he struggles to stay alive. Engrossing! B PLUS

THE MARTIAN
Crown
2014

POSTCARDS FROM THE WILDEST FRONTIERS of food trends: offal, raw milk, edible insects, and other delicacies. B PLUS

ANYTHING THAT MOVES : RENEGADE CHEFS, FEARLESS EATERS, AND THE MAKING OF A NEW AMERICAN FOOD CULTURE
Riverhead Books
2013

CANCER RESEARCH AND TREATMENT on today’s cutting edge, presented by a passionately engaged science journalist. B PLUS

THE CANCER CHRONICLES: UNLOCKING MEDICINE’S DEEPEST MYSTERY
Knopf
2013

TWO LIVES ARE ENMESHED (by accident or fate?) in this evocative, genre-bending tale of quanta and hauntings. B PLUS

A TALE FOR THE TIME BEING
Penguin Books
2013

TWO BENEVOLENT HITMEN and a best selling novelist hatch an elaborate plan to help a struggling writer. Funny! B PLUS

THE WAY OF ALL FISH : A NOVEL
Scribner
2014

FRANK, COMPASSIONATE MEMOIR by a woman whose goals and dreams grew increasingly at odds with her Mormon faith. B PLUS

CONFESSIONS OF A LATTER-DAY VIRGIN: A MEMOIR
Hyperion
2013

THOUGHT-PROVOKING SCIENCE FICTION: a doctor and a soldier make first contact with aliens in the midst of war. B PLUS

XENOPHOBIA
CreateSpace
2013

ENTERTAINING, ENLIGHTENING LOOK at how modern US medicine grew from a 19th century chaos of competing ideas. B PLUS

MARKETPLACE OF THE MARVELOUS
Beacon Press
2014