CANDID AND TOUCHING MEMOIR of a family fractured by depression as much as by alcohol and drugs. Insightful. B PLUS

IF ONLY YOU PEOPLE COULD FOLLOW DIRECTIONS
Counterpoint LLC
2013

FIERCE BATTLES AND FIERCER intrigue fill Bernard Cornwell’s latest Saxon Tale with tension, excitement. B PLUS

THE PAGAN LORD
Harper
2014

THE POWER OF PARANOIA and conspiracy theory in US politics, from Colonial times to the present. Fascinating! B PLUS

THE UNITED STATES OF PARANOIA : A CONSPIRACY THEORY
Harper
2013

A MEMOIR OF AMNESIA: intriguing enough right there, but the beauty here is the story of growth afterwards. B PLUS

THE ANSWER TO THE RIDDLE IS ME: A MEMOIR OF AMNESIA
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)
2014

THE WILD WEST WORLD of professional mushroom hunting, brought to life in all its seedy, picaresque glory. B PLUS

THE MUSHROOM HUNTERS : ON THE TRAIL OF AN UNDERGROUND AMERICA
Ballantine Books
2013

THE WILD WEST WORLD of professional mushroom hunting, brought to life in all its seedy, picaresque glory.

SINGAPORE OR CALIFORNIA? Music or business? A young woman faces big choices at a time of family turmoil. B PLUS

SOY SAUCE FOR BEGINNERS
New Harvest
2014

A FASHIONABLE MIDWIFE CLASHES with “public purity” crusaders in a brilliantly evoked 19th century New York. B PLUS

MY NOTORIOUS LIFE
Scribner
2013

A TOFF’S-EYE VIEW OF the Profumo Affair, the 1963 sex scandal that rocked English society. Witty and wise! B PLUS

AN ENGLISH AFFAIR : SEX, CLASS AND POWER IN THE AGE OF PROFUMO
William Collins
2013

PIONEERING POLITICAL LEADER Shirley Chisholm, the first black US Congresswoman, profiled in a must-read bio. B PLUS

SHIRLEY CHISHOLM
Westview Press
2013