Kate Zambreno (O Fallen Angel) imagines the way immaturity peels away with experience when she introduces Ruth, an American ingénue in London. She is "cast in the likeness of her creator," calling into question the novel's true protagonist. Described as some half-formed blur, Ruth is a shop girl trying to make sense of the duplicitous world around her. But even Ruth is not her own ally and must learn to negotiate her desires, appetites and will.

Green Girl is an ambulatory coming-of-age novel: Inexperienced Ruth, green and fumbling, wanders London in search of belonging, relationships or satisfaction while Zambreno burdens her with myriad foils. Epigraphs instead of chapter breaks help parse the threads of Ruth's story. Just as aptly, Ruth learns to perform adulthood by emulating someone new on every page: Jean Seberg, then Millais's Ophelia; Katharine Hepburn, then Isabella Rossellini in Blue Velvet. With every pose, Ruth strives to steady herself as her emotions shift, her friends' loyalty wavers, her job fails to keep her interest, her boyfriend Rhys cleaves, her existence whirls around her.

A deeply character-driven book, Green Girl allows its narrator to insert herself with pity, scorn or deliberate self-recognition, as though a god watching her creation crawl fitfully through the city streets. It's this beautiful erosion of perspective and identity that truly illuminates the empathetic specimen of humanity at stake: Ruth, green girl extraordinaire, becomes the narrator, becomes Zambreno, maybe even becomes the reader, as if threatening to swallow the world with her reckless naïveté. --Dave Wheeler, publishing assistant, Shelf Awareness

Sarah Hilary introduces Marnie Rome, a new detective and heroine of a planned series, in her debut novel, Someone Else's Skin. DI Rome is a detective with a past; five years ago, her parents were brutally stabbed to death by their foster son, who has yet to reveal his motives for the murders. This past comes barreling into the present when Rome makes a routine stop at a safe haven for domestic-abuse victims in London, only to walk in on the aftermath of an attempted murder: a shaken woman stands over the fallen body of her husband, holding a knife.

What seems like a simple case of self-defense is rapidly complicated by a series of unexplained questions: How did the woman's husband know where to find her? Why was the shelter's front door unlocked? Why would he bring a knife to a women's refuge? And, perhaps most importantly, why do none of the eyewitness accounts match when so many people saw what happened?

As Someone Else's Skin unfolds, it becomes clear that in this case, nothing is what it seems; every time Rome thinks she has a handle on the situation, something shifts and leaves her team searching for explanations yet again. The constant setbacks never feel contrived, however, as Hilary pushes the story toward a believably tidy, if somewhat disturbing, conclusion. If this first entry is anything to go by, Hilary's sense of plot and subtle character building will make the DI Marnie Rome series one to watch. --Kerry McHugh, blogger at Entomology of a Bookworm

Inspired by a conversation with her editor about wanting to create baked goods with her daughter without an "exorbitant amount of refined sugar," Jennifer Katzinger (owner of Seattle's Flying Apron bakery and author of Flying Apron's Gluten-Free & Vegan Baking Book) immediately "envisioned amber maple syrup, golden honey, earthy brown coconut-palm crystals, and tan Sucanat [an unrefined brown cane sugar]... [with] mounds of soft whole-grain flours in varying hues." When developing Honey & Oats, Katzinger felt like "a seamstress altering a dress, finding just the right whole-grain flour and sweetener... in the hopes of enticing a wide audience to engage in the nurturing art of baking." She gathered friends, family and neighbors to taste-test recipes "not only beloved, but approachable and straightforward."

The recipe list identifies gluten-free and vegan selections--for example, the apple-spice muffins use teff and tapioca flours, olive oil and pureed pumpkin in place of wheat flours and dairy products. A helpful ingredients section provides a brief description of the flours and grains, including substitutions for the more obscure (like einkorn or Kamut) as well as health benefits of sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, coconut-palm sugar and Sucanat.

If some of the ingredients are unfamiliar, most of the treats are not. Old favorites like banana bread, peanut butter cookies, buttermilk biscuits and carrot cake are all here. In addition, bakers looking for new inspiration will appreciate recipes like sweet-potato skillet corn bread, honey Kamut bread and nectarine-berry buttermilk cobbler. Healthy bakers of all stripes will find something to love in Honey & Oats. --Kristen Galles from Book Club Classics

William Poundstone (Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?) describes outguessing others as "easy, fun, and often profitable" in this handbook for "mind reading for real life." His methods are based on two main ideas: "random" selections that humans make typically fall into certain patterns and our perceptions of randomness can be easily skewed (unless we increase our awareness of these patterns). As an example, he points to the playground game from which the book's title is derived. Cultural predilections will often lead males to throw "rock" in the first round, so if you're up against a man, throw "paper." Very few average players will select the same object more than twice in a row, so if your opponent throws "rock" twice, they likely won't do it a third time, in which case you can throw "scissors" and either win (they throw "paper") or tie (they throw "scissors").

Many of Poundstone's chapters follow a similar line of thinking. You can increase your odds of winning a bigger portion of a lottery prize by playing numbers that are statistically shown to be played less frequently. A good student of eye movements can tell by watching your pupils whether you pulled a card your hand needs in a high-stakes card game.

Poundstone offers some more classically practical tips as well. He devotes a chapter to creating a difficult-to-crack password; in another, he discusses sniffing out a Ponzi scheme. Despite the hyperbole about mind-reading and heavy deep number-crunching in the financial chapters, Poundstone provides a sound blueprint for seeing the patterns in everyday life. --Matthew Tiffany, LCPC, writer for Condalmo and psychotherapist

Noah Levine (Dharma Punx; Against the Stream) applies his Buddhist perspective to the field of addiction recovery in Refuge Recovery. The title refers to one of the central tenets of the religion: take refuge in the Buddha. Levine takes the classic 12-step program (centered on a "higher power") and ungirds it with a healthy layer of pragmatism. He uses mindfulness, meditation and the cornerstones of Buddhist thought--such as the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path--to lay the foundation for his process. Levine notes how addiction and craving create suffering: "We wander through life constantly craving more of the pleasant stuff and less of the unpleasant." This search for pleasure and avoidance of pain undermines real maturity, destroys relationships and even kills.

In addition to chapters on "The Process," the causes of addiction and its possible cessation through the application Buddhist principles, Levine includes a section of first-person "Reflections" from men and women who have tried his method, achieving lasting sobriety and a measure of sanity. The stories, which are both harrowing and healing, are a wonderful testament to the power of Buddhist-based recovery. Refuge Recovery wraps up with a generous appendix of meditations, breathing techniques and sections on group sharing. The appendix alone is a worthwhile primer on Buddhism basics.

With Refuge Recovery, Levine aims for a path that is workable for even those who have never picked up a book on the Buddha or sat down and counted breaths. The wisdom, lucidity and generous spirit of Refuge Recovery are a valuable first step on the lifelong journey of sobriety. --Donald Powell, freelance writer

The natural world is shaped by motion, from the vibration of atoms to the expansion of the universe. In Zoom, Bob Berman (The Sun's Heartbeat; Secrets of the Night Sky) explores both the grandest of moving forces and those more detectable in our daily lives, like weather patterns or the speed of living creatures. He moves from slow to fast, layering fascinating facts with episodes of science history and travelogue in each chapter.

Berman begins with the most explosive and least understood motion in the universe, that of the cosmos itself. He travels to an observatory in the Andes, on the edge of the Atacama Desert, to interview astronomers investigating the universe's enigmatic expansion. From this high point, he plunges into the almost imperceptibly slow world of tectonic plates, mountain formation and shifting poles. Zoom quickens into the realm of perceivable motion (liquid dynamics, wind speed, animal locomotion), and then reaches the other extreme of unseen motion: ultra-fast particles and the inevitable barrier of light speed.

Berman has a knack for clearly explaining potentially difficult scientific concepts in layman-friendly terms and applying these concepts to natural phenomena with engaging anecdotes. In discussing the Coriolis effect (a property of moving objects on a rotating surface), for example, Berman breezes through the history of its discovery and applications in meteorology, all in the context of an amusing encounter at an Ecuadorian tourist trap. Zoom is an entertaining journey through a variety of scientific fields, accessible even to readers with light science knowledge. --Tobias Mutter, freelance reviewer

There is a reason for Westerners' vague geographical understanding of Indonesia--this archipelago, home to 250 million people, was cobbled together in 1945 after 150 years of Dutch colonization, followed by Japanese occupation in World War II. Spread over 3,000 land miles if arranged tip to tip (with its waters included, much longer) and encompassing countless islands, languages and customs, Indonesia is a smorgasbord of a country best tasted a bite at a time. This is exactly what London journalist and epidemiologist Elizabeth Pisani (The Wisdom of Whores) does in Indonesia, Etc.

When Indonesia became independent, its brief declaration officially addressed its plan for unification as follows: "Matters relating to the transfer of power, etc. will be executed carefully as soon as possible." It is the etc. of that statement that drives Pisani's fascination with the country in which she lived twice. Indonesia, Etc. is the chronicle of her 2011 trip, when she packed up a duffel and traversed much of the country, island by island, dialect by dialect, meal by meal, checking out the more remote islands. Her story is as close as many of us may come to understanding the fourth-largest-populated country in the world.

Because of Pisani's willingness to immerse herself in a local habitat, we're treated to a full portrait of Indonesian culture, politics, language and commerce. One could ask for no better guide to this sprawling country where "farmers go to their rice field on a motorbike, and villagers film a ritual sacrifice on their mobile phones." --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.

In Mike Sacks's collection of interviews and essays, Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, advises, "I'd avoid reading interviews with writers. None us know what we're doing." And yet, Poking a Dead Frog is a fascinating look at humorists working in television, movies, books, magazines, comics, clubs and more.

Sacks's well-researched questions are geared to each interviewee and his or her work, and he asks for their advice to aspiring comedy writers. There's a disparity in answers, and author George Saunders points out, "The weird thing about writing, is, whatever the question, there's no 'one size fits all' answer." From a limitless combination of influences, backgrounds and training, no two writers have come to their success the same way. Peg Lynch started her Ethel and Albert show writing three- or four-minute fillers for radio in the '30s, while Megan Amram, a writer for Parks and Recreation, was discovered via Twitter. The common instruction in all the responses, however, is to find your own voice. Hollywood script doctor Alan Spencer summed it up well: "You have to pursue your own projects that no one else could write."

Poking a Dead Frog spans decades, dissecting subjects from collaboration to technology. Ironically, most of the interviews won't have readers laughing hysterically; these writers take their craft seriously. But the intimate discussions of comedy in all its forms are engaging, and Sacks's obvious passion is contagious. Whether writers themselves or just fans of funny, humor-loving readers will relish Poking a Dead Frog. --Jen Forbus of Jen's Book Thoughts

Part of the Discover More series, Birds uses breathtaking photographs and simple text to bring readers up close to a great number of birds, some of which they might not otherwise get to see.

Children will spy feathered familiar friends such as the great horned owl among the more exotic, such as the secretary bird, with head feathers that stick out like rays of sun. Authors Penelope Arlon and Tory Gordon-Harris explain the functions of different kinds of feathers (to fly, to change course, to keep birds warm) as well as the hollow bones that keep their bodies light. A comical photo of an ostrich that looks like it's pouting illustrates a two-page spread entitled "We can't fly!" (along with a kiwi, cassowary and penguins, among others); another spread depicts what they can do, better than humans ("Super senses"), such as the keen hearing of an owl and a kingfisher's ability to see underwater. A blue-footed booby serves as "poster child" for the section "Fantastic feet," and a blue tit bird demonstrates a bird's life cycle. Trivia collectors will appreciate the final two-page spread, with "Record breakers" from "weirdest beak" (the sword-billed hummingbird with a beak longer than its body) to "stinkiest bird" (the hoatzin, which "smells like cow poop").

A glossary and index plus a free online guide to bird-watching round out this nature experience for young birders. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness

Sue Ganz-Schmitt's clever picture book about a brave boy about to start kindergarten will put children in a similar predicament immediately at ease.

Shane Prigmore (illustrator of the Spaceheadz series) uses comics-style panels to build suspense, with strips showing a spaceship "countdown" and the boy's athletic preparations as "day one" draws near. The artist reveals the child's passion for space through his wall calendar and knowledge of all things NASA. The car's taillights double as "boosters" on a rocket ship, and a full-page "Blast-off!" indicates the time has arrived. The author pulls out all the stops, with the boy's teacher as "commander," the classroom as his "capsule" and his fellow students as "crewmates." Prigmore uses a deep space–black backdrop and a brightly lit school and playground to underscore the "planet" allusions, and Mom gives a Vulcan sign as she and Dad deposit their son at the classroom door. The analogy works well for fidgety five-year-olds who defy gravity in an attempt to stay in their seats and who find rest time challenging ("In the quiet and the dark, I get really homesick," says the boy narrator). Yet he stays the course ("Failure is not an option," he quotes, remembering what they say at NASA). Before he knows it, the intrepid kindergartner is splashing down in the tub on his "home planet."

The inventive approach of both author and artist will give anxious children a creative way of looking at their new experiences, as explorers of a new frontier. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness