Originally intended as a preface to the French translation of Moby-Dick, Jean Giono's (Hill) Melville evolved into a literary essay, a fictionalized portrait of Herman Melville in the years leading up to the publication of Moby-Dick. Melville, first published in 1941, was a transitional work that bridged the two periods of Giono's creative career--the landscape-driven Pan Cycle and the character-driven Hussard Cycle.

Herman Melville has returned to the U.S. in 1849, after a fortnight in London with an unusual item: "It was an embalmed head... but it was his own." With that opening, Giono steps back in time to London, where a short negotiation on The White-Jacket ("a bitter, blood-soaked book, a book about desperate combat, a renewed attack against the rule of law, against corporal punishment in the United States Navy") has left Melville with nearly two weeks to burn before his return home. Melville swaps out his dress clothes for sailor's gear and hitches a ride on the mail coach to Woodcut on the advice of a stable boy whose girlfriend lives there. He becomes aware of a female passenger, Adeline White, within the coach, and her voice and gestures stir his imagination. They meet face-to-face at an overnight stop and strike up a friendship filled with poetic imaginings and a heartfelt longing for the unattainable.

The marriage of Melville's and Giono's styles results in a skillfully complex melding of two distinctive voices, and becomes a more profound reflection on art and its philosophical relevance to life. In mimicking Melville, Giono exercised his own considerable literary powers and created an inspired work that both celebrates Melville and is itself a memorable achievement. --Nancy Powell, freelance writer and technical consultant

Sister Deirdre--a feisty, young Irish bard and Christian nun--returns in the third installment of Philip Freeman's suspenseful mystery series set in sixth-century Ireland. Previously, courageous Sister Deirdre, from the order of Saint Brigid of Kildare, went on a mission to recover the stolen bones of the holy patron of the convent, and later hunted down a grisly serial killer brutalizing the nuns of Ireland.

In The Gospel of Mary, an old and gravely infirm British nun shows up at the monastery to deliver an ancient manuscript. On her deathbed, she asks Sister Deirdre to guard the papyrus roll--five centuries old--which is believed to be dictated by the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. The contents of the scroll had been squelched by the head of the church in Rome--deemed a forgery--for fear it would undermine tenets of the Christian faith. To keep the lost scroll safe from powerful enemies, Sister Deirdre sets off with another nun across Ireland, charged with translating the Aramaic text to determine its authenticity. But as the women travel through Glendalough, and on to Clare Island and Armagh, henchmen from within the church in search of the scroll threaten their safety. Does the papyrus really contain the truth about the Mother of God?

Freeman (Sacrifice) creates another atmospherically absorbing mystery fortified by biblical and historical fact. By unraveling the plot of the translated text alongside Sister Deirdre's mission, this briskly paced narrative becomes even more dark and dangerous. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

Early one morning, a hot-air balloon takes off near the Scottish border, carrying a group of tourists. While afloat, they witness a man kill a young woman on the ground. The killer looks up and locks eyes with one of the women in the balloon's basket. The balloon crashes, spurring the following press release from police:

"This woman--Jessica Lane--should have died.... Not only did Lane survive, she walked away.... So, I want to know where she's going...why she hasn't been in touch. Why she isn't seeking help. Why she's deliberately avoiding the police. I want to know who she's running from."

This is how Sharon Bolton's Dead Woman Walking opens. Readers will want those answers, too.

But since Bolton is a master plot strategist, she keeps readers on the hook by meting out clues slowly without ever sacrificing momentum or letting up on the suspense. Bolton allows her heroine no respite from the menace pursuing her and readers no time to relax. While the author unravels the mysteries, she throws in subtle social commentary and creates characters of varying shades on the human spectrum. No one is one thing--not cops or killers or even nuns. The best way to read this thriller, and Bolton's others, is to accept not knowing where the story is headed or what the people are capable of. The plot will become unsettlingly twisty, but the author is an expert guide, taking readers on an exceptional and memorable adventure. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, blogger at Pop Culture Nerd

Author David L. Carlson and illustrator Landis Blair created The Hunting Accident: A True Story of Crime and Poetry, a haunting graphic novel about real-life blind poet Matt Rizzo, a one-time mob criminal.

Rizzo's son, Charlie, narrates the story, beginning with Matt telling him he lost his eyesight in a hunting accident as a child. He now sells insurance, but his true passion is poetry and writing, using a Braille typewriter. After his work is transcribed, Charlie reads it aloud to help proofread. As they work together, the father teaches his son about literature and life.

What he doesn't tell Charlie is the truth about his past, at least not until the boy becomes a troubled teen. He feels betrayed to learn that his dad lost his eyesight in an armed robbery and spent time in prison. There, a highly unlikely savior changed Matt's life: Nathan Leopold, Jr., the Leopold of the infamous "perfect crime" Leopold and Loeb murderers.

This immersive, captivating story is told through a variety of approaches, including historical facts, literary quotations and the dark, evocative crosshatched drawings that bring the characters to life. Relying heavily on Dante's Inferno, the story also references a range of literature, including Homer, Emerson, Keats, Nietzsche and more.

Imaginative and full of metaphorical imagery as well as factual details, this graphic novel takes the reader on an emotional journey through secrets and lies, delving into relationships between fathers and sons. Bits of primary sources are sprinkled throughout, making this compelling combination of story and drawings both entertaining and informative. --Suzan L. Jackson, freelance writer and author of Book by Book blog

Spicy. Smoky. Savory. Sweet. These quintessential flavors of the American "lower left" shine in Style and Spice: Over 200 Recipes from the American Southwest by chef Larry Edwards (The American Table; Edwardian Cooking: 80 Recipes Inspired by Downton Abbey’s Elegant Meals).

Edwards eschews processed ingredients, and begins with recipes to stock a Southwest pantry--homemade versions of marinades, salsas, flavored oils and more. In the subsequent Southwest Kitchen section, party hosts and meat lovers will find much to love, with Jalapeño Tequila Bombs and Baja Flank Ribs with Tequila and Honey Glaze. Vegetarian and vegan options include dishes like Whiskey Grilled Portobello Salad and Casa Vegan Cornbread.

Desserts from the Southwest Oven span breads and desserts of all stripes. Standouts include Puff Bread, sweet Cactus Pear Sorbet and rich Applewood Smoked Bacon Ice Cream. Finally, Southwest Cantina spotlights cocktails.

Absent are photos of hyper-styled tables with thimbles of salt tumbling over silk napkins. Style and Spice is devoid of pretense, relying on photographs of meals that look beautiful yet attainable to accompany many of the recipes. Practicality is key, and as such, the instructions are simple. Most of the recipes yield four servings and are easy to halve or double. Edwards offers simple tips and concise instructions throughout, and his humor and personality sneak in even in sections light on commentary; e.g., the cocktail Q.F. note: "As for the name of this drink, the initial 'Q' stands for 'quick,' and the initial 'F' stands for a word never used in a cookbook." --Katie Weed, freelance writer and reviewer

Alex Blum grew up in the Denver suburbs dreaming of being a soldier--a special operations Army Ranger. His cousin Ben Blum was a precocious math nerd. Alex signed his Airborne Rangers contract before he graduated from high school, while Ben went off to Stanford at age 17 "with a suitcase full of Nine Inch Nails T-shirts and combat boots."

Just before Alex was scheduled to ship out for his first deployment in Iraq, however, he drove four other Rangers to a Tacoma Bank of America branch outside Fort Lewis. Brandishing AK-47s, they robbed the place. Within a few short days, the five were captured and locked up for trial. The Blum family was shocked. Ben decided to investigate how his cousin went off the rails. Ranger Games is memoir, biography, military history, heist caper, courtroom drama, whodunit and family saga rolled together.

As a family member, Ben had access to everyone connected with Alex's military training, legal defense and psychological evaluations. He talked extensively with Alex's father, Norm. He corresponded with the robbery crew's charismatic ringleader, the Canadian-born Iraq War veteran Luke Elliott Sommer. But the meat of Ranger Games is in the conversations and correspondence between Ben and Alex. Was Alex a "hapless criminal accomplice" as he claimed--duped by the higher-ranking Sommer--or was he in on the whole thing for the thrill of pulling off a "mission?" Ben probes the mystery of Alex's crime, unfolding it with a fitting denouement. Ranger Games is a hell of a story. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.

"We tell ourselves stories in order to live," Joan Didion once famously observed. In Landslide, her revealing essay collection, critic and translator Minna Zallman Proctor (Do You Hear What I Hear?) dusts off that aphorism to give it a different spin. "I think we tell stories to relate, in order to find a point of communion with our fellow person, in order to say: Look, I get you." Her skill at that task infuses the 14 pieces in this collection with both wisdom and grace.

It's hardly necessary to share Proctor's life experience in order to appreciate her gift of observation and her talent for concision in essays that typically span no more than 15 pages. Whether she's describing her ill-fated romance with a Boston boy named Joey ("Driftwood"), or the awkward searches to secure her mother's burial in a Jewish cemetery ("A Mystic at Heart") and acquire a proper gravestone years after her death ("The Waiting Earth"), the universal subjects of family, love and memory gradually emerge. If there's a thematic unity to the collection, it centers on Proctor's challenging relationship with her mother, a professional musician and composer she describes as "clingy, indulgent, petulant, and maudlin." The last 15 years of Arlene Zallman's life were lived in the shadow of cancer, a fact that gives special tension to the essay "Distress Abandon."

Proctor relates all these stories in crisp, coolly ironic prose that evokes something of the flavor of Joan Didion's writing. Landslide is poignant, tart and insightful. Its only flaw is that there isn't more of it, but perhaps Minna Zallman Proctor will rectify that shortcoming someday. --Harvey Freedenberg, attorney and freelance reviewer

Reading Diana B. Henriques's A First-Class Catastrophe: The Road to Black Monday, the Worst Day in Wall Street History could be a revelation to younger readers used to thinking of the 2008 financial crisis as the signature market crash of modern times. Henriques brings readers' attention back to October 19, 1987--dubbed "Black Monday"--when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped a shocking 22.6%, "still the largest one-day decline in Wall Street history. That was the equivalent of an urgent midafternoon news flash today screaming, 'DOW FALLS NEARLY 5,000 POINTS!' " The book is a reminder that the 2008 meltdown was not unprecedented, and that the disaster might have been avoided altogether if market leaders and government officials had learned the right lessons from the 1987 crash.

Henriques has a low-key style, favoring patient explanation over moral outrage. Still, her account subtly undermines the concept of rational markets while also making the case for pragmatic responses to financial crises. Referring to the controversial question of whether to bail out big banks while letting smaller ones fail, Henriques writes: "If a bunch of small retention ponds are leaking and there is a rapidly growing crack in the Hoover Dam, you shore up the Hoover Dam." Her account is not hopeful, as might be expected from a book about a major crisis that "if it was remembered at all, was recalled as the crash without consequences." A First-Class Catastrophe capably punctures that myth, along with many more dangerous truisms that continue to proliferate in political and financial circles. --Hank Stephenson, bookseller, Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, N.C.

"My friends and I love adventure. We play pirates all the time. Together, we rule the high seas! So when the school costume party is announced, of course we know we will go as pirates."

Peter's mom has a different idea: "Why don't you go as Robinson Crusoe?" she says; he's "the hero of your favorite story." Recognizing this as truth, Peter agrees and eagerly watches her pull together a stunning Robinson Crusoe ensemble, complete with scruffy facial hair. Sís, the first-person child narrator, dons his costume: "On the walk to school, I am bursting with excitement. What will my friends say? I can't wait for them to see me!"

But when Peter arrives at school, his friends, all dressed in similar pirate costumes, "laugh and tease" him. Feeling small and embarrassed, his mother agrees to bring him home where he feels ill: "My head swims. I toss and turn. I feel lost. I am drifting." And he is drifting. Or, at least, the double-page spread shows his bed slowly morphing into a ship that is "cast upon an island."

Sís's illustrations play with tone, format and perspective, moving young Peter from cooler-toned, bordered illustrations in the graphic novel-like "real world" to the full-page spreads of deep blue ocean and glorious green plant life in his imagined safe harbor. Any reader will be able to sympathize with young Peter's experience--who hasn't felt conspicuous and uncomfortable? But the beauty of the work lies in finding comfort in the limitless possibilities of imagination and people excited to share those fantasies with you. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness

In 1942 India, 10-year-old firebrand Anjali (a Hindu Brahmin) and her Muslim best friend, Irfaan, paint "Quit India" graffiti on Captain Brent's door; Anjali's mother, Shailaja, recently left the British officer's employ and Anjali is convinced the Englishman fired her. Actually, Shailaja, dedicated to Gandhi's ahimsa (nonviolence) movement, quit to become a "freedom fighter." Shailaja begins working to promote the making of khadi, hand-woven Indian cloth, to replace British manufactured cloth. She also involves Anjali in her passion to educate Dalits, known as "Untouchables."

But Mohan, Anjali's family's toilet cleaner (a traditional "Untouchable" job), turns the tables, educating Anjali and Shailaja and making them aware of Gandhi's faults. Gandhi renamed the "Untouchables" Harijans or "children of God," but the community finds the term insulting and prefers the more realistic word Dalit, which means "oppressed" in Sanskrit and "broken or scattered" in Hindi. Thirteen-year-old Mohan angrily says: "Everyone will still think of us as dirty and beneath them. Changing what you call someone doesn't fix the problems behind the name." Shailaja and Anjali, courageous, idealistic and sometimes naïve, must learn that the hero of some is not necessarily the hero of all.

Hollywood and Bollywood screenwriter Supriya Kelkar uses family history--her great-grandmother was an independence and women's rights activist--to create her outspoken feminist characters in this New Visions Award winner. Skillfully crafted, Ahimsa incorporates Indian history, culture, a less often seen view of Gandhi and harsh daily realities, including the mother's and daughter's attempts to clean their own outhouse, Mohan's beating by Anjali's neighbors, Shailaja's imprisonment (and hunger strike) and Hindu-Muslim riots. This is an absorbing story of a young girl concerned with important issues but also convincingly anxious about school, family, pets and being shunned by classmates after she befriends Dalit children. --Melinda Greenblatt, freelance book reviewer