All the Lives We Never Lived by Man Booker nominee Anuradha Roy (Sleeping on Jupiter) centers on the idea that what one values in life may never be truly translatable, even to a loved one. Myshkin, the main narrator, is abandoned by his mother at the age of nine, never understanding why she left or what she gave up by disappearing. The present day of the book takes place in 1992, when Myshkin looks back on his childhood 60 years earlier. With the arrival of lost letters from his mother, he decides to upend the comfortable distance he's kept from her betrayal and discover what actually happened after her departure. But with each revelation, old memories are cast in strange new lights, and his settled present becomes ever-more fragile.

His mother is Gayatri, a talented painter who is married off as a teenager when her father dies. Having traveled with her father from their native India to places like Bali, she is slowly rubbed raw by this forced domestic life, even with the birth of Myshkin and the support of neighbors in the small town where she and her husband live. When she finally leaves, disappearing one afternoon with a European artist she met years before, she sets off to become the painter she always wished to be.

Roy plumbs the idea that by re-examining his mother, Myshkin has the opportunity to understand better why he lives as he does, and why his parents and others around him took such different roads. In All the Lives We Never Lived, small moments of connection ultimately prove to be the most profound. --Noah Cruickshank, adult engagement manager, the Field Museum, Chicago, Ill.

In modern-day Jerusalem, an aspiring poet named Jeremiah receives the rudest review any writer can get: a prominent critic smashes a computer keyboard over his head. That violent opening is but a hint of the fireworks to come in Israeli novelist Dror Burstein's Muck, a wildly imaginative retelling of the biblical book of Jeremiah.

In the sixth century BCE, the prophet foretold the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar and the exile of the Jewish people to Babylon, one that lasted nearly 70 years. Instead of simply updating this well-known tale to the present, Burstein's conceit is to create a clever mashup of events in the ancient kingdom of Judah and contemporary Israel.

The realization of what Burstein (Netanya) is up to doesn't dawn all at once. But then references to a reigning monarch named Jehoiakim and long-dead kingdoms like Moab and Phoenicia insinuate their way into the narrative. Muck is also a cautionary tale about the perpetual quality of Middle East conflict, reflected in a conference in which Babylon's vassal states struggle to carve up the map as they contemplate what will happen when their dream of overthrowing their oppressor with Egypt's aid comes true.  

And for anyone who wonders what it would be like to be granted the gift of prophecy, Burstein's Jeremiah hardly offers an encouraging role model. His apocalyptic message, delivered in a cafe among his fellow poets, garners him nothing but ridicule. Though we might wish for a more generous treatment, Burstein's energetic novel, to its credit, remains true to the spirit of its source material until the bitter end. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer

A fun and lusty look at immortality, Time's Convert by Deborah Harkness adds another dimension to her popular All Souls trilogy by focusing on Marcus de Clermont, the "son" of the trilogy's vampiric protagonist, Matthew. Marcus falls in love with a human woman, Phoebe, who agrees to become a vampire to live with him forever. Whisked off to undergo this change, she begins the sometimes terrifying process of becoming immortal.

Marcus, meanwhile, begins bunking with Matthew at the scenic French chateau he shares with Diana (the series' other hero, a witch and mother to two small children with growing magical powers). Here the details of his life are slowly revealed, from his birth in colonial America to his fateful meeting with Matthew in New Orleans.

Fans of the All Souls trilogy will be delighted with this new installment, continuing Diana and Matthew's story while providing deeper context for Marcus's behavior and a new era to explore. Harkness, a historian, knows how to bring out previous time periods with vivid authenticity, and her romantic scenes are steamy as ever. But those who are unfamiliar with Harkness's work should start with the trilogy itself. There are far too many characters and plotlines to juggle, and readers may well get confused without the proper context from previous books. Still, fans of Harkness and historical fantasy will have plenty of fun with Time's Convert. --Noah Cruickshank, adult engagement manager, the Field Museum, Chicago, Ill.

Vivienne Gregsby, an art collector's apprentice, is on trial for the murder of her boss at the outset of B.A. Shapiro's eighth novel. Things don't look good for Vivienne, but Shapiro (The Muralist) teases the captivating climax from suspenseful alternating timelines leading to 1928 and the Pennsylvania courtroom.

Bold, duplicitous Vivienne seems an unlikable heroine. At 19, she fled her Brussels home for Paris, adopting a new name and life. She had little choice, since her family disowned her after her dashing fiancé, George, swindled them out of their assets, assuming Vivienne (then Paulien) was his accomplice. Pledging revenge and the reclamation of her name--as well as the paintings her family was forced to sell--Vivienne's knowledge of modern art emboldens her to apply for a job as assistant to American art collector Edwin Bradley. With Edwin, she has entrée into Paris society and is soon rubbing elbows with Gertrude Stein, Henri Matisse and more. Edwin's reliance on Vivienne as his wise and circumspect adviser earns her trips to Philadelphia, where she soon settles, curating the collection filling his private museum. Meanwhile George lurks, with an insatiable desire for Vivienne and nefarious schemes to defraud others as he did her family.

Did George lure Vivienne into his web of deceit, leading her to the trial? Did she dupe him, and is his downfall imminent? In prose lush with post-impressionist art history, Shapiro's intriguing novel presents a heroine either evil or sympathetic--until the very end. --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, manager, Book Passage, San Francisco

The food memoir is a common literary recipe, sating appetites for sustenance as well as story, as reliable a pairing as grilled cheese and tomato soup. Enter a new classic in the larder: Kitchen Yarns: Notes on Life, Love and Food by the versatile Ann Hood (The Book That Matters Most).

Like the writing of M.F.K. Fisher, which Hood cites, Hood's prose packs a wallop in these nearly 30 essays. She chronicles her time as a young girl in a large, loving Italian family; a teen model for a department store; a TWA flight attendant; and a longtime writer, partner, mother, cook and knitter.

Each essay mixes memories with meditations. Woven into the mélange are recipes for what filled Hood's plate over the decades. Some are inspired by her mother's dishes. Some are meals she once cooked to impress a boy, or the man she would eventually marry. Some relate to her children. Hood lost her five-year-old daughter, Grace (see Comfort: A Journey Through Grief), and it's heartbreaking to read about Grace's Cheesy Potatoes--rich and Gruyere-sprinkled--once happily assembled by Hood's little blonde girl with glasses. Grace, Hood recalls, loved "layering the potatoes in concentric circles and evenly spreading the cheese." So many moments and meals in Kitchen Yarns shine, but perhaps this is the recipe to try first, in honor of Grace and the grace granted by cooking with loved ones. --Katie Weed, freelance writer and reviewer

Since Rock Hudson's death from AIDS in 1985, there have been numerous books about him published (including his own posthumous as-told-to autobiography). But Mark Griffin's intimate, engaging and superbly researched All That Heaven Allows is by far the definitive biography Rock Hudson and his fans deserve.

After a stint in the navy, the Illinois-born aspiring actor moved to Los Angeles. Talent scout Henry Wilson seduced him, added him as a client and changed his name from Roy Fitzgerald to Rock Hudson. Just seven years after his film debut, he earned a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for Giant in 1956. From 1957 to 1964, Hudson was ranked among the top five U.S. box office draws. Hudson's homosexuality was an open secret within Hollywood for decades, but it's surprising to find out just how open he was (after a brief arranged marriage). He lived with numerous men over the years and was remarkably forthright about surrounding himself with gay friends and visiting gay bars and sex clubs.

Griffin (A Hundred or More Hidden Things) interviewed Hudson's costars, family members and close friends (who also gave him access to diaries and unpublished memoirs). This chorus of insiders widens the biography's scope and paints a vivid, empathic and fascinating portrait of Hudson's private life, alcoholism and workaholic nature. Rock Hudson was a complex man who nurtured friendships for decades but briskly dissolved romantic relationships. Griffin offers an unforgettable, richly nuanced and psychologically intriguing portrait of a gay film star who survived within and outside the confines of his oppressive times and didn't lead a tortured life. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant

If you spoke all of the 20 languages featured in Babel, you could talk with half the world, claims popular linguistics writer Gaston Dorren (Lingo: Around Europe in Sixty Languages). That said, the greatest polyglot in this book is a Cameroonian named Jonas who speaks eight. Dorren offers an intriguing tasting-menu of the major standardized languages, one chapter for each.

Trade and imperialism were the major forces that spread most of these languages among so many people. Some, such as German, Korean and Tamil, "happen to occupy compact but densely populated regions." Still others owe a widespread popularity to their historic status as official colonial administrative languages. "Most have this in common: they are lingua francas--languages that bridge the gap between people with different mother tongues."

At the beginning of every chapter, Dorren offers some basic facts about its subject, such as number of speakers, geographic range, loanwords and accent obstacles. These are followed by an idiosyncratic essay on whatever has struck him about that language: the ideophones of Korean, Bengali script, the "language revolution" of 20th-century Turkish and the "linguistic gender apartheid" of Japanese.

Dorren's themes include the sense of correctness people have about different aspects of their languages, the cultural knowledge required for true fluency, the joys and challenges of multilingualism and, conversely, the sense of belonging that shared language can provide. Babel is an engaging and informative whirlwind tour of how major world languages are created, used and changed. --Sara Catterall

Germaphobes and free spirits alike will delight in Did You Just Eat That?, an entertaining journey into the microbial underworld. Food scientists Paul Dawson and Brian Sheldon, with the help of students from Clemson University, subject popular wisdom to rigorous scientific testing--and present the results in an accessible, introductory format. (The cute illustrations of anthropomorphic bacteria are a bonus.)

Though the title purports to investigate "food myths," that's not quite accurate. Instead, through a series of experiments, Dawson and Sheldon enlighten readers as to just how cozily we live with bacteria, viruses and their friends--and how easily they can make us sick. Following a breezy but fascinating overview of these diverse microorganisms, the book is divided into three sections: "Surfaces," "Air and Water" and "Transport Mechanisms." If that sounds dull, read on: the experiments in each section have names like "Blowing out Birthday Candles, or Spraying Germs on a Cake?"; "Things You Put in Your Drink"; and "Beer Pong: Don't Hate the Game."

In each experiment, Dawson and Sheldon explore the origins of their inquiry (Who came up with the five-second rule? How many germs live on the average person's hand? Is it true that washing our hands can create more opportunities for bacteria to flourish?), discuss any prior research on the topic and guide readers through their own methods and results. In many instances, the findings are startling--for example, readers may never look at (or touch) their restaurant menus the same way again. --Hannah Calkins, writer and editor in Washington, D.C.

Who knew there was so much to say about menstruation? Harvard sophomore and menstrual rights activist Nadya Okamoto did. Several years ago, the conversations she found herself having with homeless women about how they managed their monthly periods inspired her to look into the politics of menstruation. In 2014, she founded the nonprofit PERIOD, a youth-run engine of what she calls the Menstrual Movement, which seeks to destigmatize the bodily function and ensure that supplies reach those suffering "period poverty."

Period Power: A Manifesto for the Menstrual Movement covers basic ground (the physiology of periods, the history and types of feminine hygiene products) as well as less conventional terrain, including period-positive attitudes in pop culture and examples of the laughably uptight language of archival literature about menstruation. Okamoto relays all this using a tirelessly conversational voice ("A dude! A dude came up with the first tampon!") speckled with ALL CAPS for oomph ("SO COOL, RIGHT?!"). This isn't to say that Okamoto is a stranger to righteous indignation, as about the fact that most states tax sanitary supplies as luxury goods but don't tax nonessentials for men like Rogaine and Viagra ("ARE YOU &@%$&# KIDDING ME?!").

Period Power makes a credible case that when girls and women miss school and work due to period poverty, we can't be surprised by their less-than-equal representation in politics, STEM fields and other male-dominated professions. Okamoto is a force, and doubtless some readers--menstruators and otherwise--will leave Period Power proud Period Warriors. --Nell Beram, freelance writer and YA author

Award-winning author and illustrator Tomie de Paola (Strega Nona) challenges the hustle and bustle of everyday life in his simple, almost lyrical Quiet. A grandfather and his two young grandchildren take a walk outside, noticing the busyness of the world around them. "Everything is in such a hurry," the grandfather remarks at the sight of buzzing bees, flying birds and jumping frogs. But, he tells the children, there is great beauty and wonder in being still and sitting quietly. As the children and grandfather sit on a bench, all of nature takes a moment to breathe--birds, dragonflies, dogs and frogs all take a second to be "[q]uiet and still." 

Complemented by de Paola's trademark acrylic and colored pencil illustrations, Quiet is a gentle yet powerful examination of meditation in its most natural form. The book's first scenes explode with color and activity and de Paola's illustrations grow less busy and more focused as the scenes themselves become calmer and quieter. This gradual simplification of the illustrations encourages young readers to pause and focus on small moments: a dog sleeping, birds singing, a dragonfly resting. The children of Quiet become restful during their observations: the boy notes "I can see, when I'm still," while the girl notices "I can think, when I'm quiet." While a story on quietness may not seem the most natural choice for children, Quiet's brevity and simplicity make it the perfect introduction for little ones. --Kyla Paterno, former YA and children's book buyer