In the outstanding Core of the Sun, Finnish novelist Johanna Sinisalo (Troll: A Love Story) depicts a country strangled by a patriarchal government that claims to care about its citizens' health.

The Finnish people in this dystopia live under a form of government wherein decisions supposedly hinge on the health and safety of the people. Tobacco and alcohol no longer exist within Finnish borders. Only the antioxidant-rich dark form of chocolate is legal without a prescription. The most recent prohibition concerns capsaicin, the chemical that gives chili peppers their heat. Vanna, a young woman, hides her capsaicin addiction but constantly looks for her next fix, the only way to dull the pain of losing Manna, her younger sister.

The addiction is far from Vanna's only secret. For decades, Finland has worked at creating a perfect breed of domesticated women: obedient and focused on making a home and pleasing a husband. Called eloi or femiwomen, only these ideal specimens may reproduce. Vanna's sister is an eloi, but Vanna only passes as one. Really she is a morlock, an independent woman with as much sense and desire for knowledge as any man.

At times the novel reads a bit like Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale with a sense of humor; a PSA on chili pepper addiction from a recovering addict is particularly hilarious, while marriage-minded deodorant ads and rewritten fairy tales will elicit laughs with a bitter aftertaste. A testament to the power of the human soul to escape oppression and a smirking social commentary, The Core of the Sun is one deliciously spicy package. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

The intricacies and hierarchies--and often the competitive nature--of the family dynamic are central to the fiction of Tessa Hadley (Clever Girl). In her sixth novel, The Past, four middle-aged siblings reunite at the 200-year-old house they inherited from their grandparents, tucked amid the hills of the English countryside in Kington.

The house is "mottled with brown damp, there was no central heating and the roof leaked." It is near another cottage and a church, where the family's grandfather, a famous poet, was once minister. The siblings and their significant others have gathered for a three-week summer visit to decide whether to put the old place on the market. But once the siblings convene, their old home, all it represented in the past, and how it relates to their lives in the present--along with simmering familial tensions--collide.

Hadley's prose is descriptively rich. She elevates the mundane via her keen understanding of people and the emotional complexities of marriages and families--secrets, subtle deceptions and loyalties. By structuring the novel in three parts--a flashback from 1968, set between two sections steeped in the present--Hadley contrasts ideas about age and youth, the past and present, solace and aggravation, love and resentment. The idea that, in families, siblings emerge from the same roots and same place but eventually splinter off in different directions is at the heart of this tender, understated novel. It examines how we never really escape the upheavals of the past; they seep into our being. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

Charles Lambert (With a Zero at Its Heart) offers a startling and adept blend of realism and frightening fantasy in The Children's Home.

Morgan Fletcher lives alone, served by a housekeeper and a skeleton staff he purposefully never sees, on a sizable estate of fading opulence. He has been disfigured by a mysterious accident; his inherited fortune has equally enigmatic origins. His family history is only hinted at, but apparently contains ugly secrets. His housekeeper, Engel, seems comfortably wise to these difficulties, and when the country doctor, a "sunlike man," befriends Morgan, he feels a little like himself again. The real difference, however, is the children, who show up one by one as if out of the air, some of them mere babies on the stoop. Morgan is wonderingly delighted to find himself surrounded by youngsters, whose playful noises echo often through the house, but who are strangely silent when he wishes for silence. These are not ordinary children, but Morgan has had no contact with the wider world for many years and is slow to question their behavior. They seem to seek something within his house and simultaneously seem to know his past already.

Lambert opens with plausibly lifelike scenarios and proceeds with careful pacing through the Fletcher family story. The line between reality and illusion is as imperceptible to the reader as it is to Morgan, until the final, otherworldly action accelerates with glittering vividness both lovely and grotesque. The Children's Home is unforgettable: fanciful, chilling and poignant. --Julia Jenkins, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

Angels Burning by Tawni O'Dell (author of the Oprah Book Club Pick Back Roads) is a rather sad yet enjoyable literary mystery set in Appalachian Pennsylvania. Reminiscent of many a scene from FX's television drama Justified, the suspense in Angels Burning revolves around the truculent Truly clan.

Chief of police Dove Carnahan is appalled by the brutal murder of a teenage girl, whose charred body is found stuffed into a burning sinkhole in an abandoned mining town. The girl is soon identified as a member of the Truly family--notorious for their heavy drinking, frequent jail time and many out-of-wedlock babies.

As Dove works with the state police to coordinate the investigation (which is way too high-level for her small-town team), she keeps having flashbacks to the murder of her own mother 35 years earlier. Delving into the dark secrets of the Trulys means that Dove risks exposing the secrets of her family, too.

Tawni O'Dell has created an enigmatic and engaging story, filled with the realistic, quotidian sadness often found in blue-collar towns on an economic downswing. Dove Carnahan is a supremely likable character: a slightly mouthy, rather clothes-obsessed, intelligent and intuitive middle-aged woman. Dove's insight into the machinations of the Trulys is keen, and O'Dell's ability to capture small-town angst and envy is superlative. Even readers who don't typically like mysteries are sure to enjoy this gem of a novel. --Jessica Howard, blogger at Quirky Bookworm

Eric James Stone's Unforgettable is a fantastic spy drama that involves entanglement theory.

Somehow, because of a loophole in his quantum state, Nat Morgan is completely forgettable. No one remembers him after one minute. Even cameras and computers are unable to capture his presence or record his doings. This would seem to make Nat a perfect thief, but he's taken a job at the CIA. His handler has a special file with notes and authentication protocols so the agency can use Nat for jobs in which anyone else would be discovered.

On a dangerous mission to obtain a powerful computer chip, Nat encounters the ex-Russian spy Yelena Semyonova, who has the same objective. She's working for the mafia, who have kidnapped her sisters to keep Yelena in line, but the two spies form a temporary alliance. During their escape, Nat and Yelena become entangled on a quantum level, making Yelena the only person in the world who can remember Nat.

The pair end up rescuing a brilliant Iranian physicist and helping him defect to the U.S. He links the chip back to a billionaire Russian mafioso, who aims to create a quantum supercomputer that won't only predict the future, but also control it. The team of spies and scientist must stop this plot, which could destroy the fabric of reality with no one the wiser.

Unforgettable is a quick, delightful read with well-considered plotting and a protagonist who won't be forgotten. --Rob LeFebvre, freelance writer and editor

Ten years ago, the alien Creepers descended on an unsuspecting Earth with a genocidal onslaught of asteroid bombardments, nuclear detonations and a fleet of stealth satellites that destroyed all technology more advanced than a steam engine. Overnight, mankind was thrust back into the 19th century. Then the insectoid Creepers landed, roaming the wasted countryside in their near-invulnerable exoskeleton suits with claws spewing lasers and fire. But humanity fought back. Refugees from flooded cities and survivors of shattered military units, with the help of chemical weapons, kept the Creepers in check. At great cost, human civilization adapted to a new status quo of primitive technology and the constant threat of Creeper attacks.

At the beginning of Dark Victory, the end of the Creeper occupation seems imminent. A suicide attack has just destroyed the aliens' orbital base, and National Guard Recon Ranger Randy Knox prays for a world without war, a world he remembers only through a single photograph of his long-dead mother and sister. But despite the sudden talk of victory, the teenaged Ranger, along with his K-9 companion, Thor, is still responding to Creeper attacks in the countryside, and no one has figured out how to counter their fleet of weaponized satellites. In the midst of this hopeful uncertainty, Knox is assigned a mission that may determine if the war is really over or simply entering a new phase. In Dark Victory, Brendan DuBois (the Lewis Cole mystery series) crafts a dark sci-fi adventure sure to appeal to genre fans. --Tobias Mutter, freelance reviewer

In the photographs in The Fully Raw Diet, Kristina Carrillo-Bucaram, co-founder and director of Houston's Rawfully Organic co-op, glows with health and vitality after a decade of raw vegan food. Her new cookbook addresses how to transform every aspect of health--from food to exercise to attitude. However, Carrillo-Bucaram believes eating even just one Fully Raw meal a day (like a Lemon Ginger Blast or Sunburst Juice smoothie for breakfast) will increase energy, clear skin and improve digestion.

Following a diet plan that consists of 80% carbohydrates, 10% protein and 10% fat, Carrillo-Bucaram's recipes are presented day-by-day for three weeks with brief explanations for every recommendation. For example, beginning the day with 32 ounces of lemon water has an alkalizing effect on bodily fluids, activating all bodily systems and mitigating cellular damage caused by inflammation and other acidic conditions. Before presenting the recipes, Carillo-Bucaram explains the different health benefits between juices and smoothies, the best equipment for both, and how to handle "food bullies." She has tested each recipe and believes her own transformative health backs up her recommendations. Recipes include infused water combinations (like Blueberry Grape and Raspberry Cucumber Lime), juices and smoothies (like Cantaloupe Sorbet and Coconut Banana Vanilla); soups (like Sweet Persimmon and Mango Gazpacho); dressings (Cilantro Tahini and Orange Ginger Sesame); rainbow salads (Beautiful Beet Salad with Cherry Tomato Vinagrette); entrees (like Fully Raw Lasagna); and desserts (apple, pumpkin and pecan pies, birthday and short cakes, and fruit cobblers). A raw vegan diet may initially seem daunting, but Fully Raw is both reassuring and revelatory. --Kristen Galles from Book Club Classics

A welcome antidote to the whirlwind of the holidays, Ellie Krieger (James Beard Foundation and IACP Award-winner and host of the Food Network's Healthy Appetite) provides a "step-by-step guide to turning your refrigerator and freezer into a treasure chest of meals to make your life deliciously easier and healthier." To that end, You Have It Made presents 150 do-ahead recipes to cover busy breakfasts (for example, Sweet Ricotta and Berry Flatbread Breakfast Pizzas, and Peach-Cherry Breakfast Cobbler), speedy but satisfying lunches (like Four Bean Salad and Chilled Beet and Yogurt Soup), and entrees for entertaining (including African Peanut Stew and Cumin-Spiced Lentils with Sautéed Onions) that allow the cook to enjoy the company, too.

While Krieger believes "no food is ever off limits," her recipes emphasize fresh, seasonal, minimally processed ingredients. To highlight which foods should be staples and which should be occasional treats, food is categorized as Usually (vegetables, fruit, beans, whole grains), Sometimes (flour, honey, chicken) and Rarely (refined sugar, cream, cheese and butter). In Krieger's kitchen, balance--not deprivation--is paramount. In addition to nutritional information (calories, fat, protein, sodium, etc.), each recipe has storage and reheating instructions: most can go from freezer to oven or stovetop with no thawing required! Krieger's tips for storage (square containers are more space-efficient than round), preventing freezer burn (well-sealed and air-tight is essential) and reheating promote safety as well as speed. Krieger has given her many fans the gift of time with You Have It Made. --Kristen Galles from Book Club Classics

It was hard having Hunter Thompson for a father--just ask his only son, Juan Thompson. In Stories I Tell Myself, Juan goes behind Hunter's larger-than-life persona as writer, journalist and Aspen politician to reveal the daily family life of the man he revered, feared and finally accepted. It is a memoir of Juan's insecurity and accommodation around his gonzo father--but Hunter steals the show. Whether holding court at his "headquarters" in the Hotel Jerome bar, with four-year-old Juan nearby taking in the "music and laughing, hooting, yelling... the sharp, slightly sweet, slightly acrid smell of cigarettes and beer," or celebrating Jimmy Buffet's wedding on an "evening of high debauchery, '70s style with copious amounts of cocaine, pot, and booze," Hunter always leaves Juan in the wings. No wonder Juan's story of life with his father features lonesome days at boarding school, months in an ashram and methodical 12-stepping at Al-Anon.

A gun-slinging, alcoholic, belligerent icon, Hunter lived the life of his Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas character Raoul Duke until his late 60s. In 2005--broken down with a hip implant and bad back, incontinent, his writing paralyzed by drugs and alcohol, at odds with his latest young wife--Hunter put one of his many guns to his head and killed himself while Juan, his wife and young son played 20 Questions in the next room.

Savoring their moments together building fires, cleaning guns and swimming after midnight in a neighbor's lap pool, Juan eventually recognizes his own strengths and acknowledges Hunter's many weaknesses--at least this is one of the stories he tells himself. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.

A Spanish invasion force, already crippled by punishing storms that separated it from most of its troops and supplies, landed at the Irish harbor of Kinsale on September 21, 1601. The Spanish troops intended to battle their way through Ireland with the support of a population that Irish expatriates assured them was eager to fight for the Catholic king of Spain and then conquer England from the west. Instead they found themselves besieged by English forces in an indefensible harbor town, waiting for allies and reinforcements that never came.

In The Last Armada: Queen Elizabeth, Juan del Águila and the 100-Day Spanish Invasion of England, Irish journalist Des Ekin (The Stolen Village) tells the story of the failed Spanish invasion from the perspectives of the English and Spanish commanders, as well as their Irish allies. Ekin establishes his major characters--General Juan del Águila of Spain, Charles Blount of England and Irish chieftain Hugh O'Neill--as the heroes of their own stories and places them firmly in their very different cultural milieus. Many of the secondary characters, including an English femme fatale, a Jesuit secret agent and a Franciscan priest determined to run the invasion in the name of God, are equally vivid on the page. The result is an even-handed account of a critical event in Irish history that has often been the subject of "bitter recriminations, laments or partisan rants."

The Last Armada is a historical page-turner with acts of heroism, betrayal, espionage, self-aggrandizement and self-sacrifice. --Pamela Toler, blogging at History in the Margins

David Searcy's essay collection, Shame and Wonder, opens with a piece based on what he calls a "strange, opaque and mysterious tale" his dental hygienist shares with him about coyote attacks on her father's West Texas ranch. That characterization is an apt one for the 21 artfully crafted, if occasionally discursive, essays that compose this book.

Though Searcy's not shy about sharing slices of personal history, he often comes at them obliquely. A Texas native and resident of Dallas, Searcy, author of the novel Ordinary Horror, excels at capturing the peculiar character of his home state, where having a "look around is what there is to do out here." Over the course of the book, we learn that he grew up in the 1950s and "never lived very far from anywhere else I've lived." One of the most affecting pieces of memoir is the elegiac reminiscence "How to Color the Grass," in which he returns to his renovated elementary school and experiences again the "potent emptiness of childhood."

One of the most entertaining pieces in Shame and Wonder takes Searcy far from his Texas roots. "Santa in Anatolia" is the account of a trip to Turkey, sponsored by something called the Gülen Movement, with his girlfriend, Nancy. It's not unusual for one of David Searcy's essays to end up some distance from its starting point. But anyone willing to follow him on these meandering journeys will be rewarded with some fine writing and insights from the fertile mind of a careful observer whose thoughts might just strike their own sparks of memory and recognition for sympathetic readers. --Harvey Freedenberg, attorney and freelance reviewer

Susan B. Anthony
set out two saucers,
two cups, and two slices of cake.

Frederick Douglass
arrived for tea.

Debut author Dean Robbins's charming picture book Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass depicts the true story of the historic friendship between two of America's greatest 19th-century civil rights pioneers, beginning with afternoon tea by candlelight. (Today, the author's note points out, there's a sculpture in Rochester, N.Y., of the two friends having tea.)

From this cozy scene in snowy Rochester, Robbins flashes back to the childhoods and early careers of Anthony and Douglass, emphasizing parallel experiences that might have contributed to their special friendship. For instance, "As a girl, Susan wanted to learn what boys learned./ But teachers wouldn't let her." And, "Frederick grew up as a slave in the South..../ He secretly learned to read and write. New ideas thrilled him." As adults, "They promised to help each other,/ so one day all people could have rights." Robbins maintains an optimistic tone, but avoids sugarcoating history by noting that while some people liked the activists' ideas on women's suffrage and abolition, "Others didn't."

Husband-and-wife team Sean Qualls and Selina Alko's warm gouache, acrylic and colored pencil, collage-inspired artwork inventively illustrates the power of ideas. Cursive script with phrases like Douglass's "Truth is of no color..." streams out of the friends' mouths and emerges from steaming cups of tea in sinuous rivers that flow across the handsome spreads. Two Friends is an artful, cleverly crafted homage to progressive civil rights leaders as well as an inspiring story of friendship. --Hank Stephenson, bookseller, Flyleaf Books

Belgian author-illustrator Peter Goes's gorgeous, oversized picture book, translated from Dutch, is a visual river of history that spans time from the Big Bang to "The 2010s" and teems with tiny cartoonish people and animals, mythological creatures, natural landscapes, buildings, maps, inventions, weaponry, paintings, musical instruments, vehicles, many ships, cultural artifacts and other historical touchstones.

Each expansive, breathtaking section--covering topics such as "The Ming Dynasty," "The 15th Century," "The Incas," "The Russian Revolution" and "Space Travel"--is printed on agreeably thick paper in a variety of deliciously muted colors. The ribbon-like whirl of human activity represented in the crisp, stylish artwork is mostly black, with spots of color, always flowing forward to the next page, emphasizing the grand continuum of history. Children will love poring over thousands of details--tentacles escaping a cooking pot in "Ancient Greece," a Dutch sailor poking a flightless dodo with a stick in "The 17th Century," Michael Jackson dancing with zombies in "The 1980s." For each section, a straightforward paragraph coolly sums up each period, while subtly embedded captions highlight more facts, such as "Chickens were already scratching around Egypt in 1400 B.C." and "The warlike Celts often fought naked." Goes escorts his readers all the way to "The 2010s" where his mention of Pharrell Williams's song "Happy" makes for a poignant soundtrack to Fukushima and the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris. Peaceful, humanity is not... and never has been.

Masterfully distilled in the roiling Timeline, the mad, beautiful world reveals itself as a wondrous place of never-ending conflict and resilience, chaos and order, destruction and innovation, disaster and delight. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness