The Lowland
by Jhumpa Lahiri (Knopf)
From a Pulitzer-winning author of intimate stories of immigrants, an epic. Lahiri (“Interpreter of Maladies,” “The Namesake”) covers two continents and four decades in her second novel, the story of Subhash, who grows up in postwar Calcutta, inseparable from Udayan, his wilder, younger brother. Subhash moves to America in the late 1960s to pursue his studies, and Udayan joins a violent communist uprising in India. When the younger brother is killed, the older brother marries his pregnant widow and brings her to America.
Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker
by Stanley Crouch (Harper)
Social and cultural critic, columnist and MacArthur Genius Crouch offers a mix of impressionist strokes, historical facts and context in his masterful Charlie Parker bio — the first of two volumes on the troubled and groundbreaking artist. Setting the scene in the Midwest of Parker and fellow Jay McShann Orchestra-mates, Crouch writes: “[When they] unleashed the nappy-necked lightning of jazz, then you came alive in a very special way; then glamour, grace and audacity could ramble from your instruments; then your mind could shine like Klondike gold.”
Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks
by Keith Houston (Norton)
For copy editors and other language lovers, Scotsman Houston has researched and written a love letter to punctuation — both the familiar and the lesser-known. He traces symbols back to ancient Greece, early Christianity, medieval times and onward. We were particularly intrigued by the interrobang. This combination ? and ! was introduced by a Madison Avenue exec in 1962 to convey “a particular mixture of surprise and doubt.”
The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide
by Gary J. Bass (Knopf)
In light of the ongoing horrors in Syria and of America’s tempestuous relationship with Pakistan, Princeton professor Bass’ blistering attack on Nixon and Kissinger’s policy of ignoring Pakistan’s mass murder of civilians in what was then East Pakistan in 1971-72, and aiding the military regime, is a must-read. The telegram of the title refers not only to the bloodbath in what is now Bangladesh, but the name of the brave American consul general in Dacca — Archer Blood — who kept Washington informed of the horrors and officially protested, with his staff, the US policy.
Doctor Sleep
by Stephen King (Scribner)
Although it burned down, the terror of the Overlook Hotel shines on. Dan Torrance, the boy whose psychic skills enabled him to see the hotel’s tortured past in King’s 1977 best seller “The Shining,” returns as the adult star of King’s (very) long-awaited sequel. Plagued by the horrors of the past, Dan’s life spirals into an orgy of drink, drugs and one-night stands. When he hits rock bottom, Dan finds a job in which he can channel his “shining” powers: helping hospice patients to die. Hence, the title. You might not want to read this book at home alone at night.