纽约时报 报道 2013年01月12日 （后附英文原稿）
2012年度最值得关注的小说、诗歌和非虚构类作品，由《纽约时报》书评编辑精选。
虚构作品与诗歌
《看不见的ALIF》(ALIF The Unseen)。G·韦洛·威尔逊(G. Willow Wilson)著（Grove出版，25美元）。这本富于想象力的小说是作者的处女作，主人公是一个在中东逃亡的年轻黑客。
《几乎从不》(Almost Never)。丹尼尔·萨达(Daniel Sada)著，卡特琳娜·席尔瓦(Katherine Silver)译（Graywolf，paper出版，16美元）。本书是对大男子主义的精彩讽刺，讲述一个墨西哥农艺学家同时追求一个妓女和一个正经女人的故事。
《美国间谍》(An American Spy)。奥伦·斯坦霍尔(Olen Steinhauer)著（Minotaur出版，25.99美元）。这部小说生动地描写了复杂的间谍世界，斯坦霍尔笔下的主人公是中情局间谍，当他的团队几乎被摧毁时，他必须背水一战。
《乡村乐园》(Arcadia)。劳伦·格洛夫(Lauren Groff)著（Voice/Hyperion出版，25.99美元）。这是格洛夫的第二本小说，文笔华丽，生动形象，故事从一个乡间社区开始，它有着乌托邦般的过去，却与反乌托邦的后全球变暖未来时代密切相连。
《最终》(At Last)。爱德华·圣·奥比恩(Edward St. Aubyn)著（Farrar, Straus & Giroux出版，25美元）。这是圣·奥比恩精彩的帕特里克·梅尔罗斯(Patrick Melrose)系列小说的最后一部，也是最具思想性的一部，充满准确的观察与令人眼前一亮的文采。
《美丽的废墟》(Beautiful Ruins)。乔斯·沃尔特(Jess Walter)著（Harper/HarperCollins出版，25.99美元）。这是沃尔特的第6部小说，非常诙谐，主要发生在好莱坞，展现了一幅充斥着恶习、癖好、失落与失望的美国风情画卷。
《比利·林恩漫长的半程漫步》(Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk)。本·弗恩坦(Ben Fountain)著（Ecco/HarperCollins出版，25.99美元）。这部讽刺小说讲述的是伊拉克激烈战火中的生还者，为了一次短暂的战胜巡回讲演在美国到处奔走。
《渎神》(Blasphemy)。谢尔曼·埃里克希(Sherman Alexie)著（Grove出版，27美元）。这是埃里克希最新的小说精选集，既有趣又感人。作者既像愤怒的批评者，也像充满渴望的梦想家。
《不幸之书：精选加新撰故事》(The Book Of Mischief: New and Selected Stories)。斯蒂夫·斯特恩(Steve Stern)著（Graywolf出版，26美元）。讲述犹太移民生活，怀旧情感呼之欲出。
《提堂》(Bring Up The Bodies)，希拉里·曼特尔(Hilary Mantel)著（Macrae/Holt出版，28美元）。曼特尔的小说《狼厅》(Wolf Hall)的续作，讲述安妮·博林的陨落，让这个熟悉的故事重新变得精彩刺激，充满悬疑。
《建筑的故事》(Building Stories)，克里斯·韦尔(Chris Ware)著（Pantheon出版，50美元）。又大又结实的盒子里装着数卷精装书、小册子和一份小报，它们构成了韦尔这本费时费力、令人伤感、恢宏的漫画小说，讲述了芝加哥一栋建筑里居民们的故事。
《血缘》(By Blood)。艾伦·厄尔曼(Ellen Ullman)著（Farrar, Straus & Giroux出版，27美元）。这部聪明狡黠的小说就像叙事的脱衣舞，讲述一个教授偷听隔壁心理医师与病人谈话的故事。
《加拿大》(Canada)。理查德·福特(Richard Ford)著（Ecco/HarperCollins出版，27.99美元）。这个引人入胜的故事发生在20世纪60年代，一个男孩的双亲是蒙大拿抢劫银行的盗匪，男孩要越过边界逃亡。小说人物性格丰满，文风是成熟老练的散文体。
《带上它》(Carry The One)。卡萝尔·安肖(Carol Anshaw)著（Simon & Schuster出版，25美元）。在这部充满嘲讽和善意的小说里，安肖细致地写了一群因重大意外事件而聚集在一起的朋友们的生活。这是她的第四部小说。
《博海恩城》(City Of Bohane)。凯文·巴里(Kevin Barry)著（Graywolf出版，25美元）。2053年的爱尔兰，人们被"失落的时间"所困扰，那段时间里曾发生过悲惨的事情，人们希望能重新找回他们的过去。这是巴里的第一部小说，它光怪陆离，文辞华丽，有很多自创的语言。
《诗集》(Collected Poems)。杰克·吉尔伯特(Jack Gilbert)著（Knopf出版，35美元）。吉尔伯特以有序自由诗体朴素地写出了悲伤、爱情、婚姻、背叛和欲望等情感。
《亲爱的生活：故事》(Dear Life: Stories)。爱丽丝·门罗(Alice Munro)著（Knopf出版，26.95美元）。这部书进一步证实了门罗的大师地位，展示出她的独特风格最近又走向了新方向，堪称她写作生涯的集大成之作。
《银装魔鬼》(The Devil In Silver)。维克托·拉瓦尔(Victor LaValle)著（Spiegel & Grau出版，27美元）。这是拉瓦尔的第三部小说，讲述一个破旧的城市精神病院里的故事，颇具敏锐的人文视角。
《着魔》(Enchantments)。凯瑟琳·哈里森(Kathryn Harrison)著（Random House出版，27美元）。哈里森的这部小说发生在俄罗斯帝国晚期，精彩而又出人意料，主要讲述拉斯普丁的女儿玛莎和患有血友病的沙皇长子阿廖沙的故事。
《逃逸》(Flight Behavior)。芭芭拉·金索尔夫(Barbara Kingsolver)著（Harper/HarperCollins出版，28.99美元）。一部勇敢而庄严的小说，讲述一位阿巴拉契亚山脉的女人怎样加入保护帝王蝶的行列。
《弗比特》(Fobbit)。大卫·艾布拉姆(David Abrams)著（Black Cat/Grove/Atlantic出版，平装，15美元）。这是作者的第一部小说，讲述若干职员、厨子和律师在伊拉克一个前线作战基地的故事。
《遗忘树》(The Forgetting Tree)。塔迪亚娜·索利(Tatjana Soli)著（St.Martin's出版，25.99美元）。这部飘忽诡异的小说讲的是一个神秘的加勒比女人在加州一个与世隔绝的牧场上照顾一位癌症病人的故事，这是索利的第二部小说。
《水的聚集》(Gathering Of Waters)。伯尼斯·L·麦克法顿(Bernice L. McFadden)著（Akashic出版，24.95美元）。讲述密西西比三代黑人女性对抗洪水与谋杀的故事。
《没有人类的神祗》(Gods Without Men)。哈利·昆兹鲁(Hari Kunzru)著（Knopf出版，26.95美元）。几个相互关联的故事，穿越不同世纪与大洲，都与一片废弃的岩层相关，强调时空之间的内在联系，这部有力的作品是昆兹鲁第四部以现代为题材的小说。
《哈哈》(HHhH)。劳伦特·比内特(Laurent Binet)著，萨姆·泰勒(Sam Taylor)翻译（Farrar, Straus & Giroux出版, 26美元）。这部扣人心弦的小说既讲述了1942年一个纳粹将军在布拉格被杀的事件，也讲述了比内特创作此故事的经过。
《国王全息图》(A Hologram For The King)，戴夫·艾格斯(Dave Eggers)著（McSweeney's出版，25美元）。艾格斯的小说令人难忘，可读性强，是一则美国在全球化经济中的寓言；哀伤地怀念着那个生活仍有重大意义、人们用双手辛勤劳作的年代。
《家》(Home)。托尼·莫里森(Toni Morrison)著（Knopf出版，24美元）。一个参加过朝鲜战争的黑人老兵从团结的军队退伍，回到种族隔离的家乡，不情愿地来到佐治亚州，这本小说贯穿的仍是莫里森作品中一直萦绕不去的主题。
《希望：一个悲剧》(Hope: A Tragedy)。沙洛姆·奥斯兰德(Shalom Auslander)著（Riverhead出版，26.95美元）。这是一部欢乐与痛苦交织的小说，讲述一个犹太男人在纽约州北部寻找平静，却在阁楼里发现了安妮·弗兰克。
《何以为人？》(How Should A Person Be?)。希拉·海蒂(Sheila Heti)著（Holt出版，25美元）书中的叙述者也叫希拉，她和她的朋友们试图回答这本小说的名字所提出的问题。
《一个人》(In One Person)。约翰·欧文(John Irving)著（Simon & Schuster出版，28美元）。欧文的新作有趣而大胆，描绘了一个纠结于性倾向的作家，它检视了在我们开始诚实面对自己的欲望时，会发生的事情。
《比家乡更友善的地方》(A Land More Kind Than Home)。威利·卡什(Wiley Cash)著（Morrow/HarperCollins出版，24.99美元）。这是卡什的第一本小说，非常迷人，讲述一个邪恶牧师的故事。
《婚后的爱与其他故事》(Married Love: And Other Stories)。泰莎·哈德利(Tessa Hadley)著（Harper Perennial出版，平装，14.99美元）。哈德利的小说集朴实美丽，充满精心调整的过渡和高品位的语言。
《NW》(NW)。扎迪·史密斯(Zadie Smith)著（Penguin Press出版，26.95美元）。伦敦西北部一个廉租房社区长大的两个朋友各自的生活，提出了关于种族、阶级、性身份与个人选择的精彩问题，是史密斯富于活力的现代主义风格。
《可能死亡之光谱》(On The Spectrum Of Possible Deaths)。卢西亚·珀里奥(Lucia Perillo)著（Copper Canyon出版，22美元）。严谨清晰的诗歌，充满复杂的情感思考。
《纯粹》(Pure)。朱莉安娜·巴格特(Julianna Baggott)著（Grand Central出版，25.99美元）。讲述孩子们为拯救地球进行的战斗，是个以严谨文风写成的后末日冒险故事。
《右手之岸》(The Right-hand Shore)克里斯托弗·蒂尔曼(Christopher Tilghman)著（Farrar，Straus & Giroux出版，27美元）。一部黑暗而威严的小说，讲述发生在切萨皮克湾一栋宅邸里的故事。
《圆屋》(The Round House)。路易斯·恩德里克(Louise Erdrich)著（Harper/HarperCollins出版，27.99美元）。在这部小说里，一个美国印第安家庭面对一桩恶意罪行的后果。
《抢救骨骸》(Salvage The Bones)。贾斯敏·沃德(Jesmyn Ward)著（Bloomsbury出版，24美元）。一个15岁的怀孕少女和全家人等待卡特琳娜飓风的故事，文笔华丽。
《圣米格尔》(San Miguel)。T·克拉格森·博伊尔(T. Coraghessan Boyle)著（Viking出版, 27.95美元）。两个来自不同时代的乌托邦主义者在加利福尼亚与世隔绝的海峡群岛建立秘密的田园生活；这部小说留下了他们诱人的梦。
《闪耀，闪耀，闪耀》(Shine Shine Shine)。莉迪亚·奈泽尔(Lydia Netzer)著（St. Martin's出版，24.99美元）。这部令人深思的小说是作者的处女作，讲述一个极客风格的宇航员和他怀孕妻子的故事。
《呼唤她可爱的名字》(Shout Her Lovely Name)。娜塔莉·瑟伯(Natalie Serber)著（Houghton Mifflin Harcourt出版，24美元）。这是瑟伯的第一部小说集，里面的故事聪敏而微妙。
《寂静的房子》(Silent House)。奥尔罕·帕慕克(Orhan Pamuk)著，罗伯特·芬(Robert Finn)翻译（Knopf出版，26.95美元）。这部充满激情和预感的小说于1983年在土耳其出版，讲述政变边缘，一个家庭就是整个国家的缩影。
《右舷之海》(The Starboard Sea)。安伯·德蒙特(Amber Dermont)著（St. Martin's出版，24.99美元）。德蒙特迷人的第一本小说，小说的叙事者是一个寄宿学生和水手，享受大海航行的乐趣和青春的自由。
《甜牙》(Sweet Tooth)。伊恩·麦克尤恩(Ian McEwan)著（Nan A Talese/Doubleday出版，26.95美元）。这部聪明狡猾的小说以冷战中的谍战为背景，其真正的主题是虚构与真实之间的边界。
《游泳回家》(Swimming Home)。黛博拉·李维著（Bloomsbury出版，平装，14美元）。这部薄薄的小说妙趣横生而又令人不安，讲述一个焦虑的年轻女人考验两对夫妇的婚姻的故事。
《电报大街》(Telegraph Avenue)。迈克尔·沙邦(Michael Chabon)著（Harper/HarperCollins出版，27.99美元）。沙邦这本内容丰富的喜剧小说讲的是加州伯克利与奥克兰的几对父子们的故事，设计了多重情节，引用大量流行文化，以惊人的叙述文体写作完成。
《玛利的遗嘱》(The Testamet Of Mary)。科尔姆·托尔宾(Colm Toibin)著（Scribner出版，19.99美元）。这本优美的书语言令人惊异，塑造了令人震惊的圣母玛利亚形象。
《你就是这样失去了她》(This Is How You Lose Her)。朱诺特·迪亚兹(Junot Diaz)著（Riverhead出版，26.95美元）。这本小说集中的故事都是关于爱，但也是关于家族史和文化道德观念的潜流，迪亚兹的文笔刺激有趣，令人难以抗拒。
《三个折不断的女人》(Three Strong Women)。玛丽·恩迪亚耶(Marie NDiaye)著（Knopf出版，25.95美元）。通过松散链接的叙事，讲述了来自塞内加尔的三个女人与父亲和在法国的丈夫作斗争的故事。这部微妙而迷人的小说获得了2009年的龚古尔文学奖。
《托比之屋》(Toby's Room)。帕特·巴克尔(Pat Barker)著（Doubleday出版，25.95美元）。这部小说属于"写生课"(Life Class)系列，更深入地研究一个被"一战"拆散的英国家庭的生活。
《水门》(Watergate)。托马斯·马龙(Thomas Mallon)著（Pantheon出版，26.95美元）。这本书以小说的方式重新设想"三流夜贼"如何提出那个惊人的入室盗窃动机，以及那18分钟的空白，并塑造了一个有同情心的尼克松。
《当我们谈安妮·弗兰克的时候我们在谈什么：故事》(What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank: Stories)。内森·英格兰德(Nathan Englander)著（Knopf出版，24.95美元）。英格兰德这本技艺高超的小说集时而深刻时而喧嚣，探讨了道德与历史等宏大的问题。
《黄鸟》(The Yellow Birds)。凯文·鲍威斯(Kevin Powers)著（Little, Brown出版，24.99美元）。一个年轻士兵与他的小队在伊拉克战争中作战，但回到家乡后却无法找到平静。这本有力感人的书探讨人性的弱点与战争的残酷，是作者的第一本小说。
非虚构作品
《我们所知的一切：三个生命》(All We Know: Three Lives)。丽莎·科恩(Lisa Cohen)著（Farrar, Straus & Giroux出版，30美元）。描绘了一个消逝的世界，讲述上世纪中期上流社会女同性恋迷人的生活，她们是一个时尚俱乐部的成员。
《美国织锦：米歇尔·奥巴马的黑人、白人与多种族祖先》(American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama)。雷切尔·L·斯文斯(Rachel L. Swarns)著（Amistad/HarperCollins出版，27.99美元）。《纽约时报》记者深度调查奥巴马夫人家族数代人的编年史。
《美国三巨人：萨姆·斯尼德、拜伦·尼尔森、本·霍根与现代高尔夫球》(American Triumvirate: Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, and the Modern Age of Golf)。詹姆斯·多德森(James Dodson)著（Knopf出版，28.95美元）。作者追溯了那个高尔夫球运动更加生动活泼、不像现在这样商务化。
《你是我妈妈吗？一部喜剧》(Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama)。艾莉森·贝克德尔(Alison Bechdel)著（Houghton Mifflin Harcourt出版，22美元）。贝克德尔引人入胜的原创漫画回忆录，探索自己与母亲疏远而麻烦不断的关系。
《巴拉克·奥巴马：故事》(Barack Obama: The Story)。大卫·马拉尼斯(David Maraniss)著（Simon & Schuster，32.50美元）。这部厚重精彩的新传记中充满之前未经披露的细节，超越了我们所熟悉的那个版本，以出人意料和引人入胜的方式讲述奥巴马的传奇。
《美丽永恒的背后——孟买地下城中的生命、死亡与希望》(Behind The Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity)。卡瑟琳娜·布(Katherine Boo)著（Random House出版，27美元）。这是一个非同寻常的道德质问，探索一个印度贫民窟中的生活，展示在残酷的社会达尔文主义驱使下人类所付出的代价。
《贝尔佐尼：考古学家又爱又恨的巨人》(Belzoni: The Giant Archaeologists Love to Hate)。伊万·尼尔·休姆(Ivor Noël Hume)著（University of Virginia出版，34.95美元）。这个精彩的故事讲述一位19世纪的意大利僧侣，一个"臭名昭著的盗墓者"，他收集古埃及的文物财富，赤脚踩过亡者的骨头。
《黑伯爵：光荣、革命、背叛与真实的基督山伯爵》(The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo)。汤姆·赖斯(Tom Reiss)著（Crown出版，27美元）。这是一部幻想的传记，主人公是大仲马，法国大革命中一位混血将军。
《乳房：自然与非自然的历史》(Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History)。弗洛伦斯·威廉姆斯(Florence Williams)著（Norton出版，25.95美元）。威廉姆斯为环保而振臂呐喊，探索母乳与硅胶丰胸中的化学成分。
《分离：白人美国世界，1960-2010》(Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010)。查尔斯·穆雷(Charles Murray)著（Crown Forum出版，27美元）。《钟形曲线》(The Bell Curve)的作者发出警告：白人工薪阶级已经摒弃了"基础美德"。
《达尔文的幽灵代笔者：进化论史的秘密》(Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution)。丽贝卡·斯托特(Rebecca Stott)著（Spiegel & Grau出版，27美元）。斯托特生动新颖地讲述了进化论观点的历史，全书轻松地在不同大洲与世纪之间穿梭。
《致富计划：一个小镇牧师的儿子是怎样毁掉美国总统、策划华尔街的崩盘、让自己成为美国最受人恨的人物》(A Disposition To Be Rich: How a Small-Town Preacher's Son Ruined an American President, Brought on a Wall Street Crash, and Made Himself the Best-Hated Man in the United States)。杰弗里·C·沃德(Geoffrey C. Ward)著（Knopf出版，28.95美元）。作者的祖先是尤利西斯·S·格兰特的灾星。
《那些与众不同的孩子：父母，孩子与寻找自我身份》(Far From The Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity)。安德鲁·所罗门(Andrew Aolomon)著（Scribner出版，37.50美元）。这本热情洋溢，充满感情的书采访了那些有着"与众不同"孩子的家庭，谈了孩子父母的感受。
《骇人听闻的行为，劳伦斯对得克萨斯的故事：一桩卧室逮捕行动怎样令同性恋在美国非罪化》(Flagrant Conduct. The Story of Lawrence v. Texas: How a Bedroom Arrest Decriminalized Gay Americans)。戴尔·卡朋特(Dale Carpenter)著（Norton出版，29.95美元）。卡朋特以激动人心的笔触讲述了2003年最高法院的判决如何推翻了得克萨斯州将鸡奸定罪的法律。
《愚人愚行：人类生活中欺骗与自我欺骗的逻辑》(The Folly Of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life)。罗伯特·特里维斯(Robert Trivers)著（Basic Books出版，28美元）。关于欺骗行为是生活中一种有利进化的"深层特点"的有趣讨论。
《灰色合辑：黑暗中的黑暗》(The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness)。凯文·杨(Kevin Young)著（Graywolf出版，平装，25美元）。一位诗人生动地描述美国黑人文化中核心的骗子形象，这个形象可以被称为"黑人是怎样发明了美国"。
《海地：历史余震》(Haiti: The Aftershocks of History)。劳伦·杜博伊(Laurent Dubois)著（Metropolitan/Holt出版，32美元）。外国干涉、缺乏民主传统、曾被美国占领的耻辱以及美国冷战中支持一个残酷的独裁者，这些都出现在作者（一位学者）精彩的阐述之中。
《孩子怎样胜利：勇气、好奇与性格中隐藏的力量》(How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character)。保罗·塔夫(Paul Tough)著（Houghton Mifflin Harcourt出版，27美元）。塔夫坚称，诸如坚持、自制等非认知技能在成功中扮演的角色比智力更重要。
《音乐如何运作》(How Music Works)。大卫·伯尼(David Byrne)著（McSweeney's出版，32美元）。这本音乐指南也探讨了怪异的摇滚明星的人格与职业生涯。
《铁幕：东欧的崩溃，1944-1956》(Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956)。安妮·阿普勒鲍姆(Anne Applebaum)著（Doubleday出版，35美元）。势不可挡，令人信服地描述了"二战"后苏联是怎样逐步推进，把东欧变成自己的殖民地。
《卡雅克的早晨：对爱、悲伤与小船的思考》(Kayak Morning: Reflections on Love, Grief, and Small Boats)。罗杰·罗森布拉特(Roger Rosenblatt)著（Ecco/HarperCollins出版社，平装，13.99美元）。深沉地思考了悲伤如何随时间而改变，提出了若干重大问题。
《林肯代码：美国历史上的战争法则》(Lincoln's Code: The Laws of War in American History)。约翰·法比安·维特(John Fabian Witt)著（Free Press, 32美元）。人道主义与正义的紧张关系定义了美国的战争规则。
《小美国：阿富汗的战中之战》(Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan)。拉吉夫·坎德拉萨卡伦(Rajiv Chandrasekaran)著（Knopf出版，27.95美元）。文笔优美，深刻地记述了美国在阿富汗战争中混乱的干预。
《一个被压缩的女人的回忆录：忍受卵巢癌》(Memoir Of A Debulked Woman: Enduring Ovarian Cancer)。苏珊·贾巴尔(Susan Gubar)著（Norton出版，24.95美元）。一位女性主义学者以直率和极为勇敢的口吻回忆自己的经历，批评对这种可怕疾病的医疗措施。
《我的诗人们》(My Poets)。莫琳·N·麦克雷恩(Maureen N. McLane)著（Farrar, Straus & Giroux出版，25美元）。这本友善的书半是回忆录半是评论，包括描写经典诗人与当代诗人的散文，以及划线诗歌游戏。
《奥巴马一家》(The Obamas)。朱迪·肯托(Jodi Kantor)著（Little, Brown出版，29.99美元）。肯托在这本书中以赞美的口吻称米歇尔·奥巴马为白宫奠定了基调与节奏，书中充满丰富多彩的内幕趣事。
《奇异的常态：一个家庭怎样帮助年轻的儿子适应性取向》(Oddly Normal: One Family's Struggle to Help Their Teenage Son Come to Terms With His Sexuality)。约翰·舒瓦茨(John Schwartz)著（Gotam出版，26美元）。《纽约时报》记者充满深情地描述自己的儿子怎样出柜，也对其他LGBT儿童体验的研究进行了评估。
《父亲之岸：雷切尔·卡森的人生与传奇》(On A Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson)。威廉姆·索达(William Souder)著（Crown出版，30美元）。关于这位先驱环保作家的一部有趣的传记，正值她的《寂静的春天》(Silent Spring)出版50周年。
《在沙特阿拉伯：那里的人民、历史、信仰与缺陷——以及未来》(On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines-and Future)。卡伦·艾略特·豪斯(Karen Elliott House)著（Knopf出版，28.95美元）。作者是普利策奖得主，这本书掀开了这个神秘国家的面纱，把它僵化的政治体制与苏联末期相对比。
《那个人：詹姆斯·布朗的人生与音乐》(The One: The Life and Music of James Brown)。RJ·史密斯(RJ Smith)著（Gotham出版，27.50美元）。史密斯认为在风格、信息量、节奏与原创性方面，布朗是最重要的现代美国音乐家。
《权力通道：林顿·约翰逊时代》(The Passage Of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson)。罗伯特·A·卡罗(Robert A. Caro)著（Knopf出版，35美元）。卡罗权威著作的第四部，横跨五年时间，结束于肯尼迪遇刺不久之后，约翰逊正准备推行民权法案。
《家长：约瑟夫·P·肯尼迪的辉煌人生与动荡的时代》(The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy)。大卫·纳索(David Nasaw)著（Penguin Press出版，40美元）。这部饶有趣味的书追溯了肯尼迪一生的历史——华尔街投机商、电影制作人、大使、王朝的奠基人。
《以黑暗为食的人：一个在东京街头消失的年轻女人的真实故事——以及吞噬她的邪恶》(People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished From the Streets of Tokyo — and the Evil That Swallowed Her Up)。理查德·劳埃德·帕里(Richard Lloyd Parry)著（Farrar, Straus & Giroux出版，平装，16美元）。对一起谋杀事件的公正研究。
《红砖、黑山、白瓦：对艺术、家庭与生存的思考》(Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay: Reflections on Art, Family, and Survival)。克里斯托弗·本菲(Christopher Benfey)著（Penguin Press出版，25.95美元）。融合了回忆录、家族史、游记与文化史。
《规则与破坏。中间派的没落与共和党的破坏：从艾森豪威尔到茶党》(Rule And Ruin. The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party: From Eisenhower to the Tea Party)。格里弗雷·卡巴瑟维斯(Geoffrey Kabaservice)著（Oxford University出版，29.95美元）。卡巴瑟维斯认为，实用主义的共和党人比我们记忆中更顽强。
《索尔·斯坦伯格传》(Saul Steinberg: A Biography)。迪尔德丽·贝尔(Deirdre Bair)著（Nan A. Talese/Douleday出版，40美元）。著名卡通画家的传记，既精彩又富于启发性。
《射击维多利亚：疯狂、伤害与英国君主制的重生》(Shooting Victoria: Madness, Mayhem, and the Rebirth of the British Monarchy)。保罗·托马斯·墨菲(Paul Thomas Murphy)著（Pegasus出版，35美元）。博引旁征、无拘无束地描写了刺杀维多利亚的种种计划，但这些刺杀反而令她更受欢迎。
《阴影捕捉者的短短夜晚：爱德华·柯蒂斯史诗般的人生与不朽的照片》(Short Nights Of The Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis)。蒂莫西·埃根(Timothy Egan)著（Houghton Mifflin Harcourt出版，28美元）。这位摄影师为印第安人拍下了许多难忘的照片，本书为他描绘了一幅精巧的肖像。
《对地球的社会征服》(The Social Conquest Of Earth)。爱德华·O·威尔逊(Edward O. Wilson)著（Norton出版，27.95美元）。作者是一位进化论生物学家，探索了人类与某些昆虫之间奇异的亲缘关系。
《有时这里是空虚：局外人回忆录》(Sometimes There Is A Void: Memoirs of an Outsider)。贾克斯·穆达(Zakes Mda)著（Farrar, Straus & Giroux出版，35美元）。这位南非小说家、剧作家精彩地讲述自己丰富的世俗生活。
《蔓延：动物感染与下一次人类大流行病》(Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic)。大卫·奎曼(David Quammen)著（Norton出版，28.95美元）。奎曼这本发人深省、思维发散的书按年代记载了他在全球自助游进行科学冒险，并警告动物身上的微生物会蔓延到人类。
《战争的滋味："二战"与食物之战》(The Taste Of War: World War II and the Battle for Food)。莉齐·科林汉姆(Lizzie Collingham)著（Penguin Press出版，36美元）。科林汉姆认为对食物的需求影响了"二战"的起源、战略、结果与后果。
《托马斯·杰斐逊：权力的艺术》(Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power)。乔恩·米坎姆(Jon Meacham)著（Random House出版，35美元）。这本书可读性强，做了大量研究，赞美了杰斐逊作为务实政治家的才能，他毫不畏惧使用权力，尽管这可能与他主张的"小政府"观点相抵触。
《胜利：成功的男同性恋革命》(Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution)。琳达·赫什曼(Linda Hirshman)著（Harper/HarperCollins出版，27.99美元）。本书讲述自从20世纪初至今男性恋争取权利的广泛历史，引用了档案和采访资料，文笔有着富有洞察力的优美。
《当上帝回答：美国福音教派与上帝的关系》(When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship With God)。T·M·拉赫曼恩(T. M. Luhrmann)著（Knopf出版，28.95美元）。这本书是对福音教派非常有洞察力的研究，指出福音教派相信上帝会与信徒私人交谈，因为他们精研祈祷的技巧。
《你本可精神健全，为何还会快乐？》(Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?)。詹尼特·温特森(Jeanette Winterson)著（Grove出版，25美元）。这是温特森不循常理而引人入胜的回忆录，讲述自己在精神错乱的母亲抚养下长大，从逆境中挤出幽默。
《世界为何存在？一个有关存在的侦探故事》(Why Does The World Exist? An Existential Detective Story)。吉姆·霍尔特(Jim Holt)著（Liveright/Norton出版，27.95美元）。一位优雅智慧的作家与思索存在问题的哲学家和宇宙学家们的交谈。
本文最初发表于2012年12月2日。
翻译：董楠
100 Notable Books of 2012
January 12, 2013
The year's notable fiction, poetry and nonfiction, selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review.
FICTION & POETRY
ALIF THE UNSEEN. By G. Willow Wilson. (Grove, $25.) A young hacker on the run in the Mideast is the protagonist of this imaginative first novel.
ALMOST NEVER. By Daniel Sada. Translated by Katherine Silver. (Graywolf, paper, $16.) In this glorious satire of machismo, a Mexican agronomist simultaneously pursues a prostitute and an upright woman.
AN AMERICAN SPY. By Olen Steinhauer. (Minotaur, $25.99.) In a novel vividly evoking the multilayered world of espionage, Steinhauer's hero fights back when his C.I.A. unit is nearly destroyed.
ARCADIA. By Lauren Groff. (Voice/Hyperion, $25.99.)Groff's lush and visual second novel begins at a rural commune, and links that utopian past to a dystopian, post-global-warming future.
AT LAST. By Edward St. Aubyn. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25.) The final and most meditative of St. Aubyn's brilliant Patrick Melrose novels is full of precise observations and glistening turns of phrase.
BEAUTIFUL RUINS. By Jess Walter. (Harper/HarperCollins, $25.99.) Walter's witty sixth novel, set largely in Hollywood, reveals an American landscape of vice, addiction, loss and disappointed hopes.
BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALFTIME WALK. By Ben Fountain. (Ecco/HarperCollins, $25.99.) The survivors of a fierce firefight in Iraq are whisked stateside for a brief victory tour in this satirical novel.
BLASPHEMY. By Sherman Alexie. (Grove, $27.) The best stories in Alexie's collection of new and selected works are moving and funny, bringing together the embittered critic and the yearning dreamer.
THE BOOK OF MISCHIEF: New and Selected Stories. By Steve Stern. (Graywolf, $26.) Jewish immigrant lives observed with effusive nostalgia.
BRING UP THE BODIES. By Hilary Mantel. (Macrae/Holt, $28.) Mantel's sequel to "Wolf Hall" traces the fall of Anne Boleyn, and makes the familiar story fascinating and suspenseful again.
BUILDING STORIES. By Chris Ware. (Pantheon, $50.) A big, sturdy box containing hard-bound volumes, pamphlets and a tabloid houses Ware's demanding, melancholy and magnificent graphic novel about the inhabitants of a Chicago building.
BY BLOOD. By Ellen Ullman. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.) This smart, slippery novel is a narrative striptease, as a professor listens in on the sessions between the therapist next door and her patients.
CANADA. By Richard Ford. (Ecco/HarperCollins, $27.99.) A boy whose parents rob a bank in North Dakota in 1960 takes refuge across the border in this mesmerizing novel, driven by fully realized characters and an accomplished prose style.
CARRY THE ONE. By Carol Anshaw. (Simon & Schuster, $25.) Anshaw pays close attention to the lives of a group of friends bound together by a fatal accident in this wry, humane novel, her fourth.
CITY OF BOHANE. By Kevin Barry. (Graywolf, $25.) Somewhere in Ireland in 2053, people are haunted by a "lost time," when something calamitous happened, and hope to reclaim the past. Barry's extraordinary, exuberant first novel is full of inventive language.
COLLECTED POEMS. By Jack Gilbert. (Knopf, $35.) In orderly free verse constructions, Gilbert deals plainly with grief, love, marriage, betrayal and lust.
DEAR LIFE: Stories. By Alice Munro. (Knopf, $26.95.) This volume offers further proof of Munro's mastery, and shows her striking out in the direction of a new, late style that sums up her whole career.
THE DEVIL IN SILVER. By Victor LaValle. (Spiegel & Grau, $27.) LaValle's culturally observant third novel is set in a shabby urban mental hospital.
ENCHANTMENTS. By Kathryn Harrison. (Random House, $27.) Harrison's splendid and surprising novel of late imperial Russia centers on Rasputin's daughter Masha and the hemophiliac czarevitch Alyosha.
FLIGHT BEHAVIOR. By Barbara Kingsolver. (Harper/HarperCollins, $28.99.) An Appalachian woman becomes involved in an effort to save monarch butterflies in this brave and majestic novel.
FOBBIT. By David Abrams. (Black Cat/Grove/Atlantic, paper, $15.) Clerks, cooks and lawyers at a forward operating base in Iraq populate this first novel.
THE FORGETTING TREE. By Tatjana Soli. (St. Martin's, $25.99.) In Soli's haunting second novel, a mysterious Caribbean woman cares for a cancer patient on an isolated California ranch.
GATHERING OF WATERS. By Bernice L. McFadden. (Akashic, $24.95.) Three generations of black women confront floods and murder in Mississippi.
GODS WITHOUT MEN. By Hari Kunzru. (Knopf, $26.95.) Related stories, spanning centuries and continents, and all tethered to a desert rock formation, emphasize interconnectivity across time and space in Kunzru's relentlessly modern fourth novel.
HHhH. By Laurent Binet. Translated by Sam Taylor. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26.)This gripping novel examines both the killing of an SS general in Prague in 1942 and Binet's experience in writing about it.
A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING. By Dave Eggers. (McSweeney's, $25.) Eggers's novel is a haunting and supremely readable parable of America in the global economy, a nostalgic lament for a time when life had stakes and people worked with their hands.
HOME. By Toni Morrison. (Knopf, $24.) A black Korean War veteran, discharged from an integrated Army into a segregated homeland, makes a reluctant journey back to Georgia in a novel engaged with themes that have long haunted Morrison.
HOPE: A TRAGEDY. By Shalom Auslander. (Riverhead, $26.95.) Hilarity alternates with pain in this novel about a Jewish man seeking peace in upstate New York who discovers Anne Frank in his attic.
HOW SHOULD A PERSON BE? By Sheila Heti. (Holt, $25.) The narrator (also named Sheila) and her friends try to answer the question in this novel's title.
IN ONE PERSON. By John Irving. (Simon & Schuster, $28.) Irving's funny, risky new novel about an aspiring writer struggling with his sexuality examines what happens when we face our desires honestly.
A LAND MORE KIND THAN HOME. By Wiley Cash. (Morrow/HarperCollins, $24.99.) An evil pastor dominates Cash's mesmerizing first novel.
MARRIED LOVE: And Other Stories. By Tessa Hadley. (Harper Perennial, paper, $14.99.) Hadley's understatedly beautiful collection is filled with exquisitely calibrated gradations and expressions of class.
NW. By Zadie Smith. (Penguin Press, $26.95.) The lives of two friends who grew up in a northwest London housing project diverge, illuminating questions of race, class, sexual identity and personal choice, in Smith's energetic modernist novel.
ON THE SPECTRUM OF POSSIBLE DEATHS. By Lucia Perillo. (Copper Canyon, $22.) Taut, lucid poems filled with complex emotional reflection.
PURE. By Julianna Baggott. (Grand Central, $25.99.) Children battle for the planet's redemption in this precisely written postapocalyptic adventure story.
THE RIGHT-HAND SHORE. By Christopher Tilghman. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.) A dark, magisterial novel set on a Chesapeake Bay estate.
THE ROUND HOUSE. By Louise Erdrich. (Harper/HarperCollins, $27.99.) In this novel, an American Indian family faces the ramifications of a vicious crime.
SALVAGE THE BONES. By Jesmyn Ward. (Bloomsbury, $24.) A pregnant 15-year-old and her family await Hurricane Katrina in this lushly written novel.
SAN MIGUEL. By T. Coraghessan Boyle. (Viking, $27.95.) Two utopians from different eras establish private idylls on California's desolate Channel Islands; this novel preserves their tantalizing dreams.
SHINE SHINE SHINE. By Lydia Netzer. (St. Martin's, $24.99.) This thought-provoking debut novel presents a geeky astronaut and his pregnant wife.
SHOUT HER LOVELY NAME. By Natalie Serber. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $24.)The stories in Serber's first collection are smart and nuanced.
SILENT HOUSE. By Orhan Pamuk. Translated by Robert Finn. (Knopf, $26.95.) A family is a microcosm of a country on the verge of a coup in this intense, foreboding novel, first published in Turkey in 1983.
THE STARBOARD SEA. By Amber Dermont. (St. Martin's, $24.99.) Dermont's captivating debut novel, whose narrator is a boarding school student and a sailor, takes pleasure in the sea and in the exhilarating freedom of being young.
SWEET TOOTH. By Ian McEwan. (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, $26.95.) The true subject of this smart and tricky novel, set inside a cold war espionage operation, is the border between make-believe and reality.
SWIMMING HOME. By Deborah Levy. (Bloomsbury, paper, $14.) In this spare, disturbing and frequently funny novel, a troubled young woman tests the marriages of two couples.
TELEGRAPH AVENUE. By Michael Chabon. (Harper/HarperCollins, $27.99.)Chabon's rich comic novel about fathers and sons in Berkeley and Oakland, Calif., juggles multiple plots and mounds of pop culture references in astonishing prose.
THE TESTAMENT OF MARY. By Colm Toibin. (Scribner, $19.99.) This beautiful work takes power from the surprises of its language and its almost shocking characterization of Mary, mother of Jesus.
THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE HER. By Junot Díaz. (Riverhead, $26.95.) The stories in this collection are about love, but they're also about the undertow of family history and cultural mores, presented in Díaz's exciting, irresistible and entertaining prose.
THREE STRONG WOMEN. By Marie NDiaye. Translated by John Fletcher. (Knopf, $25.95.) In loosely linked narratives, three women from Senegal struggle with fathers and husbands in France. This subtle, hypnotic novel won the Prix Goncourt in 2009.
TOBY'S ROOM. By Pat Barker. (Doubleday, $25.95.) This novel, a sequel to "Life Class," delves further into the lives of an English family torn apart by World War I.
WATERGATE. By Thomas Mallon. (Pantheon, $26.95.) This novelistic reimagining of the "third-rate burglary" proposes surprising motives for the break-in and the 18-minute gap, and has a sympathetic Nixon.
WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ANNE FRANK: Stories.By Nathan Englander. (Knopf, $24.95.) Englander tackles large questions of morality and history in a masterly collection that manages to be both insightful and uproarious.
THE YELLOW BIRDS. By Kevin Powers. (Little, Brown, $24.99.) A young private and his platoon struggle through the war in Iraq but find no peace at home in this powerful and moving first novel about the frailty of man and the brutality of war.
NONFICTION
ALL WE KNOW: Three Lives. By Lisa Cohen. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $30.) The vanished world of midcentury upper-class lesbians is portrayed as beguiling, its inhabitants members of a stylish club.
AMERICAN TAPESTRY: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama. By Rachel L. Swarns. (Amistad/HarperCollins, $27.99.) A Times reporter's deeply researched chronicle of several generations of Mrs. Obama's family.
AMERICAN TRIUMVIRATE: Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, and the Modern Age of Golf. By James Dodson. (Knopf, $28.95.) The author evokes an era when the game was more vivid and less corporate than it seems now.
ARE YOU MY MOTHER? A Comic Drama. By Alison Bechdel. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $22.) Bechdel's engaging, original graphic memoir explores her troubled relationship with her distant mother.
BARACK OBAMA: The Story. By David Maraniss. (Simon & Schuster, $32.50.) This huge and absorbing new biography, full of previously unexplored detail, shows that Obama's saga is more surprising and gripping than the version we're familiar with.
BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. By Katherine Boo. (Random House, $27.) This extraordinary moral inquiry into life in an Indian slum shows the human costs exacted by a brutal social Darwinism.
BELZONI: The Giant Archaeologists Love to Hate. By Ivor Noël Hume. (University of Virginia, $34.95.) The fascinating tale of the 19th-century Italian monk, a "notorious tomb robber," who gathered archaeological treasures in Egypt while crunching bones underfoot.
THE BLACK COUNT: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo. By Tom Reiss. (Crown, $27.) The first Alexandre Dumas, a mixed-race general of the French Revolution, is the subject of this imaginative biography.
BREASTS: A Natural and Unnatural History. By Florence Williams. (Norton, $25.95.) Williams's environmental call to arms deplores chemicals in breast milk and the vogue for silicone implants.
COMING APART: The State of White America, 1960-2010. By Charles Murray. (Crown Forum, $27.) The author of "The Bell Curve" warns that the white working class has abandoned the "founding virtues."
DARWIN'S GHOSTS: The Secret History of Evolution. By Rebecca Stott. (Spiegel & Grau, $27.) Stott's lively, original history of evolutionary ideas flows easily across continents and centuries.
A DISPOSITION TO BE RICH: How a Small-Town Preacher's Son Ruined an American President, Brought on a Wall Street Crash, and Made Himself the Best-Hated Man in the United States. By Geoffrey C. Ward. (Knopf, $28.95.) The author's ancestor was the bane of Ulysses S. Grant.
FAR FROM THE TREE: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity. By Andrew Solomon. (Scribner, $37.50.) This passionate and affecting work about what it means to be a parent is based on interviews with families of "exceptional" children.
FLAGRANT CONDUCT. The Story of Lawrence v. Texas: How a Bedroom Arrest Decriminalized Gay Americans. By Dale Carpenter. (Norton, $29.95.)Carpenter stirringly describes the 2003 Supreme Court decision that overturned the Texas sodomy law.
THE FOLLY OF FOOLS: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life. By Robert Trivers. (Basic Books, $28.) An intriguing argument that deceit is a beneficial evolutionary "deep feature" of life.
THE GREY ALBUM: On the Blackness of Blackness. By Kevin Young. (Graywolf, paper, $25.) A poet's lively account of the central place of the trickster figure in black American culture could have been called "How Blacks Invented America."
HAITI: The Aftershocks of History. By Laurent Dubois. (Metropolitan/Holt, $32.)Foreign meddling, the lack of a democratic tradition, a humiliating American occupation and cold-war support of a brutal dictator all figure in a scholar's well-written analysis.
HOW CHILDREN SUCCEED: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. By Paul Tough. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $27.) Noncognitive skills like persistence and self-control are more crucial to success than sheer brainpower, Tough maintains.
HOW MUSIC WORKS. By David Byrne. (McSweeney's, $32.) This guidebook also explores the eccentric rock star's personal and professional experience.
IRON CURTAIN: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956. By Anne Applebaum. (Doubleday, $35.) An overwhelming and convincing account of the Soviet push to colonize Eastern Europe after World War II.
KAYAK MORNING: Reflections on Love, Grief, and Small Boats. By Roger Rosenblatt. (Ecco/HarperCollins, paper, $13.99.) This thoughtful meditation on the evolution of grief over time asks the big questions.
LINCOLN'S CODE: The Laws of War in American History. By John Fabian Witt. (Free Press, $32.) A tension between humanitarianism and righteousness has shaped America's rules of warfare.
LITTLE AMERICA: The War Within the War for Afghanistan. By Rajiv Chandrasekaran. (Knopf, $27.95.) A beautifully written and deeply reported account of America's troubled involvement in Afghanistan.
MEMOIR OF A DEBULKED WOMAN: Enduring Ovarian Cancer. By Susan Gubar. (Norton, $24.95.) A feminist scholar recounts her experience and criticizes the medical treatment of a frightening disease in a voice that is straightforward and incredibly brave.
MY POETS. By Maureen N. McLane. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25.) Part memoir and part criticism, this friendly book includes essays on poets canonical and contemporary, as well as lineated poem-games.
THE OBAMAS. By Jodi Kantor. (Little, Brown, $29.99.) Michelle Obama sets the tone and tempo of the current White House, Kantor argues in this admiring account, full of colorful insider anecdotes.
ODDLY NORMAL: One Family's Struggle to Help Their Teenage Son Come to Terms With His Sexuality. By John Schwartz. (Gotham, $26.) A Times reporter's deeply affecting account of his son's coming out also reviews research on the experience of LGBT kids.
ON A FARTHER SHORE: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson. By William Souder. (Crown, $30.) An absorbing biography of the pioneering environmental writer on the 50th anniversary of "Silent Spring."
ON SAUDI ARABIA: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines — and Future. By Karen Elliott House. (Knopf, $28.95.) A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist unveils this inscrutable country, comparing its calcified regime to the Soviet Union in its final days.
THE ONE: The Life and Music of James Brown. By RJ Smith. (Gotham, $27.50.)Smith argues that Brown was the most significant modern American musician in terms of style, messaging, rhythm and originality.
THE PASSAGE OF POWER: The Years of Lyndon Johnson. By Robert A. Caro. (Knopf, $35.) The fourth volume of Caro's magisterial work spans the five years that end shortly after Kennedy's assassination, as Johnson prepares to push for a civil rights act.
THE PATRIARCH: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy. By David Nasaw. (Penguin Press, $40.) This riveting history captures the sweep of Kennedy's life — as Wall Street speculator, moviemaker, ambassador and dynastic founder.
PEOPLE WHO EAT DARKNESS: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished From the Streets of Tokyo — and the Evil That Swallowed Her Up. By Richard Lloyd Parry. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, paper, $16.) An evenhanded investigation of a murder.
RED BRICK, BLACK MOUNTAIN, WHITE CLAY: Reflections on Art, Family, and Survival. By Christopher Benfey. (Penguin Press, $25.95.) Mixing memoir, family saga, travelogue and cultural history.
RULE AND RUIN. The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party: From Eisenhower to the Tea Party. By Geoffrey Kabaservice. (Oxford University, $29.95.) Pragmatic Republicanism was hardier than we remember, Kabaservice argues.
SAUL STEINBERG: A Biography. By Deirdre Bair. (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, $40.)A gripping and revelatory biography of the eminent cartoonist.
SHOOTING VICTORIA: Madness, Mayhem, and the Rebirth of the British Monarchy. By Paul Thomas Murphy. (Pegasus, $35.) An uninhibited and learned account of the attempts on the life of Queen Victoria, which only increased her popularity.
SHORT NIGHTS OF THE SHADOW CATCHER: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis. By Timothy Egan. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $28.) A deft portrait of the man who made memorable photographs of American Indians.
THE SOCIAL CONQUEST OF EARTH. By Edward O. Wilson. (Norton, $27.95.) The evolutionary biologist explores the strange kinship between humans and some insects.
SOMETIMES THERE IS A VOID: Memoirs of an Outsider. By Zakes Mda. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $35.) The South African novelist and playwright absorbingly illuminates his wide, worldly life.
SPILLOVER: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic. By David Quammen. (Norton, $28.95.) Quammen's meaty, sprawling book chronicles his globe-trotting scientific adventures and warns against animal microbes spilling over into people.
THE TASTE OF WAR: World War II and the Battle for Food. By Lizzie Collingham. (Penguin Press, $36.) Collingham argues that food needs contributed to the war's origins, strategy, outcome and aftermath.
THOMAS JEFFERSON: The Art of Power. By Jon Meacham. (Random House, $35.) This readable and well-researched life celebrates Jefferson's skills as a practical politician, unafraid to wield power even when it conflicted with his small-government views.
VICTORY: The Triumphant Gay Revolution. By Linda Hirshman. (Harper/HarperCollins, $27.99.) Written with knowing finesse, this expansive history of gay rights from the early 20th century to the present draws on archives and interviews.
WHEN GOD TALKS BACK: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship With God. By T. M. Luhrmann. (Knopf, $28.95.) Evangelicals believe that God speaks to them personally because they hone the skill of prayer, this insightful study argues.
WHY BE HAPPY WHEN YOU COULD BE NORMAL? By Jeanette Winterson. (Grove, $25.) Winterson's unconventional and winning memoir wrings humor from adversity as it describes her upbringing by a wildly deranged mother.
WHY DOES THE WORLD EXIST? An Existential Detective Story. By Jim Holt. (Liveright/Norton, $27.95.) An elegant and witty writer converses with philosophers and cosmologists who ponder why there is something rather than nothing.
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