"Go to a restaurant anywhere in the world today—even in Tokyo, Hong Kong, or Mumbai—and chances are you will see Italian dishes listed on the menu," writes Mariani in this lively, well-researched history of Italian cuisine. Chronicling how the beloved food has gone from poor man's gruel to global obsession, Mariani will leave you longing for your next bowl of pasta.

The second novel in Rice's Songs of the Seraphim series, set in Rome during the Italian Renaissance, is populated by a diabolical dybbuk, a former government assassin and the angel Malchiah.

Hoffman's latest magical realism offering centers on the haunting town of Blackwell, Massachusetts where a web of characters' lives are intertwined.

A memoir written in verse, Hong Kingston's latest is a reflection on aging as she turns 65:

"Am I pretty at 65?

What does old look like?

Sometimes I am wrinkled, sometimes not.

So much depends upon lighting."

Wasn’t it just yesterday that we were watching Sex and the City and buying ‘fabulous’ lifestyles on maxed-out credit cards?” Shetterly wonders in this highly relatable recession memoir that grew out of the author’s blog and radio diaries for NPR. Shetterly and her husband were excited to start their lives out West. But Shetterly’s career aspirations were sidelined by a surprise pregnancy (she was too sick to work) and when the economy collapsed every gig her husband Dan had lined up was canceled. The couple decided to leave Los Angeles and move back East. As they drove, Shetterly told her story to NPR and received an amazing response. All across the country, listeners offered help and opened their homes to the family. It’s a timely, surprisingly touching story about the kindness of strangers.

This fictional memoir brilliantly chronicles the extraordinary events that led to the imprisonment of Bruno Littlemore for the murder of a man. The twist here: Bruno is a chimp.