The Golden Hour: A Story of Family and Power in Hollywood
By Matthew Specktor

All that glitters is gold for a Tinseltown writer.
When the World Explodes: Essays
By Amy Lee Scott

Personal history and natural disasters intertwine in these reflections on trauma.
Out of the Darkness
By Frank Trentmann

How does a nation overcome its barbaric past?
The Translator’s Daughter
By Grace Loh Prasad

A Taiwanese American woman struggles to reclaim her voice.
The Watermark: A Novel
By Sam Mills

A remarkably ambitious, remarkably uneven tale.
The Mesopotamian Riddle: An Archaeologist, a Soldier, a Clergyman, and the Race to Decipher the World’s Oldest Writing
By Joshua Hammer

An overabundance of detail hobbles what could’ve been an absorbing saga.