The Last Nude
by Ellis Avery (Riverhead, $26)
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Why We Broke Up
by Daniel Handler (Little, Brown, $20)
This book is “so good at capturing what it feels like to be a jilted 16-year-old girl” that it seems wasted on its intended young-adult audience, said Yael Goldstein Love in the San Francisco Chronicle. Written by the author also known as Lemony Snicket, it’s told in the form of a “confessional letter” from a wry high school junior to her jock ex-boyfriend. Only older readers will fully appreciate its wistfulness, but “as a sad, playful” love story, it is “perfectly pitched to woo romantics of any age.”
The Odds
by Stewart O’Nan (Viking, $26)
Here is a love story for the Great Recession, said Ron Charles in The Washington Post. Stewart O’Nan’s trim new novel introduces us to Art and Marion Fowler, saddled with debt, headed for divorce, and ready to send their marriage off with a bang by wagering their savings on a scheme Art has for winning big at a Niagara Falls casino. “A few hours with this witty, sad, surprisingly romantic novel might be a better investment for troubled couples than a month of marriage counseling.”
An Available Man
by Hilma Wolitzer (Ballantine, $25)
Hilma Wolitzer’s “often hilarious and always compassionate” new novel is a touching tale about finding love after the death of a spouse, said Nancy Kline in The New York Times. Edward Schuyler, a 62-year-old widower, becomes an unlikely hot commodity when his stepchildren sneak him into a dating ad. Though he’s more comfortable ironing his dead wife’s shirts than playing the field, he steps out reluctantly—and disastrously, at first. Yet as Edward heals, anything becomes possible.
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Also of interest...in picture books for grown-upsfeature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
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Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
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The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
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Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
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Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
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Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
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You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
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Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”