Mistress of the Ritz
By Melanie Benjamin
(Delacorte Press)
This tale of suspense and love, where a woman and a man discover the best in each other amid the turbulence of war, is based on true events. An American woman who secretly worked for the French Resistance during World War II plays hostess to the invading Germans at the iconic Hôtel Ritz in Paris.

Ask Again, Yes
By Mary Beth Keane (Scribner)
A moving novel about two neighboring families in a suburban town, the friendship between their children, a tragedy that reverberates over four decades, and the power of forgiveness. Ask Again reveals how childhood events look different when reexamined from the distance of adulthood—villains lose their menace, and the innocent seem less so.

Furious Hours
By Casey Cep (Knopf)
This is the stunning story of a true-crime book on an Alabama serial killer that Harper Lee worked on in the years after To Kill a Mockingbird. When a rural preacher is accused of murdering five family members for insurance money, he escapes justice—with the help of a savvy lawyer—until a relative murders him at the funeral of his last victim.

In Love With the World
By Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
(Spiegel & Grau)
In this powerful and candid account
of the inner life of a Buddhist master, Rinpoche offers the invaluable lessons he learned from his near-death experience. By sharing the meditation practices that sustain him, he shows readers how to transform a fear of dying into joyful living.