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“Is a River Alive?,” the new book by Robert Macfarlane, is gorgeously written but also windy and sentimental.

In “When It All Burns,” Jordan Thomas brings an anthropologist’s eye to the life-or-death struggle with fire.

In “Deep House,” Jeremy Atherton Lin uses the story of his own life as a catalyst for a kaleidoscopic survey of legal flash points regarding gay rights and immigration.

A renowned French scholar and publishing figure, he looked at what societies choose to honor — and forget — in telling their stories.

A Marxist-turned-Catholic who denounced individualism, he provoked and inspired fellow thinkers and gained a degree of popularity unusual for a moral philosopher.

Once called “our present-day Homer” for her sprawling, experimental epics, she was honored with prizes and was a finalist for the Pulitzer in 1999.

“The Listeners” follows a resort manager forced to shelter Axis diplomats, who threaten to disturb the magical springs that make the property a success.

Mr. Ngugi composed the first modern novel in the Gikuyu language on prison toilet paper while being held by Kenyan authorities. He spent many prolific years in exile.

For “People’s Choice Literature,” Tom Comitta wrote two books based on the likes and dislikes of American readers.

Molly Jong-Fast’s unsparing account of her famous mother’s decline into dementia, and their life together, is just turning the tables.