The Annals of Unsolved CrimeBy Edward Jay Epstein (Melville House)There’s a saying in newspaper publishing: If it bleeds, it leads. The only thing that captures the attention of the public better than a bloody crime scene is a bloody crime scene that raises more questions than it answers.In “The Annals of Unsolved Crime,” Edward Jay Epstein looks at 35 cases that were never satisfactorily resolved. He takes as his subjects not John or Jane Doe but rather some of the most famous people to ever di

Standing in Another Man’s GraveBy Ian Rankin (Little, Brown)Welcome back to the Lothian & Borders Police force, John Rebus.On second thought, hold on a moment. You’re actually not so welcome back after all, you crusty, IPA-quaffing, single malt-drinking, doggedly old-school investigative iconoclast. At least not to your Scottish colleagues in the Edinburgh cop shop, who don’t approve of your rule-breaking, not-familiar-with-the-Internet, consorting-with-known-criminals ways.Those bureaucratic ty

The starting point for Marisa Silver’s new novel, “Mary Coin,” was a moment of genius that unfolded on a California roadside more than 70 years ago.Just outside the coastal valley town of Nipomo in 1936, photographer Dorothea Lange spotted a migrant farmworker family sitting in a tent off U.S. Highway 101. After a few minutes of conversation, Lange snapped six shots of a mother and her children. The sixth became the defining American photograph of the Great Depression.Silver, a writer with a sha

Internationally acclaimed novelist Shin Kyung-sook releases her first collection of short stories

The Power of Negative Thinking: An Unconventional Approach to Achieving Positive ResultsmBy Bob Knight, with Bob Hammel (Amazon Publishing / New Harvest)Behind his choleric countenance, chair-hurling antics and disturbing incidents of laying hands on people in anger, Bob Knight clearly knows something about coaching college basketball. He won more than 900 games at Army, Indiana and Texas Tech, often defeating opponents with superior athletic talent.In “The Power of Negative Thinking,” Knight an

Kind of KinBy Rilla Askew (HarperCollins)I first encountered the absorbing, beautifully written work of Oklahoma native Rilla Askew in her 2007 novel, “Harpsong.” I’ve since read her three earlier books and have eagerly anticipated a new one. Whatever topic she tackles, I have faith that Askew will gently yet forcefully knead it into something unforgettable.“Kind of Kin” does not disappoint. In fact, it is so good, so cogent and poignant and dead-on perceptive, I would very much like to make it

Just a few months ago, Eloise Klein Healy was chosen as L.A.’s first poet laureate. Now a new anthology of Healy’s work offers ample proof, if any were needed, what an inspired choice she was.“A Wild Surmise” is a vivid record of one woman’s artistic and emotional quest, a journey that unfolds, for the most part, in the streets, gardens and homes of Los Angeles. The City of Angels appears again and again in the work of Healy, a native of El Paso who grew up in Iowa but who has made Los Angeles h

The staircase is narrow and creaky, with a bookshelf made from a 100-year-old harp case teetering on the precipice of collapse at the top of the landing. Overflowing with open books, pages wildly askew and dangling from uneven shelves, the bookcase looks as if it’s escaped from a vintage cartoon.Rolls of yellowed, turn-of-the-century sheet music waft through the air, unfurling from a manual typewriter suspended from the ceiling.A black-clad young woman, with a prominent pierced dimple and a phil

A book with pages the size of the eye of a needle has been printed in Japan, the publishing company said Wednesday, with each tiny page showing a microscopic flower.The 22-page micro-book, entitled “Shiki no Kusabana” (flowers of seasons), contains names and monochrome illustrations of Japanese flowers such as the cherry and the plum, it said, adding the 0.75 millimeter (0.03 inch) pages were impossible to read with the naked eye.Toppan Printing said letters just 0.01 mm wide were created using

From Interpretation to Communication: Dreaming of Becoming a Global LeaderBy Choi Jung-wha (HUEBOOKs)Choi Jung-wha, president of Corea Image Communication Institute, has written a new book “From Interpretation to Communication: Dreaming of Becoming a Global Leader.”The book presents life and career tips for aspiring interpreters and professionals. The professor-interpreter also teaches at the Korean-French department of the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation at Hankuk University o

The StorytellerBy Jodi Picoult (Emily Bestler Books/Atria)Sage Singer, the protagonist of Jodi Picoult’s ambitious 20th novel, “The Storyteller,” is a physically and emotionally scarred young woman working as a baker in a small New Hampshire town. She avoids human contact, interacting only with the wise former nun who owns the bakery and a married undertaker with whom she is having an affair.Her quiet existence is shaken, though, when she befriends Josef Weber, an elderly German who frequents th

“The Romanov Cross’’By Robert Masello (Bantam)Army epidemiologist Frank Slater does the right thing ― and is court-martialed for his actions ― in Robert Masello’s latest novel, “The Romanov Cross.’’ During sentencing, Slater is stripped of his military credentials and pay. Surprisingly, he’s given no jail time, but he soon learns why.His expertise is needed in Alaska, where a burial site containing victims of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic has begun to erode. The exposed bodies might contain the

Don Causey was beginning to plan his retirement, selling off his profitable sporting newsletters, when his life took a horrific turn. While on a safari on a long-anticipated trip to Africa, a tree tumbled onto him, breaking his back. The process of getting a medical transport to take him from a remote village back to Miami proved arduous and costly.Today Causey’s back is healed, and at 70 he finds himself in a post-retirement career ― consulting for a company that sells travel memberships that i