Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America By Jill Leovy (Spiegel &Grau)The killings of unarmed black men by police in Missouri and New York have dominated recent headlines, but the slayings of black males by other blacks in the nation’s most violent ghettos still get barely a footnote.Americans have long been complacent about these anonymous murders, many of them gang-related, most of which go unsolved. The notion that such killings are not newsworthy is reflected in the label that used to b

In less than a decade, Seattle-based Zillow has become the nation’s leading brand for homebuyer real-estate information. It’s become synonymous with looking up your home’s value ― or someone else’s.In a forthcoming book, “Zillow Talk: The New Rules of Real Estate,” Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff and chief economist Stan Humphries offer some surprising answers ― backed by data ― to a range of housing questions. Among them:- Should Congress eliminate the current mortgage-interest tax deduction? (Yes)-

When a Silver Alert is issued for a missing senior citizen, highway signs flash details about what I think of as the getaway car. I enjoy imagining an elderly gent or lady switching off Fox News, rising from the reclining chair, and making it clear that no one’s ready to go gently into that good night just yet.In real life, of course, such alerts help desperate families find missing seniors with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and other age-related challenges. But the world of “Etta and Otto and R

The Great Zoo of ChinaBy Matthew Reilly (Gallery)Matthew Reilly takes elements from Michael Crichton’s classic “Jurassic Park” and gives them a high fantasy spin in his latest action masterpiece, “The Great Zoo of China.”Reptile expert Dr. Cassandra Jane “CJ” Cameron is asked to visit a zoo that is soon to open in the middle of China. Staff members at the site are extremely secretive and provide few answers to her questions until Cameron and the others witness what animals are being kept inside

My Father’s WivesBy Mike Greenberg (William Morrow)Mike Greenberg knows sports. And talking about them. One-half of the long-running and ever-popular “Mike & Mike” national sports radio show, Greenberg (alongside co-host and former NFL player Mike Golic) spends the morning drive-time period touching on all the prevailing topics of the day in the world of sports. It’s not all that surprising that Greenberg has parlayed his on-air success into a thriving writing career.What is surprising, however,

The Ten Habits of Designing My Life, 10C

Novelist Jeon Kyung-ae talks about her encounter with the memories of the Korean War

A children’s book that delves into the issue of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery was published in English, the publisher said last week. “Touch-Me-Nots” was published on Jan. 9 by the House of Sharing, a shelter in Gyeonggi Province for the few surviving victims, who are euphemistically called comfort women, and its adjacent museum, the Museum of Sexual Slavery by the Japanese Military.The book is an English translation of a Korean-language book written in 2008 by Yoon Jung-mo, the author of many

Russian TattooBy Elena Gorokhova (Simon & Schuster)In 2011, memoirist Elena Gorokhova described her coming-of-age in St. Petersburg, then known as Leningrad, and her decision to marry an American to emigrate to the U.S.In her second book, “Russian Tattoo,” she picks up where that story left off and provides readers with a fascinating glimpse into what it meant to fit into American society after growing up behind the Iron Curtain. She’s disoriented, confused and utterly overwhelmed by seemingly o

Money: Master the GameBy Tony Robbins (Simon & Schuster)As one of the world’s most celebrated life coaches, Tony Robbins is best known for helping millions of people improve the quality of their lives in many personal and meaningful ways from losing weight and improving their relationships to overcoming some life-changing tragedy.But in his first major book in nearly 20 years, Robbins goes a step beyond the emotional aspect of self-help and asks his audience to begin taking control of their live

The Yankee ComandanteBy Michael Sallah and Mitch Weiss (Lyons)The saga of William Morgan, the Yankee comandante of the Cuban Revolution, is a case of fact imitating fiction.An Eagle Scout, an ex-con, a fire-eater and a minor Mafioso, Morgan followed the scent of romance through two marriages and a childbearing affair in Japan before tossing aside these encumbrances to sneak into the ranks of the Cuban rebels.Here his life acquired a certain nobility through bravery, a belief in freedom and “stan

“I started comedy when the boom was ending, in ’88; I started writing books when print began to die,” says actor, comedian and author Patton Oswalt. “I’m drawn to dying realms, man.”Oswalt is sitting in a Mid-City restaurant talking about why he’s written a second book, “Silver Screen Fiend: Learning about Life from an Addiction to Film,” when he’s got so much else on his plate.He’s about to take off on a nationwide stand-up tour, featuring his first date at Carnegie Hall. He’s so busy acting ―

It’s been quite a journey for Okey Ndibe’s first novel, “Arrows of Rain.” Originally published in England in 2000, the book is finally coming out here in the wake of last year’s “Foreign Gods, Inc.,” which essentially introduced the author to an American readership.And yet Ndibe ― who came to the United States from his native Nigeria in 1988 at the urging of Chinua Achebe ― is also a founder of the journal African Commentary; he was a Fulbright scholar and now teaches at Brown. So why did his de

Fear the DarknessBy Becky Masterman (Minotaur)Relationships require a certain amount of vulnerability ― the willingness to expose yourself emotionally, hoping that happiness is the ultimate goal, but realizing that being hurt comes with it, too.Becky Masterman’s superior series explores how former FBI agent Brigid Quinn, who spent her life chasing criminals and avoiding emotional entanglements, is dealing with a “normal” life since her retirement. In her second novel, “Fear the Darkness,” Master

“Olje Classics,” a book series offering Asian and Western classics at an affordable price, recently printed its 13th installment. Published by local nonprofit organization Olje Foundation, the four-volume series includes two sacred texts of Taoism, “The Zhuangzi” and “The Liezi” ― which are titled after Chinese philosophers ― the Hindu scripture “The Bhagavad Gita” and the German classic novel “The Sorrow of Young Werther” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. “The Zhuangzi,” which dates back to the la