As the comprehensive biography of one rock music’s true legends, Redemption Song is long overdue. Salewicz, a respected British music journalist with a long Joe Strummer/Clash association, offers the insider’s view of this brilliant and complex punk figurehead. Strummer was the John Lennon for Generation X and he gets fitting, comprehensive treatment here. The first definitive Strummer biography, it’s not likely to be the last with a personage this important in popular music history.

—Sarah Zupko

All three books would make a great gift set for any Simpsons fan, especially if they have a modicum of artistic talent. The Greetings postcard book appeals to the sophomoric humor we expect from the Homer level of things. Masterpiece Gallery blends Lisa’ sophistication with Bart’s bratty humor. The Handbook is the best of the lot: quite simply, how to draw all the Simpsons’ characters in all their many modes of comic being. Naturally, it’s funny, too. 

—Karen Zarker

Who hasn’t gazed around them, now and then, and fantisized the sudden demise of the entire human race? Whether impelled by a very foul mood—or the simple, apocolyptic speculation that forges every myth, fantasy, and society-binding religion—virtually every artistic expression has tangled with this concept, and we all know it at a primal level. Ironically, although Weisman will scare you enough to cause loss of sleep, at times, the overwhelming message is hope. One leaves this book with a greater appreciation for the preciousness of this world, and a deep desire to, in one’s own little way, leave the Earth in a little bit better shape, before one leaves it for good. Give this to the budding environmentalist, and the one who could use a bit of a nudge in that direction.

—Karen Zarker

The second in a series of daily meditations for the mind, this simple book of intellectual exercise (average one page of reading per day) is designed to revive the reader’s memory and provide fresh insights into American history. As the title implies, the concept is modeled after books of prayer and inspiration. Indeed, each day of the week for each reading is marked; a red ribbon is affixed to the spine for a bookmark; and the pages are slightly yellowed, with rough edges—all that’s needed is a leather cover and the aesthetics of a book for the “devout” would be complete. It’s a slightly pretentious approach, yes, but the entries of seven interspersed fields of knowledge are not at all patronizing or annoying, like so many of the “books for dummies” out there. This truly will revive the historically inclined mind with entries such as a refresher on Abigail Adams (Politics & Leadership), a refresh on the First Great (Rights & Reform) a brief biography of Carnegie Steel and his empire (Building America), and an interesting bit of trivia about Humphrey Bogart (Arts). 

—Karen Zarker

Sam Pulsipher has many problems. Not only did he burn down Emily Dickinson’s home, but he also killed two people. And while he’s married and started to raise a family, the son of the victims begins to make life difficult for him. And then other writers’ homes start to go up in flames. Sam’s fictional memoir, which slavishly obeys the clichés of the genre, is one of the funniest books of this fall. Brock Clarke’s An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England unsparingly anatomizes our penchant for narrating our lives—our bizarre insistence that our life doesn’t count until it fits a prepackaged set of cultural conventions. The book is a literary funhouse, and its best trick is how readily Clarke makes us believe in the gag. Sam is such an engaging bumbler that one’s heart goes out to him, one wants to believe in his story, even at those moments when it’s absolutely clear that we’re being had.

—Jason B. Jones

Nigerian-born novelist and poet Chris Abani understands the power of stories. My Luck, Abani’s protagonist in Song for Night, is a 15-year-old boy soldier who has been trained as a sapper. He roams ahead of his comrades, scouting for mines and disabling them, part of a team of children who perform this vital function. Early on in their training, their commanding officer ordered that they have their vocal cords severed so that if one accidentally tripped a mine, “we wouldn’t scare each other with our death screams.” The novella involves a journey beginning immediately after the explosion of a mine that has knocked My Luck out. When he wakes, the other members of his unit are gone. He goes to look for them, wandering through dangerous areas that may or may not be enemy territory. Much of the book reads like a dream. In fact, the novella is as much a prose poem as it is fiction. Abani’s gorgeous, elliptical sentences twine around each other like a profusion of vines tangled together in the tropical landscape. Song for Night is a compelling story of a young man’s search for self-comprehension in the midst of war.

—Chris McCann