In the store: $23.99 Online: $20.21 (plus S/H) Publisher's price: $26.95 Available August 9

Quentin and his friends are now the kings and queens of Fillory, but the days and nights of royal luxury are starting to pall. After a morning hunt takes a sinister turn, Quentin and his old friend Julia charter a magical sailing ship and set out on an errand to the wild outer reaches of their kingdom. Their pleasure cruise becomes an adventure when the two are unceremoniously dumped back into the last place Quentin ever wants to see: his parent's house in Chesterton, Massachusetts. And only the black, twisted magic that Julia learned on the streets can save them.

In the store: $22.50 Online: $18.75 (plus S/H) Publisher's price: $25.00 Available August 9

Shandee finds a friendly arm at a granite quarry. Ned drops down a hole in a golf course. Luna meets a man made of light bulbs at a tanning parlor. So begins Nicholson Baker's fuse-blowing, sex-positive escapade, House of Holes. Baker, the bestselling author of The Mezzanine, Vox, and The Fermata, who "writes like no one else in America" (Newsweek), returns to erotic territory with a gleefully over-the-top novel set in a pleasure resort, where normal rules don't apply. Visitors, pulled in via their drinking straws or the dryers in laundromats, can undergo crotchal transfers, make love to trees, or visit the Groanrooms and the twelve-screen Porndecahedron. It's very expensive, of course, but there are work-study programs. In charge of day-to-day operations is Lila, a former hospital administrator whose breast milk has unusual regenerative properties.

In the store: $27.00 Online: $22.50 (plus S/H) Publisher's price: $30.00 Available August 9

Like Mission Street Food itself, this book is more than one thing: it's a cookbook featuring step-by-step photography and sly commentary, but it's also the memoir of a madcap project that redefined the authors' marriage and a city's food scene. Along with stories and recipes, you'll find an idealistic business plan, a cheeky manifesto, and thoughtful essays on issues ranging from food pantries to fried chicken. Plus, a comic.

In the store: $19.80 Online: $16.50 (plus S/H) Publisher's price: $22.00 Available August 23

Nuri will, however, soon regret what he wished for. His father, long a dissident in exile from his homeland, is taken under mysterious circumstances. And, as the world that Nuri and his stepmother share is shattered by events beyond their control, they begin to realize how little they knew about the man they both loved.

Two writers tell their tales of northern Minnesota.

In the store: $23.40 Online: $19.50 (plus S/H) Publisher's price: $26.00 Available August 2

First, Ellen Baker reads from I Gave My Heart to Know This. In January 1944, Grace Anderson, Lena Maki, and Lena's mother, Violet, have joined the growing ranks of women working for the war effort. Though they find satisfaction in their jobs at a Wisconsin shipyard, it isn't enough to distract them from the anxieties of wartime, or their fears for the men they love: Lena's twin brother, Derrick, and Grace's high school sweetheart, Alex. When shattering news arrives from the front, the lives of the three women are pitched into turmoil. As one is pushed to the brink of madness, the others are forced into choices they couldn't have imagined--and their lives will never be the same.

Ellen Baker has worked as a costumed living history interpreter, a curator of a World War II museum, and as a bookseller and event coordinator at an independent bookstore. Her previous novel, Keeping the House, won the 2008 Great Lakes Book Award. She's online at www.ellenbakernovels.com.

In the store: $22.45 Online: $18.71 (plus S/H) Publisher's price: $24.95 Available Now

Then, Sarah Stonich reads from her memoir Shelter. Sarah Stonich's family had once owned an island in Lake Vermilion that was lost after the Depression, and while her father still managed to give his daughters the quintessential Minnesota cabin experience, it was on a patch of leased land. Long after her father passed away, a newly divorced Stonich finds herself yearning for a piece of land to call her own, that perfect spot on a lake, tall pines, a sense of permanence, a legacy for her son, and a connection to her paternal heritage. Stonich finally builds a small cabin of her own, but when "progress" threatens to slice her precious patch of land in half, she must come to terms with the fact that a family legacy is no less valuable with or without a piece of earth.

"At times an adventure story, a sweet romance, and a laugh-out-loud monologue, Stonich's memoir is an ode to family, homeland and Mother Nature. Shelter is the kind of book that will cling determinedly to memories as a welcome stowaway on our own Northwoods pilgrimages."--Lindsay O'Brien, Duluth News Tribune

In the store: $23.25 Online: $19.46 (plus S/H) Publisher's price: $25.95 Available Now

After losing her job as a journalist, Caitlin Kelly was hard up for cash. When she saw that The North Face--an upscale outdoor clothing company--was hiring at her local mall, she went for an interview almost on a whim.

Suddenly she found herself, middle-aged and mid-career, thrown headfirst into the bizarre alternate reality of the American mall: a world of low-wage workers selling overpriced goods to well-to-do customers. At first, Kelly found her part-time job fun and reaffirming, a way to maintain her sanity and sense of self-worth. But she describes how the unexpected physical pressures, the unreasonable dictates of a remote corporate bureaucracy, and the dead-end career path eventually took their toll. As she struggled through more than two years at the mall, despite surgeries, customer abuse, and corporate inanity, Kelly gained a deeper understanding of the plight of the retail worker.

In the tradition of Nickel and Dimed, Malled challenges our assumptions about the world of retail, documenting one woman's struggle to find meaningful work in a broken system.

In the store: $40.46 Online: $33.71 (plus S/H) Publisher's price: $44.95 Available August 16

"Nilsen uses spare renderings to create a haunting narrative that will leave you wondering whether you've read a book or walked through a dream."--The Washington Post

A haunting postmodern fable, Big Questions is the magnum opus of Anders Nilsen, one of the brightest and most talented young cartoonists working today. This beautiful minimalist story, collected here for the first time, is the culmination of ten years and more than six hundred pages of work that details the metaphysical quandaries of the occupants of an endless plain, existing somewhere between a dream and a Russian steppe. A downed plane is thought to be a bird and the unexploded bomb that came from it is mistaken for a giant egg by the group of birds whose lives the story follows. The indifferent, stranded pilot is of great interest to the birds--some doggedly seek his approval, while others do quite the opposite, leading to tensions in the group. Nilsen seamlessly moves from humor to heartbreak. His distinctive, detailed line work is paired with plentiful white space and large, often frameless panels, conveying an ineffable sense of vulnerability and openness.

"Nilsen is an exquisite draftsman with incredible patience for textures."--Glen David Gold

Big Questions has roots in classic fables--the birds and snakes have more to say than their human counterparts, and there are hints of the hero's journey, but here the easy moral that closes most fables is left open and ambiguous. Rather than lending its world meaning, Nilsen's parable lets the questions wander where they will.

In the store: $22.50 Online: $18.25 (plus S/H) Publisher's price: $25.00 Available August 15

"The inspiration is so simple: Head out at random into America and see what you find. James A. Reeves found the America no one seems to be looking for anymore, and he also found himself."--Roger Ebert

"On The Road for a new century."--Michael Lesy, author of Wisconsin Death Trip

One day James A. Reeves realized that he no longer understood his country or what he should be doing in it. There was a time when the road to manhood was clear--go to war, find a job with a big company, wear a tie, and start a family--but then the wars got strange and companies changed. He decided to go for a drive to clear his head. What resulted is a scattershot journey spanning five years, forty thousand miles, twelve speeding tickets, and several moments of unexpected kindness through the neon corridors and dark corners of America.

• Henry Emmons (October 5)
• Russell Banks (October 18)
• Alan Hollinghurst (October 27)

The 48th annual Uptown Art Fair kicks off at noon on Friday, August 5, and continues through Sunday, August 6. Over 360 talented artists from around the world will display their work. Browse thousands of pieces of sculpture, painting, ceramics, jewelry, and more. This year's fair also features food and beverages from over 20 vendors, and expanded outdoor wine garden, and interactive art activities at the Family Imagination Station.

In the store: $14.35 Online: $11.96 (plus S/H) Publisher's price: $15.95 Available August 9

Ora is about to celebrate her son Ofer's release from Israeli army service when he voluntarily rejoins. In a fit of magical thinking, she takes off to hike in the Galilee, leaving no forwarding information for the "notifiers" who might deliver the worst news a parent can hear. Recently estranged from her husband, she drags along an unlikely companion: their once best friend Avram, who was tortured as a POW during the Yom Kippur War and, in his brokenness, refused to ever know the boy or even to keep in touch with them.

Magers & Quinn Booksellers and Penguin Publishing have an offer to help jumpstart your book club. One lucky winner will receive copies of four great novels--and a totebag to carry them in. Everyone can pick up a free copy of Penguin's sampler, What the World is Reading, while they last.

The books free books are

• The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
• My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira
• Angelology by Danielle Trussoni

In the store: As low as $8.99 Publisher's price: $14.99 Available Now

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.