Angelmaker

Nick Harkaway

Knopf 

Joe Spork actively resists becoming a gangster like his dad. He knows he's missing something in his life as a law-abiding clockmaker, but can't quite put his finger on it. Reluctantly, he agrees to do a job for a friend from the shadier spots of his past and unknowingly turns on a machine that just might end the world as we know it. What follows is an escalating escapade into a world of mad scientists, a religious cult, secret agents, a death czar, covert government bureaucrats, swarms of golden bees, and gangsters galore. Angelmaker is an imaginative romp, another delightful story from the curious mind of Nick Harkaway.

Chomp

Carl Hiaasen

Knopf Books for Young Readers

Working on a TV show called Expedition Survival! is no picnic for Wahoo and his dad, a professional animal wrangler. Set in Florida, this spoof of 'reality' TV shows is both hilarious and suspenseful. Dealing with the self-centered star, Derek Badger, anything can and does happen. Joining the mayhem is Tuna, a girl trying to get away from her abusive father. The blend of animals, great characters, and action make this a unique page-turner. 

Mudwoman

Joyce Carol Oates

Ecco Press

From the author of the "New York Times" bestseller "A Widow's Story" comes a riveting novel that explores the high price of success in the life of one woman--the first female president of a lauded Ivy League institution--and her hold upon her self-identity in the face of personal and professional demons.

Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son

Anne Lamott, Sam Lamott

Riverhead

In Some Assembly Required, Anne Lamott enters a new and unexpected chapter of her own life: grandmotherhood. Stunned to learn that her son, Sam, is about to become a father at nineteen, Lamott begins a journal about the first year of her grandson Jax's life. In careful and often hilarious detail, Lamott and Sam-about whom she first wrote so movingly in Operating Instructions-struggle to balance their changing roles with the demands of college and work, as they both forge new relationships with Jax's mother, who has her own ideas about how to raise a child. Lamott writes about the complex feelings that Jax fosters in her, recalling her own experiences with Sam when she was a single mother. Over the course of the year, the rhythms of life, death, family, and friends unfold in surprising and joyful ways.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

Charles Duhigg

Random House

In The Power of Habit, award-winning New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With penetrating intelligence and an ability to distill vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation. Along the way we learn why some people and companies struggle to change, despite years of trying, while others seem to remake themselves overnight. We visit laboratories where neuroscientists explore how habits work and where, exactly, they reside in our brains. We discover how the right habits were crucial to the success of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and civil-rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr. We go inside Procter and Gamble, Target superstores, Rick Warren's Saddleback Church, NFL locker rooms, and the nation's largest hospitals and see how implementing so-called keystone habits can earn billions and mean the difference between failure and success, life and death.