Bones of Contention: Controversies in the Search...

Bones of Contention: Controversies in the Search for Human Origins, Roger Lewin (Simon & Schuster). “A fascinating account of the effort to reconstruct the evolution of mankind from the fossil record” (Lee Dembart).

The Goats, Brock Cole (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). “Camp scenes in this great young adult novel about a hazing ritual are right out of memory lane, and feelings are real. The kids stumble, they survive, then they triumph” (Kristiana Gregory).

Fighting Poverty: What Works and What Doesn’t, edited by Sheldon H. Danziger and Daniel H. Weinberg (Harvard). “As the prospect of economic reforms paralyzed by polemics becomes increasingly untenable, this rhetorical approach is just what we need to set out on the road toward a solution” (Alex Raksin).

Illumination Night, Alice Hoffman (Putnam’s), “takes a look at two families of obscure origins, living across from each other, and follows their fortunes for a few years.” The author’s “whole world is magic and alive” (Carolyn See).