1. A Widow's Story by Joyce Carol Oates
© HarperCollins
HarperCollins, February 15, 2011
In February 2008, Joyce Carol Oates' husband Raymond Smith died from a virus he acquired while in the hospital with pneumonia. In A Widow's Story, Oates shares her struggle to live without her partner of nearly half a century.
2. Donald by Eric Martin and Stephen Elliott
© McSweeney's
McSweeney's, February 6, 2011
Eric Martin and Stephen Elliott imagine an alternate reality in which former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld is abducted and imprisoned where no one can find him.
3. I Is an Other by James Geary
© Harper
Harper, February 8, 2011
Subtitled "The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World ," Geary's book explores the history of metaphor and how it shapes history and our everyday lives.
4. Stigmata by Lorenzo Mattotti, Claudio Piersanti
© Fantagraphics
Fantagraphics, February 14, 2011
Italian screenwriter and novelist Piersanti and graphic novelist Mattotti collaborate on this story of a nameless man whose palms begin inexplicably bleeding.
5. Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
© Knopf
Knopf, February 1, 2011
The Bigtree family, owners and operators of an alligator-wrestling themepark in the Florida Everglades, struggles to stay afloat when the matriarch dies of cancer.
6. The Belief Instinct by Jesse Bering
© W.W. Norton
W.W. Norton, February 7, 2011
In The Belief Instinct, Bering, an evolutionary psychologist, digs into "The Psychology of Souls, Destiny, and the Meaning of Life."
7. Townie by Andre Dubus III
© W.W. Norton
W.W. Norton, February 28, 2011
Townie is Andre Dubus III's no-holds barred memoir of poverty, drugs and violence in the mill towns of Massachusetts. Dubus lets the reader into the story of his dysfunctional youth and the solace he found in fighting and later, writing.
8. When the Killing's Done by T. C. Boyle
© Viking
Viking, February 22, 2011
In this environmental drama, National Park Service biologist battles a local businessman in the protection of indigenous animals of Santa Barbara's Channel Islands.
9. The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier
© Pantheon
Pantheon, February 1, 2011
Kevin Brockmeier imagines a world in which human pain becomes visible as bright light, a metaphor he explores while simultaneously following a journal of love from character to character.
