Hot Type

American odyssey: Set in a drought-ravaged Southern California trolled by scavengers, Claire Vaye Watkin'sGold Fame Citrus (Riverhead) burns with a dizzying, scorching genius.

Despina Stratigakos'sHitler at Home (Yale) outs the Fiihrer as a home-reno junkie. Jeanette Winterson'sThe Gap of Time (Hogarth) covers Shakespeare. Douglas Brinkley and Luke Nichter reel through The Nixon Tapes: 1973 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Women show their roots in Me, My Hair, and I (Algonquin), edited by Elizabeth Benedict. David Rieff'sThe Reproach of Hunger (Simon & Schuster) is a gut punch. Terence Brown reports on The Irish Times: 150 Years of Influence (Bloomsbury). The Complete Works of Primo Levi (Liveright) is a heavy hitter. Elizabeth Gilbert'sBig Magic (Riverhead) makes fear disappear. Paul Theroux surveys the Deep South (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Valeria Luiselli'sThe Story of My Teeth (Coffee House) is gritty realism. Patti Smith ruminates on the M Train (Knopf ). Novelist Jill Bialosky takes The Prize (Counterpoint). Sandy Hook hero Kaitlin Roig-DeBellis is Choosing Hope (Putnam). Sloane Crosley embraces comic fiction in The Clasp (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). A lesbian comes of age in Chinelo Okparanta'sUnder the Udala Trees (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Douglas Waller'sDisciples (Simon & Schuster) spies on C.I.A. directors' WW. II missions. Joby Warrick charts the rise of ISIS in Bkick Flags (Random House). Julian Barnes'sKeeping an Eye Open (Knopf ) is artful. Bruce Robinson fingers the Ripper in They All Love Jack (Harper). Michael O'Neill meditates On Yoga (Taschen). Alastair Campbell champions Winners (Pegasus). Kenzaburo Oe's alter ego devolves into his father's Death by Water (Grove). Margaret Atwood'sThe Heart Goes Last (Nan A. Talese) is unnerving. Badass poet of badass poets Eileen Myles throws down in I Must Be Living Twice (Ecco). Adrian Tomine's graphicnovel-in-stories, Killing and Dying (Drawn & Quarterly), is a reason to live.

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ELISSA SCHAPPELL