A selection of summaries from The New York Times Book Review:
THE DEATH AND LIFE OF THE GREAT LAKES, by Dan Egan. (Norton, $17.95.) Climate change, invasive species and growing human populations are all imperiling the largest freshwater system in the world, which is also the source of drinking water for millions. Despite a looming ecological and public health crisis, Egan, a reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel who has covered the Great Lakes for years, offers measured hope — and a set of solutions.
Other WRAL Top Stories
MARLENA, by Julie Buntin. (Picador, $16.) After spending her teenage years in rural northern Michigan, Cat reflects some time later on a luminous young friendship cut short. Marlena ushers Cat into a thrilling adolescent world, and the two forge an easy, intimate bond; a year later, Marlena is dead, and Cat’s grief prompts her to re-examine the relationship’s lasting consequences.
WHAT THE F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves, by Benjamin K. Bergen. (Basic, $16.99.) A delightful investigation of profanity dabbles in language theory and neuroscience. As Times reviewer Josh Lambert put it: “What seems like a book about language taboos turns out to be a cognitive scientist’s sneaky — charming, consistently engrossing — introduction to linguistics.”
DEFECTORS, by Joseph Kanon. (Washington Square Press, $17.) It’s 1961, and Frank, a former CIA operative, has been living in Moscow with his wife for years after defecting from the United States. He’s been at work on a memoir, hoping that his brother, Simon, a New York publisher, will print the manuscript. His brother’s defection upended Simon’s life, and Simon is skeptical of Frank’s motives. But the opportunity to understand Frank’s reasons for leaving — and learn about life under Soviet rule — proves irresistible.
BLITZED: Drugs in the Third Reich, by Norman Ohler. (Mariner, $15.99.) Despite the Nazis’ all-out war on drug use, virtually everyone, from housewives to the führer, was drugged up. A low-dose methamphetamine comparable to crystal meth, Pervitin, became a go-to cure for everything from a flagging sex drive to depression, and fueled many Nazi battlefield campaigns. Ohler’s account is full of rich character studies.
WHAT IT MEANS WHEN A MAN FALLS FROM THE SKY, by Lesley Nneka Arimah. (Riverhead, $16.) Nigeria’s past, present and future converge in these stories, where the relationships between mothers and daughters often play a central role; many stories linger under the specter of war. Times reviewer Marina Warner praised the collection, calling Arimah “a witty, oblique and mischievous storyteller.”