By Greil Marcus
400 pages; PublicAffairs

Just when you think you know all the stories—about the up-and-down career (loosely dramatized in The Godfather) and the stormy romances—along comes James Kaplan's Frank: The Voice (Doubleday) to tell us more about the Chairman of the Board. Examples: The singer's suicide attempts were not all because of his breakup with Ava Gardner—he tried it once because he thought he'd lost his audience to fellow crooner Eddie Fisher; during childhood, "Ol' Blue Eyes" was known as Scarface, thanks to some forceps marks from a difficult birth. Small details, maybe, but Sinatra lovers will be enthralled by Kaplan's generous approach to the guy who sang about "how little we know."

— Sara Nelson