By Melanie Benjamin
448 pages; Delacorte Press
Available at: Amazon.com | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

In The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb (Delacorte), Melanie Benjamin introduces us to the 2'8" protégée of impresario P.T. Barnum. Speaking in the somewhat mannered style of the day—"I will begin my story in the conventional way, with my ancestry"—our heroine, née Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump, is small in stature but big in voice and worldview. "Never would I allow my size to define me," she explains early on. "Instead, I would define it."

— Sara Nelson