10 Books to Read Right Now

Hellhound on His Trail
By Hampton Sides
480 pages; Doubleday
A meticulous account of the last days of Martin Luther King Jr. and the capture of the man who stalked and eventually killed him.
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Life Would Be Perfect if I Lived in That House
By Meghan Daum
256 pages; Knopf
A delightful dissection of the real estate obsession that's a hallmark of our age, recession or no.
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Every Last One
By Anna Quindlen
320 pages; Random House
The crowd-pleasing author is back with a readable novel about a mother forced to face some hard truths about her children.

Island Beneath the Sea
By Isabel Allende
464 pages; Harper
A historical novel about one Haitian woman's triumphant journey from slavery to freedom.

All Over the Map
By Laura Fraser
288 pages; Harmony
The author of the divorce memoir An Italian Affair on being dumped by the guy who helped her get over that divorce in the first place.
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5 more at-a-glance reviews

The Council of Dads
By Bruce Feiler
256 pages; William Morrow
Diagnosed with a serious illness, journalist Feiler gathers six of his best friends to be there in their own ways for his daughters.
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Start your own council

Jesus Boy
By Preston L. Allen
364 pages; Akashic
Think African-American Romeo and Juliet, as played out in a devout Christian community.
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Dear Money
By Martha McPhee
352 pages; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
A Pygmalion story about a Master of the Universe who tries to turn a serious novelist into a Wall Street trader.
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Just Let Me Lie Down
By Kristin van Ogtrop
272 pages; Little, Brown
The last word (we hope) on the complicated life of what Real Simple managing editor Van Ogtrop calls a "half-insane working mom."

Thief
By Maureen Gibbon
192 pages; Sarah Crichton/FSG
A writer gets involved with a prisoner in this raw and poetic take on an at-best tricky situation.
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