Best Boy
By Eli Gottleib
Liveright  $25.95
Sent to a therapeutic community for autism at the age of eleven, Todd Aaron, now in his fifties, is the Old Fox of Payton Living Center. A joyous man who rereads the encyclopedia compulsively, he is unnerved by the sudden arrivals of a menacing new staffer and a disruptive, brain-injured roommate. His equilibrium is further worsened by Martine, a one-eyed new resident who has romantic intentions and convinces him to go off his meds to feel normal again. Undone by these pressures, Todd attempts an escape to return home to his younger brother and to a childhood that now inhabits only his dreams. Written astonishingly in the first-person voice of an autistic, adult man, Best Boy with its unforgettable portraits of Todd's beloved mother, whose sweet voice still sings from the grave, and a staffer named Raykene, who says that Todd reflects the beauty of His creation is a piercing, achingly funny, finally shattering novel no reader can ever forget.

Brush Back
By Sara Paretsky
Putnam  $27.95
Sara Paretsky is one of the top writers of mystery and suspense ever, keeping her always on the Best Seller list. Brush Back is no exception except it's one of her best.
V.I. makes no bones about her escape from South Chicago to success as a up-town detective. Now, she is hired to go back for the first time to the old neighborhood and family secrets. Plus, she crosses the Chicago political machine and financial network of corruption and "pay to play" awards of government contracts. It is as nostalgic as the Cubs and the Blackhawks, but as hard as today's headlines of scandal , dirty play and a dying industrial powerhouse. Hired to clear up a murder, V.I. uncovers way more than intended. Sometimes bodies are best left buried or new bodies will be added.  ~Review by Mike Toal

Come Rain or Come Shine
By Jan Karon
Putnam  $27.95
Father Tim Kavanagh's adopted son has graduated from vet school and opened his own animal clinic. Since money will be tight for a while, maybe he and Lace Harper, his once and future soul mate, should keep their wedding simple. So the plan is to eliminate the cost of catering and do potluck. Ought to be fun. An old friend offers to bring his well-known country band. Gratis. And once mucked out, the barn works as a perfect venue for seating family and friends. Piece of cake, right?  ~Recommended by Bonnie Foley

Fates and Furies
By Lauren Groff
Riverhead  $27.95
Fates and Furies is a literary masterpiece that defies expectation. A dazzling examination of a marriage, it is also a portrait of creative partnership written by one of the best writers of her generation.
Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And sometimes, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. At the core of this rich, expansive, layered novel, Lauren Groff presents the story of one such marriage over the course of twenty-four years.
~Recommended by Sue Boucher

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States
By Sarah Vowell
Riverhead  $27.95, due October 20
From the bestselling author of Assassination Vacation and The Partly Cloudy Patriot, an insightful and unconventional account of George Washington s trusted officer and friend, that swashbuckling teenage French aristocrat the Marquis de Lafayette. Chronicling General Lafayette's years in Washington's army, Vowell reflects on the ideals of the American Revolution versus the reality of the Revolutionary War. Riding shotgun with Lafayette, Vowell swerves from the high-minded debates of Independence Hall to the frozen wasteland of Valley Forge, from bloody battlefields to the Palace of Versailles, bumping into John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Lord Cornwallis, Benjamin Franklin, Marie Antoinette and various kings, Quakers and redcoats along the way. ~Recommended by Kim Mann

Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story
By David Maraniss
Simon and Schuster  $32.50
As David Maraniss captures it with power and affection, Detroit summed up America's path to music and prosperity that was already past history. It's 1963 and Detroit is on top of the world. The city's leaders are among the most visionary in America. It was the American auto makers' best year; the revolution in music and politics was underway. Reuther's UAW had helped lift the middle class. The time was full of promise. Once in a Great City shows that the shadows of collapse were evident even then. Detroit at its peak was threatened by its own design. It was being abandoned by the new world. Yet so much of what Detroit gave America lasts. 
~Recommended by Sue Boucher