In Sara Gran’s occult thriller, “The Book of the Most Precious Substance,” a rare-book dealer falls under the spell of a powerful 17th-century manuscript.
In “South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation,” Imani Perry straddles genres to find her own — and our — South.
In “Seven Games: A Human History,” Oliver Roeder presents a study of checkers, backgammon, chess, Go, poker, Scrabble and bridge — and asks why we play.
Set along the frontier between the United States and Mexico, “Perpetual West,” by Mesha Maren, unfolds in a culture where the prospect of disappearance and death is a constant fear.