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All anyone ever wants to talk about is the Higgs boson. But a new book by astrophysicist Ray Jayawardhana tells the story of a ghostly particle with at least as much to recommend it: the neutrino. Adam Frank says it's an entertaining tale that will captivate scientist and amateur alike.

According to Russian journalist Masha Gessen, the 2012 arrests were the start of a campaign by Vladimir Putin and his supporters against government critics. Gessen, who is also an LGBT rights advocate, recently moved to New York with her partner and their children in response to the anti-gay laws Russia passed in June.

Just as the passengers aboard the MV Akademik Shokalskiy thought they had escaped the Antarctic ice, word came that the Chinese ship that rescued them might be stuck as well. Poet Jynne Martin recommends a book to put the situation in perspective, one that tells the story of an expedition that was doomed from the start.

Leah Vincent grew up an ultra-Orthodox Jew. Her family cut her off when she was 16, after she was caught sending letters to a boy. Vincent shares her journey outside the faith in her memoir.

The Los Angeles chef says the Korean taco was "like a lint roller," pulling its chefs' backgrounds into one food truck offering. Choi's new book, L.A. Son, tells his story of addiction, culinary success and growing up Korean in Orange Country, Calif.

Each of the young women in Laura van den Berg's The Isle of Youth is searching for significance in her life, troubled by the choices she's made. Their tales make up a collection of short stories written with cool aloofness. Critic Rosecrans Baldwin says that this book won't be for everyone — but for fans of detached prose, it's spectacular.

A determined travel writer sets out to produce the first guide to a mysterious middle-European country in Gene Wolfe's new The Land Across. Reviewer Alan Cheuse says Wolfe mixes Kafka-esque mystery and paranoia with dark supernatural influences for "supposedly realistic novel that gives off the feel of a closely viewed dream."

Most people know Stein as the author of experimental fiction and the host of salons for the great artists of her time. But in 1939, Stein also became a children's book author. The World Is Round — a collaboration with illustrator Clement Hurd, of Goodnight Moon fame — follows the adventures of a young girl named Rose.

Allie Brosh is an artist whose drawings have covered sugar highs, silly pets, and childhood humiliations. But it's her writing about depression that has sparked the most discussion in recent months.

In Mira Grant's Parasite, genetically engineered tapeworms are a magic cure-all and a terrible danger. Sure, they keep their hosts healthy — but as it turns out, that's not all they do. Reviewer Genevieve Valentine says Parasite has interesting things to say about medical ethics, but reads too much like groundwork for a series.