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The rebels, rule breakers and renegades who rule this year's Top 10 list aren't looking for a Ph.D. in Traditional Cooking. They're pleasure seekers whose books are filled with quirky facts, gorgeous pictures and ingredients deployed in unexpected places.

In fiction, Charlotte Rogan explores a shipwreck, while Thomas Mallon revisits Watergate. In nonfiction, Laurent Dubois considers Haiti afresh; Lawrence Krauss reinterprets the universe; and Alain de Botton finds value in religion for atheists.

In fiction, novelists Sebastian Rotella and Tahmima Anam explore cultural frictions along South America's "triple border" and in Bangladesh, respectively. In nonfiction, Jermaine Jackson remembers his brother Michael, and Charles King explores the history of Odessa, Ukraine.

In softcover nonfiction, Fawzia Koofi reflects on her hard-won empowerment in Afghanistan, Gustavo Arellano surveys America's obsession with Mexican cuisine and Craig Havighurst documents the rich history of Nashville country radio.

For readers in search of tales that step outside familiar viewpoints, these authors unravel conflict, religion, race and love — from new and different angles. In these novels, a child from the slums, an executed zealot, a reluctant immigrant, a guilty survivor and a suffering mother take center stage.

In softcover nonfiction, a peek inside Richard Burton's diaries, Andrew Zolli and Ann Marie Healy dive into resilience research and Mark Kriegel tells the story of Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini. In fiction, Tim Tharp's Spectacular Now inspires a film.

It's a tragedy, perhaps, but books do go out of print. Reviewer and editor Parul Sehgal recommends five that have come back to life.

Media outlets are full of stories about whether women can "have it all." After becoming a mother, Curtis Sittenfeld came to appreciate novels and memoirs that look beyond those headlines to celebrate the difficult, messy, delightful juggling act of parenthood. She shares three of her favorites.

Book reviewer Alan Cheuse picks five exciting summer reads, ranging from short stories of grim Irish mayhem to a North Carolina lynching and a corpse in an iceberg, to Southern California cocaine capers and a pure-trash adventure starring U.S. special forces and a world-threatening comet.

In softcover nonfiction, David Crist looks at America's conflict with Iran and Oliver Sacks investigates hallucinations. In fiction, Ian McEwan delivers a Cold War thriller, Tom Wolfe explores racial and ethnic conflict in Miami and Emma Straub tracks a small town girl's rise to Hollywood stardom.