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Maps do more than help us get around, Simon Garfield makes evident in his tour through the history and science of map-making. They can unlock vast wealth, solve mysteries of science, project political power — even trace the outlines of the divine.

Saxophonist Gabe Baltazar is one of the last living links to an era when Asian-Americans began to make a name for themselves in jazz. Now, at the age of 83, he's sharing his story in an autobiography.

Norman Rush's newest novel takes a geographic hiatus from Botswana, his usual literary location. Instead, reviewer Drew Toal says the book is instead full of irritating intellectuals, postmortem scandal, and a group of collegiate clowns who come together after the death of an old friend.

An autobiographical exploration of fatherhood and faith, Jeffrey Brown's A Matter of Life is his most personal work to date — which says a lot, given the confessional cartoonist's revealing past works. Reviewer Jody Arlington finds this new book both wise and hilarious.

Author Kevin Maher laughed off the Dubliners as a 12-year old, yet one line stayed with him. It was that line that convinced him to go back to the stories, discovering a love of James Joyce in the process.

Elizabeth Strout is best known for her short story collection Olive Kitteridge, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2009. Her new book is a novel, and critic Maureen Corrigan says it's a different type of winner.

Cab drivers often find themselves playing amateur therapist, confession-taker and witness. In his new book Hack: Stories from a Chicago Cab, long-time cabbie Dmitry Samarov shares his tales from the road.

The Time Traveler's Almanac is a gigantic new compilation of — you guessed it — stories about time travel. Reviewer Jason Sheehan says the selection of stories and authors is very nearly perfect.

Fantômas — even his name is mysterious! The French criminal mastermind starred in a series of 19 deliciously pulpy novels beginning in 1911. Author Rachel Cantor says the series is "part police procedural, part gothic horror story, part courtroom drama, part Sherlockian mystery, part existential potboiler."

In her new book of essays, I See You Made an Effort, comedian Annabelle Gurwitch muses on middle-aged life. Critic Heller McAlpin says that the book, infused throughout with "sharp wit," is hilarious.