Paperbacks new and noteworthy

by Barbara Kingsolver. (Harper Perennial, $17.99.) Two narratives, one set in the 21st century and one in the 19th, entwine in this novel about two families that occupy the same house centuries apart. Each seeks elusive shelter as it reels from its own set of disruptions. Kingsolver “has given us another densely packed and intricately imagined book,”Meg Wolitzer wrote in The Times.

Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life, by Eric Klinenberg. (Broadway Books, $18.) Klinenberg, an

NYU sociologist, argues that designing public building projects like streets and schools to maximize human connections solves a host of social ills.“Anyone interested in cities will find this book an engaging survey,”Times reviewer Pete Buttigieg wrote.

Come With Me, by Helen Schulman. (Harper Perennial, $16.99.) Set in Silicon Valley and Fukushima, Japan, Schulman’s sixth novel centers on a long-married couple, the parents of three children, who plunge into real-world and cyber experiences that shake the foundations of their staid, affluent life. Times reviewer Stephen McCauley called the book“strikingly original, compelling and beautifully written.” Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries

of Blood, by Rose George. (Picador, $18.) This exploration of that crucial bodily fluid encompasses the ancient practice of bloodletting, the lucrative market in plasma transfusions and the author’s harrowing personal experiences. The Times’ Dwight Garner applauded George’s“no-nonsense briskness” and “potent moral sensibility.”