USA TODAY International Edition
New and noteworthy
USA TODAY’s Jocelyn McClurg scopes out the hottest books on sale each week.
1 Endurance by Scott Kelly (Knopf, nonfiction, on sale Tuesday) WHAT IT’S ABOUT: In this memoir, the astronaut tells his life story, beginning with his childhood as a “terrible student,” through the year he spent aboard the International Space Station. “Fascinating THE BUZZ: stuff…a worthy read for space buffs,” says Kirkus Reviews.
2Parrish The Last Mrs.
by Liv Constantine (Harper, fiction, on sale Tuesday)
A scheming WHAT IT’S ABOUT: young woman determined to be the “next Mrs. Parrish” insinuates herself into the lives of golden Connecticut couple Jackson and Daphne Parrish; written under a pen name by sisters Lynne and Valerie Constantine.
A “devilishly ingenious THE BUZZ: debut thriller,” says Publishers
Weekly in a starred review.
3 Uncommon Type: Some Stories
by Tom Hanks (Knopf, fiction, on sale Tuesday) WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Seventeen short stories, each featuring a typewriter in some way.
The Academy THE BUZZ: Award-winning actor collects vintage typewriters and apparently isn’t afraid to use them.
4 Leonardo da Vinci
by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster, non-fiction, on sale Isaacson Tuesday)
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: A biography of the great Renaissance painter (The Last Supper, Mona Lisa) who also had a
passion for science.
THE BUZZ: Continues Isaacson’s series of books about creative geniuses, including Einstein and the No. 1 USA TODAY best seller, Steve Jobs.
5 Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell
by David Yaffe (Sarah Crichton Books/ Farrar, Straus & Giroux, non-fiction, on sale Tuesday) WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Looks at the life of the folk singer/ songwriter, now 73, who wrote such classics as Both Sides Now, Woodstock and Free Man in Paris. Yaffe wrote Bob Dylan: THE BUZZ: Like a Complete Unknown.