Memoirs, mothers, daughters top the list

In search of something good to read? USA TODAY’s Barbara VanDenburgh scopes out the shelves for this week’s hottest new book releases.

1. “The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters” by Balli Kaur Jaswal (William Morrow, fiction, on sale now)

What it’s about: Jaswal’s witty follow-up to “Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows” follows three Punjabi sisters who travel to India on a Sikh pilgrimage to scatter their mother’s ashes. They’ve never been close, but the journey starts to strengthen their bonds of sisterhood.

The buzz: “Teen and adult fans of women’s fiction will find much to appreciate here,” Publishers Weekly says.

2. “Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11” by Mitchell Zuckoff (HarperCollins, nonfiction, on sale now)

What it’s about: As an investigative journalist for the Boston Globe at the time of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Zuckoff led a team that told the stories of the victims and their families. Based on those years of meticulous reporting, “Rise and Fall” is a detailed, graphic, heartbreaking and definitive portrait of that fateful day.

The buzz: In a starred review, Publishers Weekly says, “The horror and heroism of 9/11 are brought to life in this panoramic history.”

3. “The Red Daughter” by John Burnham Schwartz (Random House, fiction, on sale now)

What it’s about: Josef Stalin’s only daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, flees her father’s brutal legacy, defecting from the Soviet Union for the United States in the 1960s. It’s the beginning of a strange and lonely search for self in a compelling historical tale that blends fact with fiction. The buzz: A starred review from Kirkus Reviews calls the book “an insightful and compelling saga of a woman desperately trying to escape her infamous past.”

4. “A Good Enough Mother” by Bev Thomas (Pamela Dorman Books/Viking, fiction, on sale now)

What it’s about: Psychotherapist Ruth Hartland is a professional, but grief wins out when she meets a new patient who looks like her own troubled son, who disappeared a year and a half earlier. Boundaries are crossed and hearts broken in this psychological thriller.

The buzz: Publishers Weekly says, “Thomas melds astute psychological insight with powerful storytelling in this moving thriller.”

5. “Mama’s Boy: A Story from Our Americas” by Dustin Lance Black (Knopf, nonfiction, on sale now)

What it’s about: The LGBTQ advocate and Academy Awardwinning screenwriter of “Milk” pays heartfelt tribute to his religious and politically conservative mother, Anne, in a memoir of an enduring mother-son bond that transcends even the deepest ideological divides.

The buzz: A starred review from Kirkus Reviews calls the book “a terrifically moving memoir of the myriad complexities of family dynamics.”