Paperbacks new and noteworthy

■ “Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on Health

in America,” by Linda Villarosa. (Anchor, 288 pages, $18.) In this elegant and searing account, Villarosa recalls her personal awakening to structural inequalities while tracing the effects of racism on the well-being of Black Americans, covering reproductive, environmental and mental health, and more. It was a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction.

■ “Magpie,” by Elizabeth Day. (Simon & Schuster, 336 pages, $17.99.) An obsessive lodger upends the picture-perfect lives of a couple struggling to have a baby in Day’s psychological thriller. Reviewer Megan Abbott wrote the narrative operates at a “near-constant fever pitch,” matching the feelings of fertility anxiety, fears of romantic betrayal, in-law strife and body horror.

■ “The Midcoast,” by Adam White. (Hogarth, 368 pages, $18.) White’s vivid debut traces the fortunes of a lobstering family in a misty town in Maine, from its humble beginnings to the top of a local criminal empire to its eventual disintegration. Reviewer Lee Cole praised the novel for its keen observations about landscape, dialect and class distinctions in small-town Maine.

■ “The Forever Prisoner: The Full and Searing Account of the CIA’s Most Controversial Covert Program,” by Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy. (Grove, 464 pages, $22.) The grotesque legacy of the CIA’s torture program — and the campaign against terror at large — is on full display in this excruciatingly detailed account chronicling the fate of Abu Zubaydah, a Guantánamo Bay prisoner who endured torture and has been detained by the U.S. government for over 20 years.

■ “Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and the Things That Last,” by Wright Thompson. (Penguin, 256 pages, $18.) This rich exploration of the history of Pappy Van Winkle whiskey is attuned to the mythology of bourbon and lore of the Van Winkle family, according to reviewer J.D. Biersdorfer: “It has notes of stoicism and melancholy and a lingering finish of pride, even when recounting the hard times.”