Shocking True Story

The Rise and Fall of Confidential, ‘America’s Most Scandalous Scandal Magazine’

by Henry E. Scott (Pantheon)

If you haven’t heard of loud, garish Confidential, you can thank the 1952-founded mag — or blame it — for today’s Brangelina world. The raunchy bimonthly, started by ex-New York Evening Graphic reporter Robert Harrison, peddled hidden Hollywood stories which sprang from shady sources such as pimps, call girls and corrupt cops. It took on the likes of Gable (abandoned sick, older wife), Sinatra (needed Wheaties for bedroom stamina) and Rita Hayworth (ignored her kids for the high-life)! But Confidential’s trademark fearlessness was also its downfall, losing libel suits and battling indecency charges in court. We like that the author sometimes uses confidential sources — in true tabloid style — to tell some of the behind-the-scenes tales.

Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder

by Jo Nesbo (Aladdin)

Jo Nesbo just might be the last guy you’d expect to put the words “Fart Powder” on a page. The prize-winning, millions-selling Norweigian crime writer is best known for his series featuring Harry Hole, a detective who tackles killers, robbers and gangsters in Oslo. In his latest work (aimed at ages 8 to 12, but fun for all), Nesbit introduces us to neighborhood new kid Nilly; Lisa, a girl bullied by terrible twins Truls and Trym; and Doctor Procter, who invents powder that makes you fart. Nilly and Lisa sell the stuff at school for 50 cents a bag, but something smells rotten when the extra-strength version is stolen for nefarious purposes.

The Patience Stone

by Atiq Rahimi (Other Press)

Despite its modest size (just 142 pages) this story from an Afghan-born author is a powerful one, giving voice to the historically downtrodden Afghan woman. In folklore, the patience stone absorbs the plight of people who confide in it. In Rahimi’s story, a woman’s wounded, motionless, helpless husband, hurt in war, serves the same purpose. As she cares for him, she unloads all of her desires, dreams, longings, anger, frustration, oppression. Though only set in one room, this is truly an expansive work of literature.

Ten Hills Farm

The Forgotten History of Slavery in the North

by C.S. Manegold (Princeton University Press)

The story of five generations of slave owners in Colonial New England. John Winthrop, Puritan governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony settled in 1630, famously spoke of “the shining city upon a hill,” yet he was a slave owner, as were other powerful Massachusetts families on land, part of which today is Cambridge, Mass.

The Disappeared

by Kim Echlin (Black Cat)

The story of the Khmer Rouge tests the limits of human endurance, but what about love? Kim Echlin’s novel chronicles the romance between a Canadian teen and a Cambodian refugee and its slim odds for survival. The story begins in late-1970s Montreal, where 16-year-old Anne Greves meets Serey as he waits to return to his native land to find his family. He disappears and Anne eventually travels to Phnom Penh to find him.