The Savage City

Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge

by T.J. English (William Morrow)

A brutal reminder that New York was not always such a welcoming place. English (“Havana Nocturne”) turns the clock back to a hot August day in 1963. Two young, white women are murdered in their East Side apartment — it was dubbed the Career Girl Murders. Innocent George Whitmore, a 19-year-old black man, was picked up for the crime. English follows his story, as well as that of a corrupt cop and a gangbanger turned Black Panther in the ’60s and ’70s — all of whose lives eventually intertwined.

Baseball in the Garden of Eden

The Secret History of the Early Game

by John Thorn (Simon & Schuster)

Even the most rabid baseball fan probably never heard of Louis Fenn Wadsworth. But his contribution to the game is probably more important than any other player. The 19th-century Manhattan attorney is the man responsible for baseball being played to nine innings and with nine men. Thorn — just named official baseball historian by Major League Baseball — introduces us to Wadsworth, as well as other creators of the game, along with tales about early players like Brooklyn Excelsior Jim Creighton, who died tragically after a game in which he reportedly ruptured his bladder with a mighty home run swing.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana

by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon (Harper)

Kabul resident Kamila Sidiqi had a teaching degree, but when the Taliban took over, she was barred from teaching and barely able to leave her house. When her father and a brother were forced to leave the city, she became the breadwinner for her family — herself and five siblings. She knew how to sew, so she picked up a needle and thread, a whole lot of courage and became an entrepreneur with her own dressmaking business. She offered work to 100 other local women, forging bonds among oppressed women and creating a real community in very trying times.

Emily, Alone

by Stewart O’Nan (Viking)

When we first met the Maxwells, nine years back, in O’Nan’s insightful exploration of family “Wish You Were Here,” Emily Maxwell’s husband had died and her grown children came together at the family’s upstate summer home. In his sequel, elderly Emily suffers the loss of her sister-in-law, who also drove her around their Pittsburgh hometown, and is forced to become more independent.

Conversations With Scorsese

by Richard Schickel (Knopf)

Not quite ready for NYU film school? Cook up a batch of popcorn, crack open this 421-page book and you’ll feel like you’re in class. Film critic Schickel sat down with Scorsese, a longtime friend, for some chats, starting with the filmmaker’s Lower East Side childhood. “It was pretty rough,” he says, likening it to the old “Dead End Kids” movies. And of course, there are his films, including “Mean Streets,” “Taxi Driver,” and many more.