Books

Check out this month's top reads.

Check out our picks of this month's page turners

The Good Thief
Hannah Tinti (Dial, 336 pages, $25)

This bracing-and embracing-adventure novel sprawling across the town and countryside landscapes of 19th-century coastal New England etches Hannah Tinti's name on the literary map.

An array of advance blurbs have extolled it as "Dickensian" for its Oliver Twist-like hero, Ren, a disabled orphan who has no memory of his early life save for the three letters of his name sewn into the collar of his nightshirt. But that's just the beginning. Ren becomes part of a company of rogues, con artists, robbers and deviants of all sorts. At the core of his being, he struggles for closure with his past and contentment and bliss in his present and future. More than calling Charles Dickens to mind, Tinti's tapestries evoke the rough-hewn tableaux of artist Pieter Brueghel-coarse and kinetic (one rooftop chase cries out to be filmed). Born into abandonment, Ren's tale is shaped by loss, peril and deceit, interwoven with reflections of the fragility of life. Exhilarating as it is, with its jigsaw plot and a healthy dose of surprises, it does take Ren-and the reader-through some unsettlingly graphic episodes. But stick with it: Taken as a whole, The Good Thief underscores what classic epic literature is all about.

Black and White and Dead All Over
John Darnton (Knopf, 368 pages, $25)

This cheeky mystery by a retired New York Times journalist and foreign correspondent is a police procedural, genealogical thriller and a skilled analysis of the declining news business rolled into one. The setting is the office of a legendary NYC newspaper called The Globe. For the general reader, it's unbeatable summer reading about the hunt by a metro reporter and a local detective for the killer of the paper's despised and feared assistant managing editor. For those familiar with the actual New York Times cast of characters, there are extra treats in store. His thinly veiled depictions of the paper's colorful characters and fiercest competitors are spot-on. Overall, his plotting is masterful, and, whether or not you're an insider, this is a breezy, funny, fast-paced book.

Wave
Suzy Lee (Chronicle Books, $16, all ages)

SMASH! CRASH!
Jon Scieszka (Simon & Schuster, $17, ages 4-8)

What a roller-coaster ride these two genial volumes have in store for the preschool and early-grades set. Wave is wordless, but filled with wonder, bravado and the spirit of discovery, as a young girl awakens to the joys of natural beauty while taming the ocean in her own mind. In the latest offering in Jon Scieszka's boisterous "Trucktown" series, a couple of pals-Jack Truck and Dump Truck Dan-come in contact, to put it mildly, with an army of rigs and road warriors. Just as kids will be entranced by Suzy Lee's ethereal two-color art, they'll be bowled over by the full-color creations of the artists who bring Cement Mixer Melvin, Wrecking Crane Rosie and other zany Trucktown denizens to life.