From global warming to a reality show set on Mars, and from “My Hijacking” to “My Murder,” we bring you an eclectic selection of recommended books this week. In fiction, Gina Apostol’s novel “La Tercera” braids a mother-daughter story with a history of the Philippines, Deborah Willis’s “Girlfriend on Mars” imagines the above-mentioned reality show and Katie Williams’s “My Murder” brings its heroine back from the dead. In nonfiction, we recommend Jeff Goodell’s study of climate change, along with a biography of the extended Shakur family and a handful of memoirs covering everything from war reporting to a very public gender transition. Happy reading.
—Gregory Cowles
In his fast-paced new book about the extreme heat caused by climate change, Goodell shows how even the most privileged among us will struggle with the cascading catastrophes — rising seas, crop failures, social unrest — generated by the deadly heat.
When the narrator of Apostol’s novel learns of her mother’s death in the Philippines, she reflects on her ancestry and the fraught relationship she had with this extraordinary and infuriating woman. The story includes snapshots of the country’s history, and makes full use of its rich linguistic diversity.
Soho | $27
In 1970, when Hodes was 12, the TWA flight she and her sister were taking from Tel Aviv to New York was hijacked by Palestinian militants, who diverted the plane to Jordan. Hodes, now a historian, reconstructs the ordeal, exploring the documentary record and puzzling over gaps in her own memory.
Chung’s second memoir is a look at family, illness and grief, and the way systemic issues like access to health care, capitalism and racism exacerbate loss. She documents the challenges she faced growing up with her financially insecure adoptive parents in Oregon, as well as her despair as an adult at their deaths and that of her grandmother.
Ecco | $29.99
The Oscar-nominated actor offers a brutally honest account of child stardom, the pressure to conform in Hollywood and, ultimately, the announcement of his gender transition in 2020. Perhaps the best known of trans men, Page has found self-acceptance.
Flatiron | $29.99
Holley tracks the striking lives of the Shakurs, from the activists Afeni and Assata to the world-famous rapper Tupac. This family biography doubles as a history of 20th-century Black activism, and recognizes the courage of the cause while also describing some of the grim tactics employed.
In this novel, a woman makes it to the final rounds of a reality show competition whose winners are promised a trip to Mars. Willis has a scorching wit and a soft spot for humanity — even the mopey-sweet boyfriend left behind — down here on Earth.
Norton | $28
A victim of a serial killer is brought back from the dead using clone technology in this novel, but her second chance at life is filled with unease. Frustrated by what she can’t remember, she goes looking for answers — and discovers some shocking truths.
What raises this chronicle of a life spent on the battlefields of the Middle East above many other memoirs is the way it shows a correspondent experiencing war with the people she covered and writing with the kind of intimate knowledge prized by novelists and historians.