1. Life Isn’t Everything: Mike Nichols as Remembered by 150 of His Closest Friends by Ash Carter and Sam Kashner (Henry Holt)

Picasso? Churchill? Camus? No, Richard Burton did not care for the company of these men of talent, and reduced his choice to just a pair: Noel Coward and Mike Nichols, who “both have the capacity to change the world when they walk into a room.” That theme runs through this engrossing oral history of Mike Nichols, who was born Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky in Berlin and who fled the Nazis. From their extensive interviews and pieces of transcripts, Carter and Kashner have crafted a shapely narrative, illuminating Nichols’ remarkable synergy with Elaine May, moving on through his direction of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Graduate, Heartburn, and, late in his career, Death of a Salesman and Betrayal. Boldface names abound in this history of Nichols as a triple threat of comedian and director of stage and film: critics like Frank Rich and John Lahr, playwrights like Tony Kushner, David Hare, and Woody Allen, and actors like Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, Jude Law, Tom Hanks, and Natalie Portman. But his friends stand out. “Around Mike, everybody got wittier,” Nick Pileggi said. “The anecdotes and stories you thought to tell were better.”

2. Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump by Neal Katyal with Sam Koppelman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

For those who happen to have missed one of Katyal’s frequent appearances on MSNBC, the former acting solicitor general makes a compelling, and timely, argument for impeaching President Donald Trump. Katyal contends that the evidence leaves no choice: Impeach. The facts are clear, he says, the case is simple, and the offenses meet the standard of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” With the persuasive techniques he has honed as a veteran Supreme Court lawyer, Katyal leads readers step-by-step through the evidence, convincingly arguing that the president committed bribery and solicitation, and then sought to conceal the evidence and obstruct justice.

3. The Captain and the Glory: An Entertainment by Dave Eggers (Knopf)

In a richly entertaining alternative to impeachment news, Eggers’ short satire features a new captain for the great ship Glory, well-known to passengers as “the guy who sold cheap souvenirs near the putt-putt golf course, who had borrowed money from all of the ship’s adults and some of its teenagers, who swindled rubes via three-card monte and pig-in-the-poke, [and] said pretty much anything that popped into his head.” Immigrants who could help with the vessel are denied access, and the ship is full of his buddies who will seem familiar to readers who follow the news. The Glory may have been pillaged but Eggers provides an uplifting ending with passengers boarding the ship with books of laws and ideals, and hope that the craft would survive the stormy seas and restore glory to the once-gallant ship.

4. The Girl in the Photograph: The True Story of a Native American Child, Lost and Found in America by Byron L. Dorgan (Thomas Dunne)

Immediately after the Bismarck Tribune’s horrific story three decades ago of 5-year-old Tamara, beaten nearly to death in her foster home at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, then-Congressman Dorgan met with the girl and her grandfather, Reginald Bird Horse. An investigation into the reservation’s child welfare system followed, Dorgan was elected to the Senate, Bird Horse died, and Dorgan lost touch with Tamara until she found him on social media a few years ago and revealed her tragic story of sexual abuse, PTSD, homelessness, and attempted suicide. Dorgan extends Tamara’s wrenching experience into a call to action to remedy unjust treatment of Native Americans and indigenous people, highlighting promising young leaders and ways to rectify systemic failure. Proceeds of the book’s sales will benefit Tamara and the Center for Native American Youth.

5. The Peanuts Papers: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life edited by Andrew Blauner (Library of America)

Good grief, this is a wonderful book! Veteran anthologist Blauner collects more than 30 essays, poems, and comic strips by top-notch writers and artists riffing on their connection with cartoonist Charles M. Schulz’s Charlie Brown and the Peanuts universe. Jennifer Finney Boylan identified with closeted Peppermint Patty, Elissa Schappell saw herself in Sally Brown, Jonathan Lethem mashed up Peanuts quotes and Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl,” Chris Ware argues that Peanuts broadened the visual language of emotion and empathy to comics, while as a child, Ann Patchett wrapped herself in all things Snoopy, from shirts to sheets. From Blauner’s provocative and kaleidoscopic collection, Peanuts emerges not as a work of nostalgia but rather a challenge to conformity.