1. Eleanor by David Michaelis (Simon & Schuster)

Eleanor Roosevelt, crusader for social justice and world peace, may be an icon, but Michaelis’ captivating biography buzzes with a magic that makes readers feel they are meeting the first lady anew. Michaelis traces the contours of her life from the “pathos” of her early childhood as a “little old woman . . . who must mother herself” to her unconventional marriage to her evolution into a self-possessed woman who interacts “with individuals to unravel discontinuities between the old order and modernity.” Although Blanche Wiesen Cook comprehensively documented Roosevelt’s life and accomplishments in an earlier three-volume biography, Michaelis’ book offers something new: he fully inhabits Roosevelt, as he did in previous biographies of Charles Schulz and N. C. Wyeth, enriching our understanding of this remarkable, complex first lady.

2. Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck by William Souder (W.W. Norton)

Out of the miserable life of Steinbeck, known for evoking the miseries of beleaguered workers and families, most famously the Dust Bowl refugees the Joads, Souder has written an excellent, nuanced biography. Today, the 1962 Nobel Prize winner may be mostly read by high school students, but Souder presents him as a “major figure in American literature” who deserves to be appreciated for his empathy and compassion for the powerless in an inhumane world. Despite his unmistakable admiration, Souder fairly relates Steinbeck’s misogyny, cruelty to his own family, and personal demons of doubt — and the crucially important role his first wife played in his success.

3. Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America by Mark A. Bradley (W.W. Norton)

Union politics and true crime mix vividly in Bradley’s account of the power struggle between reformer Joseph Yablonski and UMW President Tony Boyle, who ordered the killing of Yablonski and his family in 1969. Bradley chronicles how Yablonski’s rise, the dynamics within the coal miners union, and a contested election that followed a deadly mining explosion led to these brutal murders in southwestern Pennsylvania. Bradley, a lawyer and former CIA officer, tells a great story as he reconciles the conflicting accounts of the killings and details the years of legal battles that landed Boyle in prison and others involved in witness protection.

4. The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin (Orbit)

 Speculative fiction writer Jemisin has won a 2020 MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant for “pushing against the conventions of epic fantasy and science fiction genres while exploring deeply human questions about structural racism, environmental crises, and familial relationships.” The three-time Hugo Award winner had launched a Patreon campaign to fund her fiction writing. Jemisin’s most recent novel — a past Hot Book, and the first in a trilogy — features five people representing each of New York City’s five boroughs, who if they can join together will become the city’s avatar to defeat an alien trying to destroy it. The “genius” award is well-timed: it promises Jemisin not only greater financial security, but a chance to win new readers beyond her devoted fans.

5. In Security by Edward Schwarzschild (State University of New York Press) 

Airports can seem like hermetically sealed ecosystems, the perfect setting for a novel. In In Security, Schwarzschild draws on his experience working as a transportation security officer-in-training at Albany International Airport, which he did in the early mornings before heading to his job as a university professor, to write a combined thriller and workplace and domestic drama. The book centers on a recent widower raising his 6-year-old son, and Schwarzchild artfully mixes in storylines involving a possible terrorist plot, an FBI agent brother-in-law, and an affluent man who suffers a heart attack. As father and son come together in their grief, Schwarzchild brings psychological insight that adds to the suspense.