1. Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country by E.J. Dionne Jr. (St. Martins)

With his characteristically lucid, passionate prose, Dionne makes a clarion call for Democratic progressives and moderates to prevail over their differences and come together in common cause to defeat white ethno-nationalist, egocentric Donald Trump. Dionne, a Washington Post columnist and NPR commentator, invokes Michael Harrington’s “visionary gradualism” and points to the Democratic success in the 2018 midterm elections as a blueprint for the future. Wise and congenial, rather than exhortative, Dionne writes with a tone of a “perhaps unwelcome counselor attempting to ease a family quarrel.”

2. Smacked: A Story of White-Collar Ambition, Addiction, and Tragedy by Eilene Zimmerman (Random House)

How could a wife not know that her husband was growing addicted to cocaine and opioids? Zimmerman was that person, and she applies her journalistic skills to understanding the death of a man she had known for three decades. In her engrossing memoir about the decline of the father of her children, a prosperous law firm partner, Zimmerman challenges the myth of the down-and-out drug abuser and explores how C-suite pressure can lead to addiction.

3. Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote by Craig Fehrman (Avid Reader)

From the era of quill pens to the age of keyboards, Fehrman has written a rich literary history of presidential memoirs. Full of anecdotes about the making of these books, with stories like Jimmy Carter writing Keeping Faith on a leased Lanier word processor, and Ulysses Grant so ill that he scribbled by hand while bundled in blankets and gloves over his last summer, with Mark Twain recruiting a crew of salesmen (some veterans) to sell Grant’s Personal Memoirs door to door. Fehrman sorts out the “legacy” books from the “campaign” books for a highly engaging look at power, self-mythicizing, and the evolution of the publishing industry

4. Everywhere You Don’t Belong by Gabriel Bump (Algonquin)

A charming wit infuses Bump’s debut novel, beginning with the young protagonist, a black child named Claude McKay Love, which feels like a wink to Claude McKay, an underappreciated writer of the Harlem Renaissance. Raised by his grandmother, a feisty, foul-mouthed civil rights advocate, with an assist from her gay male friend, Claude tries to navigate South Side Chicago’s fault lines, steering clear of the violent police department and street gangs until riots erupt and he flees to college in Missouri. Bump’s coming-of-age narrative is propelled by wonderful vignettes with uncannily real dialogue marked by his beguiling humor and insight.

5. The Cactus League by Emily Nemens (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Baseball is said to be the most literary of sports, inspiring fiction that aims to capture its artistry and symmetry, so a book like The Cactus League that succeeds as a robust social novel hits the elusive sweet spot. Nemens’ kaleidoscopic novel is told from different perspectives, focusing on the ecosystem of the imaginary Los Angeles Lions during six weeks of spring training in Scottsdale, Ariz., with star outfielder Jason Goodyear in crisis at its center. Editor of the Paris Review Nemens creates an alternative world with nuance beyond the score sheet, rife with ambition and jealousy, disappointment and victory. With chapters like innings, she captures the sweep of ballpark life beyond the players, including the organist, the team owner, the emotionally involved women, and even the unnamed sportswriter without credentials, unemployed since the collapse of his newspaper.