1. The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir by John Bolton (Simon & Schuster)

Despite the Trump administration’s efforts to block its publication, Bolton’s chronicle of his time as Donald Trump’s national security adviser has burst on the scene with an explosive inside account of the Ukraine scandal that led to Trump’s impeachment, among other revelations. Do names that filled news accounts – from Rudy Giuliani and Volodymyr Zelensky to Hillary Clinton, and Hunter Biden – add up to a book? The Room Where it Happened “is bloated with self-importance, even though what it mostly recounts is Bolton not being able to accomplish very much,” writes Jennifer Szalai in The New York Times. “It toggles between two discordant registers: exceedingly tedious and slightly unhinged.”

2. Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations about Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum (Basic Books; Revised, Anniversary Edition)

Years ago Tatum took what might be considered to be a simple question about self-segregation and busted it open into an inquiry into education in the classroom and in society, inviting conversation about racial issues. In this 2017 edition updated two decades after its first publication, Tatum extends her reach into contemporary racial dynamics, the Great Recession, and the obstinacy of white supremacy. Drawing on her many years teaching the psychology of racism, and her distinguished time as president of Spelman College, this anniversary edition of Tatum’s classic has popped up again on the bestseller lists, which points to the enduring quality of her ideas but also to the pressing need for fundamental, systemic change.

3. The Hardest Job in the World: The American Presidency by John Dickerson (Random House)

“What if the problem isn’t the president – it’s the presidency?” That’s the smart question Dickerson posed in his essay in The Atlantic a while back, and it’s the one with which the 60 Minutes correspondent grapples in his fascinating new book. Dickerson has a gift for effectively mixing anecdote and history, as he did so well in Whistlestop: My Favorite Stories from Presidential Campaign History, and he does it again in his rich chronicle of the American presidency. The qualities required of a good candidate differ from that of a great president, and Dickerson makes a convincing case for reforming the job, which is radically different from how it was conceived by the founders.

4. Stealing Our Democracy: How the Political Assassination of a Governor Threatens Our Nation by Don Siegelman (NewSouth)

Part memoir, part manifesto, former Alabama Gov. Siegelman’s book recounts the shocking case in which he was targeted by Karl Rove and the GOP machine with a bogus bribery charge. In a Kafkaesque legal saga, Siegelman spent five years in a federal prison, including time in solitary confinement, until he was released on probation in 2017. A progressive and popular politician once considered a presidential contender, Siegelman is now an active advocate for judicial reform. His book takes aim against prosecutorial misconduct and corruption, and advocates for reforms to a system that disproportionately punishes the poor and people of color.

5. The Taste of Sugar by Marisel Vera (Liveright)

In her deeply rewarding saga of the Vega and Sanchez families, Vera captures the hopes, dreams, and ordinary stuff of life for generations of Puerto Ricans. Vera evokes the lush beauty of Puerto Rico’s landscape through the gyrations of history, including the Spanish-American War and Hurricane San Ciriaco, that defined the island, deprived it of its autonomy, and led a few to make an exodus from their island’s coffee fields for the sugar plantations in another U.S. territory, Hawaii. In squalor and disappointment set against another beautiful island backdrop, they go on, and in short chapters mixed with letters and monologues, Vera takes the shards of history and creates a fully realized and compelling novel.