1. King: A Life by Jonathan Eig (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Eig follows his best-selling biography of Muhammad Ali with a magnificent new chronicle of the life and times of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. Building on more than 200 interviews and recently released FBI files, Eig chronicles King’s evolution from a boy nicknamed “Little Mike” into an ambitious, eloquent advocate for Black rights and crusader against the Vietnam War and poverty. And he has made national news, with a debunking of a famous quotation about Malcolm X attributed to King. With the velocity of a thriller, Eig evokes King in all his complexity, an extraordinary man, to be sure, but not a perfect one.

2. Undaunted: How Women Changed American Journalism by Brooke Kroeger (Knopf)

After her sharp, smart biographies of pathbreaking women writers Fannie Hurst and Nellie Bly, New York University professor emerita Kroeger extends her vision and now chronicles the full sweep of female reporters. Besides the two investigative Idas (Tarbell and Wells), she sees the “asterisks” like Midy Morgan, who exposed animal abuse for The New York Times in the 19th century, as well as famed contemporary journalists like Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, who exposed sexual predators and ignited #MeToo. Best of all, Kroeger’s powerful history is a way to consider the continually winding road toward equality for women.

3. Death of the Great Man by Peter D. Kramer (Post Hill Press)

Best known for his landmark 1993 Listening to Prozac, psychiatrist and psychotherapist Kramer opens his comedic mystery and political satire with “Great Man,” a vainglorious, lying, bullying national leader (think Donald Trump), found dead in his therapist’s office. Through his big-hearted, insightful narrator, therapist Henry Farber, Kramer holds up a lens to the shape-shifting distortions of lies. Death of the Great Man is a remarkably topical novel that is full of wit and insight.

4. A Madman’s Will: John Randolph, 400 Slaves, and the Mirage of Freedom by Gregory May (Liveright)

Randolph – Virginia senator, second cousin of Thomas Jefferson, and relentless defender of states’ rights – enslaved hundreds, and emancipated them in a deathbed declaration. May vividly renders the legal wrangling over Randolph’s two wills while the emancipated people fled to land purchased in Ohio, only to be driven off the land by a white mob. A Madman’s Will is necessary history that fills some of the gaps in our often painful national story.

5. Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos by Nash Jenkins (Overlook)

If Holden Caulfield had been dropped into the Obama era, he might be Foster Dade, the protagonist of Jenkins’ exhilarating debut novel. A transfer student to an elite boarding school, Dade is unable to crack the social codes. He lands in a tragic scandal, investigated, and recounted by the narrator, who inherits Dade’s room. Jenkins’ drama is full of wit, enriched by social insights about class, masculinity, and adolescence. While he time-stamps Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos with details of playlists, BlackBerry contacts, Facebook threads, and Craigslist, this is an enduring story of adolescents struggling to find the narratives they wish to tell.