Nonfiction. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Katherine Boo's debut transports listeners to the Annawadi slum of Mumbai, India, where she spent more than three years documenting the lives of its inhabitants. Invisible to guests of the nearby luxury hotels, thanks to the concrete walls that surround them, the 3,000 residents of Annawadi subsist by scavenging recyclables and dealing in black-market goods. In addition to profiling individuals -- ranging from an ambitious mother who dreams of sending her daughter to college to a "garbage thief" who collects the items that wealthy tourists discard, Boo also explores the social, religious, economic, and political factors that contribute to Annawadi's precarious yet enduring existence.

History. While most recognize Leonardo da Vinci's drawing of the Vitruvian Man -- a nude four-armed, four-legged man framed by a circle and a square -- few are familiar with its origins. Named for Roman engineer and architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollo, who proposed the idea of the human body as a microcosm of the universe, the Vitruvian Man represents a rich philosophical tradition stretching back to antiquity. In this engaging account, author Toby Lester uses the famous drawing to illustrate other aspects of da Vinci's life and career, focusing on the artist's humble origins as well as his wide-ranging intellect, which prompted him to keep copious, detailed notebooks on his artistic and scientific observations (and frequently caused him to miss deadlines).

Memoir. In this candid autobiography, award-winning singer, songwriter, and musician Carole King (born Carol Klein) recounts an eventful life both on and off the stage. Beginning with her early years in Brooklyn, she tells how she landed her first record deal at the tender age of 15, scoring her first number one hit with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" a scant three years later. Among other subjects, King examines her tumultuous yet artistically fruitful marriage to her high school sweetheart and songwriting partner, Gerry Goffin, as well as her solo musical career, including the circumstances surrounding her breakthrough album Tapestry.

Mystery. In 1868 Boston, a bizarre series of catastrophes galvanizes members of the first graduating class of the recently founded Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who form a secret society called "The Technologists" in order to investigate. Someone, it seems, is using science to commits acts of lethal sabotage, whether causing ship collisions in Boston Harbor or melting plate glass windows in the city's commercial district. But, given the technical expertise required to commit such acts, the group can't help but wonder: could the culprit be one of their peers? Don't miss this exciting tale by the bestselling author of The Dante Club, The Poe Shadow, and The Last Dickens.

Nonfiction. A New Yorker film critic evaluates the cultural consequences of the sarcastic language that has become pervasive in the media and on the Internet, in an assessment that cites the importance of developing true wit.

Nonfiction. How did an obscure mish-mash of West Germanic dialects spoken by the inhabitants of a small, isolated, but oft-colonized island in the North Atlantic become a global language? Robert McCrum, author of The Story of English, examines how English became "Globish," identifying the influences of imperialism and commerce -- the British Empire first spread the language, a trend continued by American cultural hegemony and, most recently, the Internet. However, McCrum also cites its robust adaptability as it borrows and assimilates words from other languages and embraces with open arms slang terms as well as technical jargon.

Nonfiction. Does your vocabulary lack a certain je ne sais quoi? (Wait, nevermind -- that's French.) Spice up your conversation with Carpe Diem, the sine non qua of Latin primers. From phrases like mea culpa and ad nauseam to all those pesky initials, such as i.e. (id est, or "that is") and e.g. (exempli gratia -- "for example"), this handy guide (originally published in the UK as Amo, Amas, Amat...And All That) explains them all. But caveat emptor (or should that be caveat auditor?) -- listeners expecting fluency in Latin should be aware that this is an introduction to common phrases that crop up in English, not a comprehensive Latin grammar book.

Nonfiction. Fed up with the rampant misuse of punctuation, journalist and self-proclaimed "stickler" Lynne Truss set out to school listeners in the finer points of grammatical correctness. In brisk, witty fashion, Truss outlines common errors, while providing historical anecdotes on punctuation marks ranging from the question mark (which dates back to Charlemagne's day) to the semicolon (first spotted in 1494, although author George Orwell despised it) to the ever-misplaced apostrophe (which made its debut in the 16th century). However, if you find Truss' rules to be too stringent, there's always June Casagrande's Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies: A Guide to Language for Fun & Spite.

Nonfiction. When word went out that Professor James Murray, editor of the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, was looking for help, former Civil War surgeon William C. Minor submitted more than 10,000 definitions. Imagine the professor's surprise when, after 17 years of correspondence, he learned that Minor had done all this while committed to a British asylum for the criminally insane. Searching for le mot juste? You might also enjoy Joshua C. Kendall's The Man Who Made Lists, about the creation of Roget's Thesaurus.