A FEW OF THE GIRLS brings together, for the first time, 36 of Maeve Binchy’s very best stories --- some published in magazines, others written for friends as gifts, many for charity benefits, all of them filled with her trademark warmth, wisdom and humor. Written over a period of decades, these stories show that while times change, people often remain the same: they fall in love, sometimes unsuitably; they experience heartbreak, compassion and redemption; they hold to hopes and dreams; and they have friendships --- some that fall apart, and a few special ones that endure.

Long before Padma Lakshmi ever stepped onto a television set, she learned that how we eat is an extension of how we love, how we comfort, how we forge a sense of home --- and how we taste the world as we navigate our way through it. Shuttling between continents as a child, she lived a life of dislocation that would become habit as an adult, never quite at home in the world. And yet, through all her travels, her favorite food remained the simple rice she first ate sitting on the cool floor of her grandmother’s kitchen in South India. LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT WE ATE is Lakshmi’s extraordinary account of her journey from that humble kitchen, ruled by ferocious and unforgettable women, to the judges’ table of “Top Chef” and beyond.

Thanks to the “Star Trek” TV and movie franchise, Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner grew to know each other more than most friends could ever imagine. Over the course of half a century, they saw each other through personal and professional highs and lows. In LEONARD, Shatner tells the story of a man who was his friend for five decades, recounting anecdotes and untold stories of their lives on and off set, as well as gathering stories from others who knew Nimoy well, to present a full picture of a rich life.

In KNITTING PEARLS, two dozen writers write about the transformative and healing powers of knitting. Lily King remembers the year her family lived in Italy, and a knitted hat that helped her daughter adjust to her new home. Laura Lippman explores how converting to Judaism changed not only Christmas but also her mother’s gift of a knitted stocking. Jodi Picoult remembers her grandmother and how, through knitting, she felt that everlasting love. These personal stories by award-winning writers celebrate the moments of loss and love intertwined in the rhythm, ritual and pleasure of knitting.

In 2066, a Caltech intern notices an anomaly from a space telescope --- something is approaching Saturn, and decelerating. Space objects don’t decelerate. Spaceships do. A flurry of top-level government meetings produce the inescapable conclusion: Whatever built the ship is at least 100 years ahead of our technology, and whoever can get their hands on it will have an advantage so large, no other nation can compete. The race is on, and a remarkable adventure begins. Soon a hastily thrown-together crew finds its strength and wits tested against adversaries of this earth and beyond.

Caring for aging parents may be today’s defining midlife experience --- and Carol Mithers went through it in multiples. Four aging relatives needed her at once, while she was working and raising her own family, sweeping her into a place she calls “Elderworld.” The experience changed her forever. This memoir --- funny, sad, brutally honest and ultimately life-affirming --- is a must for every member of the “sandwich generation.”

Stan and Charmaine are a married couple trying to stay afloat in the midst of an economic and social collapse. The Positron Project in the town of Consilience seems to be the answer to their prayers. No one is unemployed, and everyone gets a comfortable house to live in…for six months out of the year. On alternating months, residents must leave their homes and function as inmates in the Positron prison system. But when Charmaine becomes romantically involved with the man who lives in their house during the months when she and Stan are in the prison, a series of troubling events unfolds, putting Stan's life in danger.

A major novel from one of science fiction's most powerful voices, AURORA tells the incredible story of our first voyage beyond the solar system. Brilliantly imagined and beautifully told, it is the work of a writer at the height of his powers.

When Indra Devi was born in Russia in 1899, yoga was virtually unknown outside of India. By the time of her death, in 2002, it was being practiced around the world. Here, Michelle Goldberg tells the globetrotting story of the incredible woman who helped usher in a craze that continues unabated to this day. A sweeping picture of the 20th century that travels from the cabarets of Berlin to the Mysore Palace to Golden Age Hollywood and beyond, THE GODDESS POSE brings the Devi’s little known but extraordinary adventures vividly to life.

Helen Castor tells afresh the gripping story of the peasant girl from Domremy who hears voices from God, leads the French army to victory, is burned at the stake for heresy, and eventually becomes a saint. But unlike the traditional narrative, a story already shaped by the knowledge of what Joan would become and told in hindsight, Castor’s book takes us back to 15th-century France and tells the story forwards. Instead of an icon, she gives us a living, breathing woman confronting the challenges of faith and doubt.