In her second novel (after This One Is Mine), Semple pieces together a modern-day comic caper full of heart and ingenuity. Eighth-grader Bee is the daughter of Microsoft genius Elgin Branch and Bernadette Fox, a once-famous architect who has become a recluse in her Seattle home. Bee has a simple request: a family cruise to Antarctica as a reward for her good grades. Her parents acquiesce, but not without trepidation. Bernadette’s social anxiety has become so overwhelming that she’s employed a personal assistant from Delhi Virtual Assistants Intl. (who makes “$0.75 USD/hr.”) for tasks as simple as making dinner reservations. How will she survive three weeks on a boat with other live human beings? Maybe she won’t; a day before the trip, Bernadette disappears, and Bee gathers her mother’s invoices, e-mail correspondence, and emergency room bills in the hopes of finding clues as to where she went.The result is a compelling composite of a woman’s life—and the way she’s viewed by the many people who share it. As expected from a writer who has written episodes of Arrested Development, the nuances of mundane interactions are brilliantly captured, and the overarching mystery deepens with each page, until the thoroughly satisfying dénouement. Agent: Anna Stein, Aitken Alexander. (Aug.)

While working as an investigative reporter for the San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle, Rosenfeld sued the FBI four times over the past 30 years to obtain confidential records under the Freedom of Information Act regarding the agency’s covert campus activities at UC-Berkeley during the 1960s. Eventually compelling the FBI to release more than 250,000 pages from their files, he painstakingly recreates the dramatic—and unsettling—history of how J. Edgar Hoover worked closely with then California governor Ronald Reagan to undermine student dissent, arrest and expel members of Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement, and fire the University of California’s liberal president, Clark Kerr. Rosenfeld’s vivid narrative focuses on three men: Kerr, who played a key role in guaranteeing all Californians access to higher education; Mario Savio, the charismatic student activist who led the Free Speech movement; and the ambitious Reagan, who was a more active FBI informer in his Hollywood days than previously known. By tracing the FBI’s involvement with these figures, Rosenfeld reveals how the agency’s counterintelligence program took tactics originally developed for use against foreign adversaries during the cold war and turned them on domestic groups whose politics the agency considered “un-American.” Rosenfeld also draws on court transcripts, newspaper archives, oral histories, historical works, and hundreds of interviews. The result is narrative nonfiction at its best. Agent: Alice Martell, Martell Agency. (Aug.)

“I have not seen many rabbits moping, but when they do, their ears droop.” So begins this pitch-perfect new adventure of the mischievous bunny who first appeared 110 years ago in Beatrix Potter’s original tale. Perhaps understandably, Peter is, by now, a bit bored with life in the sandbank. Warned against wandering off by Benjamin Bunny (“Too many carts on the road.... Too many owls, and too many foxes”), Peter (again) wriggles under Mr. McGregor’s gate, this time into an “interesting basket smelling of onions.” After eating the picnic lunch within, he nods off, awakened later by the jostling of a horse-drawn cart he’s been loaded onto, which is en route to, of all places, Scotland. There he meets Finlay McBurney, “a HUGE black rabbit in a kilt, a dagger thrust into the top of his laced-up boot,” and a distant relative. Peter is in good hands with Finlay and gets the adventure he sought. Thompson and Taylor preserve the delicious dry wit of Potter’s original tales—this is top-notch read-aloud fare that both children and their parents will enjoy. Here’s to having Peter hop into trouble for another hundred years. Includes an audio recording of the tale, read by Thompson. Ages 5–6. (Sept.)

Raising children is not easy, so moms and dads need to find a way to laugh at their chaotic lives in order to remain sane. Fortunately, Piatt (Banned Questions About the Bible), a popular author and commentator on contemporary Christianity, has mastered the art of self-deprecating parent humor. Facing their second pregnancy, the author and his wife begin to adjust their lives to welcome a sibling for their toddler son, whose energy wears them out almost daily. While serious about his faith, Piatt is refreshingly irreverent and never attempts to candy-coat the gritty and authentic aspects of life, from sex to arguments with one's spouse to changing diapers and cleaning up vomit. This is not only a memoir of pregnancy, but it is also a splendid guide for parents who may feel at times that their life challenges are insurmountable. The spiritual discourse flows naturally--nothing is forced or artificial. Piatt offers a gracious service by recounting how he and his wife mange to stay somewhat grounded while taking the crazy leap into parenthood for the second time. Regardless of faith background, novice and veteran parents alike will find consolation and a lot of laughs. (Apr.)

Dugan and Noto’s Eisner-nominated miniseries sets Homer’s Odyssey in a postapocalyptic near future with fantastic results. The unnamed narrator, called variously Captain and Nobody, fights a losing war; with orders to hold the last airport out of Syria, he and his men are abandoned by the rest of the army and must find a way home themselves. On the home front, wife Penelope faces enemies trying to steal her land, her water, and her son, and reacts with a spine of steel. The recasting of other characters from Homer’s epic works beautifully without ever betraying the new setting. Both art and text create an uneasy tone; the story is not a comfortable one, and Noto’s elegant but disturbing art reinforces how askew the world can feel, particularly in the colors chosen to represent various landscapes. The bleak tale ends, like the epic that inspired it, with both triumph and hope, making for a satisfying and thought-provoking story. (Apr.)