Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song, by Judith Tick
For this landmark biography, Tick, a music historian, leans on a rich trove of archival research — in particular, articles from recently digitized Black newspapers — as well as new material from Fitzgerald’s family, including a scrapbook the jazz legend kept when she was 18.
Norton, Dec. 5
Everywhere an Oink Oink: An Embittered, Dyspeptic, and Accurate Report of Forty Years in Hollywood, by David Mamet
Like many playwrights, David Mamet was seduced by Hollywood, writing some 40 scripts (half of which got made) and directing 10 movies, including “House of Games” and “Heist.” In vinegary prose and hand-sketched cartoons, he recounts “the freaks, the frauds, the recovering virgins, the betrayed and the betrayers” he met along the way.
Simon & Schuster, Dec. 5
Flores and Miss Paula, by Melissa Rivero
A thorny mother-daughter relationship and glimpses into Peruvian culture shape this quiet novel, which kicks off when a young woman stumbles on a note in her widowed mother’s handwriting, begging for forgiveness.
Ecco, Dec. 5
The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon
In Lawhon’s latest historical novel, a Maine midwife finds herself at the center of an investigation that has nothing to do with her usual area of expertise and everything to do with the death of a man whose body is found in a block of ice.
Doubleday, Dec. 5
The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, by Tim Alberta
An Atlantic staff writer and the author of “American Carnage,” a gripping account of the Republican Party’s transformation into the party of Trump, Alberta turns here to the country’s evangelical Christians, employing his formidable reporting skills — and deep knowledge of the faith as the son of an evangelical pastor — to portray a church beset by internal divisions and scandal, and in thrall to political zealotry.
Harper, Dec. 5
Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning, by Liz Cheney
Though this book has been kept under wraps by its publisher, Cheney — once a Republican congresswoman and vice chair of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol — has said she will be addressing the aftermath of the 2020 election.
Little, Brown, Dec. 5
Orbital, by Samantha Harvey
Harvey’s lean and meditative fifth novel takes place on a space station circling Earth over a single day, as the mission’s crew of six astronauts from around the world makes a community in the absence of family or gravity. Their rare vantage point affords new perspectives on the planet below, including the lives they left behind.
Grove, Dec. 5
Yours for the Taking, by Gabrielle Korn
In Korn’s novel, climate change has wrought destruction, and the best hope for survival is admission to the Inside Project, which is building special weatherproof cities around the globe. But when a powerful billionaire feminist icon, Jacqueline, takes over Inside, the people around her realize she is hiding controversial plans for the future.
St. Martin’s Press, Dec. 5