'99 NIGHTS IN LOGAR,' by Jamil Jan Kochai. Twelve-year-old Marwand has returned to his native Afghanistan after six years in America at the beginning of this mesmerizing debut. When the family guard dog (which has bitten off the tip of Marwand's finger) gets loose, he and a posse of boys (cousins and "little uncles") form a search party, yielding adventures and stories galore, all filtered through Marwand's scrappy voice. (Viking, $25)
'DREYER'S ENGLISH: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style,' by Benjamin Dreyer. "We're all of us writers," explains the copy chief of Random House, and "we all want to do it better." Dreyer can help you do just that, with tips on punctuation and spelling, writing challenges (give up "very" and "really" for a week) and his own "peeves and crotchets." Even better: He'll entertain you while he's at it. (Random House, $25)
'THE WARTIME SISTERS,' by Lynda Cohen Loigman. A slew of recent novels like "The Lilac Girls," "The Chilbury Ladies' Choir" and "Dear Mrs. Bird," give women's experience of World War II its fictional due. The latest entrant in the field, from the author of "The Two-Family House," follows Brooklyn sisters Ruth and Millie through the conflict, as both wind up working for the war effort at a Massachusetts Armory. (St. Martin's, $27.99)
