'THE BURIED: An Archaeology of the Egyptian Revolution,' by Peter Hessler. In 2011, Hessler, a longtime staff writer at The New Yorker, moved with his family to Cairo, just as the Arab Spring was unfolding. "The Buried" offers portraits of everyday Egyptians and accounts of archaeological digs to form a multifaceted portrait of contemporary Egyptian society. (Penguin Press, $28)
'FURIOUS HOURS: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee,' by Casey Cep. What if Harper Lee, author of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and Truman Capote's research assistant on "In Cold Blood," had written her own true-crime book? "Furious Hours" revisits the 1970s Alabama murders that captured Lee's attention but never led to an actual book. Or did they? (Knopf, $26.95)
'THE SEVEN OR EIGHT DEATHS OF STELLA FORTUNA,' by Juliet Grames. Stella Fortuna, born in a village in Calabria, Italy, and resettled in Connecticut, has endured seven (or eight) near-death experiences and made it to the age of 100. "Calabrese are a tough people," explains the narrator of this immersive debut novel, who relates Stella's life story. (Ecco, $27.99)
