In a few cases, the books that I think are going to garner a lot of attention in the next three to four months overlap with the ones chosen by our editors (which either means they’re the intelligent ones, or I am. Which is it? Wait…don’t answer that). We always hope the books we care about the most get attention from the rest of the media, but even if you don’t see these titles below covered widely or hit the best-seller lists, they’re worth your attention. The quotes below are from our reviews of these books:

• Get in Trouble by Kelly Link. “Exquisite, cruelly wise and the opposite of reassuring, these stories linger like dreams and will leave readers looking over their shoulders for their own ghosts.”
• The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro. “Lovely: a fairy tale for grown-ups, both partaking in and departing from a rich literary tradition.”
• The Battle of Versailles by Robin Givhan. “On Nov. 28, 1973, Parisian haute couture faced off against the upstart American designers, and the Americans blew them away….Readers need not be fashion mavens to enjoy this entertaining episode of history, enhanced by Givhan’s effortless ability to illustrate the models and designers who changed how we dress.”
• A Kim Jong-Il Production by Paul Fischer. “A meticulously detailed feat of rare footage inside the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s propaganda machinery.”
• Funny Girl by Nick Hornby. “Hornby makes the reader care for his characters as much as he does and retains a light touch with the deeper social implications, as women, gays, popular entertainment and the culture in general experience social upheaval.”
• Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy. “In her debut, the author journeys where most fear to tread: the perennially mean streets of South Central LA, where she uses the senseless murder of a policeman’s progeny as a jumping-off point to investigate broader issues of why…that urban area sees so many of its people dying by tragically violent means.”
• Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper. “Hooper’s debut is a novel of memory and longing and desires too long denied. A masterful near homage to Pilgrim’s Progress: souls redeemed through struggle.”
• Disgruntled by Asali Solomon. “In this witty take on 1980s Philadelphia, a young girl comes of age and learns to navigate love, loss, school and family. Blackness, feminism and the loss of virginity have never been analyzed by a more astute and witty main character.”
• Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris. “A New Yorker editor since 1978, Norris provides an educational, entertaining narrative about grammar, spelling and punctuation. A funny book for any serious reader.”