PLAYING BOTTICELLI Liza Nelson In this mother-daughter novel, Godiva Blue is a single mom with a hippie past whose world is shaken when she sees at the post office an FBI wanted poster for the man who is the father of her 15-year-old. (Putnam, $23.95)

THE DANISH GIRL David Ebershoff Based on a true story, this is a fictional account of the marriage of Gerda Wegener and her husband, Einar, a Danish painter who in 1931 became the first person to undergo a sex-change operation. (Viking, $24.95)

I MAY NOT GET THERE WITH YOU Michael Eric Dyson The author, a professor at DePaul University, argues that the legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. has been distorted and exploited—even by his family. (Free Press, $25)