THE DIANA CHRONICLES
by Tina Brown
It takes a Brit: Former Tatler editor Brown, an acquaintance of the late princess, turns in a telling, layered biography based on interviews with insiders and the author's own understanding of England's aristocracy. A rippingly good read.

ON CHESIL BEACH
by Ian McEwan
One night, a few words, a lifetime of consequences. Though smaller in scope, McEwan's latest novel—about a young couple's devastating misunderstanding on their wedding night—shares some themes with Atonement and is just as affecting.

A LONG WAY GONE
by Ishmael Beah
Drafted into the Sierra Leone army at age 12, Beah was pumped full of cocaine and ordered to kill. This former boy soldier's ordeal is astonishing, and so is the simple beauty of the memoir he made of it.

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
by Khaled Hosseini
The story of two Kabul women shackled to lives of patriarchal abuse, this stirring follow-up to The Kite Runner makes Afghanistan's violent history intensely personal—and proves Hosseini's no one-trick pony.

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO
by Junot Diaz
Through the eyes of chubby Dominican teen Oscar, a "ghetto nerd" living in New Jersey with his family, Diaz explores the immigrant experience in humorous, visceral detail.

SCHULZ AND PEANUTS
by David Michaelis
Think Charlie Brown was depressed? As revealed in this meticulously researched biography, his creator had it far worse. A fascinating look at one man's alchemization of pain into art.

A SWIFT PURE CRY
by Siobhan Dowd
Based on an unsolved 1984 crime, this exquisitely written story about an Irish girl's loss of innocence begins as an examination of grief and evolves into a riveting mystery.

AWAY
by Amy Bloom
Newly arrived in New York City after World War I, a striking young Russian immigrant embarks on a wild cross-country search for her lost daughter. Bold, romantic and possibly crazy, Lillian Leyb makes an irresistible heroine.

WHAT THE DEAD KNOW
by Laura Lippman
You don't have to love mysteries to be spellbound by Lippman's psychologically complex narrative about a woman claiming to be one of two sisters who disappeared from a shopping mall 30 years ago.

Would our hero die? Would Snape prove good or evil? Would Voldemort win in the end? All was revealed in the final Harry Potter volume, which proved every bit as riveting as its six predecessors—and cemented Rowling's status as literary wizard extraordinaire. Next up? A Potter encyclopedia, time with her family and another book. "I can never write anything as popular again," she has warned. Here's betting it will still be magic.