MOTHER LAND by Leah Franqui (HarperCollins). It would probably trivialize this emotionally strong and simply beautiful novel to compare it to a romantic comedy—as smart as the best of those have been—but . . . . The boy-meets-girl part is in the past, the marriage, uniting people of very different backgrounds, has been made. The emotional love/hate affair is between the woman in the case and her mother-in-law. These women are not merely alienated, they are profoundly alien to each other, and both with good reason to believe in her own self-sense—we have here a young American wife in Mumbai (yes, India. The great world city that used to be called Bombay). And it doesn't exactly end in romantic orchestral music swelling up, either; real wounds have been inflicted. But it has all been not only satisfying, enriching. For them and us.

BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE by Julian E. Zelizer (Penguin). The House, here, is the one in the Capitol Building in Washington; the arsonist, Newt Gingrich. This is smart, lively, but thoughtful political history, and recounts clearly—no outraged indignation on display—the birth and inexorable development of our national politics into what isn't even ideological extremism any more, so much as raging nihilism—no tactic, legislative or electoral, is too nasty, because the other side isn't just shortsighted or ill-advised, but evil. Though also a pitiful pushover, so why not? You can pick the side you want it all to apply to, of course. But Newt was a Republican. Just sayin'.

14 MILES: BUILDING THE BORDER WALL by DW Gibson (Simon & Schuster). This is the real stretch of wall that President Trump has managed to get built, near San Diego. Gibson is a journalist of depth as well as clarity, and there's some history of a journalistic sort, here, but even more of what might be sociology if it was boring, but it isn't; rather clear-eyed and and colorful. (Oh, and fiscal policy; Lord, the money that's already been spent!) Not exactly non-judgmental, but its sympathies extend about equally to immigration agents and refugees trying to become Americans by whatever means might work, a number of whom we come to know really well.

MUZZLED: AN ANDY CARPENTER MYSTERY by David Rosenfelt (Minotaur). Number 21 in this very good mystery series is reliably smart and funny, sharply witty and intricately worked out. Carpenter the wealthy lawyer is ever more selective in the cases he accepts, but an active attorney—these usually turn into courtroom dramas, as this one does. Rosenfelt the writer (also pretty well off, I'm guessing) is as much a dog lover as his star is, and has been more than one kind of writer in his life, and never fails to deliver full value.