Arts & Life

Every year, speculation spreads from the literati to the betting houses and every year many of the same names turn up on the list of potential winners.

Julia Wertz's loving, obsessively detailed visual history of the less-distinguished corners of New York City celebrates charming flops, long-gone businesses and dusty corners where dreams go to die.

The second volume in Mike Wallace's Pulitzer-winning history of New York City weighs in at over six pounds — and every ounce is packed with fascinating detail about the city that never sleeps.

The National Book Foundation winnowed the list of contenders for its literary prize to just 20 — or five finalists each in four categories. Among them are Jesmyn Ward, Min Jin Lee and Frank Bidart.

While they tend towards traditional rather than edgy, the stories in Fresh Complaint will remind readers what they like about Eugenides' writing: His sensitivity and compassion for flawed people.

Both books vividly capture the dizzying highs of mania and the shattering lows of depression that mark the disease. Mental's approach is comprehensive, Gorilla and the Bird's more intimate.