Piper Kerman, a Smith-educated, self-described boho, WASPy ex-lesbian, got mixed up with the wrong crowd after college. Enthralled by the flashy lifestyle of her then-girlfriend, Kerman took transatlantic flights to deliver large sums of cash for an African drug lord. Her criminal career didn't last long, and she quickly turned her life around.

When Hilary Thayer Hamann self-published Anthropology of an American Girl in 2003, she achieved an inordinate amount of success for any novel, let alone a self-published one. Now Random House is publishing a revised version of the visionary work.

Chang befriends two teenage girls in Yue Yuen, where 70,000 laborers make designer sneakers between sleep-shifts, and follows them over several years as they climb from job to job.

A first novel explores themes of love, loss, and family.

Empathy, quiet humor, and extraordinary attention to minor details make this novel about a Southern family a success.