Books: New and noteworthy

Paste BN's Jocelyn McClurg scopes out the hottest books on sale each week.

1. Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult (Ballantine, fiction, on sale Oct. 14)

What it's about: A teenage girl searches for her mother, an elephant researcher who mysteriously disappeared a decade earlier.

The buzz: It's the No. 1 Indie Next pick for October of independent booksellers. "Emotionally wrenching… a great read," says Deb Fliegel of River Lights Bookstore in Dubuque.

2. Even This I Get To Experience by Norman Lear (Penguin Press, non-fiction, on sale Oct. 14)

What it's about: A memoir by the 92-year-old creator of such classic TV sitcoms as All in the Family, Maude, Good Times and The Jeffersons.

The buzz: A "feisty, thoughtful autobiography," says Publishers Weekly.

3. Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autbiographyby Neil Patrick Harris (Crown Archetype, non-fiction, on sale Oct. 14)

What it's about: In this interactive memoir, you the reader gets to decide how the actor should live his life.

The buzz: NPH is hot these days, from his Tony Award for Hedwig and the Angry Inch to his memorable turn in Gone Girl.

4. Orange Is the New Black Presents: The Cookbook by Jenji Kohan, Tara Hermann, Hartley Voss and Alex Regnery (Abrams, non-fiction, paperback original, on sale Oct. 14)

What it's about: The Litchfield gang is all here in recipes like Red's Chicken Kiev, Miss Claudette's Coconut Cake and Prison Punch.

The buzz: A spinoff of the popular women's prison series on Netflix.

5. Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand (Little, Brown, fiction, on sale Oct. 14)

What it's about: Kelley Quinn wants to bring his grown children home for the holidays to his inn on Nantucket, ensuring plenty of drama.

The buzz: It's the first Christmas novel from an author known for her best-selling "summer" Nantucket novels (The Matchmaker).