Some weeks in the books world, a headliner or emergent theme happily suggests itself right away. This is not one of those weeks.

Below, you’ll find quite a variety: memoir, comics journalism and speculative fiction, horror and humor, in climates as disparate as Polynesia and Antarctica. If there is one thread holding them all together — besides the fact they’re all worth a read, each in their own way — the main organizing principle may well be how much competition they had to shoulder aside to get here.

This week truly is a bumper harvest out of the publishing industry, so even if none of the books here catches your fancy, you may as well head down to your local library anyway. Disgruntled readers will find a bevy of other new books besting these picks. As that classic saw goes, don’t be

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