Leisure reading

'The Trial'

By Sadakat Kadri

Random House, $15.95 (softcover)

This interesting survey, subtitled "Four Thousand Years of Courtroom Drama," includes cases from ancient Greece, the Papal Inquisition, witch hunts, war crimes and celebrity trials. It is a history of trials from Socrates to O.J. Simpson.

Sadakat Kadri, the author, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and Harvard Law School and now practices law in London.

The use of myth, literature and history make this book provocative. In his analysis, Kadri asks questions such as "Who has the right to judge?" and "What did past civilizations hope to achieve through scapegoats and sacrifices?"

It is especially interesting to read the origins and workings of the jury trial, a controversial system that remains the backbone of American justice. — Dennis Lythgoe

'The Meaning of Night'

By Michael Cox

W.W. Norton, $25.95

About 200 pages into Michael Cox's Victorian crime novel you start to wonder if you really want to read 500 more pages about a somewhat unappealing main character and his even more unappealing archenemy.

But then you do. You stick with "The Meaning of Night" not because the narrator is likable but because the setting of his story is so compelling.

Cox revels in the sights, smells and characters of London and the English countryside in the mid-1800s. Also, a satisfying number of secrets pop out of the plot. — Susan Whitney

'Mozart and the Whale'

By Jerry and Mary Newport, with Johnny Dodd

Touchstone, $24.95

This is a true story about Jerry and Mary Newport, two people with Asperger's syndrome (an autistic disease that makes social interaction painful) who fall in love and get married. One is a musical genius and the other a mathematical genius.

After their marriage, they were profiled on CBS's "60 Minutes" and became "superstars in the world of autism." Soon afterward their marriage fell apart. There was too much publicity, too many interviews and their Asperger's would not allow for it all.

After several years they found each other again and remarried. Today, they believe their union is stronger than it has ever been — and they look forward to many years of happiness.

Since millions of people suffer from this form of autism, this story is timely and touching. — Dennis Lythgoe