Bookmarks: Recently released books

Here are some books that have crossed our desks recently.

HARDBACKS

"THIS MUST BE THE PLACE," by Kate Racculia, Henry Holt and Co., $25 (f)

The Darby-Jones boardinghouse in Ruby Falls, N.Y., is home to Mona Jones and her daughter, Oneida, two loners and self-declared outcasts who have formed a perfectly insular family unit: the two of them and the three eclectic boarders living in their house. But their small, quiet life is upended when Arthur Rook shows up, devastated by the death of his wife, carrying a pink shoe box containing all his wife's mementos and keepsakes and holding a postcard from 16 years ago, addressed to Mona but never sent.

"THE SISTERS FROM HARDSCRABBLE BAY," by Beverly Jensen, Viking Adult, $25.95 (f)

In 1916, Idella and Avis Hillock live on the edge of a chilly bluff in New Brunswick — a hardscrabble world of potato farms and lobster traps, rough men, hard work and baffling beauty. From "Gone," the heartbreaking story of their mother's medical crisis in childbirth, to the darkly comic "Wake," which follows the grown siblings' catastrophic efforts to escort the body of their father, "Wild Bill" Hillock, to his funeral, the stories of Idella and Avis offer a wry vision of two remarkable women.

More hardbacks recently released:

"Why Limit Happy to an Hour? A Little Book of Wit (and a Whole Lot of Attitude), by Mary Phillips (f). "Bijou Roy," by Ronica Dhar (f): Bijou is an American-born daughter of Indian expatriates. When she returns to India to scatter her father's ashes in the river that runs through his native city, she meets the son of a friend of her father's and finds herself examining her own life, her family's secrets and the two cultures she finds herself caught between. "Fishers of Men: The Gospel of an Ayahuasca Vision Quest," by Adam Elenbaas (nf): This memoir is in two parts: The first part is the story of Elenbaas' youth as the son of a Methodist minister, his embracing of Christian fundamentalism and his abuse of sex and drugs; the second part is his discovery in Peru of shamanic ceremonies and ingesting the mind-expanding jungle vine ayahuasca, which allows Elenbaas to finally purge his past, renew his faith and embark on a healthier path.