Forced to flee to across the border following his parents' arrest for a startling crime, Dell Parsons grows up under the care of a violent man. Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Ford blazes a dramatic new tale in a moving adventure worthy of Dickens or Robert Louis Stevenson. One of our picks for Best Fiction of 2012.

The brain is a machine evolved to construct a picture of reality out of sensory inputs. But it's also quite good at creating realities of its own. There's no better guide to this particular trip than Oliver Sacks, a writer who has taken us on so many neuro-scientific journeys. One of our picks for Best Nonfiction of 2012.