Jane and the Canterbury Tale: Being a Jane Austen Mystery

By Stephanie Barron. (Bantam, $15)

It may be "a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a fortune is in want of a wife," but a widow in want of a second husband when her first one's body turns up at her wedding is the beginning of a great mystery. This is the 11th installment in Barron's exceptional series featuring Jane Austen, and it's as stylish and literate as the others. With the help of her magistrate brother and her niece, Jane uses her wit and wiles to discover who had "a desire for vengeance."

CAROLE BARROWMAN

FREELANCE WRITER

RUNNING AWAY TO HOME

By Jennifer Wilson. (St. Martin's, 336 pages, $25.99)

The subtitle is a bit earnest -- "Our Family's Journey to Croatia in Search of Who We Are, Where We Came From, and What Really Matters" -- but it does get at the heart of the book. Jennifer Wilson, her husband and their two young children pull up stakes from Des Moines and head to a remote mountain village in Croatia for a year, partly in an attempt to live more simply, partly in an attempt to discover Wilson's Croatian heritage. I loved this book's sense of honesty; Wilson does not make this seem like a blissful and bucolic return to the past, but rather a difficult and sometimes lonely (but very worthwhile) voyage. There's not much to do in the village, and with the language barrier (not to mention the cultural one), she has a hard time adjusting -- harder than her more gregarious husband and adaptable kids. Gradually, though, she learns to overcome obstacles, make friends and connect with the past. My own mother is part Croatian, but after reading this book I'm thinking I'd rather reconnect with my Irish or English ancestry. Much easier.

LAURIE HERTZEL

BOOKS EDITOR