'The Commoner'
by John Burnham Schwartz
Nan Talese, Doubleday, $24
The author is educated in East Asian studies at Harvard and worked for a few months in Tokyo, giving him the idea and background for this novel.
He writes with understanding and empathy for his characters, especially Haruko, a young Japanese woman who marries the Crown Prince of Japan, heir to the throne.
As the first nonaristocratic woman to enter the world's oldest monarchy, she faces a number of challenges. Many of the people treat her with cruelty and suspicion. She feels used and isolated. She is only good for producing a male heir to the throne.
When she does give birth to a son, she suffers a nervous breakdown and loses her voice. But she recovers and stays with the family, and the novel covers a period of 30 years, at which time she helps convince another young woman to marry her son, the Crown Prince.
'Where Did I Leave My Glasses?'
By Martha Weinman Lear
Grand Central, $22.99
Martha Lear is a journalist probably best known for her best-selling memoir "Heartsounds," about her frustration with the medical care given to her husband. In this new book, she deals with memory — not Alzheimer's — but normal memory.
Based on her own research and interviews with medical professionals, she discusses natural memory loss as it affects millions of people in middle age. Specialists refer to them as "the worried well."
Lear writes with anecdotal charm as well as reasoned research and the result is charming — and it should reassure many of us.
'Homo Politicus'
By Dana Milbank
Doubleday, $26
Dana Milbank is a Washington Post political columnist who also does TV commentary. He is known for a "lacerating wit" that challenges the pompous or corrupt members of both political parties.
This book, subtitled "The Strange and Scary Tribes That Run Our Government," includes an analysis of the way business is done in Washington. Milbank discusses taboos, language, codes and practices that are common for those who hold office in the various branches of the federal government.
In the culture of Washington, Milbank finds a rigid caste system where status counts for everything.