Father Lands, so eight-year-old Cherry Laurel is informed by a classmate, is an island somewhere in Michigan, "just like our world but for stray fathers". Cherry's beloved botanist father has disappeared there, as has her friend Hugo's dad.

Father Lands is the debut novel for this poet and screenwriter, and those other kinds of writing make themselves felt in the book's strong visual sense and lyrical language. Like many first novels, Ballou's is heavily autobiographical. Yet, perhaps because of her grounding in the craft of writing, it is largely free of self-indulgence. The novel is attentive to the power of language to shape - rather than simply express - experience; it charts how naming the unbearable somehow makes it survivable. Cherry has an Emily Dickinson doll, with pockets full of miniature pencils and folded-up poems, and lines from this poet of inner magnitude offer a refuge from the crash of collapsing adult relationships.

• The Thing About Jane Spring - Sharon Krum

Meet Jane Spring. She is a tough, ambitious prosecutor who immerses herself in every project she tackles, refusing to let anything come between her and her goals. After watching a few too many Doris Day movies and drinking a few too many glasses of wine, Jane decides to undergo a major transformation to find the man of her dreams. She directs the intense passion and commitment usually reserved for her professional life to her personal aspirations and embarks on a wacky journey of self-discovery that is chronicled in Sharon Krum’s delightful novel (and soon to be feature film) The Thing About Jane Spring.

Since Doris Day always to seemed to have Mr. Right by her side, Jane decides to adopt each and every element of her persona. Since the two women could not be more dissimilar, the transformation is a dramatic one. Jane discards her conservative black suits for the pink and yellow vintage clothing worn by her grandmother in the 1960s. She paints her apartment bright colors reminiscent of the walls Doris lived within, and speaks not only with an accent but also in a hushed tone to completely mimic Doris’ demeanor and style.

Jane’s co-workers have difficulty comprehending that the shrewd, sarcastic and inflexible colleague who exited their office before a winter storm is the same bright and cheery comrade who returns the next day. (While her co-workers unanimously favor the new-and-improved Jane Spring, this does not prevent them from entering into a pool to predict when she will revert back to her original distasteful self). Jane’s new persona creates an enormous amount of speculation, with most people attributing the change to a mental breakdown or, at the very least, a ploy to gain the sympathy of the jury in a high-profile murder trial. As Jane prosecutes a woman for killing her cheating husband, her adversaries expose her transformation to the jury, openly accusing her of disingenuously trying to draw the distinction between women who lived in the era of Doris Day and may have felt trapped upon discovering marital infidelity and modern women (such as the defendant) who had options other than murder.

• A Children's Book of True Crime - Chloe Hooper

The wisdom of children seems deeper, more important when compared to the greedy selfishness of adults. Adults caught in the rush of an erotic obsession are particularly childish. Children show the ability to display a casual viciousness; pulling the legs off of bugs, burning ants with a magnifying glass. In adults, viciousness manifests itself as horrific and often pointless violence. The contrasts and comparisons between adults and children caught in vicinity of a crime can make for compelling, fascinating reading. But when the storyteller is an addled adult who can't be relied upon to know what's obviously best for herself, the details that would make the comparisons convincing lose their impact. In the heatwave of a sexual infatuation, they can be concealed by the fallout of wanton lust. Chloe Hooper's first novel, 'A Child's Book of True Crime', has some captivating ideas that are nearly capsized in a sea of passionate fixation. Readers who enjoy dangerous erotica will find Hooper's narrator Kate Byrne a gripping girl-guide to subtle terror and deep philosophy. Others may wish that there were less groping and moping and more thinking than slinking.

• I Am Not Myself These Days - Josh Kilmer-Purcell

I Am Not Myself These Days is Josh Kilmer-Purcell's outrageously intimate memoir of a young man living a double life in the heady days and nights of mid-'90s New York City. As we follow Kilmer-Purcell through alcohol-fueled nights and a love affair with Jack, a crack-addicted male escort, he offers up an alternative universe where normal is "a Normal Rockwell painting that, if you leaned in close, would discover is made up entirely of misfits."

By day, Josh drudges off to a Soho-based advertising firm where he creates ad campaigns for corporate clients. At night, he dons live goldfish to complete the look of Aqua, a 7-foot-tall award-winning drag queen who trolls gay clubs in search of her next drink/one night stand. In between, he spends his time trying to build a stable, loving relationship with someone whose beeping pager is a constant reminder of the pair's almost inevitable fate. Yet even as Josh's escapades get increasingly absurd, Kilmer-Purcell is always there to remind us that the story we're reading is real, and that fundamental human emotions and desires are essentially universal. In the end, everyone just wants to be loved and to fit in somewhere. And while the lesson may seem hokey at times, Kilmer-Purcell's sharp wit rescues the memoir from becoming an exaggerated sob story:

The night before any major holiday is always a blockbuster night at gay clubs. Thousands... across the city fortifying themselves for long trips home where they'll be met with awkward silences, stilted conversations and cousins with whom they'd experimented with decades ago.

All books are in near new condition.