Sometimes all it takes to make your day a little brighter is to remind yourself just how dark life can get. Here are four dark novels and a true crime tale.

And Housing for All is an impressively comprehensive examination of homelessness in America by Maria Foscarinis, who has worked in homelessness advocacy for decades.

Publishing this week: new fiction from Susan Choi, essays from Evan Osnos and memoir from Molly Jong-Fast. Plus, Melissa Febos reflects on her year of abstinence.

We asked some of our trusted critics which upcoming books they are most looking forward to. Here are the fiction and nonfiction titles they picked.

New books out this week look at everything from pressing political concerns — Original Sin — to perspective-altering riddles about life itself, like in Is A River Alive? and The Book of Records.

A host of beloved authors have new books hitting shelves this week, including a memoir by humorist Barry, a Mark Twain bio by Chernow and essays by Richard Russo.

My Name Is Emilia Del Valle is the newest novel from the prodigious Chilean expat, now in her 80s. Plus, a personal history of the orange, a Josephine Baker history and having kids in the digital age.

The second volume in Pulitzer-winning historian Rick Atkinson's planned trilogy on the American Revolution publishes Tuesday. Plus a graphic memoir, short fiction, and "the secret life" of a cemetery.

Matthew Specktor grew up the son of a famous Hollywood agent. In The Golden Hour he serves up family saga, cultural criticism, fictionalized biography, history and lament for a vanishing world.

The Secret Life of a Cemetery is a paean to the renowned Parisian cemetery, Père Lachaise. There, 10,000 visitors a day seek the graves of some 4,500 notable figures.

A true smorgasbord is on offer for readers this week. Care for an inspirational memoir? Reminders of the precarious position of civilization? Early summer read? They're all here.

Didion's book is an intimate chronicle of the author's struggle to help her daughter, even if it meant digging into her own long-unexamined neuroses.

A famed graphic novelist returns! A Southern-gothic crime-thriller inspired by The Godfather! An extremely in depth biography of Mark Twain! And more!

New on the shelves this week: An obit writer writes — and drunkenly publishes — his own obituary. A Hungarian teen stumbles into adulthood. And geriatric sleuth Vera Wong returns.

This week's new releases include a memoir from Amanda Knox reflecting on her murder case and exoneration, a biography of Yoko Ono, new fiction from Column McCann, and the latest Wicked book Elphie.