CAPITAL, by John Lanchester. Norton, $26.95. Lanchester's elegantly written novel, set on a gentrified street in South London during the real estate boom, shows the effects of the easy-money era and offers an assured, detailed overview of today's Britain. A social-climbing editor at a London newspaper ingratiates herself with a dead woman's family in this highly entertaining, squirm-inducing first novel. DARWIN'S GHOSTS: The Secret History of Evolution, by Rebecca Stott. Spiegel & Grau, $27. Stott's lively, original history of evolutionary ideas flows easily across continents and centuries. CONFRONT AND CONCEAL: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power, by David E. Sanger. Crown, $28. The Times's chief Washington correspondent describes the president's evolving foreign policy with a sure touch. Hogarth, $22. There is a satisfying dark edge to these funny connected stories about young women navigating the uncertain time that follows graduation. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $30. Wilson, a prolific writer, concentrates his study on the major figures who made the Elizabethan age so creative and memorable. THE LAND OF STORIES: The Wishing Spell, by Chris Colfer. Illustrated by Brandon Dorman (Little, Brown, $17.99; ages 8 to 12.) An old book offers a passage into the continuing lives of fairy-tale characters. RADIO IRIS, by Anne-Marie Kinney. Two Dollar Radio, paper, $16. The title character of Kinney's eerie first novel battles isolation and workplace monotony. MONUMENT 14, by Emmy Laybourne. Feiwel & Friends, $16.99. In this frightening novel, young people find a refuge from disaster in a big-box store.