HAITI: The Aftershocks of History, by Laurent Dubois (Metropolitan/Holt, $32.) Foreign meddling, the lack of a democratic tradition, a humiliating American occupation and cold-war support of a brutal dictator all figure in a scholar's well-written analysis. SMUT: Stories, by Alan Bennett (Picador/Frances Coady/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, paper, $14.) A master of the long short story presents two tales in which prim characters harbor dirty secrets. GOSSIP: The Untrivial Pursuit, by Joseph Epstein (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $25.) Epstein, who relishes gossip himself, argues in this entertaining account that it serves worthwhile purposes. THE PARTNERSHIP: Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb, by Philip Taubman (Harper/HarperCollins, $29.99.) This fascinating and haunting book reveals that in old age, five American national security mandarins urged an end to nuclear arms. HOW IT ALL BEGAN, by Penelope Lively (Viking, $26.95.) A retired teacher breaks a hip in a mugging and moves in with her daughter, setting off a cascade of effects on others in Lively's elegant, witty novel. THE UNQUIET AMERICAN: Richard Holbrooke in the World, edited by Derek Chollet and Samantha Power (PublicAffairs, $29.99.) Essays in remembrance of, and a few by, the foreign-policy stalwart. Iyer's idiosyncratic, deeply felt memoir is a meditation on his lifelong obsession with the work of Graham Greene. SALVAGE THE BONES, by Jesmyn Ward (Bloomsbury, $24.) A pregnant 15-year-old and her family await Hurricane Katrina in this lushly written novel. SOME OF MY LIVES: A Scrapbook Memoir, by Rosamond Bernier (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $30.) Recalling a career in the world of art and fashion.