Things We Didn´t See Coming By Steven Amsterdam, out now

This debut collection follows a single narrator through nine stories and 30 years as the world worsens and deteriorates.

To Sound in the Know: Amsterdam, who lives in Melbourne, is a native New Yorker (Upper West Side, Bronx High School of Science) who voted absentee for Obama.

A Wall in Palestine By René Backmann, out now The French journalist delves into the motives and the affect that the 400-mile wall being built on the West Bank has on Palestinians, Israelis and the Middle East.

To Sound in the Know: In 1991 Backmann was awarded the Prix Mumm, which is France’s highest award for journalism.

Point Omega By Don DeLillo, out now In this 117-page novella, a filmmaker jour neys

to the California desert to hunt down one of the Iraq war architects, who dreamed of creating a “haiku war.”

To Sound in the Know: The inspiration for the novel (and a scene within) was an art project called “24 Hour Psycho” where the famous movie was slowed down to last over a 24-hour period.

Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music By Marisa Meltzer, out now Journalist Meltzer tracks the evolution of the riot grrrl movement of the early ’90s to the commercialized girl power of the Spice Girls, making stops with performers like Alanis Morissette and Sleater-Kinney in between.

To Sound in the Know: Meltzer attended Evergreen State College, perhaps the world’s most fertile riot grrrl breeding ground.

Model Home By Eric Puchner, out Feb. 9 In this novel set in the 1980s, a California family faces financial and emotional distress and is forced to move into a model home on the father’s failing real estate venture.We wonder if they live next door to the Bluths.

To Sound in the Know: Puchner’s first collection of stories, Music Through the Floor, was a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award.

George Lois: The Esquire Covers @ MoMA, out Feb. 23 This collection (drawn from the collection at MoMA) of the controversial and revolutionary covers created by Lois for Esquire in the 1960s and ’70s include shots of JFK, Muhammad Ali and Richard Nixon.

To Sound in the Know: Besides the iconic images, there are also shots from Lois’ private collection that include outtakes of a shoot with Andy Warhol.