In the Hollow of Your Hand: Slave Lullabies by Alice McGill (Houghton Mifflin; $18). Ms. McGill calls the collection “real-life stories of a group of people who struggled to protect their children from hurt, harm and danger.” Michael Cummings illustrates the songs with striking collaged picture quilts. Includes a CD. Ms. McGill speaks at 7 p.m. today at the Mercantile Library, 414 Walnut St., downtown. Free to library members and donors and friends of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (co-sponsor of the event); $5 for nonmembers. Reservations suggested: 621-0717.

        A Darkness More Than Night by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown and Co.; $25.95). LAPD detective Harry Bosch returns today and he's smack in the middle of a sensational case that has all of L.A. abuzz: a movie director accused of murdering an actress during sex, then making it look like autoerotic suicide. The investigation brings another of Mr. Connelly's detectives back: Terry McCaleb, a retired FBI agent who is asked to take a quick look at another case that soon overlaps with Bosch's.

        Colors of the Mountain by Da Chen (Anchor Books; $13). Today is the release date for Mr. Chen's engrossing, critically acclaimed coming-of-age story about growing up in China during Mao's Cultural Revolution. His family was shunned for having been capitalists. His father was sent to labor camps. But Mr. Chen overcame fear, poverty and disgrace, and was accepted into a top university. Shelf says mark your calendar now for his signing, 7 p.m. Feb. 1 at Books & Co., 350 E. Stroop Road, Kettering (937) 298-6540.

        Fly High! The Story of Bessie Coleman by Louise Borden and Mary Kay Kroeger, illustrated by Teresa Flavin (Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster; $16; ages 9-12). Ms. Borden and Ms. Kroeger, local writers who first teamed up for Paperboy in 1996, are back with another children's book. This time, they tell the story of the daring early 20th-century aviatrix, who died at age 34 but made quite a splash during her short life. Dubbed “Brave Bess” she took the air show circuit by storm. This timely bio arrives in plenty of time for February and Black History Month.

        — Sara Pearce

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