Complete book coverage for Sunday, May 31, 2009

Gone are the days of meandering through the dictionary. But gone too is the serendipity of finding other great words while meandering.

The ‘Shanghai Girls’ author says the neighborhood informed her new book.

An estranged couple’s wilderness trek results in lush description, harrowing encounters with strangers -- and some unexpected hope.

Alain de Botton explores work and products but omits the daily grind.

Testing the graphic novel format with an engrossing story of a young photographer’s journey into Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders.

Jeremy Tankard’s stories focus on essential things -- grumpiness, hunger, sorrow -- to the delight and fascination of children and their parents.

If you can wade through the slimy descriptions of bodily functions, you find a story of a lonely and sad girl.

A novel full of whimsy centers on the life of a Chicago family.

From the extreme edges: versions of perversion.

The Servants’ QuartersA NovelLynn FreedHoughton Mifflin Harcourt: 256 pp., $24 “The Servants’ Quarters,” a novel of revenge and regret, is written in a most appealing voice -- the wise child in a household of secrets.

Fiction weeks on list1.The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan (Disney Hyperion: $17.99) Percy Jackson and his army of demigods battle to stop the Lord of Time.3 2.Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown: $22.99) The final book in the “Twilight” saga finds Bella choosing immortality. 42 3.Wicked Prey by John Sandford (Putnam: $27.95) Criminals with a grudge crash the Republican National Convention in St.

Fiction 1. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith ($12.95) 2.