AP - The Runaways," chronicling the rise and fall of Joan Jett's first band, easily could have degenerated into a movie-length music video, with Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning merely glam-rock poseurs.

AP - "The Heights" (Dutton, 295 pages, $25.95) by Peter Hedges: Tim and Kate Welch seem perfect for each other, with a relationship that other couples envy. Kate is a stay-at-home mother, caring for their two young boys. Tim teaches history at an academy near the family's cramped apartment in New York's affluent neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights.

AP - "High Heat: The Secret History of the Fastball and the Improbable Search for the Fastest Pitcher of All Time" (Da Capo Press, 268 pages, $25), by Tim Wendel: Baseball is so obsessed with statistics you might think it's easy to identify who threw the fastest fastball.

AP - Wearing a full-length fur coat, a long blue scarf, a chic violet dress and sunglasses, she staggers into a recording studio. Four-letter words fly. And so do the laughs. But then, what did you expect?

AP - "The Girl Who Chased the Moon" (Bantam Books, 265 pages, $25), by Sarah Addison Allen: Sarah Addison Allen stays on familiar ground in her latest offering, "The Girl Who Chased the Moon," dishing up light doses of magical realism and romance, all in the North Carolina landscape where she grew up. It's a formula that has worked well for her, including putting her first novel, "Garden Spells," on the best-seller list.

AP - "Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire" (Metropolitan Books, 496 pages, $30), by Robert Perkinson: As Robert Perkinson points out in "Texas Tough," his very readable history of U.S. prisons, locking up people is big business. America sends more people to prison per capita than any other country in the world, locking up about one out of every 100 people.

AP - "The Tudors: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty" (Delacorte Press, 640 pages, $30) by G.J. Meyer: Five centuries have not diminished the appetite for all things Tudor. Henry VIII, his six wives and his equally intriguing children are endlessly being reinvented in the popular media. Veritable rock stars of the English monarchy, their lives easily eclipse anything our own celebrity-obsessed, reality show culture can spit out.

AP - "House Rules" (Atria, 353 pages, $28), by Jodi Picoult: Jodi Picoult knows her audience. She tends to write family dramas that tug at the heartstrings. Her books have short chapters, usually written from the perspective of the main characters, and often have a surprise ending.

AP - "Whip Smart" (Thomas Dunne Books, $24.99, 288 pages), by Melissa Febos. The memoir is a popular genre in books, thanks to writers like Augusten Burroughs, David Sedaris and even James Frey. So these days, if you're going to write a memoir, you need to be original.

AP - "The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America's Pastime" (Pantheon Books, 304 pages, $25), by Jason Turbow with Michael Duca: Major League Baseball is a complex, intricate game with a thick rule book that covers everything from balks and bunts to force plays and foul tips.