Holding the Line is the tell-all many wished Mattis' own Call Sign Chaos had been. But for all of Guy Snodgrass' in-the-room accounts, there are some unverifiable elements and inaccuracies.

Daniel Mendelsohn is a living answer to the question, "What will a degree in Classics do for you?" His new essay collection, Ecstasy and Terror, "cross-pollinates" the classics with popular culture.

Mimi Lok's debut story collection — a perceptive look at the connections we make and fail to make — doesn't read like a debut. Lok writes with the self-assuredness of a literary veteran.

There's a victim-blamey tone in Brittany Kaiser's memoir Targeted, but what it offers over other look-backs is a more in-the-room account of what exactly, she alleges, was in the company's pitch deck.

David Shulkin's memoir, It Shouldn't Be This Hard to Serve Your Country, focuses on his time as veterans affairs secretary, tells of his fights against privatizing the VA — and settles some scores.