'BIG GAME: The NFL in Dangerous Times,' by Mark Leibovich. The New York Times Magazine national correspondent and author of "This Town" spent four years talking to players, coaches and owners in the world of professional football to create a snapshot of the sport at this moment _ from Tom Brady's "Deflategate" to Colin Kaepernick "taking a knee." (Penguin Press, $28)
'HOUSEGIRL,' by Michael Donkor. This beautifully realized debut novel, published in the U.K. earlier this year, follows Belinda, the teenage housegirl of the title as she leaves behind her native Ghana for London. Along with her impressions of the alien foreign city, it explores her relationships with a young servant girl back home, a sort of younger sister, and the London-born daughter of her Ghanaian employers. (Picador, $16 paper)
'THE PERSON YOU MEAN TO BE: How Good People Fight Bias,' by Dolly Chugh. The author _ a psychologist and NYU professor from Garden City _ wants us to be good-ish, not good, people. That means acknowledging our individual privileges, recognizing bias when it happens and learning to engage our friends and neighbors productively about these issues. (HarperBusiness, $27.99)
