That kind of mother

GIVE PEOPLE MONEY: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World, by Annie Lowrey. (Crown, $26.) Lowrey, a journalist who covers economic policy for The Atlantic, musters considerable research to make the case for a universal basic income - a government-funded cash handout for all. NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES ... AND OTHERS, by Robert Gottlieb. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $28.) An esteemed book editor who can write well about nearly anything here brings erudition and passion to essays on romance novels, Hollywood classics and, especially, ballet. FROM THE CORNER OF THE OVAL: A Memoir, by Beck Dorey-Stein. (Spiegel & Grau, $28.) The often-staid White House memoir genre gets a fresh, funny, candid boost from this addictably readable account by one of President Obama's stenographers, who turns out to be a skilled writer as well. TELL THE MACHINE GOODNIGHT, by Katie Williams. (Riverhead, $25.) Williams's first novel for adults imagines a future in which machines generate "recipes" for individual happiness. The protagonist, who works for the machine company, must confront her son's unwillingness to follow its prescriptions. THE SHADES, by Evgenia Citkowitz. (Norton, $25.95.) An elegantly unnerving first novel that follows the remorseful decline of a British family in the aftermath of a daughter's accidental death. Written in cool and crystalline prose, "The Shades" unspools in a rational and realistic world in which all is not as it seems. THAT KIND OF MOTHER, by Rumaan Alam. (Ecco/HarperCollins, $26.99.) In his second novel, about a white woman who adopts a black son, Alam shrewdly explores the complexities of caregiving as employment, illuminating issues of class and race that arise when people are paid to do hard, dirty work and, in essence, to provide love. THE COST OF LIVING: A Working Autobiography, by Deborah Levy. (Bloomsbury, $20.) The prolific British novelist, playwright and poet reflects on the sacrifices and satisfactions of her career, drawing larger conclusions about the conflict between a woman's public and private responsibilities. PIE IS FOR SHARING, by Stephanie Parsley Ledyard. Illustrated by Jason Chin. (Neal Porter/Roaring Brook, $17.99; ages 2 to 6.) This uplifting picture book features a buoyant group on a daylong picnic, with subtle political resonance to the theme of sharing. SMILEY'S DREAM BOOK, by Jeff Smith. (Scholastic, $17.99; ages 2 to 6.) Smith, creator of the Bone graphic novels, here offers a picture book in which sweet Smiley Bone walks in the woods, counting birds. Adventure and suspense sneak satisfyingly in. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books