Beach Blanket Books

TWELVE RED HERRINGS by Jeffrey Archer (HarperCollins: $23). Welcome to virtual reading. The “facts,” as Archer serves them up here, are not always what they seem. These 12 novellas take some unexpected twist and turns; in one, you get to pick your own ending. (Also available on audiocassette.)

DOWNTOWN by Anne Rivers Siddons (HarperCollins: $23). Enthusiastic Maureen “Stormy” O’Donnell travels to Atlanta to write for the local magazine and find love. Veering away from her standard format, Anne Rivers Siddons introduces the combustible element of the 1960s civil-rights movement into this romance. (Also available on audiocassette.)

JACQUELINE KENNEDY ONASSIS: The Woman She Has Become by Lester David (Birch Lane: $19.95). This bio of Jackie O chronicles her contented settling into her retirement years and grandparenting. It was originally timed for release near her birthday; instead it marks her death.