August is generally considered off-season among book people. The big summer blockbusters have already come out. Publishing people are out of the office. Everyone’s biding his or her time for the big books of fall.

Not this year. August has been pretty amazing so far. Lots of ambitious and exciting books have just been released. Colson Whitehead’s big new novel was moved up from a mid-September release date to early August. And there are more to come. Publishing industry wisdom seems to be Avoid the Election at All Costs. For readers, the happy results are some great books that might otherwise have been held until the weather cools.

Enjoy, early birds.

Pamela Paul

Editor of The New York Times Book Review

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, by Colson Whitehead. (Doubleday, $26.95.) Everyone I know is reading or has just read this book, for good reason. Colson Whitehead’s well-built, stunningly daring novel turns the historical freedom network from metaphor to reality, complete with tracks, locomotives and platforms.

AMERICAN HEIRESS: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst, by Jeffrey Toobin. (Doubleday, $28.95.) Jeffrey Toobin, author of “The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson,” knows how to tell a good crime story. In his riveting account of the Patty Hearst affair, even the S.L.A. is shown some compassion.