Welcome to the Monday Morning Book Buzz. Every week we take a look at some notable new books being released in the coming days.

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This week’s releases are listed by category: Young Adult Fiction, General Fiction and Nonfiction. On-sale dates are indicated in parentheses.

Notable New Releases for the week of November 21st:

Young Adult Fiction

• Beyond the Code (Warriors: SkyClan and the Stranger Series #2) by Erin Hunter (11/22/2011) — In the latest graphic novel adaptation of Hunter’s popular Warriors series, Sol, a former kittypet, has joined the ranks of SkyClan. He dreams of becoming a great warrior, and promises to be helpful and brave. But Leafstar soon begins to wonder if Sol respects the rules of the warrior code. And when Sol’s actions lead to a perilous disaster for SkyClan, Leafstar has to figure out whether he can be trusted—before it’s too late.

• The Forgotten Warrior (Warriors: Omen of the Stars Series #5) by Erin Hunter (11/22/2011) — The end of the stars draws near. Three must become four to battle the darkness that lasts forever. With a divided StarClan driving a treacherous rift between the four warrior Clans, the spirits of the Dark Forest are gaining strength. Then  an outsider appears in ThunderClan’s midst, spreading discord and pushing the Clans further apart. As tensions mount and Clanmates turn against one another, the warrior cats will be forced to choose whose word they can trust–before it’s too late.

• The Future of Us by Jay Asher (11/21/2011) — It’s 1996, and less than half of all American high school students have ever used the Internet. Emma just got her first computer and an America Online CD-ROM. She and her best friend Josh power up and log on–and discover themselves on Facebook, fifteen years in the future. Everybody wonders what their Destiny will be. Josh and Emma are about to find out.

• Saving June by Hannah Harrington (11/22/2011) — Harper Scott’s older sister, June, took her own life a week before high school graduation, leaving Harper devastated. So when her divorcing parents decide to split up June’s ashes, Harper steals the urn and takes off cross-country with her best friend, Laney, to the one place June always dreamed of going—California.

• Soul Screamers Volume 1: My Soul to Lose/My Soul to Take/My Soul to Save by Rachel Vincent (11/22/2011) — New York Times bestselling author Rachel Vincent’s compelling Soul Screamers series keeps getting better—here, for the first time, the original stories are compiled into one special volume…. Kaylee is just your average girl shopping at the mall with friends—until a terrified scream bursts from her that cannot be stopped. Taken to a hospital ward, will she be able to save her mind—and her life?

• Unleashed by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie (11/22/2011) — Holder and Viguie, the New York Times bestselling authors of the Wicked series, have created an entirely new trilogy with the passion of Twilight and the grandeur of Fallen. The Wolf Springs Chronicles introduces readers to a town of secrets and the new girl who’s about to start believing in werewolves.

General Fiction

• Cat Telling Tales (Joe Grey Series #17) by Shirley Rousseau Murphy (11/22/2011) — The infallible feline sleuthing team of Joe Grey, Dulcie, and Kit return in Murphy’s seventeenth ingenious whodunit that once again gives readers a cat’s eye view of crime, murder, and mayhem. Murphy takes us back to Molina Point, California, where a suspicious fire, a tragic death, and a rash of unanticipated houseguests, both human and feline, inflame the investigative curiosity of our furry detective trio. “Joe Grey and Dulcie aren’t your ordinary feline detectives. Murphy’s raised the stakes of the feline sleuth genre.” — Kirkus Reviews
• Explosive Eighteen (Stephanie Plum Series #18) by Janet Evanovich (11/22/2011) — Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum’s life is set to blow sky high when international murder hits dangerously close to home. Stephanie’s dream vacation to Hawaii turned into a nightmare, and she’s flying back to New Jersey solo. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead, in a garbage can, waiting for curbside pickup. His killer could be anyone. And a ragtag collection of thugs and psychos, not to mention the FBI, are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying.
• Fantastic Four Omnibus, Volume 1 by John Byrne (11/23/2011) — From the four corners of the globe to the farthest reaches of space to the deepest depths of the Negative Zone, the Fantastic Four face off against foes old and new – including the Dr. Doom, Galactus and Annihilus! Plus: The FF aid the Inhumans, bid farewell to the Baxter Building, don new costumes and celebrate their 20th anniversary in style as Byrne reminds us all there’s a family at the heart of this team of adventurers.
• Fate’s Edge (Edge Series #3) by Ilona Andrews (11/29/2011) — Audrey Callahan left behind her life in the Edge, and she’s determined to stay on the straight and narrow. But when her brother gets into hot water, the former thief takes on one last heist and finds herself matching wits with a jack of all trades.
• Green Lantern: War of the Green Lanterns by Various (11/22/2011) — A malevolent force has usurped control over all the Green Lantern power batteries, leaving the Corps powerless except for a select few members. Now it’s up to Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner, John Stewart and Sinestro to regain control – but can these warriors overcome their differences in time to save the universe?
• If I Should Die: A Novel of Suspense by Allison Brennan (11/22/2011) — Aspiring FBI agent Lucy Kincaid and her P.I. boyfriend, Sean Rogan, are heading to the Adirondack Mountains for a pleasant romantic getaway when they detour to help troubled friends, owners of a new resort who are battling malicious vandals. After Lucy and Sean pursue an arsonist into an abandoned mine shaft, Lucy stumbles upon an even more heinous crime—and the perfectly preserved remains of its victim.
• Micro by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston (11/22/2011) — In a locked Honolulu office building, three men are found dead, covered in ultrafine, razor-sharp cuts. The only clue left behind is a tiny bladed robot. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, seven graduate students are recruited by a microbiology start-up and dispatched to a mysterious lab in Hawaii, where they are thrust into a hostile wilderness, prey to a technology of radical and unbridled power. Micro pits nature against technology in vintage Crichton fashion. Completed by visionary science writer Richard Preston, this boundary-pushing thriller melds scientific fact with pulse-pounding fiction to create yet another masterpiece of sophisticated, cutting-edge entertainment.
• Physical Education (Murder 101 Series #6) by Maggie Barbieri (11/22/2011) — When college English professor and sometime amateur sleuth Alison Bergeron is forced to take over the women’s basketball team after the coach dies of a heart attack, she suspects the death may be more than unexpected but premeditated as well. The latest installment in Barbieri’s charming Murder 101 mystery series.

Nonfiction

• Being George Washington: The Indispensable Man, As You’ve Never Seen Him by Glenn Beck (11/22/2011) — This is the amazing true story of a real-life superhero who wore no cape and possessed no special powers—yet changed the world forever. It’s a story about a man whose life reads as if it were torn from the pages of an action novel: Bullet holes through his clothing. Horses shot out from under him. Unimaginable hardship. Disease. Heroism. Spies and double-agents. And, of course, the unmistakable hand of Divine Providence that guided it all.

• Best Friends, Occasional Enemies: The Lighter Side of Life as a Mother and Daughter by Lisa Scottoline (11/22/2011) — New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline and her daughter Francesca Serritella are the best of friends—99.9% of the time. They’re number one on each other’s speed dial and they tell each other everything—well, almost everything. They share shoes and clothes—except one very special green jacket, which almost caused a catfight.

• Betty & Friends: My Life at the Zoo by Betty White (11/21/2011) — Many of us know that Betty White has numerous Emmys and that she is the oldest person to have ever hosted Saturday Night Live, but who among us would guess that this lifelong animal lover served as the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Commissioner for eight years? In Betty and Her Friends, America’s most beloved 89-year-old sexpot shares humorous, enduring stories about her buddies at the zoos.

• Core of Conviction: My Story by Michele Bachmann (11/21/2011) — Michele Bachmann is one of the most compelling leaders in America. But despite all the magazine covers and cable television stories, most people don’t know who she really is, where she comes from, or what she believes. So she decided to tell her own story and let the reader decide.

• Inside the Mind of Casey Anthony: A Psychological Portrait by Keith Ablow (11/22/2011) — The trial of twenty-five year old Casey Anthony for the death of her daughter Caylee was the most sensational case in America since O.J. Simpson’s. Dr. Keith Ablow distills tens of thousands of pages of documents he has obtained, his behind-the-camera, one-on one interviews, and his decades of experience in the world of forensic psychiatry to make sense of a woman whose defense attorney described as an innocent victim of childhood sexual abuse, but the state insisted was a cold-blooded murderer.

• Lady Gaga by Lady Gaga (11/22/2011) — In this book of original, behind-the-scenes photographs, acclaimed photographer Terry Richardson follows superstar Lady Gaga during one year of her life, from Lollapalooza through the final show of her Monster Ball tour, capturing Lady Gaga as you’ve never seen her before. A year-long global odyssey, all access, nothing off limits—this is the book Lady Gaga fans have been waiting for.

• Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981-2011) with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes and Miscellany by Stephen Sondheim (11/22/2011) — After his acclaimed and best-selling Finishing the Hat (named one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2010), Stephen Sondheim returns with the second volume of his collected lyrics, Look, I Made a Hat, giving us another remarkable glimpse into the brilliant mind of this living legend, and his life’s work.

• Vivian Maier: Street Photographer edited by John Maloof (11/22/2011) — Maier, a professional nanny, took over 100,000 photographs worldwide from the 1950s until the 1990s—from France to New York City to Chicago and dozens of other countries—and yet showed the results to no one. The photos are amazing both for the breadth of the work and for the high quality of the humorous, moving, beautiful, and raw images of all facets of city life in America’s post-war golden age. Presented for the first time in print, Vivian Maier: Street Photographer collects the best of her incredible, unseen body of work.