Weekend picks for book lovers, including 'Immortal' by Stanley Bing

What should you read this weekend? USA TODAY’s picks for book lovers include Immortal Life, a novel about a mogul's quest for eternal life, and a new collection of mystery stories inspired by famous paintings.

Immortal Life: A Soon to be True Story by Stanley Bing; Simon & Schuster, 307 pp.; fiction

If current events seem confounding, wait 60 years or so. Are you ready for trillionaires who live to be 127 and still long for longer life?

Are you ready for a world where bald eagles are extinct but Segways are thriving — after a Civil War, when a giant corporation led by a handful of miserly moguls rules America? When science has evolved but homo sapiens have devolved into “homo digitalensis” with wi-fi implants behind the ears?

This scary new world, circa 2076, awaits — at least according to Stanley Bing, author of Immortal Life.

Centenarian Arthur Vogel is not only working toward life everlasting, à la PayPal’s Peter Thiel: he also aspires to be the supreme mogul and “to make the (unnamed) Corporation great again” (never mind that it already controls virtually the entire U.S. economy).

Vogel is singularly despicable in mind and body, a “desiccated nugget of flesh” who is plotting the ultimate unfriendly takeover: to inject his personality and consciousness into the ardent anatomy of an amiable but unwilling persona named Gene (if you’re guessing pun intended, you’re right).

Gene is a nice if somewhat vacuous young male, although not entirely human. He is the offspring of a scientist, Dr. Bob, and his extremely advanced 3D printer, and Gene's creation is for the express purpose of becoming a hunky vessel for Vogel 2.0. The only problem is that Gene takes a shine to living, especially hanging with his main squeeze — named, appropriately enough, Liv.

USA TODAY says ★★★ out of four. “Bing’s unsettling account of the future is leavened with wry humor and satire… an engaging and cautionary tale.”

Alive in Shape and Color: 17 Paintings by Great Artists and the Stories They Inspired, edited by Lawrence Block; Pegasus, 307 pp.; fiction

Mystery writers including Michael Connelly, Joyce Carol Oates, Lee Child and Jeffery Deaver write stories inspired by famous artworks from the likes of Renoir, Michelangelo, Balthus and Norman Rockwell.

USA TODAY says ★★★. Editor Block “has assembled a fine roster of bold-name talent.”

Troublemakers: Silicon Valley’s Coming of Age by Leslie Berlin; Simon & Schuster, 512 pp.; non-fiction

Looks at unsung pioneers such as Apple’s Mike Markkula and others from the earliest days of Silicon Valley to show how they laid the groundwork in the 1970s and 1980s for the tech boom of today.

USA TODAY says ★★★. “An entertaining read… well-documented.”

Enchantress of Numbers by Jennifer Chiaverini; Dutton, 426 pp.; fiction

This historical novel heralds a woman whose contributions are relatively overlooked in history: Ada Byron King, a pioneering mathematician whom some consider the first computer programmer (she also overcame her unwanted celebrity as daughter of English Romantic poet Lord Byron).

USA TODAY says ★★★½. “Chiavierini makes a convincing case that Ada Byron King is a woman worth celebrating.”

The Vanity Fair Diaries: 1983-1992 by Tina Brown; Henry Holt, 419 pp.; non-fiction

Brown relives her rise to the top at Condé Nast and recalls her heady, glitzy, glory days as editor in chief of Vanity Fair, dropping many glamorous names along the way.

USA TODAY says ★★★. “Fun…Brown shows a novelistic flair in her descriptions of people.”

Contributing reviewers: David Holahan, Charles Finch, Jefferson Graham, Patty Rhule, Jocelyn McClurg