New this week: Hillary Chute on comics, Pope Francis’ homilies, George Wayne’s celebrity interviews

WHY COMICS?: From Underground to Everywhere, by Hillary Chute. A wide-ranging illustrated history from a professor of English, and art and design at Northeastern University, “Why Comics?” looks at everything from Superman and Krazy Kat to Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” and Alison Bechdel’s “Fun Home.” (Harper, $40)

HAPPINESS IN THIS LIFE, by Pope Francis. Following up on his bestselling “The Name of God Is Mercy,” the Pope offers this collection of homilies, speeches and “messages of the day” delivered since 2013. Among the topics touched on: creating a meaningful life, happiness in relationships, living with suffering, and prayer. Translated from Italian by Oonagh Stransky. (Random House, $27)

ANYONE WHO’S ANYONE: The Astonishing Celebrity Interviews, 1987-2017, by George Wayne. For three decades, the inimitable Vanity Fair interviewer has posed irreverent and unexpected questions to the rich, famous and accomplished. “We have to be a little controversial, or what’s the point?” Wayne says. Included here are chats with Joan Rivers, Carrie Fisher, Ivanka Trump, Martha Stewart and others. (Harper, $25)