Holly Kilgour a former model is newly divorced and enjoying the freedom that comes with finally living life on her own terms. Her 26-year-old son Austin attends medical school and she now embraces a future in which her life is no longer centered on taking care of others. Her newfound confidence is tested when Austin tells her of his discovery that he has a previously unknown sibling. Meanwhile homemaker Lisa Doyle struggles with the growing distance between herself and her teenage children. “Back in the fall Carly still told her everything” she reflects about her daughter but now Lisa “must beg for scraps of information.” She also feels disconnected from her marriage to her husband Dean. She eventually starts a parenting advice YouTube channel that unexpectedly becomes popular giving her a much-needed emotional outlet. Savannah Moore a first grade teacher begins questioning her relationship when her fiancé James assumes without seriously considering her own wants or career goals that they’ll eventually move closer to his extended family. The three women initially connect through playing tennis at a local country club and their friendship deepens as they support one another through family conflicts relationship struggles and changing identities. When Savannah’s tensions with James escalate she temporarily stays with Holly reinforcing the bond between the women. The use of alternating third-person perspectives keeps the story moving and each woman’s plotline remains engaging enough that the shifts between them rarely feel disruptive. The novel leans more heavily on character growth than it does on dramatic plot twists focusing on such aspects as the importance of learning to communicate honestly with family members and partners. Although some characters take a long time to fully recognize their own value the gradual development feels believable and earned. The straightforward prose and dialogue-heavy scenes make the novel consistently accessible and the tennis aspect gives the women a believable reason to connect during different stages of life.

Sylvia—along with her faithful girlfriend Charlie—arrives at the lake house of her university friend Karen. The secluded weeklong vacation is intended to be a much-needed reunion of their old friend group which also includes reserved Esben wild Quince and caring Gry who’s also brought her husband Adam. After the first day among the “quiet and dazzling” lake and “silver birch trees” Karen and Esben who have been in love since the group’s undergraduate days announce that they intend to get married during the vacation. Everyone is excited except Sylvia who’s had a decade-long crush on Esben. The news sends her into a tailspin of yearning causing her to doubt her own feelings about monogamy. “We could be living this utopian life together” she argues to her friends who are all settled in adulthood “but instead…you have to choose between loneliness or a twosome which is the same as loneliness.” Ernst’s novel explores the boundaries we maintain and the boundaries we are willing to cross in pursuit of romantic and platonic love. Through the loving reminiscent and sometimes awkward exchanges between old friends the reader learns which insecurities define an entangled group of millennials hoping to impress each other: “Esben looks at the table takes stock—is there an i to dot? He goes back inside returns holding champagne and fruit juice bottles dewy with cold.” Ernst brings the lush setting of the novel alive using descriptions of food—like the “crisp and fatty” fried wild elder blossoms—to highlight the physical decadence of the Danish countryside and the ideological decadence of Sylvia’s proposed nonmonogamous utopia.

Antonini a software engineer with experience working in the financial and insurance industries (who also holds degrees in pharmacy and technology) lays out clear and practical advice to help readers adapt to uncertainty and overcome life’s challenges. Likening the human system to a computer Antonini outlines her trademarked concept of the “Thrivegorithm”—the process the mind uses to interpret and react to information—and how it can be “debugged” to improve one’s life. This algorithm is the inner logic that runs your operating system which she defines as resourcefulness. Supported by scientific evidence and research the author presents practical steps and exercises to help readers transform limits into strengths manage motivation (which Antonini compares to a bank account subject to deposits and withdrawals) determine a reason for being (the Japanese concept of ikigai) and ultimately reach the final upgrade to become the best versions of themselves. Filled with tables and visualizations to help readers better conceptualize and absorb the material the text culminates in a 30-day resourcefulness challenge that details day-by-day actions readers can take toward betterment. Throughout the book the author uses real-life examples of well-known figures (including Thomas Edison Serena Williams and Nelson Mandela) who have adapted their mindsets to achieve their goals to illustrate the benefits of resourcefulness. Antonini presents their successes alongside beautifully written anecdotes from her own life and her emotionally compelling poetry. This combination of the personal and practical (“Think of your motivation account like your operating system. If you’re not patching the bugs—such as negative self-talk toxic bonds and poor health—the system lags crashes or gets hijacked by malware”) makes for a thoroughly memorable read.

In 1990 Sen. Ariana Peters of the United States Shifter Council encounters an unusual sinkhole in California. It exudes a silver tendril-like substance that interacts with her directly and raises concerns about general public safety. The senator prioritizing containment authorizes the use of a substance called oblivion tincture to wipe locals’ minds and then relocate them. In a parallel storyline set in 2000Iris Bai struggles to control her magical power after she absorbs multiple abilities. Her attempts to return these powers from whence they came using transfer stones are unsuccessful leaving her feeling disoriented and fragmented. Meanwhile Nivi Dawan attends a boarding school for magically gifted Shifters where she makes friends with fellow attendees Ai and Jorge who help her to accept herself. Iris goes on to experience psychologically taxing situations including ocean-like visions and the direct influence of external entities and one character is overtaken by “the silver.” Later Iris and her friends undertake a daring rescue. Hawthorne’s complex book masterfully intertwines high-stakes storylines immersing readers in a world of magical powers in which characters struggle with difficult ethical choices. The tension between Ariana’s authority and Iris’ and Nivi’s personal struggles results in a compelling fluid narrative. Nivi’s and Iris’ journeys in particular highlight feminist empowerment as they reclaim their agency resist manipulation and assert control over their own destinies. The integration of Chinese and Aztec mythology adds cultural richness and a sense of history to the narrative even though the author only hints at the full background of the fictional world. Still these glimpses will entice readers to imagine a larger history beyond the text.

Historian Baer author of The Ottomans: Khans Caesars and Caliphs (2021) reminds readers that Islam arose in 7th century Arabia which was home to many Jewish tribes that sometimes cooperated in Muhammed’s struggles. Both believers were strict monotheists who claimed descent from Abraham practiced circumcision honored Moses and Jesus and shared dietary restrictions. Muhammad’s relations with Jews were mixed but by the appearance of the great medieval Islamic empires there was official “toleration” if not equality. Baer emphasizes that Judaism was considered a false religion but as children of Abraham Jews were considered a protected people. They remained socially inferior paid a special tax and were subject to restrictions such as a ban on interfaith marriages but participated in all professions practiced their religion openly and often rose high in Islamic bureaucracy. The author stresses that this was not despite the myth an interfaith utopia. In those far-off days religion was a matter of life and death so average Muslims had no doubt that God loathed false religions and they often acted accordingly; but “Jews and Muslims were almost always closer and had better relations with each other than with Christians until modern times.” The 19th century changed everything. Modern antisemitism appeared based on pseudoscience that placed Semitic races below Aryans (traditional antisemitism was based on theology). Zionism born in that century considered Palestine the Jewish homeland. After Hitler took office no Western power the U.S. included welcomed Jews fleeing Germany. Victory in World War II did not change matters and Zionists ran the most efficient refugee escape route. Israel’s 1948 formation was a disaster for Jews in Islamic nations. Within a decade almost all had left including many who didn’t want to go. With admirable objectivity Baer describes events down to the present day in which the news routinely features murder atrocities and war between supporters of two ancient faiths.

Chief Callie Hauser has been back in Pine Lakes only a few months when she has to arrest her mother for drunk driving. Jenna’s struggles with addiction shaped much of Callie’s childhood but she never knew their root. Now she finds out that when Jenna was 16 she discovered a dead baby in the woods. Investigating the Baby Doe case leads Callie to a long-missing teenager Sabrina Riley but overall her attention is occupied by more recent concerns: an uptick in the number of drug overdoses in town; her friend Jane’s slow recovery from a recent hit-and-run; and the fact that Jenna goes missing after being released from jail. Stretched to the breaking point Callie finds some solace in Adrian a cute scientist she meets by the river but she can’t help worrying that the old case and new case are connected—particularly when she discovers that she and Baby Doe share DNA. Mullen plays a bit with perspective and time choosing to narrate some chapters from another character’s point of view as well as to experiment with second-person narration but this is truly Callie’s story. Mullen doesn’t shy away from exploring the echoes of trauma within families and communities and the way some stories are ignored or silenced but Callie’s strength and moral compass ground the darker aspects of the novel. Like so many modern thrillers this is a tale about the things men do that hurt women both casually and with vicious intent but through Callie Mullen also offers hope that by standing alongside one another women not only survive but preserve the stories of those they have lost.

It’s a fixture of the evening news: Someone falls for a charming stranger from somewhere far away perhaps serving in the military in Iraq or a widow in Manila and is bilked out of his or her retirement account. Spanish journalist Barragán’s own mother fell for one such fraudster who was supposedly going to “ship her some bars of solid gold he found in a terrorist stash.” Barragán learns that the losses to romance scams amounted in 2022 alone to $1.3 billion. But hitting the road and heading to Nigeria an epicenter he finds that most of the scams are committed by young men who usually posing as women target victims with long-distance blandishments. They have good reason for this a critical but empathetic Barragán writes: Corruption is endemic and jobs few in Nigeria. He writes of a principal informant: “Biggy seemed like any depressed young man facing the possibility that his life would amount to nothing.” The culture of these “Yahoo Boys” surely seems a slow death of despair built on drink and endless drugs consumed Barragán hazards “to avoid thinking too much about what they were doing.” It’s not crime alone that’s epidemic in Barragán’s account—the loneliness of modern life reckoned by the U.N. to constitute a world health crisis feeds into the hands of the scammers. After living in their world which is not without some self-awareness he writes of the Yahoo Boys (and occasional young woman) “I was beginning to understand that scammers grasped our loneliness better than most people. Certainly better than I did.” There’s much description but little prescription here—no solution to any of the broad-ranging social problems that feed into the romance-scam syndrome. All the same it’s an interesting inquiry.

Bain’s debut novel offers a bricolage of voices—real and imagined famous and unknown—as their lives intersect with Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath between August 1961 and October 1962. Shortly before the birth of their second child Ted and Sylvia bought a dilapidated yet charming home named Court Green in North Tawton Devon. Told in reverse the novel opens with Sylvia and her children moving to London with a promise to return to their country home in the spring—something that will never happen as Sylvia dies by suicide a few months later. Each chapter offers a unique point of view on not only the literary luminaries but the town and its less-famous inhabitants. Whether told from the perspective of the local doctor midwife church bell ringer scorned wife or plumber these close third-person snapshots offer a fictionalized (but informed) glimpse into the couple’s relationship as the final year of their tumultuous marriage becomes the novel’s undercurrent. Some of the most affecting chapters are those that seem to have the least connection to Plath and Hughes especially their fame. This is most apparent during an afternoon shopping trip when a young salesgirl named Jenny helps Sylvia find clothes for an upcoming trip. When Jenny admits that she dreams of moving to London the poet says: “It’s so important…to set your sights on what you want. Don’t let anything distract you or keep you back.” Plath’s naked ambition which surfaces in many of these encounters causes discord in both her professional and personal lives. Bain deftly employs her vast research with prose that feels tactful subtle and assured. Readers familiar with Plath and Hughes will delight in the additional layers of meaning—while those with less knowledge may not fully understand the importance of orienting the story around them.

Jones a professor of law and of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University dredges up a concept most readers probably haven’t thought much about since high school and demonstrates with enthusiasm and flair why it matters to our daily lives. He makes a convincing case that we ought to consciously work with rather than disregard natural selection—“the only evolutionary process that can cause consistent directional and beneficial changes in widespread features of a species”—when making decisions about for example fishing and genetic engineering of crops and he provides multiple examples of how doing so could benefit us. He ventures outward from conventional biology to consider how the development of artificial intelligence has benefited from the copying the processes of natural selection applying them to computer rather than cellular codes. His discussions of the way close observation of the effects of natural selection on various animals can inspire human engineering are particularly tantalizing. Noting that “natural selection has served us many millions of free ideas” he offers examples of “bio-inspired engineering” including bullet trains that make use of the beak design of kingfishers and dry adhesives that mimic the function of gecko feet. He also argues that natural selection applies not just to the physical features of organisms but also to their behavior and from there he goes on to consider the application of natural selection to decision-making and law. While he sometimes drops deeper into an intellectual rabbit hole that not many readers will be willing to follow—particularly when he presents long summaries of the application of Bayesian statistics to calculating risks and his own research into the endowment effect or status quo bias—his obvious excitement about the subject goes a long way toward inspiring equal interest in the reader.

The book opens on a quiet Pennsylvania field on a beautiful fall morning. Present briefly yields to the past; miners fell trees to harvest coal. Then back to that autumn day. “Terror had struck.” A “plane aimed at another building had crashed here….All forty passengers and crew died.” (Though Hirsch doesn’t describe the motives of those responsible an author’s note describes how those aboard United Airlines Flight 93 forced hijackers to bring the plane down in an empty field near Shanksville Pennsylvania.) But that’s just the start of a new story: how a community built a natural monument to “the heroes who fought back. A place of healing” for those left bereft and for the mining-scarred land. A 200-acre forest—the work of volunteers who planted 150000 trees over a period of 10 years—and memorial structures now stand. Tam’s art dramatically exploits perspective as vivid illustrations alternate between bird’s-eye views and underground scenes and veer from long shots to close-ups sometimes within a single spread. People who vary in skin tone participate in the planting. Swirling wavelike forms evoke life and strength trees “lifting their limbs to the light” as hearts lift with hope in this account of tragedy that admirably manages to emphasize the positive.

The narrator of this slender novel is the epitome of cat. In her long life she has known the love of her mother in a perfect spot beneath an old tool shed has loved her own kittens in a less ideal location beneath a coffee shop and has cycled through the lives of several humans and ended up with her own true human love a handsome cultured shoe salesman she refers to as the Mustache. She and the Mustache have a life driven by quiet joys. They listen to Coltrane and Son House absorb audiobooks while the Mustache cooks dinner appreciate a wide range of poetic verse and spend Sundays together filled with “love and stillness.” Then one day the Mustache goes on a trip and leaves our narrator in the care of a neighbor boy who in spite of his seemingly kind nature kidnaps the cat and sells her to “some guy in a tacky trench coat” who delivers her to a laboratory. There as part of a 10-day course designed to “improve emotional competency” our narrator is sealed inside a literal version of Schrödinger’s box—a mirror-lined container devoid of food and water wherein she is theoretically both alive and dead as long as the box remains unopened. For the cat however her life and death are anything but theory and as the novel examines her life before the box and in its unusual aftermath the joyous images of this cat’s most catlike experiences cast a dappled spotlight on the human world too. Inventive erudite funny and devastating this debut novel by memoirist and poet Morín eschews traditional plot in favor of the illuminating power of the image. While this may result in a frustrating experience for readers with a literal expectation of what a novel must do this book’s effervescent energy has its own pleasures which more than make up for any holes in the plot.

As dark clouds approach Mira and her grandmother Avó pull out their vibrant umbrellas to “swirl color into the gray.” They dance in puddles and giggle in the pouring rain. Mira loves how her grandmother always finds sunshine on gloomy days. The next year Avó worries about her wobbly knees in the slippery rain. Mira plays by herself but it doesn’t feel right. She goes “sunshine hunting” with her family but the rain gives her father the chills and leaves her mother with a runny nose. When her brother Pran joins in he stomps instead of dancing in the puddles and swings from the banyan vines rather than twirl his umbrella. As Mira tries to rein him in she hears Avó who’s laughing as she gazes down from the balcony. Avó sings Pran stomps and Mira twirls and “together they find sunshine in the monsoon.” Athaide’s melodic alliterative writing creates an immersive experience capturing both the refreshing feeling of rain in the intense heat and the loving rapport between grandmother and grandchild. Sreenivasan’s energetic illustrations bring to life the Fountainhas neighborhood of Goa with intricate details; the use of bright purples yellows and pinks provides an effective contrast to the gray weather.

“When I was growing up no one would have mistaken the Gowanus for the Nile or any other living body of water. It was an open sewer stagnant reeking sluggish meandering from Butler Street—today’s Boerum Hill—through a graveyard of decayed nineteenth-century industrial plants abandoned warehouses dying marine repair facilities rotting docks its future already past. I played pirates on half-sunken barges sought treasure among barrels of glittering industrial chemicals climbed ladders and through hatches of gigantic rusted marine diesel engines.” This description of the body of water that gave Coppola’s Brooklyn neighborhood its name sets a tone he sustains through the vignettes that follow: lyrical entrancing and brilliantly specific descriptions of the mostly horrifying and painful experiences that comprised his childhood including the violence of the local wiseguys and equally vicious police; the emotional terrorism of cruel nuns and pedophilic priests; and the dangers posed by reckless drivers street gangs unexploded firecrackers—you name it. Though his mother was loving and gentle the unpredictability of his father kept his home from being a refuge; the one reliably good thing in Coppola’s life however was the food. No matter what the braciole the spaghetti the calamari and the “gabagool” (capicola) just kept on coming. The vignettes skip forward and backward through time; though most are set well before Coppola leaves the neighborhood we see glimpses of his later life as a father a Newsweek reporter and an abruptly abandoned husband. Returned to time and again is the death of his beloved gay brother Thomas blond and gorgeous who had AIDS. A visit to the family’s ancestral hometown in Italy provides a rare moment of redemption; he learns that his namesake grandfather was not the irresponsible squanderer they thought when he returned from his own visit penniless—he had spent all the money helping the family. This one monster turns out to be an angel.

In 2018 Haaland was elected as one of the first two Native American women to serve in Congress (along with Sharice Davids) and in 2021 she was appointed by President Joe Biden as Secretary of the Interior—making her the first Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history. Now she is running to become governor of New Mexico. Her chatty pragmatic memoir describes a life that would not at first seem to be aimed in the direction of political power. Referring to herself as “a thirty-fifth generation New Mexican” Haaland was raised by a civil servant mother who was a member of the Turquoise Clan of Laguna Pueblo and a U.S. Marine father who was a third-generation Norwegian immigrant whose “idea of a good time was rowing a small boat on the Great Dismal Swamp.” Like most military families hers relocated frequently during her childhood. After she graduated high school she worked for 10 years at a bakery becoming an expert cake decorator and drank to excess. Newly sober she enrolled in college at age 28 raised a daughter as a single mother and went on to attend law school then worked on a grassroots level in New Mexico politics. She also ran marathons on a regular basis before running for Congress under the slogan “Congress Has Never Heard a Voice Like Mine.” Peppering her memoir with recipes such as Red Chile Beans for Frito Pies a dish she uses to connect with others Haaland stresses the importance of going door to door to meet constituents. Though Haaland makes her opinion of President Donald Trump clear—calling him “a selfish angry man”—the memoir mostly steers clear of partisan politics instead emphasizing the point that “people with real lived experience should have opportunities to serve.”

Ten-year-old Puffin Lau who’s Chinese and Portuguese is used to being overlooked by her busy widowed mother but it still stings when Mum doesn’t show up as promised to speak to her class during their field trip to her workplace the Pokko Science and Research Museum. As the Head of the Mysterious Animal Genetics and Innovation Centre Puffin’s mum is the preeminent expert on kuri extinct wildcats endemic to Linger Island that were said to have healing powers. Following a hunch Puffin and best friend Lance Moe sneak away and enter the highly restricted lab where they make a startling discovery: Hidden away in a cage is a real live kuri with “brilliant shimmering orange” fur and mesmerizing green eyes. Mistrustful of the intentions of her mum and Pokko CEO Mr. Smoult the friends escape with the animal. They discover Smoult’s desire to exploit the kuri for science and soon realize that the creature can’t survive away from the island for much longer—and that the island in turn needs the creature. Sit’s children’s debut follows Puffin and Lance’s ensuing journey blending themes of self-discovery scientific ethics and environmental activism; the discussion of natural stewardship and the interconnectedness of people and the environment is its greatest strength. The action starts right away and the young heroes surmount obstacles easily. Dean’s evocative black-and-white illustrations emphasize key scenes.

When 18-year-old Emma Bishop hears that Prescott Boys’ Academy the sister school to her own Ellis Academy for Girls has burned down one of her first thoughts is a wish that “Benedict Quarington had died in the fire.” She doesn’t actually mean it of course but ever since they met at London’s Hyde Park10 years ago trading insults over a stray ball Emma and Ben have maintained a rivalry built on sharp wit and clever barbs. Now Prescott’s destruction forces the integration of the two schools and Emma and Ben find themselves unwillingly in close proximity as co–vice presidents of the combined student body. Complicating matters further is the blossoming relationship between their friends and fellow student-council members Rachel Ellis and Fisher Locke. After the school’s Welcome Masquerade dance Rachel and Fisher’s romance becomes official shifting the group’s dynamics—and incorporating a lot more bad poetry. As the new couple and their friends begin spending more time together Emma and Ben are frequently—and reluctantly—placed into each other’s orbit. Sensing what Emma and Ben can’t admit their pals concoct a carefully staged scheme designed to push the pair toward recognizing their true feelings. Before long the line between antagonism and affection blurs. Readers will find the dynamic between Emma and Ben to be magnetic as their banter evolves quickly from spitefulness to flirtatiousness. Some aspects of the characters’ backgrounds feel underdeveloped though such as Emma’s deep fear of fire. Still a standout element is the novel’s thoughtful inclusivity particularly in its representation of asexuality. “Tiger” Moriarty a nonbinary and aro/ace student is a particular highlight providing Dogberry-esque comic relief while serving as a grounding presence to the other characters and assisting them in their journeys to better understand themselves.

In this insightful manual Clark and Kindred define sentient design as the practice of creating intelligent interfaces that adapt to real-time user context. The authors argue that AI should be treated as a new and unique design material comparing its transformative potential to that of the versatility of the Roman concrete used to construct the Pantheon. As Clark and Kindred write “Describe the thing you want and the answer or artifact appears…In fact thanks to the awareness and anticipation of these systems you may not even have to ask at all.” The authors’ concept is built around the “Sentient Triangle” a visual tool that maps experiences based on machine-intelligent characteristics. Within this framework are four fundamental user “postures” for sentient design in addition to a variety of design patterns that contribute to the intelligent interfaces. (“You’ll learn the UI [user interface] patterns interaction patterns and functional patterns that animate each of these intelligent interfaces.”) This work is distinguished from standard tech guides by its measured ethical stance; Clark and Kindred dedicate space to defensive design teaching readers ways to manage the often fickle sycophantic and hallucinatory nature of AI. The authors offer practical design techniques for handling bias and overconfidence emphasizing that systems must remain adherent to human interactions and judgment. By analyzing everyday digital tools Clark and Kindred demonstrate how sentient design already functions and how it can be adapted for future experiences. The collaborative voice of the authors infuses a tone of experienced wisdom into the text effectively blending high-tech subject matter with human-centric techniques and values that will be useful to product leaders and designers.

Hilmes author of Berlin 1936: Fascism Fear Triumph (2018) opens on the official end of World War II in Europe—May 8 1945—with a kaleidoscope of scenes in national capitals. Crowds celebrate famous exiled Germans (Thomas Mann Kurt Weill Bertolt Brecht) express their opinions and in their homeland Nazis make themselves scarce. SS chief Heinrich Himmler turns up objects to his reception and kills himself. Hilmes reminds readers that Winston Churchill despite his charisma remained a conservative aristocrat who never lacked food shelter employment and was shocked to be voted out of office by Britons who yearned to share his good fortune. The author writes that President Harry Truman was in some ways an improvement over President Franklin D. Roosevelt who was under the mistaken impression that he could manipulate Stalin. The summer of 1945 ends with Japan’s surrender in September but Germany holds the author’s focus and he paints a less cheerful picture than the usual American documentary. Unprepared for millions of surrendering Nazi soldiers the Allies packed them into massive encampments lacking food and sanitation. Millions of refugees expelled from Eastern Europe fared little better until international organizations got their acts together. Details of the Holocaust were not widely known and survivors encountered as much antisemitism as ever. Berliners cleared rubble and searched for food but also packed the cinemas and concert halls which opened within weeks of the war’s end. “There are now more than thirty cinemas open in Berlin” a Red Army soldier writes to his daughter. “The cinema employees say that there has never before been such an inux of people as there is now.” The future was just around the corner.

Slimani picks up the saga inspired by her Franco-Moroccan family in 1980s Casablanca. Mehdi Daoud the former Marxist activist who’s the new president of the Crédit Commercial du Maroc aims to foster the emergence of a Moroccan middle class by financing social housing programs and tourism-boosting resorts. However the more hours Mehdi puts in at the office the less time he has for daughters Mia and Inès—a source of contention between him and his selfless wife gynecologist Aïcha. Aïcha believes that her eldest child Mia wears her hair short and dresses like a boy so she can “escape the curse of girls and mothers who always end up acting like martyrs.” In truth Mia is secretly queer disdains stereotypically female preoccupations and nurtures the “unspeakable hope that she might eventually become her father’s son.” Inès for her part desperately wants to be like her mother—or better yet her sensual independent great-aunt Selma who calls to mind “Lauren Bacall with a cane and a cigarette holder.” Both sisters would be imprisoned for “loose morals” by their homeland’s government so each begins plotting her personal exodus. Advance to 2021 Paris where the tale’s modern-day frame finds novelist Mia suffering from post-Covid writer’s block. After consulting with a neurologist Mia hops a plane to her grandparents’ farm in Fes determined to find a way forward by reconnecting with her past. Moving back and forth in time while employing myriad narrative styles and points of view Slimani explores issues of identity alienation disillusionment and generational trauma. All Slimani’s characters shine but her women are especially radiant evincing a complexity and depth that elevate both this book and the series as a whole.

“Jefferson survives.” These it is said were John Adams’ last words as he died—as did Jefferson—on July 4 1826 exactly 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. That document write historians Onuf and Cogliano in this distillation of their popular seminar for schoolteachers was heavily edited by a committee of the Continental Congress introducing certain ambiguities and deleting a key passage in which Jefferson lay blame for slavery on King George III—editing that Jefferson believed “fatally compromised the integrity of the Declaration [Congress] finally adopted.” The irony of course is that Jefferson himself was slaveholder to the end of his life which has led to his being canceled in many progressive quarters leaving it to the right wing to claim Jefferson as their own. This is overreach the authors suggest for although Jefferson held out for states’ rights and mistrusted a too-powerful central government he of course supported the creation of a federal union in the first place one that constituted a nation. Whether on the left or right the authors worry that Jefferson “seems to have lost his relevance.” They argue that Jefferson’s central question—“Are we capable of governing ourselves?”—remains central today particularly in a time of authoritarianism and a seemingly imperial government in the place of a polity whose power derives from the consent of the governed. The authors emphasize other aspects of Jeffersonian thought including the thesis that it is up to each generation to preserve the nation for the generations to follow: “The success and survival of America’s republican experiment depended on the spirit that animates each generation and brings abstract principles to life.”