1. Kitty Kelley’s review of The Club: Where American Women Artists Found Refuge in Belle Époque Paris by Jennifer Dasal (Bloomsbury Publishing). “Dasal writes about the discrimination against American female artists and their ‘pretty little paintings,’ citing the diaries and letters of some of the women who lived in one of the 40 rooms available in the Club. (With its tearoom, library, and exhibition hall, the place was certainly more palace than pensione.) But not all women were welcome — only white ones. In fact, the most gifted artist of those cited in Dasal’s book was Meta Vaux Warrick, an African American from Philadelphia who was denied admission into the Club but found a champion in Auguste Rodin, the greatest sculptor of the age.”


2. Diane Kiesel’s review of Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers by Caroline Fraser (Penguin Press). “Initially, Murderland seems as crazy as the killers it portrays. But Fraser, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, has the skills to pull it off, and once she gets going, the theory she espouses seems plausible. She makes the case that living within breathing distance of factories spitting out sulfur, chlorine, ammonia, lye, lead, arsenic, mercury, benzene naphthalene, cyanide, and God knows what else is more than enough to drive the inhalers nuts. Furthermore, the lush yet desolate typography of the Pacific Northwest, with its pine trees, tall mountains, and rushing rivers, makes it an ideal dumping ground for dead bodies. The result is an A+ chemistry project that yields — and shields — multiple mass murderers.”


3. 32 Books They Should Assign in School (but Probably Won’t). “What ought the high-schoolers and undergrads be reading these days? We have some thoughts!”


4. Kristin H. Macomber’s review of The Eights: A Novel by Joanna Miller (G.P. Putnam’s Sons). “The Eights share a curious bond: Not a single one of them has ever had a friend like any of the other three. And in all those ways that college housing assignments and instructions from proctors to stick together as they learn their way around develop, the four become fast friends and devoted caregivers, despite their differences. If this sounds like a Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants made-for-fiction premise, so be it, because the author’s use of this narrative device works wonderfully well. The Eights paints a detailed panorama of life on the British home front, both during and immediately after the War to End All Wars, as viewed through the eyes of remarkable young women whom, I promise, you’ll come to care deeply about.”


5. Tara Campbell’s review of Culpability: A Novel by Bruce Holsinger (Spiegel & Grau). “While the outlines of the incident seem relatively clear, the issue of responsibility is anything but: An autonomous AI system was driving the minivan. Charlie was supposed to be monitoring from behind the wheel, but he was texting until just before impact, when Alice’s screams caused him to jerk the wheel, which wrenched the minivan out of autonomous mode. So, who — or what — is at fault? Did the AI malfunction? Did the other car swerve into their lane? Should the AI have recovered, or was Charlie’s sudden jerking on the wheel the fatal factor? And, as the parent of the minor child driving, is Noah actually to blame?”

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