A Glorious Fate: The Life and Legacy of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw by Kevin M. Levin (University of North Carolina Press). Reviewed by Fergus M. Bordewich. “In the engrossing and highly readable A Glorious Fate, author Kevin M. Levin, a prolific writer on Civil War subjects, deftly unpacks Shaw’s legend to unveil the man beneath the myth. Levin finds him to be, in many respects, an unlikely hero. Born to parents who avidly embraced a gamut of reformist causes, including involvement with the experimental countercultural community known as Brook Farm, Shaw enjoyed a cossetted childhood. Several years of education and bohemian life in Europe followed, and after that, entry into Harvard, though more as a matter of assumed right than scholarly ambition. On the whole, Shaw comes across as a pleasant if somewhat frivolous and aimless young man who, although he professed opposition to slavery, expressed little of his parents’ fervor.”

The City Without Jews: Life and Death in Nazi Vienna by Douglas Smith (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Reviewed by Diane Kiesel. “Historian Douglas Smith takes the title of Bettauer’s novel for his new nonfiction work, The City Without Jews: Life and Death in Nazi Vienna, about the fate of Vienna’s Jews in World War II. Through the microcosm of the family of a Jewish nurse, Mignon Langnas, Smith describes the wider systematic destruction of a people. Based on Mignon’s diaries (started on July 18, 1939, and continued for six years), her letters from Vienna to those who escaped, and Smith’s own meticulous research, this book is hard to put down, yet almost too painful to read. What begins as the drip, drip, drip of petty indignities overflows with descriptions of the torture poured upon the Jews of Vienna. The details land like acid in the eyes and heart of the reader.”

All We Hide: A Novel by Robyn Gigl (Soho Crime). Reviewed by Tim Hennessy. “Lauren’s interest in the 21-year-old case is both professional and deeply personal. Coming out as a trans woman sent shockwaves through Lauren’s personal and professional life: Her marriage ended, and she became persona non grata in the district attorney’s office, where she’d been promoted. In high school, Lauren admired Sherry’s fun-loving spirit and courage, especially the way Sherry lived openly as herself, something Lauren had not yet been able to do. Now, as Lauren rebuilds her own life, she seeks justice for Sherry as a way of honoring her friend’s fiery, independent spirit.”

Tower Hill: A Plantation on the Edge of Rebellion by Alan Taylor (W.W. Norton & Company). Reviewed by Gregory May. “There is, of course, much more to Tower Hill than Nat Turner. Taylor uses the Blow family archive to paint a vivid, nuanced picture of the travails of a failing farmer in the Upper South during the years leading up to the Civil War. Although historians from Avery Craven to Joyce Chaplin, Drew Swanson, and David Silkenat have written about the economic and environmental devastation caused by slave-based agriculture, nothing brings it to life more than Taylor’s account of the decades of struggle described in this family’s many letters. We come to know these people and to understand their predicament.”

Great American Presidents: The Twelve Who Transformed the Nation by Allan J. Lichtman (Bancroft Press). Reviewed by Kitty Kelley. “On Lichtman’s scorecard, Truman merits a 6. His shortcomings appeared to be his inability to transform governance beyond the New Deal framework or to exercise the subtle political manipulation necessary to produce a lasting electoral realignment. Despite decisive leadership, Truman struggled to sustain a hold over the public.”

Dodge City: A Novel by Patrick deWitt (Ecco). Reviewed by Ryan Davison. “Lee heads east with a significant supply of uppers given by a generous friend to help him stay awake on the drive. As he visits relatives along the way, Dodge City becomes the thoughtful ‘amphetamine-fueled cross-country road trip’ promised in the publisher’s blurb. The reader is drawn in with every mile traveled, and we grow to respect this contemplative young man trying to understand his place in the world and gain clarity about the present by revisiting the past.”

Be Still My Unbeating Heart by Josh Winning (G.P. Putnam’s Sons). Reviewed by Nick Havey. “No longer shrouded in mystery, they’re just a supernatural, incredibly dangerous part of everyday life. But Bastian isn’t actually dangerous. A threat to nobody, he drinks only farm-animal blood. Nonetheless, when the quaint Cinque Terre town of Vernazza, a region of Italy in which vampires are strictly forbidden from feeding (by international accord), starts sporting more dead bodies than its tiny morgue can handle, Bastian’s human-free diet is less relevant than his status as the only vacationing vampire — and, thus, likeliest suspect — in sight.”

Subscribe to our newsletter here, and follow us on Instagram, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Advertise with us here.