Jungle Red!: The Making of MGM’s The Women by Illeana Douglas (Lyons Press). Reviewed by Bob Duffy. “Douglas does a marvelous job of profiling playwright-originator Luce and the show’s cast, as well as many of the creative folk behind the camera. And she excels at calling the play-by-play at each stage of the film’s creation, taking a Hollywood insider’s delight in recounting the simmering feuds, compulsive one-upmanship, and scene-stealing ploys of the lead actresses.” 

Few and Far Between: A Novel by Jan Carson (Scribner). Reviewed by Nicole Schrag. “Chapters alternate between a close-third-person narrator who follows multiple characters and excerpts from Alex’s book-in-progress, which gives vital context about the origins of the utopian project and about some of the Ark’s distinctive history. From Alex, we learn about the islands’ particular characteristics, which verge on the surreal. Carson expertly uses these multiple narrative modes to pace readers’ gradual discoveries: Who are the Almost-Deads on Church Flat? Why does Marion so hate stopping at Tom’s Hard while on her rounds?”

The City Without Jews: Life and Death in Nazi Vienna by Douglas Smith (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Reviewed by Diane Kiesel. “With the help of relatives, friends, and the IKG — a Jewish organization forced to comply with Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann’s order to get Jews out of Vienna or else — Mignon’s family left one by one. But she remained with her sick, elderly parents. Strangled by red tape and thwarted by most of the world’s nations (that didn’t want them, anyway), Jews made heartbreaking, expensive, and often futile efforts to emigrate, many of which are related by Smith in harrowing detail. Leon eventually made his way to New York, where Mignon’s sister Nelly had settled. On December 6, 1939 — one of the few dates she omitted in her diary entries — Mignon put her young children on a train for Genoa on the first leg of a journey to join their father. ‘[I]n time,’ writes Smith, Mignon’s son ‘lost all memory of his mother.’”

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. “The Blow family’s 2,000-acre Tower Hill plantation lay on the border of Southampton County, scene of one of the bloodiest and most important rebellions by enslaved people in American history. In August 1831, a band of men led by Nat Turner killed about 60 white people, and whites retaliated by killing roughly as many free and enslaved Black people. The Blows lived through these events, and from their letters, Taylor gleans new insights into the shadowy background and uncertain extent of the uprising.”

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