Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, Family Life...

Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, Family Life and Nazi Ideology, 1919-1945, Claudia Koonz (St. Martin’s). While its conclusions are “not very probing,” this book is “important because it amasses much new, interesting documentation about the forgotten role of women” (Sara E. Melzer).

Lillian Hellman: The Image, the Woman, William Wright (Simon & Schuster). A “meticulously researched, evenhanded and intuitive” book about theater, women and success and “the political forces shaping the American intellectual left since the 1930s” (Patricia Goldstone).

Anywhere but Here, Mona Simpson (Knopf). “The book’s rich texture and its ingenious tracking of our far-fetched normalities mark (Mona) Simpson as a brightly talented new writer” (Richard Eder).

Nicaragua: Unfinished Revolution, Peter Rosset and John Vandermeer (Grove). “The best resource available for Americans trying to determine whether U.S. intervention in Nicaragua is a sound idea” (Alex Raksin).