Maja Kostadinović Libri

At sixteen, Alfred Rosenberg faces punishment for anti-Semitic remarks during a school speech, leading him to memorize passages about Spinoza from Goethe's autobiography. He is shocked to learn that his idol, Goethe, admired the Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza, which creates a profound internal conflict for Rosenberg. He grapples with the "Spinoza problem": how could a genius like Goethe be inspired by someone from a race he deems inferior and seeks to annihilate? Spinoza himself faced severe consequences for his beliefs, being excommunicated from the Amsterdam Jewish community at just twenty-four, leading a life of isolation while producing influential works. As Rosenberg ascends to become a prominent Nazi ideologue and a key architect of the Third Reich's racial policies, his obsession with Spinoza persists. The narrative imagines the unlikely intersection of their lives, with internationally bestselling novelist Irvin D. Yalom delving into the psyches of these two men, one a saintly secular thinker and the other a godless mass murderer, separated by three centuries yet connected by their complex legacies.

In Amy Sohn’s smart, sexy, satirical peek into the bedrooms and hearts of Prospect Park West, the lives of four women come together during one long, hot Brooklyn summer. Frustrated Oscar-winning actress Melora Leigh eager to relieve the pressures of raising her adopted toddler, feels the seductive pull of kleptomania; Rebecca Rose, missing her formerly robust sex life, begins a dangerous flirtation with handsome neighborhood celebrity Lizzi O’Donnell, former lesbian (or "hasbian"), wonders what draws her to women despite her sexy husband and adorable baby; and Karen Bryan Shapiro consumes herself with a powerful obsession—snagging the ultimate three-bedroom apartment in a well-maintained, P.S. 321–zoned co-op building. As the women’s paths intertwined (an sometimes collide), each must struggle to keep her man, her sanity . . and her playdates.