In this anthology of short stories, Cutting Edge: New Stories of Mystery and Crime by Women Writers (Akashic Books), Joyce Carol Oates, professor emerita of creative writing, promotes female noir authors, highlighting the women who have challenged the gendered status quo of a genre traditionally dominated by men.

Professor of history Michael D. Gordin sheds a light on Albert Einstein’s 16 months in Prague in Einstein in Bohemia (Princeton University Press). Although often dismissed as inconsequential, the physicist’s time in Prague transformed both his personal and scientific life: It was there that his marriage dissolved, he first contemplated his Jewish identity, and he began to investigate general relativity.