New & Recommended

Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Portraits of Married Life in Literary London Circles 1910-1939
By Katie Roiphe
A provocative account of marital experimenting among such writers and artists as Vanessa Bell, H. G. Wells, and Vera Brittain (Dial, $26).

Away
By Amy Bloom
Bloom's tale of a Russian widow in search of her daughter manages to be lyrical, funny, and brilliant all at once (Random House, $23.95).

Circling My Mother
By Mary Gordon
In her new memoir, the author examines the life of a flawed yet beloved parent (Pantheon, $24).

The Night Birds
By Thomas Maltman
The struggle over slavery is one of several themes ably addressed in this first novel about 19th-century America (Soho, $24).

Plain Secrets: An Outsider Among the Amish
By Joe Mackall
A journalist's reflections on his Amish neighbors in rural Pennsylvania (Beacon, $24.95).

Selected from books recently reviewed in the Globe.