"Wayfarers"

New from Quill Tree Books: Wayfarers: A Road Trip Romance Novel in Verse for Teens by Jeff Zentner and Brittany Cavallaro.

About the book, from the publisher:

A must-read for fans of Morgan Matson and Kasie West, this YA novel in verse and conversation—cowritten by bestselling authors Jeff Zentner and Brittany Cavallaro—follows a girl trying to outrun her problems and a boy just discovering the outside world as they embark on a life-changing road trip.

What do you do
when there’s nothing
in this world you want
more than to spend two
more hours with someone
and nothing in the world
you want less than to only
spend two more hours
with someone?

Sylvie said she wanted to live the van life after high school, but all she really wanted was to escape. With unlimited resources and an escape-artist golden retriever by her side, she keeps her eyes on the road to distract her from everything she left behind.

Knox grew up on the edge of society, without a phone, a school, or a real name. He’s never felt like he had a firm place to stand, but he’s done writing his story in vanishing ink.

On one of the worst days of Sylvie’s life, Knox helps rescue her dog and breaks his arm in the process. To apologize, Sylvie offers him a ride. But Knox is keeping some big secrets, and so is Sylvie. They must decide: If the other person knew the whole story, would they take a chance on—and maybe even fall for—a wayfaring stranger?

Visit Jeff Zentner's website and Brittany Cavallaro's website.

Writers Read: Jeff Zentner (March 2016).

My Book, The Movie: The Serpent King.

The Page 69 Test: The Serpent King.

The Page 69 Test: Goodbye Days.

My Book, The Movie: Colton Gentry's Third Act.

--Marshal Zeringue

"In a Land of Strangers"

New from The University of North Carolina Press: In a Land of Strangers: Northern Teachers in the Slave South by Michael T. Bernath.

About the book, from the publisher:

What makes the American South distinctive? Is it the location, the culture, the mindset—or a story Americans learned to tell about themselves? In a Land of Strangers contends that the idea of a “distinctive” South did not crystallize out of the Civil War or politics alone; instead, it took shape decades earlier through the everyday observations of thousands of Northern teachers who lived and worked there from the late eighteenth century through the Civil War. Young, white, educated, and marked as outsiders, these men and women occupied an unusual position of trust within Southern households, classrooms, and plantations, granting them rare, intimate access to the inner workings of slaveholding society.

Michael T. Bernath offers the first full-length study of this vast group of teachers—the most sustained point of contact between North and South in the antebellum era. Bewildered, curious, and constantly translating the South for themselves and audiences back home, these educators described a strange and profoundly different place in their diaries and letters. Collectively, they fixed a shared image of the South in the national imagination. In this book, Bernath reshapes our understanding of sectional identity, American culture, and why the idea of a distinctive South endures.

The Page 99 Test: Confederate Minds.

--Marshal Zeringue

"These Walls Remember"

New from Berkley: These Walls Remember by Del Sandeen.

About the book, from the publisher:

When two estranged sisters inherit a home possessed by the horrors of its dark past, they must work together to survive in this viscerally chilling Southern gothic novel from the critically acclaimed author of This Cursed House.

Do not go into the attic, the note warned.

But that’s exactly what sisters Mickie and Delilah do when they inherit a distant relative’s house in Savannah, Georgia. They intend to sell the property, divide the proceeds, and go their separate ways once and for all.

But 724 Hartford Street has other plans.

As the sisters learn about this house and its history, past wounds begin to fester and spill into the present: strange visions, memory lapses, unexplained accidents, and surreal echoes of the house’s previous inhabitants—some of whom disappeared after living in the home. The sisters suspect the residents of the sleepy Savannah neighborhood know more than they’re saying about what really happened there.

And then Delilah, once adamant about selling and never looking back, develops an uncanny attachment to the house, her personality changing in alarming ways. Mickie knows that she’ll have to pull her sister from the home’s clutches or they will both succumb to that which hungers in its walls.

Visit Del Sandeen's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Mental States"

New from Columbia University Press: Mental States: Ordering Psychiatric Disorder in France by Alex V. Barnard.

About the book, from the publisher:

How do states decide who is or is not mentally ill? Alex V. Barnard shows that, beneath the chaotic trajectories of people with mental illness and the fragmented agencies and professionals serving them, there is an underlying order to the ways societies classify, treat, and control madness.

Based on more than a year of in-depth fieldwork in France, Mental States takes readers to a public mental health clinic charged with providing care despite diminishing resources, a social service office dispensing benefits intended to help chronically ill people recover their autonomy, and a court where judges must decide the delicate balance between rights and control for people subjected to involuntary psychiatric hospitalization. Drawing on these observations, as well as hundreds of interviews with French professionals and decades of archival materials, Barnard demonstrates that these disparate sites are linked by a shared conception of what makes someone a malade―a real mentally ill person. This medical and bureaucratic identity keeps the mad in the grips of a paternalist, protective psychiatric system―in sharp contrast to the United States, where this population careens among jails, shelters, and hospitals.

This book reveals the power of states to create mentally ill populations and shows how these populations can in turn remake states. The way states have crafted madness in the past weighs on the present, explaining why countries can maintain distinct approaches even in an era when psychiatric knowledge and medical treatment are converging across borders.

Visit Alex V. Barnard's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Heir of Prophecy"

Coming soon from Harper Voyager: Heir of Prophecy: A Romantasy Novel of a Girl Caught Between Two Prophecies Two Worlds and One Alluring Vision (The Clash of Prophecies Duet) by Analeigh Sbrana

About the book, from the publisher:

She's a woman bound by fate, torn between two prophecies.

He's the Prince of the underworld, fated to either claim her or end her life.

Defying destiny is one thing…the heart, another.

Magic has always been at the periphery of Audra’s life. As a human, she knows that magic exists, but it's as distant as the legends she grew up with. Until one day, magic returns, bringing with it the all too real Fae and upending Audra’s life entirely.

Abducted by a cult of fae Priestesses, Audra finds herself conscripted into a magical war academy. The only hope of surviving this new world filled with guilds, magic, and danger is to band together with a group of her fellow prisoners. Though unlike the others, Audra's burgeoning magic is erratic and violent—just as the prophecy foretold. She must discover what it means to be the Heir, but time is running out. The Priestesses know the Heir moves among them, and they're determined to root them out, no matter what it takes.

As she struggles to mask her power, Audra’s plagued by visions of a dark, seductive being with a conflicting truth. He doesn’t want to save the world; he plans to reclaim it.

Now, Audra must choose: become the savior the cult demands or the catalyst the vision promises.

Visit Analeigh Sbrana's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Undesirable"

New from Oxford University Press: Undesirable: Invasive Species, Humans, and Where We All Belong by Amy Crawford.

About the book, from the publisher:

Invasive species are consistently vilified as a major threat to the ecosystems we call home. But Undesirable reveals there is much more to this story, and offers surprising ideas about our relationship with the natural world.

Over the past five hundred years, human exploration, settlement and commerce have carried countless plants and animals far from their original homes, where they sometimes go on to transform familiar landscapes, cause large-scale agricultural damage, and endanger precious native species. But the young field of invasion biology has been wracked by controversy and haunted by ethical quandaries as it has sought to destroy some species for the benefit of others. Undesirable: Invasive Species, Humans, and Where We All Belong brings this complexity to light, illuminating the often dubious moral and even ecological and economic bases for many anti-invasive policies.

Whether it's garlic mustard spreading through American forests or brushtail possums allegedly decimating the flightless birds of New Zealand, Undesirable reveals a multi-faceted story of how humans have irrevocably disrupted nearly every ecosystem in the world. We have introduced new species, destroyed habitat and changed the climate―but it's not always clear how to hold ourselves accountable in the quest to bring balance and sustainability to this new natural world. Through case studies, historical surveys, media criticism, and conversations with both experts and the ordinary people who serve as foot soldiers in the war on invasive species, this book explores how confronting our deeper anxieties about nature and our roles in a changing world can help us see our "unwanted" neighbors in a new light and teach us all to be better stewards.

Visit Amy Crawford's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Murder Like Magic"

Coming soon from Crooked Lane Books: Murder Like Magic: A Novel by Trisha Blanchet.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Being able to read minds should make it pretty easy to solve crimes, right? Right?

A sort-of-telepathic witch-slash-PI takes on a murder case in this light urban fantasy mystery, perfect for fans of A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer.

Tess Tulley is the proud proprietor of Mill City Investigations—the premier (if you ask her) private investigation business in her small Massachusetts city. Business is slow, especially after she blew up her credibility among her fellow Spinners (do not call them witches) by turning in her own uncle for a crime spree three years ago. Loyalty among Spinners is top priority, and Tess’s decision to put the investigation over her coven has left her out in the cold.

So when the local “Officer Handsome” comes knocking with a bizarre murder investigation involving a dead Spinner, Tess is reluctant to take the case. Even more so when she learns the details: The victim was stabbed postmortem, there’s no sign of who or what actually killed her, and the body was found in a pool of someone else’s blood.

Left with few other options, Tess dusts off her investigative skills, revs up her so-so telepathy, and dives headfirst back into her old community of Spinners. If she’s lucky, she’ll be able to unmask a killer and figure out whose blood had been left behind at the crime scene—and why. If she’s not lucky (and let’s face it, she rarely is), Tess might just become the next casualty on a slab in the Mill City morgue.

Visit Trisha Blanchet's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Tied to Their Country"

New from the University of Nebraska Press: Tied to Their Country: The Farm Crisis, Agrarian Activism, and the Rise of Rural Anti-Federalism by Rebecca Shimoni Stoil.

About the book, from the publisher:

Historically, rural spaces in the United States have encompassed a wide array of political cultures and affiliations, but in the late twentieth century, rural America became a breeding ground for anti-government militancy. Disparate groups coalesced around an ideology grounded in virulent rural anti-federalism. Although farmers today are often beneficiaries of federal programs and payments, anti-federal sentiments run rampant across rural America. The reason, Rebecca Shimoni Stoil argues, lies in the collapse of rural society during the Farm Crisis of the 1970s and 1980s.

In Tied to Their Country, Shimoni Stoil examines the immediate and long-term political repercussions of the Farm Crisis. Beginning as an agricultural crisis, it quickly enveloped all of rural America as banks collapsed, Main Street storefronts closed, and small towns became ghost towns. Because the federal government failed to offer farmers viable solutions, previously disparate ideologies converged in this political vacuum to advocate for agrarian America amid growing distrust of federal institutions and intentions. Farmers found their best strategy was appealing to romantic ideas of American traditions, and social conservatives quickly reciprocated, turning farm country into the heartland of social conservatism. The perceived failure of the federal government’s response to the Farm Crisis generated distrust, resentment, and a crisis of faith in government that resonates across rural spaces today.

--Marshal Zeringue

"First Chance"

Coming September 8 from Blackstone: First Chance by Kasey Lansdale.

About the novel, from the publisher:

First Chance is a suspenseful thriller that readers won't be able to put down--perfect for fans of Sue Grafton and Michael Connelly.

Chance Kirby isn't new to detective work, but starting over in Hopeful, Texas, is a big step. Determined to leave behind her father and stepmother's shadow and carve out a future of her own, she opens a small PI agency, expecting missing heirlooms and marital disputes. But when the cold case of a murdered teenage girl is dropped on her doorstep, Chance finds herself in the middle of an investigation with no leads.

With her adopted sister Tia, her loyal dog Sissy, and the town's newly arrived police chief Isabella Lopez at her side, Chance soon begins to suspect this murder may be only one piece of a much bigger, and more disturbing, pattern.

To stop a predator who, it seems, has managed to evade authorities for decades, Chance must stay one step ahead ... or risk becoming the next target.

Visit Kasey Lansdale's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Cloudy with a Chance of Starships"

New from Princeton University Press: Cloudy with a Chance of Starships: How the Drake Equation Reveals the Odds of Life in the Cosmos by Seven Rasmussen.

About the book, from the publisher:

An entertaining tour of the seemingly simple formula guiding the search for extraterrestrial intelligence

Cloudy with a Chance of Starships takes readers on an irreverent expedition through the marvelous world of astrobiology, using as a guide the most important equation in science since E=mc2. With an irresistible blend of wit, insight, and the latest cutting-edge research, Seven Rasmussen looks at the thrilling possibilities of life in the cosmos through the lens of the Drake equation, a seven-variable mathematical expression that calculates the number of civilizations in our galaxy that humans could potentially contact.

First proposed in 1961 by astrobiologist and SETI scientist Frank Drake, the equation begins with simple and well-known numbers such as the rate of star formation in the Milky Way and the fraction of stars with planetary systems. It then wades into thornier topics such as the number of planets with environments suitable for life, the fraction of suitable planets on which life appears, and the likelihood of intelligent life emerging on a planet and becoming technological. It concludes with the truly unknowable average lifetime of a civilization. While we will never resolve all its variables, the Drake equation offers an invaluable road map to the questions and challenges that lie before us in our quest for alien life.

Cloudy with a Chance of Starships guides readers from the basics of astronomy to the very frontiers of planetary science, along the way covering subjects such as the Big Bang, the formation of solar systems, the origins and evolution of life, and the fascinating methods used by astrobiologists today. This extraordinary book shares a tantalizing vision of the dawning era of space exploration and invites enthusiasts of all ages to join in the discovery.

Visit Seven Rasmussen's website.

--Marshal Zeringue