"Ghosts of Bandung"

New from the University of California Press: Ghosts of Bandung: Black Power and Palestine in the Global Cold War by Derek A. Ide.

About the book, from the publisher:

Ghosts of Bandung makes the major new argument that the fates of the Black and Palestinian revolutions were bound together through the rise and fall of a larger Third World political project. Drawing on English and Arabic archives, Derek A. Ide shows how Afro-Arab solidarities shaped and were shaped by geopolitics and grand strategy. Through biographical vignettes of forgotten figures and underexplored groups, Ghosts of Bandung interweaves the histories of movement dynamics and those of contending states in the global Cold War. This story binds the United States and the Middle East―Detroit and Damascus, Oakland and Algiers―while spanning the globe. From the Sino-Soviet split to the Beijing-Jakarta Axis, this global retelling of Black Power and the Palestinian Revolution engages China, Cuba, Ghana, Indonesia, Jordan, and others. At the heart of this broader project is the hitherto untold story of CONEFO, Indonesian President Sukarno’s attempt to construct an alternative United Nations–like organization in Jakarta. Centering on 1965 and the collapse of CONEFO, Ide links the fates of Black Power and the Palestinian Revolution to the fall of Third Worldism and the “Bandung Spirit.”

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Love Operation"

New from Mindy's Book Studio: The Love Operation: A Novel by Melissa R. Collings.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A brilliant spine surgeon gains the power to perfectly recall her past—only to discover that some memories are better left undisturbed. A witty, emotional story about the intersection of medicine, memory, and the messy reality of loving imperfectly.

Dr. Cordelia Wren has always been in control—of her surgical career, her emotions, and especially her memories. But when she joins a cutting-edge memory enhancement study at her hospital, she gains an unexpected ability: the power to vividly relive any moment from her past. It seems like the perfect opportunity to analyze her failed relationships and finally understand why every man she’s ever loved has walked away.

There’s just one problem. Actually, three:

1. She may have…borrowed…access to the highly restricted memory study.
2. She’s secretly dating the hospital’s new COO while competing for chief of surgery—a relationship that could destroy both their careers if discovered.
3. Her first love has just reappeared in her life, stirring up feelings she thought she’d buried.

As Cordelia dives deeper into her past, the lines between memory and reality begin to blur. The truth she uncovers forces her to question everything she thought she knew about love, ambition, and what it means to be “in control.”

With her career hanging in the balance and her heart pulled in two directions, Cordelia must decide: Should she trust the memories that have shaped her life, or finally let go of the past to embrace an uncertain future?

Perfect for fans of Emily Henry and Ali Hazelwood, The Love Operation is a witty, emotional story about the intersection of medicine, memory, and the messy reality of loving imperfectly.

Visit Melissa R. Collings's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Charlemagne’s Dream"

New from Basic Books: Charlemagne’s Dream: The Rise and Fall of the Carolingian Empire by James T. Palmer.

About the book, from the publisher:

A sweeping, definitive history of the dynamic, expansionist dynasty that forged the Middle Ages—and Europe—as we know it.

Today, the Carolingians are best known as the dynasty of Charlemagne. In a few remarkable decades spanning the late eighth and early ninth centuries, Charlemagne united much of modern-day Europe through conquest and diplomacy, establishing the continent’s first empire since the fall of Rome.

In Charlemagne’s Dream, historian James T. Palmer looks beyond Charlemagne alone to tell the full story of the rise and fall of the massively consequential Carolingian dynasty—the men and women who laid the foundations for his achievements, and the colorful heirs who squandered his legacy. Carolingian rulers established the royal court as a place of learning, attracting scholars and philosophers and driving a cultural and intellectual renaissance. They fought and traded with power centers as far-flung as Córdoba, Constantinople, and Baghdad. In allying with the pope, they forever changed the relationship between church and state in the West. And they dispatched the first missionaries to northern Europe, expanding Christendom’s reach farther than ever before.

Charlemagne’s Dream details the powerfully human stories of the Carolingians, showing how their pursuit of ever-greater power built one of the world’s great empires.

Visit James T. Palmer's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Upstate"

New from William Morrow Paperbacks: Upstate: A Novel by Kim van Alkemade.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A grieving writer. An abandoned bookshop. A secret love story hidden in letters.

From New York Times bestselling author Kim van Alkemade comes an unforgettable novel about found family, healing, and the power of the past to reshape the present.

Thirty-four-year-old writer Audrey Beacon is grieving alone during lockdown when a post about a bookshop for sale in upstate New York pops into her social media feed like a lifeline. Enthralled by the historic house and the massive barn bursting with books, Audrey impulsively makes an offer. Soon, she’s cashing out her savings, loading her possessions into her dead husband’s van, and fleeing Manhattan for the village of Schuywich, determined to outrun the ghosts of her past.

In 1956, it’s love at first sight when Schuywich librarian Hazel McIntyre meets dashing magazine writer Evelyn Cabot at a summer camp in Maine that discreetly promises a “different vacation for professional women.” By summer’s end, Evelyn has left Greenwich Village to move into an old farmhouse she’s bought in Hazel’s hometown. In her new column, “A Woman’s Place,” Evelyn writes about her adventures renovating a house, tending to sheep, and opening a bookshop in her barn with help from the woman readers know only as her “roommate.” Privately, Hazel chronicles their six-decade love story in a series of letters that abruptly end when they’re forced to abandon the bookshop in 2015.

Reopening the bookshop in the summer of 2020 attracts a quirky community of villagers who continuously interrupt Audrey’s solitude: An unemployed Broadway set designer. An ambitious teenage entrepreneur. A story-telling Adirondack grandmother. Then there’s Sam Rensselaer, the distractingly handsome representative of the agriculture extension. Past and present begin to converge when Audrey finds “A Woman’s Place,” in a stack of old magazines, but it’s the discovery of Hazel’s letters that brings hidden love and long-buried family secrets to light. Will Audrey find the courage to heal the wounds of the past—including her own?

Visit Kim van Alkemade's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Data Are Made, Not Found"

New from the University of Chicago Press: Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census by danah boyd.

About the book, from the publisher:

An eye-opening story of the people who make the census, the United States’ largest and most consequential dataset, and the growing threats to their crucial work.

By many measures, the US census is the government’s largest non-wartime operation, and one of the world’s oldest and biggest data-making endeavors. The 2020 census required more than a decade of planning and technical work―not to mention managing nearly a quarter of a million temporary workers simultaneously―to collect data about the American public. That data was then processed to count each of 331,449,281 residents once―and only once―and in the right place. The operation is also one of the country’s most consequential. Census data determine how political power and federal funding are allocated. Census data make politics, and consequently, politics make census data. In this urgent book, danah boyd explores what it took for the Census Bureau to make the 2020 census, amidst a global pandemic and natural disasters, and while navigating political forces that constrained the budget, micro-managed the schedule, and attacked statisticians’ methods.

With rare insider access to the Census Bureau, boyd observed and interviewed hundreds of government civil servants who made the 2020 census. By documenting the perspectives of government workers, Data Are Made, Not Found provides a rare glimpse into what it takes to make democracy’s data. Each chapter reveals a different challenge―ranging from the last-minute fights about a citizenship question to the not-so-helpful help of well-intended stakeholders to avoid undercounts―and shows how civil servants responded to each problem, controversy, and hurdle. Boyd shows how many of the challenges that the Census Bureau faced in 2020 resulted from decades of political operatives, data users, and various stakeholders playing what boyd calls “Jenga politics,” weakening the administrative state for short-term political gains by removing support and adding more requirements.

Civil servants saved the 2020 census, but future censuses―and other data-making efforts related to elections, health, and the economy―are precarious. Boyd’s message is clear and compelling: protecting democracy means protecting the people and institutions that produce this data.

Visit danah boyd's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Cold Read"

Coming November 10 from Park Row Books: The Cold Read: A Novel by Tara Laskowski.

About the novel, from the publisher:

They're there to make a sequel. But someone came for revenge.

A decade ago, the release of the horror film No One Can Hear You Scream catapulted a young no-name cast into Hollywood fame. But below the surface, they were dealing with the fallout of their friend’s tragic death on set.

Now the cast is reuniting at the remote ski resort where the movie was filmed to announce the sequel and get a first glimpse of the screenplay. Cassidy, Jake, Ben, and Ruby—they’ve all followed different paths over the years, and each has their own reason for agreeing to return to a place they had sworn to leave behind.

At first everyone works hard to ignore the shadows of the past and focus on the opportunity ahead. But the reunion takes a dark turn during the midnight announcement to fans when a disturbing incident stirs up a long-buried secret.

Each of them has something to lose. Each of them has something to hide. And if they want to survive the weekend, they'll have to deliver the performance of a lifetime…

Visit Tara Laskowski's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Mother Next Door.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Persecuted: Why We Need Scapegoats"

New from Johns Hopkins University Press: Persecuted: Why We Need Scapegoats by Jack Lule.

About the book, from the publisher:

The making of the modern scapegoat.

Who gets blamed when societies feel under threat and why? In Persecuted, journalism scholar Jack Lule examines the deep roots of scapegoating as essential to human society. Scapegoating helps explain how and why people unite, shaping the ways groups define belonging, exclusion, and collective identity.

Drawing on the work of Kenneth Burke and René Girard, Lule argues that scapegoating is not a social malfunction but a core mechanism through which communities are formed. Nations rely on scapegoating to draw boundaries between "us" and "them." What makes the modern era especially volatile, he contends, is the role of media―from early messengers and newspapers to contemporary social platforms―in manufacturing crises, amplifying accusations, identifying targets, and accelerating cycles of blame. Moving fluidly across history, theory, and contemporary politics, the book shows how media systems have increased the reach, speed, and intensity of scapegoating, often transforming local resentments into global networks of hate and hostility. Lule presents a sober analysis of how scapegoating persists precisely because it feels natural, justified, and invisible to those participating in it.

Persecuted is a concise, unsettling exploration of a process that underlies nationalism, moral panics, and political polarization. Its hope―tentative but urgent―is that recognizing the recurring power of scapegoating may help readers identify it in real time and resist its most destructive consequences.

Visit Jack Lule's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Him & I"

Coming November 10 from Montlake: Him & I by Helena Hunting.

About the novel, from the publisher:

In a searing, dark love story steeped in grit, obsession, and secrets, two broken souls keep coming back together―no matter how much they tear each other apart.

Birdie Fast is thriving, with two degrees, a stable fiancé, and her dream job. Her mistakes are in the past, and she’s determined to keep them there.

Jarrod Storm, Birdie’s new CEO, is the man who destroyed her life and stole everything from her. Grown rich and powerful, he’s spent years waiting for her in the shadows.

Now, he wants her back.

Birdie loathes him, but she can’t deny how he makes her feel: safe. He’s the only one who’s ever truly seen her.

If there’s anything Birdie has learned, it’s to keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Because you’re never truly safe with a past like hers.

Visit Helena Hunting's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Everything Is Broken"

New from the University of California Press: Everything Is Broken: Childcare and Inequality in the United States by Jennifer Woltil Bouek.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the United States, childcare is presented in law and policy as a matter of "parental choice." Mothers, however, experience it differently. Instead of empowering families, childcare today often functions as an "invisible system" or a missing market―and one in which mothers find few good options. Yet because most mothers are also employed, they must still find a way to make do.

Based on years of ethnographic and administrative research, sociologist Jennifer Woltil Bouek explores how mothers search for, secure, and maintain care for their children within this complex organizational field―and the heavy costs they bear in the process. Her work illustrates just how the American childcare system sorts and stratifies, leading to disparate (and sometimes surprising) outcomes. Grounded in personal narratives drawn from a diverse sample of mothers, childcare providers, bureaucrats, and policy advocates, Everything Is Broken tells a striking story of access and exclusion from the inside out.

Visit Jennifer Bouek's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"You, Me, & the Conspiracy"

Coming November 10 from Atria Books: You, Me, & the Conspiracy: A Novel by Emma Barry.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Perfect for fans of Jo Segura and Rachel Grant, You, Me, & the Conspiracy is an academic adventure romance that finds two history professors trying to unmask a deadly secret society.

After a bruising book rejection, tenure-track history professor Jessica Wilson is scrambling for something new to publish to secure her spot at the top of the academic food chain. While researching in the archives, she discovers a coded message written by one of the founding fathers with the power to change her—and the world’s—understanding of American history forever. But first, she’s got to prove it’s real.

Desperate for answers, Jess searches out Calloway Morgan, a Harvard PhD student turned adjunct professor. Cal was forced to leave graduate school after presenting theories about a shadowy revolutionary organization. Jess heard his conference presentation and thought his findings were absurd, but now, she believes he was onto something.

With their fates intertwined by their discoveries, the two begin to work together, but danger lurks around every corner. The clandestine fraternity that they’ve uncovered still exists and is ready to kill. With it hot on their heels, the embers of Jess and Cal’s attraction grow. But unless they can make their findings public in this “perfect blend of chemistry, spice, and a historical mystery” (Adriana Anders, author of Whiteout), they’ll soon become the conspiracy’s latest victims...

Visit Emma Barry's website.

My Book, The Movie: Bad Reputation.

--Marshal Zeringue