"The Optimists"

Coming February 24 from Little, Brown and Company: The Optimists: A Novel by Brian Platzer.

About the book, from the publisher:

A beloved schoolteacher chronicles the meteoric rise of his most dazzling student in this ambitious, big-hearted work of literary fiction, perfect for fans of Nathan Hill, Susan Choi, and Tess Gunty.

Mr. Keating is an extraordinary teacher: brilliant, dedicated, and possibly a few pages ahead in a book no one else is reading. He’s a magician able to enchant fourteen-year-olds into a love of writing and literature. Yet no student has lived up to the promise of their potential more than Clara Hightower. Over the course of three decades, Clara is a kindergarten thief, a high school genius, a Silicon Valley celebrity, and an animal rights activist turned terrorist.

To tell Clara’s story, Mr. Keating must tell his own, including his courtship and marriage, his dreams of writing and comedy, his days in the classroom in lower Manhattan along with the rivalry and friendship with his Head of School, and his eventual stroke and the isolation that follows.

The Optimists is a love story, a joke book, and a meditation on the meaning of life and death. But mostly it’s a fiercely original novel for anyone who has ever had a teacher or student profoundly affect their life.

Visit Brian Platzer's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Remembering Jefferson"

New from the University Press of Kansas: Remembering Jefferson: Who He Was, Who We Are by Mary E. Stuckey.

About the book, from the publisher:

An expert on presidential history and national identity explores the complicated and conflicted ways Americans remember Thomas Jefferson and what these impressions reveal about the nation he helped to found.

Thomas Jefferson is everywhere. In Washington, DC, and on Mount Rushmore. In history textbooks and children’s picture books. On Broadway and HBO. Jefferson is even on our money—both the ubiquitous nickel and the rare $2 bill. The many different ways that Americans remember the third president of the United States tell us very little about Jefferson himself, but they tell us a lot about the American people.

In Remembering Jefferson, presidential scholar Mary E. Stuckey examines various sites where Jefferson appears—his home at Monticello, references by other presidents, monuments and memorials, popular culture, and children’s literature—as a way of interrogating national identity. She is less interested in the actual Jefferson than in how he is used across a variety of contexts to make claims about what it means to be American in the contemporary moment.

Stuckey finds that Jefferson is a remarkably useful and multipurpose symbol. He reminds people of the importance of the nation’s founding. He provides an opportunity to reflect on inclusion and exclusion, on race and racism. He gives people a way to ground national identity in the past, while keeping it open to change. Jefferson was so complicated and multilayered that he has been purposed to suit a variety of agendas throughout history and across the entire political spectrum.

In our fraught political moment, where debates over America’s founding have become cultural battlegrounds, Remembering Jefferson is a timely reminder that how we think about the past reflects who we are in the present.

The Page 99 Test: Deplorable.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The New Neighbors"

Coming February 17 from Harper Perennial: The New Neighbors: A Novel by Claire Douglas.

About the book, from the publisher:

Unassuming neighbors may not be what they seem in this twisty, spine—tingling thriller from the internationally bestselling author of The Couple at Number 9 and The Girls Who Disappeared.

Do you trust the couple living next door?

When Lena overhears a conversation between her next—door—neighbors she thinks she must have misheard.

The Morgans are a kind, retired couple who recently moved to their sleepy suburban street in Bristol where nothing ever happens. But to Lena it sounded very much like they were planning a crime.

Her family and friends tell her she must be mistaken. Yet Lena can’t stop thinking about that strange conversation. What if they really are about to do something terrible?

What if she can prevent it?

Especially when doing something might help ease her conscience about her own dark past . . .

Follow Claire Douglas on Facebook and Instagram.

Writers Read: Claire Douglas (December 2017).

--Marshal Zeringue

"The White Lady"

New from Yale University Press: The White Lady: The Story of Two Key British Secret Service Networks Behind German Lines by Helen Fry.

About the book, from the publisher:

A major new history of the two most important British secret service networks in the First and Second World Wars

Intelligence gathering was essential to both sides in the First and Second World Wars. At the heart of MI6’s efforts were two key networks in Belgium. Agents in The White Lady acted as couriers, radio operators and spies to facilitate the end of German control. And, when war broke out again two decades later, the leaders of the network regrouped and established a successor: The Clarence Service.

Helen Fry charts the history of these pivotal intelligence networks. Drawing on recently declassified information, Fry examines who the agents were, how they were recruited, and how the intelligence they gathered directly impacted the outcome of both wars. Operators in the field sent over eight hundred radio messages to London and delivered more than a thousand reports, including groundbreaking information on Hitler’s secret weapon the V-1. This is a compelling account of the agents who risked their lives and found ingenious ways to smuggle intelligence out of occupied Belgium.

Visit Helen Fry's website.

The Page 99 Test: The London Cage.

The Page 99 Test: The Walls Have Ears.

The Page 99 Test: MI9.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Night Watcher"

New from Thomas & Mercer: The Night Watcher (Callie Munro Thrillers) by Tariq Ashkanani.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this tense thriller from the winner of the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize, PI Callie Munro is hunting a serial killer on the streets of Edinburgh. But he’s already found her…

As private investigators go, Callie Munro is tougher than most. She’s had to be. Abandoned as a baby and raised by a succession of strangers, she knows a thing or two about surviving…

…but she never expected to find herself hunting a serial killer.

After uncovering a string of missing women―women no one seems to care about―Callie refuses to look away. With police ignoring the evidence, her only ally is an organised crime boss with his own agenda.

The deeper Callie digs, the more dangerous the hunt becomes. Every clue exposes another lie. Every step brings the killer closer.

She’s fighting for the forgotten. But if she’s not careful, she’ll be next.

Fast-paced and gripping from cover to cover, this first book in Tariq Ashkanani’s thrilling new series is perfect for fans of Ian Rankin, Val McDermid and Robert Galbraith.

Follow Tariq Ashkanani on Instagram.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Relief on the Hoof"

New from Northern Illinois University Press: Relief on the Hoof: The Seagoing Cowboys, the Heifer Project, and UNRRA in Poland by Eva Plach.

About the book, from the publisher:

Relief on the Hoof is about the thousands of horses and cattle that the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) shipped as humanitarian aid in the immediate aftermath of WWII and about the "seagoing cowboys" who cared for the animals during their trans-Atlantic journeys. UNRRA contracted the Church of the Brethren to recruit almost 7,000 men to do this work, and in exchange provided free passage on its ships to the cattle that were part of the Brethren's own humanitarian initiative, the Heifer Project. The Heifer Project emerged from a conviction that cows and their milk offered the best value as relief commodities.

As Eva Plach shows, both UNRRA's animal aid program and the Heifer Project were responding to a crisis in postwar Europe. Millions of livestock were lost during the war, and contemporary experts warned that postwar recovery, food security, and the prevention of social and political unrest would be compromised without replenishing the lost herds.

Poland received more Heifer Project cattle than any other country and was the major recipient of UNRRA cattle and horses as well. Relief on the Hoof shows that Poland's special status, based on assessments of wartime destruction and postwar need, reflected its unique geopolitical importance as Cold War tensions mounted.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Promised in Blood"

New from Entangled: Amara: Promised in Blood by Sadie Kincaid.

About the book, from the publisher:

But there is one who can save the fates of all.
For the child borne of fire and blood, shall be our ruin or our redemption.

An ancient prophecy. A betrayal so deep it will echo through eternity.

Ophelia Hart is no ordinary elementai. In fact, she is extraordinary in every single way there is. And now that she knows her true heritage and has bonded to the most powerful vampire who ever lived, and the three ruthless vampires he sired, she wonders if she might finally know some true happiness. It seems at last within her reach—so long as the truth of her identity remains a closely guarded secret.

But secrets can’t remain so forever. Ophelia must learn to harness the magical abilities she’s awakened before the rest of the world discovers who she really is. And although her four bonded mates will do all in their power to protect her, there are forces at work that even they cannot fathom.

Destiny beckons, but betrayal lurks just around the corner. And debts will be settled for oaths that are promised in blood.

Visit Sadie Kincaid's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Ornament, the Novel, and the Victorian Real"

New from Oxford University Press: Ornament, the Novel, and the Victorian Real by Irena Yamboliev.

About the book, from the publisher:

"All real art," wrote William Morris, "is ornamental." If Morris is right, then ornament is not, as some would have it, a triviality, a sign of "want," or a crime. Instead, Ornament, the Novel, and the Victorian Real argues for the many and varied ways in which the novel is indebted to ornament. Victorians and Victorianist scholars have compared the novel to "fine" arts such as Dutch genre painting or to photography, emphasizing these visual forms' investment in gritty particularity and exhaustive detailing of appearance. But this story loses sight of a key fact that this book recovers: ornament represents a distinct, describable Victorian method of realism, a method for boiling down essentials and making palpable the invisible, fundamental laws that govern form in nature. This book grounds itself historically in Victorian theories and practices of decoration developed in the middle of the nineteenth century, a moment when Victorian designers overhauled the reigning principles of decorative art, and shows the rise of the newly developed theory of ornament to have explanatory power for contemporary novelistic practice too. The compositional principles in ornament―far from trivial, extraneous, or deceptive―furnish a new theory of form, a new concept of the real, and a new method for reading novelistic prose.

Ornament is at work churning away at the heart of the Victorian novel. Wallpaper patterns, hinge-work, stained glass: these visual forms articulate principles of form such contrast, symmetry, flatness, and stylization. And novelists turn these design principles into literary principles, importing them into their narratives as syntax, word by word and phrase by phrase. This book proceeds by way of very close readings that focus on the scale of the sentence and analyzes the rhythm, meter, and repetition of prose. This method allows an appreciation of how, in the hands of George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, A. C. Swinburne, Oscar Wilde, and D. H. Lawrence, ornamental prose opens up representational possibilities not otherwise available. Ornament allows novelists to render the patterning of human minds, the dynamics of relationship, and the intense realities of the more-than-human world.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Simone in Pieces"

New from the University of Wisconsin Press: Simone in Pieces by Janet Burroway.

About the book, from the publisher:

Readers first meet Simone Lerrante, a Belgian war orphan, as a child refugee in Sussex, England, her memory damaged by trauma. This novel offers a kaleidoscopic vision of her fractured life and piecemeal understanding of self across multiple points of view. Following her from Cambridge to New York City and across the United States—through a disastrous marriage, thwarted desire, and the purgatory of academic backwaters—the novel charts Simone’s unexpected reconnection with her past, which provides both autonomy and inspiration for her future. Janet Burroway slowly reveals a multifaceted, fascinating protagonist, who observes her own life without always allowing herself to be immersed in it. Spanning seven decades, this story is both epic and contained, rewarding readers at every turn.

Visit Janet Burroway's website.

The Page 69 Test: Bridge of Sand.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Projecting America"

New from the University of Oklahoma Press: Projecting America: The Epic Western and National Mythmaking in 1920s Hollywood by Patrick Adamson.

About the book, from the pubisher:

In the mid-1920s, the heyday of silent film, the epic Western swept Hollywood and the nation. Movie moguls sought to add gravitas to their output with the productions—films they argued offered American audiences authentic history and lessons in citizenship at a time when Hollywood faced criticism for its movies’ morals and star scandals. Initially extremely popular, these now nearly forgotten Westerns were hailed by the movie industry’s proponents and critics alike for their “authentic” reconstruction of America’s nineteenth-century frontier period and the social benefits in portraying historical episodes foundational to American identity to the melting pot of moviegoers. In Projecting America, the first-ever book on these silent epic Westerns, Patrick Adamson demonstrates how these films indelibly impacted the genre, historical filmmaking, and Hollywood, inviting audiences to accept uncritical visions of Manifest Destiny as accurate history.

Drawing on a wealth of primary sources and punctuating his argument with film stills and intertitles, Adamson introduces readers to a variety of epic Westerns, with a particular emphasis on The Covered Wagon (1923), The Iron Horse (1924), and The Vanishing American (1925). These productions depict such key moments as pioneers on the Oregon Trail, the construction of the transcontinental railroad, and challenges faced by Indigenous peoples. Combining close analysis of these films’ historiography with exploration of their production and reception, Adamson investigates how the epic Western's emergence responded to and informed discourses far beyond those traditionally associated with the Western genre. He demonstrates that these movies not only represent an important chapter in film history but also collectively illustrate how American identity was formed and the motion picture medium was used as a vehicle for mass historical and cultural education.

In Projecting America, Adamson deftly shows how epic Westerns, at the heart of the 1920s’ pressing debates about cinema’s social influence, are integral to a broader understanding of the history of Western films and American identity.

--Marshal Zeringue