"A Little History of the Earth"

New from Yale University Press: A Little History of the Earth by Jamie Woodward.

About the book, from the publisher:

A lively account of the history of our planet, from its earliest origins to the present day, told through the major geological changes and scientific breakthroughs

Where has our planet come from, and what lies beneath its surface? How have we come to understand its past and present environments, and what does its future look like? Thanks to scientists who study its rocks, fossils, and landscapes, we know that Earth history spans over four and a half billion years. But there is still much more to discover.

This Little History recounts our planet’s fascinating past and the science which has shaped how we think about it. Taking us from the formation of the Solar System, the evolution of our atmosphere and oceans, and the first signs of life, through to dinosaurs, mammals, and the eventual arrival of humans, Woodward shows us the full span of Earth history, from deep time to the Anthropocene. Along the way, we learn about the major breakthroughs of the pioneering scientists who have unearthed our planet’s secrets.

From fossils of ancient creatures to the very air we breathe, this is the essential guide to our world.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Every Happiness"

Coming February 3 from Bloomsbury USA: Every Happiness: A Novel by Reena Shah.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Every Happiness is a dazzling debut that explores the ties that bind two women across decades and continents despite rivalry, class difference, and the conflicting needs of family and self.

Deepa and Ruchi are 12 years old when they meet at their Catholic school in India, but their connection is swift and lasting. As the two girls grow up and face their families' expectations and the limits of their ambitions, their friendship is marked by intimacy, jealousy, and suppressed desire.

When, in their twenties, Deepa marries a doctor and moves from India to the suburbs of Connecticut, Ruchi quickly finds an engineer bound for the same state and follows her friend across the world. But life in the United States is different than either woman expects. Deepa's daughter seeks affection Deepa refuses to give, and Ruchi's son resists her smothering care. At the same time, Deepa and Ruchi find their closeness tested by a growing class disparity, competing family needs, and the differences in their desires. Ultimately, when Ruchi discovers a dangerous secret about Deepa's husband's wealth, both women are forced to weigh the tangled bonds of their friendship with their lives, and their families', in the burgeoning Indian American community.

“Moving and unforgettable” (Kimberly King Parsons), Every Happiness explores the slippery edges of a lifelong relationship, and the invisible threads that bind us, sometimes painfully, to those we love most.

Visit Reena Shah's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Fear of God"

New from the University of California Press: Fear of God: Practicing Emotion in Late Antique Monasticism by Daniel Eastman An.

About the book, from the publisher:

n the writings of ancient Christians, the near-ubiquitous references to the "fear of God" have traditionally been seen as a generic placeholder for piety. Focusing on monastic communities in late antiquity across the eastern Mediterranean, this book explores why the language of fear was so prevalent in their writings and how they sought to put it into practice in their daily lives. Drawing on a range of evidence, including sermons, liturgical prayers, and archaeological evidence, Daniel An explores how the languages monastics spoke, the socioeconomic settings they inhabited, and the visual spaces in which they prayed came together to shape their emotional horizons. By investigating emotions as practices embedded in the languages, cultures, and sensorial environments of late antiquity, this book offers new insights into the spiritual world of Christian monasteries.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Gods Must Burn"

Coming soon from Solaris: The Gods Must Burn by T.R. Moore.

About the book, from the publisher:

A disgraced war hero is transformed into the Wolf God, protector of the Forest God, and must earn her trust in this healing dark fantasy for fans of The Wolf and the Woodsman and Princess Mononoke

War hero Basuin doesn't know what to believe in anymore. All Basuin knows is life as an army captain and the pain, loss, and disgrace it has brought him. Demoted and humiliated by his legion commander, he is led into the forest for one more mission: capture a god.

But when his commander uses innocent wolf pups as bait, Basuin dies saving them. The Wolf God, impressed by his sacrifice, deifies Basuin to protect the forest and its beautiful, sharp-tongued god from the legion's deforestation.

To the Forest God, Basuin is nothing more than one of the men sent to burn her forest down. Betrayed by humans too many times, she rejects him, working alone to protect the spirits of the forest as her home disappears around her. To save the god he is growing to love, Basuin must untangle the feelings between them.

Otherwise, they'll burn together.

Visit T.R. Moore's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Archie Bunker for President"

New from the University of North Carolina Press: Archie Bunker for President: How One Television Show Remade American Politics by Oscar Winberg.

About the book, from the publisher:

Delving into the intersection of television entertainment and American politics during the 1970s, focusing on the sitcom All in the Family, this book explores how political campaigns, social movements, and legislators leveraged the show’s popularity for their own agendas. From Archie Bunker’s reactionary bigotry, to Edith Bunker’s symbolic role in the Equal Rights Amendment campaign, and the show’s creator and producer Norman Lear’s defiance against government censorship, Oscar Winberg uncovers the profound impact of television on political strategies and institutions.

Oscar Winberg’s capacious research, including in Norman Lear’s private archive, shows how All in the Family set the stage for today’s spectacle politics. It also reveals how politicians, from Richard Nixon to Hillary Rodham Clinton, skillfully utilized entertainment television to connect with audiences, demonstrating the evolution of personality politics that culminated in the political rise of Donald Trump. With a keen focus on the transformative power of television entertainment, this multifaceted history expands the discussion on the interconnected roles of media and politics, offering a new exploration into how one television show produced a profound cultural shift in American politics.

Visit Oscar Winberg's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Asterwood"

Coming soon from Delacorte Press: Asterwood by Jacquelyn Stolos.

About the book, from the publisher:

Family secrets, friendship, and magic burst from the seams of this thrilling fantasy adventure that follows a ten-year-old girl as she discovers a new world behind her home in desperate need of her help and within it, her own troubling family legacy.

Madelyn has always been satisfied with her life of cozy meals, great books, and adventures with her father in the woods behind their farmhouse.

But when a mysterious child appears and invites her down a forbidden trail and into a new world, Madelyn realizes that there’s far more to life than she ever allowed herself to realize.

This new world, Asterwood, is wider, wilder, and more magical than she could ever imagine. And somehow, it’s people know who she is—and desperately need her help.

Accompanied by new friends—one ​who can speak the language of the trees and one with a mind as sharp as her daggers—and her calico cat, Dots, Madelyn embarks on an epic quest across a strange and sprawling forest world whose secrets just might help her save her own.​

Visit Jacquelyn Stolos's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"War Fought and Felt"

New from LSU Press: War Fought and Felt: The Emotional Motivations of Confederate Soldiers by Joshua R. Shiver.

About the book, from the publisher:

Joshua R. Shiver’s War Fought and Felt advances our grasp of the links between masculinity, emotion, and relationships during the American Civil War. It is the first broadly researched, multidisciplinary, and statistically supported approach to understanding the pivotal role of emotions in the everyday lives of Confederate soldiers. Using a source base of more than 1,790 letters and diaries from two hundred Confederate soldiers from North Carolina and Alabama, it builds upon traditional sociocultural and ideological arguments for why Confederate soldiers fought. Drawing on history, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and neuroscience, it underscores the necessity of examining primal emotions when looking to understand soldiers’ motivations. It argues that the heightened emotions felt by these soldiers drove them to suffer, fight, desert, and willingly die.

Shiver examines the vital role of emotions within the context of soldiers’ relationships with their parents, children, wives, sweethearts, and comrades. These relationships and the emotions they engendered defined Confederate soldiers’ firsthand experiences of war and ultimately redefined the Confederate cause itself. A war that began steeped in ideology ended, for the soldiers, as one fought for the protection and future of one’s loved ones. Shiver demonstrates that the emotionally overwhelming nature of the war forced a tectonic shift in American masculinity in which the prewar emphasis on stoic individualism gave way to an outpouring of emotional expression and mutual interdependence. As a result, Confederate soldiers pragmatically embraced emotional and relational norms that were previously considered taboo.

By placing emotion alongside traditional ideological and sociocultural explanations for motivation, Shiver sheds light on a new area of research that promises to promote a deeper understanding of why the American Civil War was one of the bloodiest, most emotionally influential, and world-changing events of the last two centuries.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Time Hop Coffee Shop"

New from Park Row: The Time Hop Coffee Shop: A Novel by Phaedra Patrick.

About the book, from the publisher:

Welcome to the Time Hop Coffee Shop, where wishes can come true…

Greta Perks was once the shining star of the iconic Maple Gold coffee commercials, the quintessential TV wife and mom. Now fame has faded, her marriage is on the rocks, her teenage daughter has become distant and Greta’s once—glittering career feels like a distant memory.

When Greta stumbles upon a mysterious coffee shop serving a magical brew, she wishes for the perfect life in those past Maple Gold commercials. Next thing she knows, Greta wakes in the idyllic make—believe town of Mapleville, where the sun always shines and the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and second chances fill the air. Given the opportunity to live the life she dreamed, Greta is determined to rewrite her own script. But can life ever be like a coffee commercial? And what will happen when Greta has to choose between perfection and real life, with no turning back?

Visit Phaedra Patrick's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Moved by Modernity"

New from Oxford University Press: Moved by Modernity: How Development Shapes Migration in Rural Ethiopia by Kerilyn Schewel.

About the book, from the publisher:

Across headlines and scholarly research alike, migration from countries like Ethiopia is often framed as a crisis: poverty, climate change, and conflict pushing people from their homes. These dominant "push factor" narratives suggest that migration is a problem--and that development is the solution.

Moved by Modernity turns this assumption on its head, revealing how social and economic development can drive migration rather than reduce it. In this groundbreaking study, Kerilyn Schewel draws on extensive fieldwork in Wayisso, a rural Ethiopian village, to examine how generations of families adapted their aspirations, livelihoods, and migration strategies amid their country's tumultuous pursuit of modernization. Their stories offer rich insights into what development actually looks like in rural societies--and why it so often fuels both internal and international migration.

Interweaving life histories, survey data, and ethnographic vignettes, Moved by Modernity explores how key forces of social change--political reform, education, market expansion, and foreign investment--reshape both aspirations and capabilities to migrate. Schewel shows that those who leave Wayisso are not fleeing poverty; they are often more educated, better connected, and actively seeking modern lives. Meanwhile, the poorest households remain behind, unable to migrate--trapped by the very forces assumed to push them out.

Moved by Modernity offers a new framework for understanding why people migrate--and why they stay. It is a compelling critique of conventional development thinking and an essential resource for researchers, policymakers, and anyone seeking to understand the deeper forces shaping global mobility today.

Visit Kerilyn Schewel's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"When We Were Brilliant"

Coming soon from Berkley: When We Were Brilliant by Lynn Cullen.

About the book, from the publisher:

They were an unlikely pair—a blond bombshell and a photographer determined to be taken seriously—but Marilyn Monroe and Eve Arnold would make a deal that would change their lives in this dazzling new novel from the national bestselling author of Mrs. Poe and The Woman with the Cure.

In 1952, Norma Jeane Baker follows documentary photographer Eve Arnold into a powder room on the night they first meet. She has a proposition for her. Norma Jeane created Marilyn Monroe to be photographed, and she wants Eve to do it. Eve is better than anyone she’s seen at revealing a person’s inner truth. Together they can help each other. Together, she says, they can make something brilliant.

Skeptical of this cipher of a young woman, Eve demurs. She’s looking for more serious subjects than this ambitious starlet. But she keeps getting drawn back into Marilyn’s orbit, and the women come to recognize something in each other—something fundamental. Nothing will get in the way of what they want, and when Marilyn’s star takes off to teetering heights, neither will ever be the same.

A lavish and transporting novel, When We Were Brilliant captures the halcyon days of an icon and the grit of women determining their own futures as it explores the exceptional and complicated friendship between Marilyn Monroe and Eve Arnold.

Learn more about the book and author at Lynn Cullen's website.

12 Yoga Questions: Lynn Cullen.

My Book, The Movie: Mrs. Poe.

The Page 69 Test: Mrs. Poe.

The Page 69 Test: Twain's End.

The Page 69 Test: The Sisters of Summit Avenue.

My Book, the Movie: The Sisters of Summit Avenue.

--Marshal Zeringue