"Opacity: Blackness and the Art of the Dutch Republic"

New from Penn State University Press: Opacity: Blackness and the Art of the Dutch Republic by Angela Vanhaelen.

About the book, from the publisher:

As Dutch merchants became drivers of the transatlantic slavery business in the seventeenth century, Dutch art increasingly used Blackness to signal slavery and servitude. In this brilliant and pathbreaking work, Angela Vanhaelen proposes new ways of looking at Dutch paintings that do not equate Blackness with enslavement.

Vanhaelen reframes the conversation on Netherlandish art by placing seventeenth-century domestic scenes and portraits in dialogue with images of trading forts, markets, and plantations in West Africa and Brazil. She argues that Dutch paintings depicting enslaved Black Africans―for example, Frans Hals’s Family Group in a Landscape―not only obscure information about the institution of slavery but fail to capture the resistance and dissent of people who did not conform to the anti-Black world created by Dutch art. Opacity leads readers to grapple with difficult and complex questions: How do we reconcile images of peace and prosperity with the horror of the slave trade? How do we teach imagery of Black people as enslaved without reinforcing anti-Black racism? Can we interpret dehumanizing imagery in ways that consider the complexities of enslavement?

Refusing to view Dutch pictures on their own terms, Opacity recognizes the historical persistence of non-sovereign positions, anticolonial settlements, non-patriarchal homeplaces, open-ended forms of religion and culture, as well as the possibilities of oppositional modes of world-making. This important, thought-provoking book will be essential reading for students and scholars of Black studies and early modern European art history as well as general readers looking for a fresh approach to Dutch art of the period.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Honeymoon Stage"

New from Little A: Honeymoon Stage: A Novel by Margaux Eliot.

About the book, from the publisher:

Brimming with wit and romance, this twisty trip back to the early 2000s follows as a former production assistant’s upcoming marriage descends into the confusion, chaos, and karmic consequences of reality TV.

It’s the night before her wedding, and Cassidy Baum isn’t sure she wants to get married…Or maybe she just doesn’t want to get married on set, surrounded by cameras and crew, with the crushing weight of everyone watching.

As a production assistant, Cassidy’s used to being behind the camera, not in front of it. But her fiancé is a former child star and musician, and their wedding makes the perfect spin-off for Honeymoon Stage, the groundbreaking celebreality show she once worked on.

Five years ago, the show fell apart―for dramatic reasons Cassidy is still struggling to understand. Now, Cassidy is forced to reckon with what happened on set to search out the truth once and for all before her wedding is broadcast to the world.

Rumors, lies, and suspicions come rushing back. And if Cassidy can’t figure out a way to make sense of the past, her own happily ever after may not be so happy after all.

Visit Margaux Eliot's website.

--Marhsal Zeringue

"Earth Shapers"

New from the University of Chicago Press: Earth Shapers: How We Mapped and Mastered the World, from the Panama Canal to the Baltic Way by Maxim Samson.

About the book, from the publisher:

The globetrotting story of how humans have harnessed the geographical landscape and written ourselves onto our surroundings.

Mountains, meridians, rivers, and borders—these are some of the features that divide the world on our maps and in our minds. But geography is far less set in stone than we might believe, and, as Maxim Samson’s Earth Shapers contends, in our relatively short time on this planet, humans have become experts at fundamentally reshaping our surroundings.

From the Qhapaq Ñan, the Inca’s “great road,” and Mozambique’s colonial railways to a Saudi Arabian smart city, and from Korea’s sacred Baekdu-daegan mountain range and the Great Green Wall in Africa to the streets of Chicago, Samson explores how we mold the world around us. And how, as we etch our needs onto the natural landscape, we alter the course of history. These fascinating stories of connectivity show that in our desire to make geographical connections, humans have broken through boundaries of all kinds, conquered treacherous terrain, and carved up landscapes. We crave linkages, and though we do not always pay attention to the in-between, these pathways—these ways of “earth shaping,” in Samson’s words—are key to understanding our relationship with the planet we call home.

An immense work of cultural geography touching on ecology, sociology, history, and politics, Earth Shapers argues that, far from being constrained by geography, we are instead its creators.

Visit Maxim Samson's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Ganymedan"

New from Solaris Books: The Ganymedan by R.T. Ester.

About the book, from the publisher:

A dark science fiction debut examining agency and sacrifice through one man’s desperate attempt to reach home after he murders his tyrannical employer.

Verden Dotnet made an easy living mixing drinks for the creator of all sentient tech in the galaxy—until he decided to kill the creator. Now this man is dead, really dead, no cloud back-ups, and V-Dot is on the run, carrying a galaxy-shattering secret in his pocket. When he misses the last ship back to Ganymede, he convinces an old, outdated but still sentient ship, TR-8901, to give him a lift.

But TR suspects that something is up—it is hearing rumours about his creator’s death, and the man who fled the scene. But TR is a dutiful ship, and will carry out its duties until proven otherwise…

Visit R.T. Ester's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Politicizing Business"

New from Cambridge University Press: Politicizing Business: How Firms Are Made to Serve the Party-State in China by Ning Leng.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Chinese state has never granted businesses full autonomy, even amid efforts to establish market-supporting institutions. Instead, the state and its officials view business as primarily political actors, demanding political services from firms to advance political objectives. Politicizing Business demonstrates that the politicization of firms is rooted in authoritarianism, often harming business interests and undermining China's efforts to attract and retain investment. Explaining the seemingly arbitrary state takeover of sectors and firms, this book uncovers previously overlooked forms of politicization and demonstrates how politicizing business often creates conflicts between the state and firms, particularly private firms, leading to a state-dominated market in many sectors. Combining academic rigor with exceptionally rich data and analysis, including hundreds of in-depth interviews with government officials and business leaders, original datasets and case studies, Politicizing Business offers fresh insights into China's political economy model and explores what the Party-state demands from companies, how compliance is enforced, when and where firms are politicized, and its impact on China's development.

Visit Ning Leng's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Dramatic Life of Jonah Penrose"

Coming November 11 from Harper Perennial: The Dramatic Life of Jonah Penrose: A Novel by Robyn Green.

About the book, from the publisher:

Red, White & Royal Blue meets the theater world of London’s dazzling West End in this nuanced, queer debut romance in which a fake dating publicity stunt between rival co-stars results in romantic sparks neither of them expected.

After winning his first Olivier Award for his performance in the West End’s top musical, The Wooden Horse, fabulously talented Jonah Penrose is the new shining star of London’s theatre scene. But Jonah’s success can’t erase the pain of a recent breakup, fix his self-doubt, or remedy his father’s ailing mind.

Enter stage right, Dexter Ellis: the West End’s golden boy, the newest cast member of The Wooden Horse, and someone Jonah finds to be intolerable and arrogant.

Everything about Dexter is infuriatingly perfect, from his dashing looks and casual but cutting notes on Jonah’s performances to his obnoxious sweaters that cost more than Jonah’s rent. Worse yet, while Dexter was supposed to play Jonah’s enemy in the show, his role switches to his love interest after a bout of illness temporarily sidelines half of the cast.

Jonah’s plan to stay as far away from Dexter as possible is thwarted when fans mistake their on-stage tension for romantic chemistry and tickets start selling like hotcakes. With fans desperate to catch a glimpse of the West End’s ‘hottest couple,’ the show’s producer pushes the co-stars to put on a show of their own and convince the world that they are in love.

While pretending to be head over heels for his co-star is the last thing Jonah wants, he reluctantly agrees. Yet as he gets to know Dexter better, he learns there’s more to him than meets the eye. As the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur and Jonah’s feelings become less of an act, he must decide if he’s willing to entrust his heart to someone again.

At turns both passionate and poignant, heartfelt and intimate, The Dramatic Life of Jonah Penrose is a love letter to the theater, to life in your thirties, and to what happens when you throw out the script and improvise the life you want.

Visit Robyn Green's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Damned Whiteness"

New from The University of North Carolina Press: Damned Whiteness: How White Christian Allies Failed the Black Freedom Movement by David F. Evans.

About the book, from the publisher:

The memory of the long civil rights movement often celebrates white men and women who drew on their religious faith to support Black demands for racial justice. However, the visions and actions of these leaders and their organizations often conflicted with those of Black leadership. While Black activists fought for a broad vision of freedom, white allies focused more narrowly on cultivating interracial friendship, marching in parallel to Black movement leaders rather than alongside them.

Damned Whiteness offers an unflinching history of white-led efforts at interracial organizing gone astray. Considering the examples of Dorothy Day, cofounder of the Catholic Worker Movement; Clarence Jordan, spiritual father of Habitat for Humanity; and Ralph Templin, a Christian missionary who studied nonviolence in Gandhi’s India, David F. Evans reveals how religious white progressives inherited strategies that remained disconnected from the ideas and actions of Black communities. These disconnects have often been cloaked as disagreements over religious doctrine and practice, but Evans reveals how they stem from refusals to acknowledge Black leaders' philosophies and freedom dreams. Though these patterns persist, Evans offers a way out of this legacy of white allyship and into a future where freedom is possible.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Crimson Thaw"

Coming soon from Severn River: Crimson Thaw (Detective Justice) by Bruce Robert Coffin.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the unforgiving wilderness of Maine, a disgraced detective must confront his past to solve a chilling murder.

Detective Brock Justice's career is on thin ice. Once the golden boy of Maine State Police, Brock now finds himself exiled to the remote northeastern wilderness, punishment for crossing the thin blue line. Assigned to the Major Crimes Unit—North, he suffers the added indignity of partnering with newly-minted Detective Chloe Wright, a rookie with her own hidden struggles.

The pair’s uneasy alliance is put to the test almost immediately when a routine snowmobile retrieval in the coastal town of Blue Hill unexpectedly escalates into a full-blown murder investigation. Even as the case exposes the darkest corners of the town, their fragile partnership threatens to undermine the investigation at every turn.

Brock and Chloe's hunt draws them into the lives of several intriguing locals: the town doctor, a biker gang involved in drug trafficking, a politically connected sheriff, and Brock’s own father. With each revelation, the line between ally and enemy blurs, compelling Brock and Chloe to question their trust in everyone around them, including each other.

Even as winter's icy grip loosens from Blue Hill, the noose of suspicion tightens. Brock must navigate not only a shaky partnership and a town harboring deadly secrets, but also the shadows of his own past. Can he and Chloe piece together the puzzle before Maine's wilderness swallows them whole?

Retired Detective Sergeant Bruce Robert Coffin delivers a masterful blend of police procedural and small-town intrigue in this page-turning thriller. Perfect for fans of Craig Johnson's Longmire series and C.J. Box's Joe Pickett novels.

Visit Bruce Robert Coffin's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Kigali"

New from the University of California Press: Kigali: A New City for the End of the World by Samuel Shearer.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the government of Rwanda hired American and Singaporean design firms to transform the image of Kigali from a wounded city into a competitive destination for foreign investment. The firms produced promotional images of a post-conflict tabula rasa waiting to be rebuilt by foreign investors as an urban solution to climate change. However, to make this marketing image real, much of the actual city would need to be destroyed and its residents converted to consumers of green housing and service delivery systems.

Kigali is an ethnography of a city that is being destroyed so that it can be rebuilt for the end of the world. Drawing on years of ethnographic fieldwork with Kigali residents as they navigate the catastrophes induced by sustainable urbanism, this book offers a searing critique of capitalist solutions to climate change and an account of the city’s popular alternatives to sustainable urbanism.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Moorwitch"

New from 47North: The Moorwitch by Jessica Khoury.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this sweeping romantic fantasy from bestselling author Jessica Khoury, a young witch caught in a twisted bargain with the fae must disguise herself as a governess and uncover the gateway to the realm of faerie in order to save her dying magic and escape the clutches of her controlling fae handler―even as she finds herself falling for her new employer, an enigmatic young Scottish laird and the owner of a crumbling estate brimming with secrets.

Rose Pryor has sacrificed everything for magic. As a Weaver skilled in the craft of spinning spells with thread and needle, she’s always chosen magic over love, and it was magic that brought her to Lachlan, the fae with whom Rose once struck a sinister deal in order to escape her abusive home. After years of running from her past, Rose has finally managed to build a new life for herself as a teacher in a school for young Weavers. But Rose has a secret: Her magic is waning, and every spell she weaves to train her students is slowly killing her.

When Lachlan returns to collect the debt Rose owes him, she finds herself on a perilous journey to the Scottish moors where she must find him an ancient gateway to the realm of the fae, lest her precious magic be forfeit. But when her quest pits her against Conrad, a young laird with a soul as lonely as her own who hires Rose to work as a governess for his rebellious young sister, Rose finds herself torn between her promise to Lachlan and her budding feelings for her new employer as her search for the gateway puts both her magic and her heart at stake.

Visit Jessica Khoury's website.

--Marshal Zeringue