"When Doing Good Isn't Good Enough"

New from Georgetown Press: When Doing Good Isn't Good Enough: How a Commitment to Justice and Solidarity Transformed Catholic Relief Services by Suzanne C. Toton.

About the book, from the publisher:

A powerful case study demonstrating how principled commitment and strategic vision can fundamentally redefine an organization's impact and purpose

In the aftermath of the Rwanda genocide, humanitarian organizations faced a profound moral reckoning. The devastating failure to address the systemic social, economic, and political inequalities created fertile ground for the mass atrocities and exposed critical gaps in traditional aid approaches. The very foundations of international relief work were challenged.

When Doing Good Isn't Good Enough offers an unprecedented look at the significance of Catholic Social Teaching, particularly its teaching on justice, for transforming Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in a time of institutional crisis after the Rwanda genocide. Toton traces the process by which CRS arrived at the decision to adopt justice as its operating lens and its methodical effort to integrate justice into every region and level of its operations. It provides a window into CRS's deep commitment to the people it serves; the challenges of implementing right relationships while working within diverse ethnic, cultural, and religious contexts; the lessons learned; and the institutional changes it catalyzed.

For organizational leaders, relief and development professionals, scholars, and people who belong to faith-based movements, this book provides a powerful case study of institutional transformation across cultures―demonstrating how principled commitment and a strategic vision can fundamentally redefine an organization's impact and purpose.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Bookbinder's Secret"

Coming soon from St. Martin's Press: The Bookbinder's Secret: A Novel by A. D. Bell.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Every book tells a story. This one tells a secret.

A young bookbinder begins a hunt for the truth when a confession hidden beneath the binding of a burned book reveals a story of forbidden love, lost fortune, and murder.

Lilian ("Lily") Delaney, apprentice to a master bookbinder in Oxford in 1901, chafes at the confines of her life. She is trapped between the oppressiveness of her father’s failing bookshop and still being an apprentice in a man’s profession. But when she’s given a burned book during a visit to a collector, she finds, hidden beneath the binding, a fifty-year-old letter speaking of love, fortune, and murder.

Lily is pulled into the mystery of the young lovers, a story of forbidden love, and discovers there are more books and more hidden pages telling their story. Lilian becomes obsessed with the story but she is not the only one looking for the remaining books and what began as a diverting intrigue quickly becomes a very dangerous pursuit.

Lily's search leads her from the eccentric booksellers of London to the private libraries of unscrupulous collectors and the dusty archives of society papers, deep into the heart of the mystery. But with sinister forces closing in, willing to do anything for the books, Lilian’s world begins to fall apart and she must decide if uncovering the truth is worth the risk to her own life.

Visit A.D. Bell's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Entertaining Ambiguities"

New from the University of Pennsylvania Press: Entertaining Ambiguities: Sexuality, Humanism, and Ephemeral Performances in Fifteenth-Century Italy by Ralph J. Hexter.

About the book, from the publisher:

An exploration of the intersection of male—male sexual activities and subcultures with Italian humanism and university culture

Entertaining Ambiguities explores the intersections of male—male sexual activities, subcultures, and coded language with classical reception, university culture, and Italian humanism. Through his excavation of a pair of Latin comedies—Janus the Priest and The False Hypocrite, written and performed by law students at the University of Pavia in 1427 and 1437, respectively—Ralph Hexter shows how these plays expand our understanding of the range of contemporary attitudes to male—male sexual behavior beyond previously studied registers, whether legal, ecclesiastical, or natural scientific.

The plot of the two plays, one of which is an adaptation of the other, involves the entrapment of a priest who is eager for sexual activity with men. Digging deeply into precisely how the student ringleader of the entrapment plot persuades the priest to visit him in his rooms for an assignation, Hexter uncovers the coded language that the student uses to seemingly establish himself as a member of a network of like—minded men, convincing the priest to let his guard down. Hexter reads this coded language within his examination of the context of the plays’ performance and circulation—including careful reading of a range of Italian and Latin sources, such as Boccaccio’s Decameron, Apuleius’s Golden Ass, comedies by Plautus and Terence, and Beccadelli’s Hermaphroditus, among others. In doing so, he demonstrates how passages throughout both plays disrupt received ideas about the period’s sexual conventions and sexual possibilities. Reading against the grain against orthodox expectations, Hexter reveals the plays’ seemingly moralizing endings to be more suggestive and more ambiguous than they appear.

Including an appendix presenting the first published English translations of both plays, Entertaining Ambiguities offers a new account of the history of sexuality, changing social mores, and intellectual exchange at the dawn of the Renaissance.

--Marshal Zeringue

"It Should Have Been You"

Coming soon from Pamela Dorman Books: It Should Have Been You: A Novel by Andrea Mara.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A gripping new thriller from Andrea Mara, the #1 international bestselling author of ALL HER FAULT, now streaming on Peacock

Your neighbors have secrets. How far would they go to keep them?

You press send and your message disappears. Full of secrets about your neighbors, it’s meant for your sister. But it doesn’t reach her – it goes to the entire local community WhatsApp group instead.

As rumor spreads like wildfire through the picture-perfect neighborhood, you convince yourself that people will move on, that this will quickly be forgotten. But then you receive the first death threat.

The next day, a woman has been murdered. And what’s even more chilling is that she had the same address as you – 26 Oakpark – but in a different part of town. Did the killer get the wrong house? It won’t be long before you find out…

Visit Andrea Mara's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Bukovina"

New from Princeton University Press: Bukovina: The Life and Death of an East European Borderland by Cristina Florea.

About the book, from the publisher:

The making and remaking of Bukovina, a disputed Eastern European borderland, from the eighteenth century to the present day

Bukovina, when it has existed on official maps, has always fit uneasily among its neighbors. The region is now divided between Romania and Ukraine but has long been a testing ground for successive regimes, including the Habsburg Empire, independent and later Nazi-allied Romania, and the Soviet Union, as each sought to reshape the region in its own image. In this beautifully written and wide-ranging book, Cristina Florea traces the history of Bukovina, showing how this borderland, the onetime buffer between Christendom and Islam, found itself at the forefront of modern state-building and governance projects that eventually extended throughout the rest of Europe. Encounters that play out in borderlands have proved crucial to the development of modern state ambitions and governance practices.

Drawing on a wide range of archives and published sources in Russian, Ukrainian, German, Romanian, French, and Yiddish, Florea integrates stories of ethnic and linguistic groups—rural Ukrainians, Romanians, and Germans, and urban German-speaking Jews and Poles—who lived side by side in Bukovina, all of them navigating constant reconfiguration and reinvention. Challenging traditional chronologies in European history, she shows that different transformations in the region occurred at different tempos, creating a historical palimpsest and a sense among locals that they had lived many lives.

A two-hundred-year history of a region shaped by the conflicting pulls of imperial legacies and national ambitions, Bukovina reveals the paradoxes of modern history found in a microcosm of Eastern Europe.

Visit Cristina Florea's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Such Sheltered Lives"

Coming soon from Atria/Emily Bestler Books: Such Sheltered Lives: A Novel by Alyssa Sheinmel.

About the book, from the publisher:

For fans of Nine Perfect Strangers and The Midnight Feast, a moody, atmospheric psychological suspense set in the secretive world of celebrity rehab centers, from New York Times bestselling author Alyssa Sheinmel.

Rush’s Recovery promises its wealthy guests the utmost discretion. But when a body is discovered, how long can the center’s secrets stay buried?

Tucked among the pristine beaches and lavish manors of the Hamptons sits Rush’s Recovery, a rehabilitation center where ultra-high net worth clients can seek treatment away from prying eyes and paparazzi. The center’s latest guests have just arrived: Lord Edward of Essex, a British aristocrat fighting his black-sheep status and a painful addiction; Amelia Blue Harris, the daughter of a 90s rock legend struggling with an eating disorder; and Florence Bloom, a pop star trying to lay low after her latest tabloid scandal. Each has been promised the highest standard of care, from daily therapy and a live-in chef to acupuncture sessions and a personal care manager, available 24/7. Just so long as they stay in their private cottages and never interact with the center’s other guests.

But these three self-destructive B-listers have no intention of playing by the rules. No amount of cold plunges and talk-therapy can prevent Florence’s illicit flirtation with a staff member, or keep Amelia Blue and Lord Edward from sneaking out to wander the snow-covered grounds at night. Celebrities check in to Rush’s Recovery to protect their privacy, but the darkest secrets may lie in the center’s own history—and not every guest will be checking out alive.

Visit Alyssa Sheinmel's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Hebrew Orientalism"

New from Princeton University Press: Hebrew Orientalism: Jewish Engagement with Arabo-Islamic Culture in Late Ottoman and British Palestine by Mostafa Hussein.

About the book, from the publisher:

How Jewish writers in late Ottoman and British Mandate Palestine used Arabo-Islamic culture to advance the goals of Zionism

In the decades before the establishment of a Jewish state in 1948, native and immigrant Jews in Palestine mediated between Jewish and Arab cultures while navigating their evolving identities as settler colonists. Hebrew Orientalism challenges the conventional view that Hebrew thinkers were dismissive of Arabo-Islamic culture, revealing how they both adopted and adapted elements of it that enhanced Zionist aims.

Drawing on a wealth of sources ranging from Arabic medieval chronicles, travel narratives, and poetry to modern Hebrew geography and botany texts, Mostafa Hussein provides a nuanced understanding of Hebrew orientalism by focusing on the practical activities of Hebrew writers, such as recuperating the Jewish past in the East, constructing Jewish indigeneity, consolidating Jewish ties to Palestine’s landscape, enhancing understanding of the Hebrew Bible, reviving Hebrew language, and undertaking translation projects. Through the lens of a diverse group of Jewish intellectuals—ranging from Palestine-born Sephardi/Oriental and Ashkenazi Jews to Eastern European immigrants—he unveils the complex realities of cultural exchange and knowledge production, highlighting the dual role of these intellectuals in connecting with the East and promoting Zionist aspirations. Hussein offers fresh insights into the role of scholarly practices in advancing new perspectives on the region and its peoples and forging a modern Zionist Hebrew identity.

Illuminating the intricate and often contradictory engagement of Hebrew scholars with Arabo-Islamic culture, Hebrew Orientalism informs contemporary discussions of postcolonialism and settler colonialism and enriches our understanding of the historical dynamics between Jews and Arabs in Palestine.

--Marshal Zeringue

"In Bloom"

Coming January 27 from Simon & Schuster: In Bloom: A Novel by Liz Allan.

About the book, from the publisher:

A story of class and coming-of-age as a group of best friends investigates the allegations against their teacher.

It’s the mid-nineties, and in the small, shitty coastal town of Vincent, Australia, four Nirvana-obsessed fourteen-year-old girls form a grunge band. The Bastards are “forgettable girls”—poor, not particularly clever, ridiculed by their better-off classmates, and desperate to escape the fates of their mothers, who seem locked into a life of minimum-wage jobs, surprise pregnancies, and drunk boyfriends. The Battle of the Bands is the girls’ one ticket out.

As small-town rumors swirl, however, The Bastards are abandoned by their lead singer Lily Lucid, who accuses their beloved music teacher of assault. The three remaining girls are left with nothing. Nothing, that is, except their amateur detective skills, a conviction that Mr. P is innocent, and a readiness to sacrifice everything to keep their dream alive. Spinning with rage at the confines of their lives, they reach a precipice where there’s no turning back.

Brash and bold, grungy and propulsive, In Bloom is a coming-of-age novel about class, girlhood in precarious circumstances, and how to build a sense of self when the foundations of friendship fail.

Visit Liz Allan's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Garden Apartments"

New from the University of Chicago Press: Garden Apartments: The History of a Low-Rent Utopia by Joshua B. Freeman.

About the book, from the publisher:

How a form of multifamily housing with idealistic roots became a ubiquitous model promoted by both public entities and private developers.

Eminent historian Joshua Freeman rescues garden apartments—typically low-rise multifamily residences that enclose or are surrounded by landscaped gardens—from their invisibility in the American landscape. He details their outsized influence on housing policy and social policy as they helped upgrade living standards for working people. Inspired by the architectural innovations and socialist politics of British garden cities, Red Vienna, and German modernist housing in the 1920s, these large, centrally managed projects were mostly not public housing, but their capitalist developers worked with governments to keep down rents. The results were often relatively small apartments and large communal spaces, aimed at fostering actual American community.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Royal Liars"

New from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers: Royal Liars by Lindsey Duga.

About the book, from the publisher:

American Royals meets Gossip Girl in this scandal-driven sequel where four teenage royals team up to defend their beloved school from an unknown threat, risking their futures and their hearts in the process.

It’s been eight months since King Leander named Ashland’s heir apparent and a new year is about to begin at Almus Terra Academy…

Sadie is trapped in a fake dating scheme with one prince, while the other is dead set on winning her heart. Titus is desperate to make things right with the girl he wronged, but his own ambitions and secrets stand in his way. Emmeline has lost her friends, her dreams, and her family. For the first time in her life, she’s not sure she has what it takes to win them all back. Alaric goes down dark paths to strike against his traitorous father, but his quest for revenge will only keep him apart from the girl he loves.

When the Ashland heirs learn that the school and the country they’ve come to love are in danger, can they put their egos aside long enough to make a difference? Or will their rivalries cost them everything?

Complete with enemies-to-lovers romance, political intrigue, and legendary betrayals, this is the thrilling conclusion to the saga begun in Royal Heirs Academy.

Visit Lindsey Duga's website.

--Marshal Zeringue