"The Other Kind of Lion"

New from Lake Union: The Other Kind of Lion: A Novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde.

About the book, from the publisher:

A war widow and a neglected boy form a chosen family in a profoundly moving multigenerational saga about the transformative power of kindness by New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde.

It’s 1970 in rural California where Shirley Bennett, a forty-year-old Vietnam War widow, lives with her two sons. It’s a routine life until she sees Cash Pierce, a scruffy eleven-year-old boy, trailing the fence alongside her Appaloosa, Phoenix. The horse has never given such a welcoming nicker to anyone but her late husband. Even her stubborn old dog Edsel takes to the boy. Out of curiosity and compassion, so does Shirley.

Abandoned by his father, his mother in jail, and being raised by his teenage brother, Cash is lonely, bullied, but smart as a whip and starved for attention. Shirley begins inviting him for dinners, providing lunch money, sewing his shirts, and offering the maternal care he desperately needs. Neither realizes that such simple acts of kindness create a bond that will span five decades and redefine family itself. No matter where life takes Cash, he will never forget her.

Through war, loss, grief, illness, second chances, and years of separation, they will meet again. Shirley was there for Cash. Now it’s his turn to be there for Shirley when she needs him the most.

Visit Catherine Ryan Hyde's website.

Q&A with Catherine Ryan Hyde.

The Page 69 Test: Brave Girl, Quiet Girl.

The Page 69 Test: My Name is Anton.

The Page 69 Test: Seven Perfect Things.

The Page 69 Test: Boy Underground.

The Page 69 Test: Dreaming of Flight.

The Page 69 Test: So Long, Chester Wheeler.

The Page 69 Test: A Different Kind of Gone.

The Page 69 Test: Life, Loss, and Puffins.

The Page 69 Test: Rolling Toward Clear Skies.

The Page 69 Test: Michael Without Apology.

The Page 69 Test: Falling Apart and Other Gifts from the Universe.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Class Politics and the Creation of the American State"

New from the University of Michigan Press: Class Politics and the Creation of the American State by James Parisot.

About the book, from the publisher:

Why does the American federal government seem to prioritize elite capitalist interests over those of other groups? Class Politics and the Creation of the American State draws on a wide range of sources—personal letters, official government documents, private notes, and newspaper articles—to reveal that the federal government was built to give the emerging capitalist elite a way to consolidate and institutionalize their power. Challenging both liberal and conservative interpretations about what the US Constitution means, this book tells a new story about how the American state took shape.

The framers of the Constitution constructed an image of the state, enshrined in the Constitution, that presented their power as universal: a system meant to serve all Americans equally. This image helped legitimize the new order, even if the rising capitalist class stood to benefit most of all. Since the United States of the late 1780s was not yet a fully capitalist society, the state that was built opened space for less capitalistically incorporated social classes, including some artisans and yeoman farmers, to have limited representation. Class Politics and the Creation of the American State shows how the structure of the early American state worked primarily to advance capitalist interests, while incorporating other groups enough to maintain a sense of broad representation and inclusion.

Visit James Parisot's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"When the Night Comes Knocking"

New from Berkley: When the Night Comes Knocking by Katherine Daniel.

About the novel, from the publisher:

In this Appalachian horror novel, two estranged siblings become trapped in a convenience store under attack by a monster from the mountains who feasts on guilty hearts.

Rattle, rattle in the dark…
The mountain’s bones seek out a heart. Jane has not spoken to her brother Thomas since the accident that nearly killed them both. Their drive from college through the North Georgia mountains is uncomfortably silent, until they stop at a roadside convenience store, where a man stumbles in with a mutilated body, claiming to have been attacked by a monster.

At first, no one believes the man’s ravings, but when the next person to leave the store is brutally killed, they fear that local legend might be true:

There’s a beast in these mountains who feasts on guilty hearts… and someone among them has lured it out of hiding.

Jane and Thomas each harbor secrets, but so do the other patrons, and as the monster claims more hearts, the survivors turn on each other, desperate to save themselves by uncovering the guiltiest among them.

If the siblings can’t overcome the rift between them, they’ll surely become the monster’s next victims…or worse, become monsters themselves.

Visit Katherine Daniel's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Prizefighter"

New from the University of Virginia Press: Prizefighter: Yankee Sullivan and the Hands That Built the Modern World by Patrick Griffin.

About the book, from the publisher:

The globetrotting champion of the oppressed who shook his fist at the world in an era of profound change

Prizefighter is the extraordinary saga of James “Yankee” Sullivan, who, in the first half of the nineteenth century, traveled the globe as a refugee, convict, laborer, and pugilist―and helped bring our modern world into being. Sullivan was born as Francis Ambrose in Ireland in 1813, ventured to London as a boy, was arrested for thieving and shipped to Australia (where he learned to box), escaped from New Zealand on a whaler, won his first match out of Liverpool, reigned as a prizefighter and leading political figure in New York City in the 1840s, moved to Gold Rush California, coached the king of Hawaii in boxing, and spent his last days in a jail cell in San Francisco in 1856. But Sullivan’s life story is much more than a tale of adventure. He helped tie together a world being redefined by free trade, mass migration, industrialization, and democracy, becoming both a champion in the ring and a champion of the people. In this first era of globalization, as the life of Yankee Sullivan attests, prizefighters were world-makers.

The Page 69 Test: American Leviathan: Empire, Nation, and Revolutionary Frontier.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Killer Abyss"

Coming November 24 from Kensington: Killer Abyss (An FBI K-9 Novel) by Sara Driscoll.

About the book, from the publisher:

For FBI handler Meg Jennings and her K-9 partner, Hawk, the search for a missing girl leads to the underground caves of Kentucky—ones darker than she ever fathomed.

No descent into the unknown has ever been too treacherous for Meg Jennings and her colleagues in the FBI K-9 unit. They are prepared for anything. But when 14-year old Larissa Whorlow disappears on her way home from school in Nashville, Tennessee, Meg may be proved wrong.

Their only hope is a tracker tag on Larissa’s shoe, worn at her protective mother’s insistence. Unfortunately, the trail stops dead at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. Meg and her black Labrador, Hawk, are among four teams scrambling to solve a kidnapping that has crossed state lines. All Meg can do is follow Hawk, who’s on the scent of the missing girl—right through a narrow break in a limestone rise and straight into a cavernous labyrinth.

With all communication cut off and miles of undiscovered passages and subterranean rivers to navigate, Meg’s search gets deeper and darker with every uncertain move forward. Then, at the edge of a dangerous abyss, Meg makes a shocking discovery and realizes that Larissa’s vanishing was no random snatch and grab. It’s the work of a serial killer who’s pulling Meg into a terrifying game of hide-and-seek. And the only way out is through the blackness below.

Visit Sara Driscoll's website.

The Page 69 Test: Lone Wolf.

The Page 69 Test: Storm Rising.

The Page 69 Test: No Man's Land.

The Page 69 Test: Leave No Trace.

The Page 69 Test: That Others May Live.

The Page 69 Test: Echoes of Memory.

The Page 69 Test: Deadly Trade.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Die Your Own Death"

New from Princeton University Press: Die Your Own Death: Walt Whitman’s Existential Democracy by Jack Turner.

About the book, from the publisher:

Humans fantasize about immortality. Billionaires dabble in cryonics, politicians build monuments to themselves, and writers donate their papers to libraries. In Die Your Own Death, Jack Turner argues that the quest for immortality—literal or symbolic—is politically destructive. He does so through a meditation on the work of Walt Whitman. Whitman held that democracy prepares individuals to “die their own deaths”—free of fear, resentment, and illusion. In Whitman’s “existential democracy,” accepting death strengthens freedom and equality. And yet, Turner finds, Whitman only half succeeded in forging a democratic philosophy of death. As Whitman’s thought evolved in response to changing ideas about nation, race, and empire, he encouraged citizens to seek immortality through racial imperialism—the expansion of white empire from North America to the Pacific Islands—as a monument to American greatness.

Turner explores the poetics of death in Leaves of Grass and its relationship to Whitman’s democratic theory (“I exist as I am, that is enough”). Through a close analysis of Drum-Taps and Memoranda During the War, Turner shows that Whitman sought to redeem the mass slaughter of the Civil War by cloaking it in poetic and national glory. And in Whitman’s greatest prose work, Democratic Vistas, Turner argues, Whitman envisioned an antidemocratic national immortalism that ignored Native sovereignty and Black equality. Turner exposes the dark side of Whitman’s philosophy of death, but he also reveals how that philosophy can still be a resource in the ongoing struggle for freedom and equality.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Star Swindler"

Coming November 17 from Orbit Books: Star Swindler: A Snarky, High-Stakes Space Opera (Blackjack Interstellar, 2) by A. Zaykova.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Incorrigible con artist Levi and whiz programmer Vera meet their greatest challenge yet in this fast-paced, galaxy-spanning continuation of the Blackjack Interstellar series.

After reluctantly saving the galaxy, former con artist Levi Adder could’ve had it all―if only holding down an honest job didn’t prove so soul-crushing. His latest grift is meant to be a one-off financial fix, but ghosts of his past are waiting at every turn. And they’re hungry for retribution.

When a visit to his girlfriend Vera’s government workplace ends with Levi’s arrest for stealing a data card he’s never seen before, Vera wants nothing more to do with him. Fed up and betrayed, she takes an assignment at a remote military base, not realizing she’s about to be framed for treason.

With political tension between humans and Jaemlens continuing to escalate, the threat of war looms, thrusting Vera – the only person Levi’s grown to care about – into the line of fire. Levi could choose himself, as he always does, or try to pull his most reckless con yet to protect the woman who despises him.

Visit A. Zaykova's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"George Washington and His World"

New from Oxford University Press: George Washington and His World: Enslaver, Revolutionary, President by Denver Brunsman.

About the book, from the publisher:

Enslaver and revolutionary, destroyer of Native American communities and father of American liberty, Washington filled numerous roles in the Founding Era.

Following his death in December 1799, writers, artists, and eulogists hailed George Washington as if he were a god. It was all too much for Abigail Adams, who contended that "Simple Truth is his best, his greatest Eulogy." The plea sounds easy enough, but capturing the truth about Washington has never been straightforward. Since his death, individuals and groups have projected their values and aspirations for the United States onto Washington's memory―a process that has obscured the actual person.

George Washington and His World takes simple truth as its charge. In this compelling, fresh portrait of America's indispensable founder, the canvas is broadened to include not only Washington, but his world and surroundings, so readers might better understand his legacy. Combining the latest historical findings with original primary research, award-winning historian Denver Brunsman provides new understanding of Washington's rise and influence by focusing on the people and society who made the first president's accomplishments possible. Enslaver and revolutionary, destroyer of Native American communities and father of American liberty, Washington filled numerous roles in the Founding Era. Rather than shy away from these contradictions, Brunsman embraces them to explain Washington to a twenty-first century audience. What emerges is a study in human complexity that neither celebrates nor vilifies but aims to better understand this remarkable American life.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Every Pretty Thing"

New from Lake Union: Every Pretty Thing: A Novel by Elizabeth Klehfoth.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the author of The Lost Heiress comes a twisty, emotional novel about the fragility of memory, the long arc of betrayal, and the blind spots we protect for love and survival.

Eleanor “Elle” Collins has gone to great lengths to distance herself from the tragedy that reshaped her life as a teenager. Now thirty and struggling to salvage her stalled acting career, she’s given one last chance at her dream when director Jace Wilder asks her to cowrite and star in his next film. But there’s a catch: The movie is about the infamous Hancock Park murders―the tragedy Elle has spent half her life running from.

Then

At fifteen, Eleanor is sent to live with her wealthy relatives in Hancock Park. There, she falls under the thrall of her cousin Liam and his popular friend group at the prestigious Brearly School. But dangerous secrets will lead to a devastating end.

Now

As Elle works with Jace on the film, her growing feelings for him complicate everything―and what she thought was the truth begins to shift.

What really happened that fateful night?

And can she survive it a second time?

Visit Elizabeth Klehfoth's website.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Klehfoth (July 2018).

--Marshal Zeringue

"How Americans Enforce the Law"

New from Stanford University Press: How Americans Enforce the Law by Diego Zambrano.

About the book, from the publisher:

In most countries, bureaucratic agencies handle regulatory enforcement. But the United States does things differently. Embedded in statutes governing consumer protection, antitrust, employment, civil rights, and the environment are more than 10,000 "private rights of action"―legal provisions that empower ordinary citizens and their lawyers to enforce the law through lawsuits. This is how Americans regulate everything from wage theft to air pollution to corporate fraud.

How Americans Enforce the Law tells the story of this distinctively American approach to governance. Diego Zambrano reveals that private enforcement is not a modern innovation but an inherited tradition dating to medieval English "penal statutes" that colonial America adopted and intensified. The book traces how this system evolved through critical junctures and was boosted by twentieth-century procedural innovations like broad discovery rules and class actions that transformed scattered statutory clauses into a mass-litigation engine.

This is the first comprehensive account of private enforcement's origins, operations, and future. Offering both celebration and critique, Zambrano shows why private enforcement works well in employment law, for instance, but has been weaponized in environmental law. He creates a framework for determining when this uniquely American form of governance serves the public interest, and when it can be used to undermine democracy.

--Marshal Zeringue