"Great Black Hope"

New from S&S/Summit Books: Great Black Hope: A Novel by Rob Franklin.

About the book, from the publisher:

A gripping, elegant debut novel about a young Black man caught between worlds of race and class, glamour and tragedy, a friend’s mysterious death and his own arrest, from an electrifying new voice.

An arrest for cocaine possession on the last day of a sweltering New York summer leaves Smith, a queer Black Stanford graduate, in a state of turmoil. Pulled into the court system and mandated treatment, he finds himself in an absurd but dangerous situation: his class protects him, but his race does not.

It’s just weeks after the death of his beloved roommate Elle, the daughter of a famous soul singer, and he’s still reeling from the tabloid spectacle—as well as lingering questions around how well he really knew his closest friend. He flees to his hometown of Atlanta, only to buckle under the weight of expectations from his family of doctors and lawyers and their history in America. But when Smith returns to New York, it’s not long before he begins to lose himself to his old life—drawn back into the city’s underworld, where his search for answers may end up costing him his freedom and his future.

Smith goes on a dizzying journey through the nightlife circuit, anonymous recovery rooms, Atlanta’s Black society set, police investigations and courtroom dramas, and a circle of friends coming of age in a new era. Great Black Hope is a propulsive, glittering story about what it means to exist between worlds, to be upwardly mobile yet spiraling downward, and how to find a way back to hope.

Visit Rob Franklin's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Ice Geographies"

New from Duke University Press: Ice Geographies: The Colonial Politics of Race and Indigeneity in the Arctic by Jen Rose Smith.

About the book, from the publisher:

Ice animates the look and feel of climate change. It is melting faster than ever before, causing social upheaval among northern coastal communities and disrupting a more southern, temperate world as sea levels rise. Economic, academic, and activist stakeholders are increasingly focused on the unsettling potential of ice as they plan for a future shaped by rapid transformation. Yet, in Ice Geographies, Jen Rose Smith demonstrates that ice has always been at the center of making sense of the world. Ice as homeland is often at the heart of Arctic and sub-Arctic ontologies, cosmologies, and Native politics. Reflections on ice have also long been a constitutive element of Western political thought, but it often privileges a pristine or empty “nature” stripped of power relations. Smith centers ice to study race and indigeneity by investigating ice relations as sites and sources of analysis that are bound up with colonial and racial formations as well as ice geographies beyond those formations. Smith asks, How is ice a racialized geography and imaginary, and how does it also exceed those frameworks?

--Marshal Zeringue

"Smoke on the Wind"

Coming June 24 from Lake Union: Smoke on the Wind: A Novel by Kelli Estes.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the magnificent Scottish Highlands, two devoted mothers separated by centuries discover a haunting connection in a gripping novel by the USA Today bestselling author of The Girl Who Wrote in Silk.

Struggling with the tragic end of her marriage, Keaka Denney is on a bittersweet adventure in Scotland with her son, Colin. She’s joining him on a weeklong hike along the West Highland Way before he enters university in Glasgow. Soon into the journey, Keaka’s disquieting visions begin―a woman from ages past reaching for Colin, a burning cottage, violence.

Scotland, 1801. After Sorcha Chisholm and her son are wrenched from their home in a brutal eviction, they face an arduous trek toward a new beginning. When Sorcha learns she’s wanted for a murder she didn’t commit, she and her son run for their lives. Then help arrives from the strangest woman in the most unexpected ways.

Centuries apart, Keaka and Sorcha walk the same path―devoted mothers in circumstances beyond their control who will do anything to keep their sons safe. Defying logic, they find strength in each other. But what does their connection mean? And how far will it go?

Visit Kelli Estes's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Teacher in the Machine"

New from Princeton University Press: The Teacher in the Machine: A Human History of Education Technology by Anne Trumbore.

About the book, from the publisher:

The surprising history of education technology and its political, financial, and social impact on higher education and our world

From AI tutors who ensure individualized instruction but cannot do math to free online courses from elite universities that were supposed to democratize higher education, claims that technological innovations will transform education often fall short. Yet, as Anne Trumbore shows in The Teacher in the Machine, the promises of today’s cutting-edge technologies aren’t new. Long before the excitement about the disruptive potential of generative AI–powered tutors and massive open online courses, scholars at Stanford, MIT, and the University of Illinois in the 1960s and 1970s were encouraged by the US government to experiment with computers and artificial intelligence in education. Trumbore argues that the contrast between these two eras of educational technology reveals the changing role of higher education in the United States as it shifted from a public good to a private investment.

Writing from a unique insider’s perspective and drawing on interviews with key figures, historical research, and case studies, Trumbore traces today’s disparate discussions about generative AI, student loan debt, and declining social trust in higher education back to their common origins at a handful of elite universities fifty years ago. Arguing that those early educational experiments have resonance today, Trumbore points the way to a more equitable and collaborative pedagogical future. Her account offers a critical lens on the history of technology in education just as universities and students seek a stronger hand in shaping the future of their institutions.

Visit Anne Trumbore's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"If Wishes Were Retail"

New from Tachyon: If Wishes Were Retail by Auston Habershaw.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this hilarious debut fantasy cozy, a rebellious―but enterprising―young woman and an ancient―but clueless―genie set up shop at the local mall.

Alex Delmore needs a miracle. She wants out of her dead-end suburban town, but her parents are broke and NYU seems like a distant dream.

Good thing there’s a genie in town―and he’s hiring at the Wellspring Mall.

It’d help if the Jinn-formerly-of-the-Ring-of-Khorad knew even one thing about 21st-century America. It’d help if he weren't at least as stubborn as Alex. It’d really help if her brother didn’t sell her out to her conspiracy theory-loving, gnome-hating dad.

When Alex and the genie set up their wishing kiosk, they face seemingly-endless setbacks. The mall is failing and management will not stop interfering on behalf of their big-box tenants.

But when the wishing biz might start working, the biggest problem of all remains: People are really terrible at wishing.

Visit Auston Habershaw's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Iron Ring.

Writers Read: Auston Habershaw (February 2015).

My Book, The Movie: The Iron Ring.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Destroyer of Worlds"

New from Basic Books: Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Age by Frank Close.

About the book, from the publisher:

The thrilling and terrifying seventy-year story—"kinetic, dramatic, and compulsively readable" (Patchen Barss)—of the physicists that deciphered the atom and created the hydrogen bomb

Although Henri Becquerel didn’t know it at the time, he changed history in 1896 when he left photographic plates and some uranium rocks in a drawer. The rocks emitted something that exposed the plates: it was the first documented evidence of spontaneous radioactivity. So began one of the most exciting and consequential efforts humans have ever undertaken.

As Frank Close recounts in Destroyer of Worlds, scientists confronting Becquerel’s discovery had three questions: What was this phenomenon? Could it be a source of unlimited power? And (alas), could it be a weapon? Answering them was an epic journey of discovery, with Ernest Rutherford, Enrico Fermi, Irene Joliot-Curie, and many others jockeying to decipher the dance of particles in a decaying atom. And it was a terrifying journey as well, as Edward Teller and others pressed on from creating atom bombs to hydrogen bombs so powerful that they could destroy all life on earth.

The deep history of the nuclear age has never before been recounted so vividly. Centered on an extraordinary cast of characters, Destroyer of Worlds charts the course of nuclear physics from simple curiosity to potential Armageddon.

Follow Frank Close on Twitter and Facebook.

The Page 99 Test: Elusive.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Dark Library"

New from Poisoned Pen Press: The Dark Library: A Novel by Mary Anna Evans.

About the book, from the publisher:

Can a family's dark history repeat itself?

Estella Ecker has returned to Rockfall House, the last place on earth she wants to be. Years after she ran away from her overbearing father, she has been forced back home to walk in his footsteps, teaching at the college he dominated and living in the fabulous home where he entertained artists and scholars for decades―and perhaps she owns it now, because her mercurial mother has disappeared. At the center of everything―the whispers, the rumors, the secrets―is her father's library of rare books, which she had been forbidden to touch while he was alive to stop her.

Everyone in town is watching Estella, with her dead father's name on their lips, and no one seems to care about her missing mother. Who were her parents, really, and is the answer hidden somewhere in the depths of Rockfall House? And who will Estella be, if she gathers enough courage to find that answer? What she will discover is that no one can escape the secrets hidden in this dark library.

Suspenseful and unsettling but ultimately triumphant, The Dark Library by acclaimed author Mary Anna Evans is a compelling tale of mystery, family secrets, and the quest for truth.

Learn more about the author and her work at Mary Anna Evans's website.

The Page 69 Test: Floodgates.

Writers Read: Mary Anna Evans (October 2010).

The Page 69 Test: Strangers.

My Book, The Movie: Strangers.

The Page 69 Test: Plunder.

Writers Read: Mary Anna Evans (November 2013).

The Page 69 Test: Rituals.

Q&A with Mary Anna Evans.

My Book, The Movie: The Physicists' Daughter.

The Page 69 Test: The Physicists' Daughter.

Writers Read: Mary Anna Evans.

The Page 69 Test: The Traitor Beside Her.

My Book, The Movie: The Traitor Beside Her.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Egotism, Elitism, and the Ethics of Musical Humility"

New from Oxford University Press: Egotism, Elitism, and the Ethics of Musical Humility by William J. Coppola.

About the book, from the publisher:

Egotism, Elitism, and the Ethics of Musical Humility examines how cultures of superiority pervade our musical lives and explores ways in which we can challenge them. Combining philosophical inquiry, empirical research, and pop culture examples, William J. Coppola takes a look at how striving for individual achievement can lead us to grow disconnected from one another--and how humility can help us restore our common humanity.

To begin, Coppola critiques the damaging effects of egotism on individual musical development and highlights the importance of knowing one's strengths and limitations and engaging with other artists as equal partners. He then goes further, examining how institutional structures like racial oppression, gender inequity, and the neoliberal drive for continual growth and achievement perpetuate ideologies of elitism and exclusion. Ethical responsibility, he argues, extends beyond individual failings into confronting these systemic societal ailments. Finally, Coppola outlines the transformative potentials of musical humility as an empowering virtue for musicians and music educators to achieve the fullest artistic realization of themselves and others.

Musical humility is more than just knocking ourselves down a peg from time to time; it is about uplifting ourselves--and others--to celebrate our shared humanity and artistic dignity. By embracing musical humility, musicians and music educators can contribute to social change by fostering self-reflection, facilitating dialogue, and embracing the ethical tensions inherent to our musical lives.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Palm Meridian"

New from Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster: Palm Meridian: A Novel by Grace Flahive.

About the book, from the publisher:

A rollicking, big-hearted story of long-lost love, friendship, and a life well-lived, set at a Florida retirement resort for queer women, on the last day of resident Hannah Cardin’s life—perfect for readers of Less and The Wedding People.

It’s 2067 and Florida is partially underwater, but even that can’t bring down the residents of Palm Meridian Retirement Resort, a utopian home for queer women who want to revel in their twilight years. Inside, Hula-Hoopers shimmy across the grass, fiercely competitive book clubs nearly come to blows, and the roller-ski team races up and down the winding paths. Everywhere you look, these women are living large.

Hannah Cardin has spent ten happy years under these tropical, technicolor skies, but after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, she has decided that tomorrow morning she will close her eyes for the very last time. Tonight, however, Hannah and her raucous band of friends are throwing one hell of an end-of-life party. And with less than twenty-four hours left, Hannah is holding out for one final, impossible thing...

Amongst the guest list is Sophie, the love of Hannah’s life. They haven’t spoken since their devastating breakup over forty years ago, but today, Hannah is hoping for the chance to give her greatest love one last try.

As Hannah anxiously awaits Sophie’s arrival, her mind casts back over the highs and lows of her kaleidoscopic life. But when a shocking secret from the past is revealed, Hannah must reconsider if she can say goodbye after all.

Spanning the course of a single day and seventy-odd years, and bursting with irresistible hope, humor, and wisdom, this one-of-a-kind novel celebrates the unexpected moments that make us feel the most alive.

Follow Grace Flahive on Instagram.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Before Manifest Destiny"

New from the University of Virginia Press: Before Manifest Destiny: The Contested Expansion of the Early United States by Nicholas G. DiPucchio.

About the book, from the publisher:

How the contours of the United States took shape—and what they might have been

There was nothing predestined about the now-familiar shape of the United States of America. Early visions of what the new country’s borders could encompass included Canadian provinces, Caribbean islands, and even Kamchatka in eastern Russia. In Before Manifest Destiny, Nicholas DiPucchio tells the surprising, dramatically contingent story of the United States’ expansion, focusing in particular on the ultimately unrealized territorial ambitions cherished by many Americans in the early republic.

Between the 1770s and 1820s, American expansionists made efforts to annex Bermuda, Upper Canada, Cuba, and vast swathes of the Pacific Northwest. As DiPucchio shows, however, local populations—from small groups of Caribbean merchants to Indigenous populations to rival imperial powers—contested their efforts, helping define the boundaries of the United States and forcing its leaders to recalibrate their expectations of the nation’s growth. Rather than the inevitable procession it may appear to be in retrospect, the story of early US expansion was in many ways defined by thwarted ambitions and unfulfilled possibilities. Halted in the Atlantic East, the Canadian North, and the Caribbean South, antebellum expansionists eventually declared it their manifest destiny to overspread the West.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Always Be My Bibi"

New from Salaam Reads/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers: Always Be My Bibi by Priyanka Taslim.

About the book, from the publisher:

Clueless meets Jenna Evans Welch in this young adult rom-com about a spoiled American teenager who faces some major culture shock—and potential romance—when she jets off to Bangladesh for her sister’s wedding.

Bibi Hossain was supposed to get her first kiss this summer.

Too bad her father finds out and grounds her for breaking his most arcane rule: No boys until your sister gets married.

Just when Bibi thinks she’ll be stuck helping him at their popular fried chicken chain until school reopens, her oh-so-perfect older sister Halima drops a bombshell: she’s marrying the heir of a princely estate turned tea garden in Bangladesh. Soon, Bibi is hopping on the next flight to Sylhet for Halima’s Big Fat Bengali Wedding, hoping Abbu might even rethink the dating ban while they’re there.

Unfortunately, the stuffy Rahmans are a nightmare—especially Sohel, the groom’s younger brother. The only thing they can agree on is that their siblings are not a good match. But as the two scheme to break their siblings up, Bibi finds it impossible to stay away from the infuriatingly handsome boy.

Could her own happily ever after be brewing even as she stirs up trouble for her sister’s engagement—or is there more steeping at the tea estate than Bibi knows?

Visit Priyanka Taslim's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Love Match.

Q&A with Priyanka Taslim.

The Page 69 Test: The Love Match.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Cost of Conviction"

New from The MIT Press: The Cost of Conviction: How Our Deepest Values Lead Us Astray by Steven Sloman.

About the book, from the publisher:

A timely and important perspective on how people frame decisions and how relying on sacred values unwittingly leads to social polarization.

When you are faced with a decision, do you consider the best outcome, or do you consider your deepest values about which actions are appropriate? The Cost of Conviction contrasts these two primary strategies for making decisions: consequentialism or prioritizing one’s sacred values. Steven Sloman argues that, while both modes of decision making are necessary tools for a good decision maker, people err by deploying sacred values more often than they should, especially when it comes to sociopolitical issues. As a result, we oversimplify, grow disgusted and angry, and act in ways that contribute to social polarization. In this book, Sloman provides a new understanding of today’s societal ills and grounds that understanding in science.

Drawing on historical and current examples of the two decision-making strategies in action, the author provides a thorough overview of the psychology of decision making, including work on judgment, conscious and unconscious decision-making processes, the roles of emotion, and even an analysis of habit and addiction. With its unique emphasis on sacred values, The Cost of Conviction is an eye-opening must-read for all decision makers, especially those who wish to understand judgment, social decision making, and leadership.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Lady or the Tiger"

New from Nancy Paulsen Books: Lady or the Tiger by Heather M. Herrman.

About the book, from the publisher:

A twisty, darkly seductive anti-hero origin story, starring a teenage killer whose trial in the Wild West is upended when her first victim, her husband, arrives alive with a story to tell.

Summer 1886—When nineteen-year-old Belle King turns herself in for murder, the last thing she expects to see is her abusive husband Reginald standing outside her Dodge City jail cell, impossibly alive. He’s there to take her back, but Belle is not going without a fight. Reginald was the first man she ever meant to kill, but certainly not the last...

Now, while there are still bars between them, Belle is forced to resort to all the tricks in her arsenal to prevent her husband from ever being in control of her again. But in the 1880s, the last soul anyone will believe is a girl—even when she confesses to her own crimes.

With the seductive horror of a fairy tale, Lady or the Tiger is the dark, twisty story of how one mountain girl from Kentucky became the wickedest woman in the Wild West and an ode to girls with tigers in their hearts who can save themselves.

Visit Heather M. Herrman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Marking Native Borders"

New from the University of Oklahoma Press: Marking Native Borders: Indigenous Geography and American Empire in the Early Tennessee Country by Lucas P. Kelley.

About the book, from the publisher:

Since time immemorial, Native peoples’ understandings of space and territory have defined the landscape of the Tennessee Country—the region drained by the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Mississippi rivers and their tributaries. Marking Native Borders challenges the narrative of inevitable U.S. expansion by exploring how Cherokees and Chickasaws used these notions of space and territory in new and different ways to counter the encroachment of white settlers and land speculators in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

When settlers began to trudge over the Appalachian Mountains, intent on making new homes on Native land, Cherokees and Chickasaws fortified their territories by creating clear borders around their nations. They further defended their permanent, inherent right to these bordered spaces by combining Indigenous ideas of communal land use with aspects of European property law. The Cherokees and Chickasaws, however, did not always agree on how to maintain control of their lands, and Lucas P. Kelley’s comparison of their differing strategies provides a nuanced, more accurate picture of Native peoples’ lived experiences in this turbulent time and place. He also describes how white settlers and speculators, in turn, revised their own strategies for expansion in response to the Cherokees’ and Chickasaws’ success in defending their national lands.

The story of the early Tennessee Country is one of competing geographies, contested sovereignties, and disputed boundaries among Chickasaws, Cherokees, settlers, and land speculators. It is a history of conflict and contestation that influenced Native sovereignty and shaped the construction of an American empire. As this book suggests, it is an ongoing story, as Native peoples’ notions of space and territory continue to impact the Tennessee Country today.

--Marshal Zeringue

"No Lie Lasts Forever"

New from Thomas & Mercer: No Lie Lasts Forever: A Thriller by Mark Stevens.

About the book, from the publisher:

Zodiac with a terrifying twist, in a taut thriller from author Mark Stevens about a reformed serial killer and the disgraced journalist he coaxes into finding the imposter trading on his name.

When a reporter dies in a shockingly familiar way, the media rushes to announce the return of the PDQ Killer. The city of Denver reels, but no one more than Harry Kugel. After all, he is the PDQ Killer―or was fifteen years ago. And he didn’t do this.

Still working to reform his ways, Harry won’t let some amateur murderer ride his twisted coattails and risk drawing the police back his way. To protect his legacy and quiet new life, he’ll have to expose the copycat. Without exposing himself.

Disgraced TV journalist Flynn Martin holds the key. After a botched hostage situation, she’ll do anything to revive her dying career―even hunt down a monster who executed one of her own.

Harry must convince Flynn to follow him into the heady world of a killer. But with the law closing in and a rival at large, he starts to feel the familiar pull of old urges…

Visit Mark Stevens's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Fireballer.

Q&A with Mark Stevens.

My Book, The Movie: The Fireballer.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Open Secrecy"

New from the University of California Press: Open Secrecy: How Technology Empowers the Digital Underworld by Isak Ladegaard.

About the book, from the publisher:

Examines how the global digital underground is liberated by "open secrecy"—a novel and ominous mix of tools for mass communication and anonymity

Shadowy groups are increasingly capable of collective action. Using military-grade encryption, rerouting software, and cryptocurrencies, anonymous and pseudonymous actors can now communicate, solve problems, recruit members, and manage resources across multiple public and semipublic spaces. This swirling mix of secrecy and openness enables people to move through cyberspace like nomads with verifiable personas, which makes them impossible to stop.

Isak Ladegaard takes readers inside a dark, digital economy for banned drugs that has survived numerous police crackdowns, examines how activist software developers in China and other countries have maintained paths to the open internet, and documents how the American far right uses the same tools to sustain antisocial movements based on paranoia and hate. Timely and perceptive, Open Secrecy argues that although information technology enables mass surveillance, it also undermines state power by boosting groups that evade its rule. These dual forces of control and liberation are propelling us forward, with no one at the wheel.

Visit Isak Ladegaard's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Nimbus"

New from Henry Holt: The Nimbus: A Novel by Robert P. Baird.

About the book, from the publisher:

A dazzling debut novel about a child whose literal enlightenment sets the stage for an exuberant tragicomedy of marriage, religion, and parenthood.

On an otherwise ordinary fall day on a university campus in Chicago, the toddler son of an ambitious divinity school professor named Adrian Bennett mysteriously starts to glow. The nimbus, as the strange, soft light comes to be known, offers no clues to its origin and frustrates every attempt at rational explanation.

Though the nimbus appears only intermittently, and not to everyone, the otherworldly glow quickly upends the lives of all those who encounter it, including Paul Harkin, Adrian’s broke and feckless graduate student, who likes being a graduate student a little too much for his own good; Renata Bennett, Adrian’s omnicompetent wife, who can’t see her son glowing even though the nimbus is turning her life upside down; and Warren Kayita, a down-on-his-luck librarian and aging divinity school alumnus on the run from a violent criminal. As news about the nimbus spreads around the university and beyond, Adrian, Paul, Renata, and Warren are set on a collision course that will threaten their lives and put their deepest convictions to the test.

At once a rollicking intellectual satire, a searing portrait of a family in crisis, and a thrilling metaphysical page-turner, The Nimbus offers a comic and profound examination of the persistence of spiritual belief in a secular age and humanity’s timeless search for meaning.

Visit Robert P. Baird's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Too Good to Get Married"

Coming June 3 from Fordham University Press: Too Good to Get Married: The Life and Photographs of Miss Alice Austen by Bonnie Yochelson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Explore Gilded Age New York through the lens of Alice Austen, who captured the social rituals of New York’s leisured class and the bustling streets of the modern city. Celebrated as a queer artist, she was this and much more

Alice Austen (1866–1952) lived at Clear Comfort, her grandparent’s Victorian cottage on Staten Island, which is now a National Historic Landmark. As a teenager, she devoted herself to photography, recording what she called “the larky life” of tennis matches, yacht races, and lavish parties.

When she was 25 and expected to marry, Austen used her camera to satirize gender norms by posing with her friends in their undergarments and in men’s clothes, “smoking” cigarettes, and feigning drunkenness. As she later remarked, she was “too good to get married.” Austen embraced the rebellious spirit of the “New Woman,” a moniker given to those who defied expectations by pursuing athletics, higher education, or careers. She had romantic affairs with women, and at 31, she met Gertrude Tate, who became her life partner. Briefly, Austen considered becoming a professional photographer. She illustrated Bicycling for Ladies, a guide written by her friend Violet Ward, and she explored the working-class neighborhoods of Manhattan to produce a portfolio, “Street Types of New York.” Rejecting the taint of commerce, however, she remained within the confines of elite society with Tate by her side.

Although interest in Austen has accelerated since 2017, when the Alice Austen House was designated a national site of LGBTQ history, the only prior book on Austen was published in 1976. Copiously illustrated, Too Good to Get Married fills the need for a fresh and deeply researched look at this skillful and witty photographer. Through analysis of Austen’s photographs, Yochelson illuminates the history of American photography and the history of sexuality.

Visit Bonnie Yochelson's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Great Mann"

New from Crown: The Great Mann: A Novel by Kyra Davis Lurie.

About the book, from the publisher:

Beautifully original in its retelling of a classic, The Great Mann thrives in the world of its pages, transporting readers into a narrative of wealth, race, class and fame. Thematically woven into American history, this is an impactful read.

In this poignant retelling of The Great Gatsby, set amongst L.A.’s Black elite, a young veteran finds his way post-war, pulled into a new world of tantalizing possibilities—and explosive tensions.

In 1945, Charlie Trammell steps off a cross-country train into the vibrant tapestry of Los Angeles. Lured by his cousin Marguerite’s invitation to the esteemed West Adams Heights, Charlie is immediately captivated by the Black opulence of L.A.’s newly rechristened “Sugar Hill.”

Settling in at a local actress’s energetic boarding house, Charlie discovers a different way of life—one brimming with opportunity—from a promising career at a Black-owned insurance firm, the absence of Jim Crow, to the potential of an unforgettable romance. But nothing dazzles quite like James “Reaper” Mann.

Reaper’s extravagant parties, attended by luminaries like Lena Horne and Hattie McDaniel, draw Charlie in, bringing the milieu of wealth and excess within his reach. But as Charlie’s unusual bond with Reaper deepens, so does the tension in the neighborhood as white neighbors, frustrated by their own dwindling fortunes, ignite a landmark court case that threatens the community’s well-being with promises of retribution.

Told from the unique perspective of a young man who has just returned from a grueling, segregated war, The Great Mann weaves a compelling narrative of wealth and class, illuminating the complexities of Black identity and education in post-war America.

Visit Kyra Davis Lurie's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Sedition"

New from NYU Press: Sedition: How America's Constitutional Order Emerged from Violent Crisis by Marcus Alexander Gadson.

About the book, from the publisher:

How Americans have weathered constitutional crises throughout our history

Since protestors ripped through the Capitol Building in 2021, the threat of constitutional crisis has loomed over our nation. The foundational tenets of American democracy seem to be endangered, and many citizens believe this danger is unprecedented in our history. But Americans have weathered many constitutional crises, often accompanied by the same violence and chaos experienced on January 6. However, these crises occurred on the state level. In Sedition, Marcus Alexander Gadson uncovers these episodes of civil unrest and examines how state governments handled them.

Sedition takes readers through six instances of constitutional crisis: The Buckshot War, Dorr’s Rebellion, Bleeding Kansas, the Brooks-Baxter War, a successful terrorist campaign to overthrow South Carolina’s government during Reconstruction, and the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898. He chronicles these turbulent periods of violent anti-government conflict on the state level, explaining what it was like to experience coup d’états, rival governments fighting in the streets, and disputed elections that gave way to violence. As he addresses constitutional breakdown, Gadson urges Americans to pay increased attention to the risk of constitutional instability in their home states. His sweeping historical analysis provides new insights on the fight to protect democracy today.

As Americans mobilize to prevent future crises, Sedition reminds us that our constitutional order can fail, that democratic collapse is possible, and offers us advice on how to save our constitutional system.

Visit Marcus Alexander Gadson's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Ready to Score"

New from St. Martin's Griffin: Ready to Score: A Novel by Jodie Slaughter.

About the book, from the publisher:

Cleat Cute meets Friday Night Lights in this funny, spicy, emotional new sapphic romance from Jodie Slaughter.

Jade Dunn has spent years trying to climb her way to the top of the southern high school football food chain. Now, the only thing standing between her and that future head coach spot is years of small-town good ‘ol boy politics. When she scores an invite to a highly coveted monthly poker game perfect for networking, she jumps at the chance for a seat at the table. Only to find the one person with the ability to shake her there. An infuriatingly sexy art teacher who plays her cards like she’s gunning for Jade’s deserved spot.

Francesca Lim never thought she’d be happy in a small town, not after living and breathing hardcore Texas football her whole life. But two years ago, the promise of forever love had her leaving behind a burgeoning coaching career for a new life - only for it to burst into flames. Now, she has a chance to gain back a piece of her life she thought she’d left in Houston. The only one standing in the way? The prickly assistant coach that Francesca can’t keep her mind or hands off of.

Not wanting to risk losing out on a dream job, Jade and Francesca can’t afford to give in to the iron hot attraction that simmers beneath their biting interactions, so they try desperately to ignore it. Too bad their hearts don’t seem to be as on board with the game plan.

Jodie Slaughter’s Ready to Score shows how sometimes you have to go big or go home to get the life - and love - you deserve.

Visit Jodie Slaughter's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"1999"

New from the University Press of Kansas: 1999: The Year Low Culture Conquered America and Kickstarted Our Bizarre Times by Ross Benes.

About the book, from the publisher:

From pro wrestling and Pokémon to Insane Clown Posse and Jerry Springer, this look at the low culture of the late ’90s reveals its profound impact and how it continues to affect our culture and society today.

The year 1999 was a high-water mark for popular culture. According to one measure, it was the “best movie year ever.” But as journalist Ross Benes shows, the end of the ’90s was also a banner year for low culture. This was the heyday of Jerry Springer, Jenna Jameson, and Vince McMahon, among many others. Low culture had come into its own and was poised for world domination. The reverberations of this takeover continue to shape American society.

During its New Year’s Eve countdown, MTV entered 1999 with Limp Bizkit covering Prince’s famous anthem to the new year. The highlights of the lowlights continued when WCW and WWE drew 35 million American viewers each week with sex appeal and stories about insurrections. Insane Clown Posse emerged from the underground with a Woodstock set and platinum records about magic and murder. Later that year, Dance Dance Revolution debuted in North America and Grand Theft Auto emerged as a major video game franchise. Beanie Babies and Pokémon so thoroughly seized the wallets and imagination of collectors that they created speculative investment bubbles that anticipated the faddish obsession over nonfungible tokens (NFTs). The trashy talk show Jerry Springer became daytime TV’s most-watched program and grew so mainstream that Austin Powers, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, The Wayans Bros., The Simpsons, and The X-Files incorporated Springer into their own plots during the late ’90s. Donald Trump even explored a potential presidential nomination with the Reform Party in 1999 and wanted his running mate to be Oprah Winfrey, whose own talk show would make Dr. Oz a household name.

Benes shows us how so many of the strangest features of culture in 1999 predicted and influenced American life today. This wild ride through pop culture uncovers the connections between the kayfabe of WWE and the theatrics of politics, between the faddish obsession with Beanie Babies and with NFTs, between faithful fans and political loyalists, between violent video games and society’s scapegoats, and much more. 1999 is not just a nostalgic look at the past. It is also a window into our contentious present.

Visit Ross Benes's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Friendship Fling"

New from Harper Perennial: The Friendship Fling: A Novel by Georgia Stone.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this delightfully charming and heartfelt debut love story, two lonely and wildly different strangers embark on a short-term friendship over one London summer—only to discover they may be something more by the time the season ends.

No one would ever call Ava Monroe a people person, which isn’t ideal for a barista in a busy London coffee shop. She’s sarcastic, blunt, and cynical, and her relationships are strictly no strings attached. With her best friend Josie soon leaving for a year, Ava knows she’ll be all alone unless she shakes up her routine. But she can’t risk bringing chance back into her carefully controlled life.

Then insufferably cheerful, country-hopping, undeniably gorgeous Finn O’Callaghan rolls into her coffee shop with a horrifying proposal —a strictly friends-only summer fling. Finn needs a local to help him complete his London bucket list, and Ava needs to reassure Josie she won’t be on her own. And it’s only for a few months.

To Ava’s surprise, their mismatched friendship of convenience becomes oddly tolerable, and as they work their way through Finn’s list and around the sun-drenched city, from rooftops and floating bars to nights at the museum, their adventures—and Finn’s company—start to feel . . . nice. Incredibly, terrifyingly, dangerously nice.

Still, rules are rules—Ava has good reasons for them—and as the days get shorter, Finn’s departure gets closer. Because that’s the thing about summer: it always ends. Right?

Visit Georgia Stone's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Energy Talk"

New from Cornell University Press: Energy Talk: Green Knowledge from Greece's Silicon Plains by Daniel M. Knight.

About the book, from the publisher:

Energy Talk disrupts the claims of institutionalized categories such as sustainability, green economy, climate change, and net zero that promote a shared consensus on energy transition. These concepts often conceal the intricate details of how people engage with rapidly shifting sociotechnical environments. On the plains of Thessaly, Greece, interactions with the emerging energy landscape, particularly the expanding photovoltaic (solar) program, lead people to critique long-standing assumptions about nationalism and belonging, their experience of time and modernity, the morality of entrepreneurial opportunism, and historically grounded notions of neo-colonialism and foreign occupation.

Daniel M. Knight showcases how obscured 'adelo-knowledge' is exposed during epochs of intense upheaval. Since 2009 Greece has been a hot spot of interrelated crises around which new socio-techno-natural contracts have emerged. Energy is a pivot for comprehending a decade where conventional information has been upended, traditions challenged, and assumptions fractured. Energy Talk offers an ethnographically and theoretically rich rereading of established categories usually associated with the green transition, from their local particularity to the potential implications for planetary relations.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses"

New from Tor Books: The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses (The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti, 3) by Malka Older.

About the book, from the publisher:

The next entry in the multi-award-nominated cozy space-opera mystery series The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti!

When a former classmate begs Pleiti for help on behalf of her cousin―who’s up for a prestigious academic position at a rival Jovian university but has been accused of plagiarism on the eve of her defense―Pleiti agrees to investigate the matter.

Even if she has to do it without Mossa, her partner in more ways than one. Even if she’s still reeling from Mossa’s sudden isolation and bewildering rejection.

Yet what appears to be a case of an attempted reputational smearing devolves into something decidedly more dangerous―and possibly deadly.

Visit Malka Older's website.

The Page 69 Test: Infomocracy.

The Page 69 Test: State Tectonics.

The Page 69 Test: The Mimicking of Known Successes.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Recreational Colonialism and the Rhetorical Landscapes of the Outdoors"

New from Ohio State University Press: Recreational Colonialism and the Rhetorical Landscapes of the Outdoors by Kyle Boggs.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Recreational Colonialism and the Rhetorical Landscapes of the Outdoors, Kyle Boggs chronicles the struggle between Indigenous peoples who have rooted religious and cultural ties to outdoor sites across the US and elsewhere and the settlers who claim the right to freely recreate in those same places. Synthesizing theories of rhetoric, environmental studies, and settler colonialism, Boggs confronts the ways that settler colonial experiences and expectations have been narrated through rhetorical practices on these so-called public lands. Fusing journalism and personal narrative with scholarly research, Boggs’s argument comes to bear on his central case study of a northern Arizona ski development on a mountain held sacred by at least thirteen Indigenous tribes. In illuminating the striking ways that settler imaginaries are accommodated, performed, and sustained in the everyday, Boggs offers a powerful reminder that even during leisure activities (in this case, sports such as ultrarunning, rock climbing, and skiing), complex webs of power control who can access resources and land and who has the right to protect histories and cultures.

Visit Kyle Boggs's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Claire Casey's Had Enough"

New from Severn House: Claire Casey's Had Enough by Liz Alterman.

About the book, from the publisher:

Back in the day, Claire had dreams. She was going to be somebody! Now a forty-something mom of three (four if you count her husband!), drowning in laundry and PTA chores, with a job she can’t stand, she's finally had enough . . . A hilarious, heartwarming mom-com, perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella and Fiona Gibson.

Claire Casey has reached her breaking point. For years, she’s juggled it all: kids, husband, career, and a never-ending list of responsibilities. But when the man who’s supposed to be her partner – who promised he wouldn’t let his phone die and would pick her up from the airport – completely forgets about her, Claire snaps.

It’s the final straw. Claire is done. And so are they.

Sort of . . . maybe. (It’s not easy saying goodbye to sixteen years of marriage, ok!)

Still, Claire’s determined to reclaim her life. She’s tired of being the overworked, worn-out mom in her forties. She wants to be hopeful, vivacious Claire again.

Attending her college reunion reconnects her with former flame, Alex. And while flirting with him over email is innocent, his invitation to meet for drinks at a swanky hotel is not!

As Claire begins to rediscover the woman she was, she’s forced to confront the harsh reality that recapturing her sense of self could blow up her marriage . . . Now Claire must decide: risk the unknown or rebuild the life she has, flaws and all?

Told over the course of a day in the life of this relatable heroine, Claire Casey’s Had Enough is a laugh-out-loud mom-com that readers will adore!

Visit Liz Alterman's website.

Q&A with Liz Alterman.

My Book, The Movie: The Perfect Neighborhood.

The Page 69 Test: The Perfect Neighborhood.

The Page 69 Test: The House on Cold Creek Lane.

My Book, The Movie: The House on Cold Creek Lane.

Writers Read: Liz Alterman (August 2024).

--Marshal Zeringue

"Discarded"

New from Oxford University Press: Discarded: How Technofossils Will be Our Ultimate Legacy by Sarah Gabbott and Jan Zalasiewicz.

About the book, from the publisher:

What will remain of our plastic, cans, and other junk long after humans have vanished?

What kind of fossils will we leave, as relics into the far future? A blizzard of new objects has suddenly appeared on Earth: plastic bottles, ballpoint pens, concrete flyways, outsize chicken bones, aluminium cans, teabags, mobile phones, T-shirts. They're produced for our comfort and pleasure--then quickly discarded. The number of our constructions has exploded, to outweigh the whole living world. This new-made treasure chest underpins our lives. But it is also giving a completely new style of fossilization to our planet, as hyper-diverse and hyper-rapidly-evolving technofossils spin out of our industrialized economy. Designed to resist sun, wind, rain, corrosion and decay, and buried in soils, seafloor muds and the gigantic middens of our landfill sites, many will remain, petrified, as future geology.

What will these technofossils look like, in future rock? How long will they last and how will they change, as they lie underground for decades, then millennia, then millions of years? Discarded describes how they transform as they are attacked by bacteria, baked by the Earth's inner heat, squashed by overlying rock, permeated by subterranean fluids, crumpled by mountain-building movements--and what will be left of them. These new fossils also have meaning for our lives today. For we live on a world increasingly buried under our growing waste. As our discarded artefacts begin to change into fossils, they may be swallowed by birds, entangle fish, alter microbial communities and release toxins. Even deeply buried in rock, technofossils may break down into new-formed oil and gas, change the composition of groundwater, and attract new mineral growths. They will have a lasting impact.

It is a new planetary phenomenon, now unfolding around us. Scientists are only just beginning to grasp its scale, and get to grips with how it functions. This book describes, for the general reader, the kind of science that is emerging to show the far-future human footprint on Earth. It offers a different perspective upon fossils and fossilization, one that expands the idea of what people think of as fossils, and what they can tell us.

The Page 99 Test: Jan Zalasiewicz's The Earth After Us.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Cat Fight"

New from Atria Books: Cat Fight: A Novel by Kit Conway.

About the book, from the publisher:

Big Little Lies meets Tiger King in this fun and propulsive debut novel about three suburban women who, over the course of one summer, each use the growing hysteria around a big cat sighting to achieve their own agendas—some more sinister than others.

Former zoologist Coralie King now reigns over a different sort of animal kingdom as Queen Bee of Sevenoaks, a wealthy suburb of London. When her husband Adam spots a panther on the hood of his car at one of her exclusive dinner parties, Coralie is quick to reassure her guests that they’re in no real danger. She sees the sighting as the perfect opportunity to revive her career and promote her own ecological endeavors.

New neighbor Emma Brooks doesn’t believe for a second that there’s a big cat in their midst but is all too willing to use the concern as a distraction from her home remodel application that’s been facing scrutiny. Meanwhile, former punk musician Twig Dorsett doesn’t know what to believe. She never thought she’d return to Sevenoaks and be living in her childhood home, but after her daughter became sick, she and her wife traded their Bohemian life in Bali for the security of London suburbia.

As the summer heats up, the frenzy around the big cat sighting reaches a fever pitch when gnawed bones, pawprints, and scratches are discovered. But is the real predator a big cat on the prowl or is the true threat more of the domestic variety? Filled with gasp-worthy twists and turns, Cat Fight is a wickedly entertaining novel of suspense that examines the lengths to which some women will go when they feel caged.

Visit Kit Conway's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Sex and Love in Porfirian Mexico City"

New from the University Press of Florida: Sex and Love in Porfirian Mexico City: A Social History of Working-Class Courtship by Michael Matthews.

About the book, from the publisher:

Exploring the sexual lives of the poor and working class in turn-of-the-century Mexico

This social history explores the romantic and sexual lives of the poor and working class in Mexico City during the rule of dictator Porfirio Díaz from 1876 to 1911. By analyzing sexually based crime cases and stories in the penny press, Michael Matthews sheds light on everyday struggles, joys, and desires. Matthews argues that lower-class individuals had more liberated sexual lives than their wealthier counterparts, influenced by the city’s growth and cultural changes.

In this book, Matthews examines how Mexico City’s expanding infrastructure, increasing factory work, and new leisure and entertainment activities shaped courtship and sexual practices. He delves into the world of tenement buildings and street life to reconstruct days defined by love and desire, romance and rape, seduction and sex work, and promises kept and broken. Matthews connects the sexual culture of the poor to the changes taking place as the Mexican state modernized and underwent tremendous capitalist growth and development.

Sex and Love in Porfirian Mexico City provides insights into how social and economic developments shaped cultural norms surrounding honor, marriage, morality, and parental authority during this period. It will spur new reflections on the possible influence of lower-class culture on modern-day romance and sexual values.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Homemaker"

New from Thomas & Mercer: Homemaker (A Prairie Nightingale Mystery) by Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare.

About the book, from the publisher:

When a former friend and devoted mother vanishes, a confident homemaker turned amateur sleuth follows an unexpected trail of scandals and secrets to find her.

Prairie Nightingale is both the midlife mother of two teenage girls and a canny entrepreneur who has turned homemaking into a salaried profession. She’s also fascinated with the gritty details of other people’s lives. So when seemingly perfect Lisa Radcliffe, a member of her former mom-friends circle, suddenly disappears, it’s in Prairie’s nature to find out why.

Given her innate talent for vital pattern recognition, Prairie is out to catch a few clues by taking a long, hard look at everyone in Lisa’s life―and uncovering their secrets. Including Lisa’s. Prairie’s dogged curiosity is especially irritating to FBI agent Foster Rosemare, the first interesting man Prairie has met since her divorce. His square jaw and sharp suits don’t hurt.

But even as the investigation begins to wreak havoc on Prairie’s carefully tended homelife, she’s resolved to use her multivalent homemaking skills to solve the mystery of a missing mom―and along the way discover the thrill of her new sleuthing ambitions.

Visit Ruthie Knox's website and Annie Mare's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Doubled Up"

New from Princeton University Press: Doubled Up: Shared Households and the Precarious Lives of Families by Hope Harvey.

About the book, from the publisher:

How sharing a home with extended family or friends serves as a crucial, but imperfect, private safety net for families with children

More than fifteen percent of US children—over eleven million—live in doubled-up households, sharing space with extended family or friends. These households are even more common among low-income families, families of color, and single-parent families, functioning as a private safety net for many in a country with extremely limited public support for families. Yet despite their prevalence, we know little about how shared households form and how they shape family life. Doubled Up is an in-depth look at the experiences of families with children living in doubled-up households.

Drawing on extensive interviews with sixty parents living in doubled-up households, Hope Harvey examines what circumstances and motivations lead families to form doubled-up households, how living in shared households affects daily routines, and how families fare after these arrangements dissolve.

Harvey shows that although families rely on doubling up to get by in the face of rapidly rising housing costs, precarious labor markets, and unaffordable childcare, these private arrangements are rarely sufficient to overcome such structural barriers. And doubling up incurs its own costs for both host and guest families. For doubled-up families, negotiating household relationships and navigating shared space reshapes family life. Understanding the dynamics of doubled-up households extends scholarship on family life beyond the nuclear family and points the way toward better policies that will serve all families.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Waterline"

New from HarperVia: Waterline: A Novel by Aram Mrjoian.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this deeply moving debut, a close-knit Armenian American family grapples with the aftermath of losing one of their own.

Outside Detroit on the island of Gross Ile, the Kurkjians receive news that Mari, the eldest of their youngest generation, has swum into the depths of Lake Michigan with no intent of returning to shore—the consequences of which drag out a deeply rooted pain passed down from generations before.

More than a century earlier, Gregor, the great-grandfather and patriarch of the Kurkjian family, survived the Armenian Genocide after fighting for his freedom atop Musa Dagh. Decades later and miles away, Gregor’s epic mythos is inherited by his family as they navigate living in its shadow. As the Kurkjians now struggle with their new, devastating loss, secrets and shortcomings rise to the surface, forcing each relative to decide where their own story fits in the narrative of their family’s fraught history.

For fans of Tommy Orange’s There, There, Thao Thai’s Banyan Moon, and Jeffrey Eugenides’ epic Middlesex, Waterline explores the complex beauty of diaspora, the weight of inherited trauma, and the echoes of the Genocide on contemporary Armenian life. This is a searing portrait of a family afloat in grief and the perseverance needed to rise above.

Visit Aram Mrjoian's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Charlottesville: An American Story"

New from Graywolf Press: Charlottesville: An American Story by Deborah Baker.

About the book, from the publisher:

In August 2017, over a thousand neo-Nazis, fascists, Klan members, and neo-Confederates descended on a small southern city to protest the pending removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. Within an hour of their arrival, the city’s historic downtown was a scene of bedlam as armored far right cadres battled activists in the streets. Before the weekend was over, a neo-Nazi had driven a car into a throng of counterprotesters, killing a young woman and injuring dozens. Pulitzer Prize finalist Deborah Baker has written a riveting and panoptic account of what unfolded that weekend, focusing less on the rally’s far right leaders than on the story of the city itself. University, local, and state officials, including law enforcement, were unable or unwilling to grasp the gathering threat. Clergy, activists, and organizers from all walks of life saw more clearly what was coming and, at great personal risk, worked to warn and defend their city.

To understand why their warnings fell on deaf ears, Baker does a deep dive into American history. In her research she discovers an uncannily similar event that took place decades before when an emissary of the poet and fascist Ezra Pound arrived in Charlottesville intending to start a race war. In Charlottesville, Baker shows how a city more associated with Thomas Jefferson than civil unrest became a flashpoint in a continuing struggle over our nation’s founding myths.

Visit Deborah Baker's website.

Writers Read: Deborah Baker (December 2011).

--Marshal Zeringue

"In the Family Way"

New from Harper: In the Family Way: A Novel by Laney Katz Becker.

About the book, from the publisher:

Set in the 1960s before Roe, a poignant and powerful novel in the vein of Lessons in Chemistry and Big Little Lies, about the friendship between a group of suburban housewives who help one another navigate through their personal challenges, marriages, and their pregnancies—both wanted and unwanted.

In 1965 America, women can’t have their own bank accounts, credit cards, or sign their own leases; divorce is scandalous and difficult; and abortion is illegal.

Every week, a group of suburban housewives meet for their Tuesday canasta game. As cards are drawn and discarded, the women share advice and confidences. When prim and proper Lily Berg, a doctor’s wife, discovers she’s pregnant with their second child, she follows her friend Becca’s suggestion and takes in Betsy, a pregnant teen from the local home for unwed mothers. Betsy, who’s never met anyone Jewish before, is to live with the Bergs for six months, help with babysitting and housekeeping, have her own baby, and agree never to contact the family again.

But things quickly get complicated. Lily, who’s opened her home to the teenager, never planned on opening her heart, yet that’s exactly what happens. Meanwhile, Becca is pregnant with her fourth, and comes up with a scheme to get a legal, therapeutic abortion, and Lily’s sister, Rose, discovers the man she married isn’t who he purported to be, and turns to Lily and her husband for help.

Moving and atmospheric, full of history and heart, In the Family Way is a timely novel that captures the experiences of women on the cusp of liberation as they struggle with their own complex feelings about being wives, mothers, and women with their own dreams and ambitions.

Visit Laney Katz Becker's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Lab Dog"

New from the University of Chicago Press: Lab Dog: What Global Science Owes American Beagles by Brad Bolman.

About the book, from the publisher:

Tracing over a century of transformation in the relationship between humans and our “best friend,” from hunting companion to laboratory commodity to modern pet.

Intrepid, docile, and cloaked in coats of white, black, and tan, beagles were one of the most popular breeds in the United States in the twentieth century. From Snoopy to dog shows, many Americans loved and identified with beagles. But during the same period, as scientists searched for a standard research dog, beagles emerged as something else: an ideal animal for laboratory experimentation.

In Lab Dog, historian Brad Bolman explains how the laboratory dog became a subject of intense focus for twentieth-century scientists and charts the beagle’s surprising trajectory through global science. Following beagles as they moved from eugenics to radiobiology, pharmaceutical testing to Alzheimer’s studies, Lab Dog sheds new light on pivotal stories of twentieth-century science, including the Manhattan Project, tobacco controversies, contraceptive testing, and behavioral genetics research. Bolman shows how these experiments shaped our understanding of dogs as intelligent companions who deserve moral protection and socialization—and in some cases, daily medication. Compelling and accessible, Lab Dog tells the thorny story of the participation of beagles in science, including both their sacrifices and their contributions, and offers a glimpse into the future of animal experimentation.

Visit Brad Bolman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Notes on Infinity"

New from Celadon Books: Notes on Infinity: A Novel by Austin Taylor.

About the book, from the publisher:

A singular, extraordinary debut about Zoe and Jack, Harvard students who find themselves propelled into the intoxicating biotech startup world when they announce they’ve discovered the cure for aging. A different kind of love story where the thirst for achievement consumes and the stakes are forever.

Zoe, the daughter of an MIT professor who grew up in her brother’s shadow, can envision her future anew at Harvard. Jack, a boy in Zoe’s organic chemistry class with unruly hair and a gleam of competitiveness, matches her intellect and curiosity with every breath. When Jack refers Zoe for a position in a prestigious professor’s lab, the two become entwined as colleagues, staying up late to discuss scientific ideas. They find themselves on the cusp of a breakthrough: the promise of immortality through a novel antiaging drug.

Zoe and Jack set off on their new project in secret. Finding encouraging results, they bring their work to an investor, drop out of Harvard, and form a startup. But after the money, the magazine covers, and the national news stories detailing their success, Zoe and Jack receive a startling accusation that threatens to destroy both the company they built and their partnership.

A captivating novel about young love, the allure of immortality, and the recklessness that can come with early success, Notes on Infinity asks: How far would you go to achieve your dreams?

Visit Austin Taylor's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Policing Higher Education"

New from Johns Hopkins University Press: Policing Higher Education: The Antidemocratic Attack on Scholars and Why It Matters by Eve Darian-Smith.

About the book, from the publisher:

On the essential role of higher education and academic freedom in thriving democracies.

Higher education is facing an existential crisis. Students and staff are surveilled with cameras and facial recognition software. Police zip-tie and arrest students during protests. As universities across the United States become epicenters of ideological warfare, Policing Higher Education contextualizes these skirmishes within a broader global framework. From the contentious debates surrounding free speech and curriculum control to the denial of tenure for outspoken faculty, Eve Darian-Smith examines the myriad ways higher education has become a battleground.

Darian-Smith highlights the intersecting global trends of rising authoritarianism and declining academic freedom, revealing how the United States is part of a larger pattern seen in democracies worldwide, including in Brazil, Hungary, Germany, India, and the Philippines. This book challenges readers to view educational conflicts not merely as culture wars but as intense and connected struggles over economic, political, and social power. Drawing from extensive scholarship, Darian-Smith humanizes the impacts of these attacks on scholars and students, offering poignant stories of persecution and resilience.

With a critical eye on the historical and structural drivers of antidemocracy, this book pushes for new, meaningful conversations about academic freedom that transcend national borders. It emphasizes the vital role of universities in fostering social responsibility and combating the global drift toward authoritarianism.

The Page 99 Test: Global Burning.

--Marshal Zeringue