"Jenny Cooper Has a Secret"

New from Ballantine Books: Jenny Cooper Has a Secret: A Novel by Joy Fielding.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this riveting psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of All the Wrong Places, a dementia patient reveals a deadly secret—and one woman must decide whether to believe her.

Reeling from her husband’s death and best friend’s dementia diagnosis, seventy-six-year-old Linda Davidson feels lost and alone. Her beloved daughter Kleo and son-in-law Mick have moved into her house to keep her company, but the constant bickering quickly turns their presence into yet another worry on Linda’s long list.

Eager to escape the tension at home, Linda goes to visit her friend at Legacy Place, a memory care facility for the elderly, where she meets Jenny Cooper, a ninety-two-year-old dementia patient who makes a shocking confession: she kills people.

Linda dismisses the so-called secret as the confusion of an ailing mind, but Jenny seems strangely lucid during their visits as she recounts stories of her many victims—mostly men who hurt her. Then a fellow patient at Legacy Place dies. Everyone else sees it as the natural death of an sick old man, but Linda can’t help but wonder: is there any chance Jenny’s telling the truth?

Visit Joy Fielding's website.

The Page 69 Test: Shadow Creek.

My Book, The Movie: Shadow Creek.

The Page 69 Test: Someone Is Watching.

My Book, The Movie: Someone Is Watching.

My Book, The Movie: The Bad Daughter.

The Page 69 Test: The Bad Daughter.

My Book, The Movie: All the Wrong Places.

The Page 69 Test: All the Wrong Places.

Writers Read: Joy Fielding (March 2019).

--Marshal Zeringue

"In Pursuit of Prosperity"

New from the University of Michigan Press: In Pursuit of Prosperity: Industrial Policy and the Politics of Economic Upgrading by Charles R. Hankla.

About the book, from the publisher:

With so many states committed to economic transformation, and so many experts ready to provide technical advice on how to achieve it, why does progress so often remain elusive? In Pursuit of Prosperity examines the process of economic upgrading—moving to more valuable activities in production, improving technology, knowledge, and skills, and participating in global value chains—and develops a new theory to explain the form and success of national policies designed to promote it.

Using a mixed-methods approach, Charles R. Hankla draws upon archival research and interviews from France and India as well as quantitative models of sixteen countries across six decades. He finds that when state and private actors are aligned in their institutional structures, which can happen in both corporatist and pluralist systems, industrial policy tends to be more effective. It is when the state or the private sector independently dominates industrial policy that poor outcomes are most likely. As In Pursuit of Prosperity shows, rather than being fixed characteristics of countries, policymaking styles vary across time and across sectors of the economy, reflecting the changing power dynamics and organizational resources of stakeholders. The book sheds light on how industrial policy—which is experiencing a comeback in the United States and beyond—can best be harnessed for upgrading. It offers a valuable contribution to our understanding of the complex relationship between state politics and economic performance in the modern globalized world.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Mistress of Bones"

New from Wednesday Books: Mistress of Bones by Maria Z. Medina.

About the book, from the publisher:

An epic, multi-POV debut fantasy perfect for fans of The Bone Shard Daughter and Six of Crows, where a necromancer trying to resurrect her sister gets embroiled in bigger, world-ending plans instead

Necromancer Azul del Arroyo only wants one thing: to steal her sister back from Death by reclaiming her sister’s bones. But the Emissary of the Lord Death will do anything to stop her, no matter how alluring he finds her . . .

As their paths collide, they’re drawn into a deadly game of pawns and power with a count who begrudgingly works for a child king, a faceless witch who transforms the bones of gods into dreams she can peddle, and a long-lost half-brother with a secret of his own—and soon realize the fate of the lands is hanging in the balance.

For long ago the gods raised the continents, binding them with their own bones to keep humanity alive. But in an era when the gods’ sacrifice has been forgotten, Death might not be the only resentful god Azul must defy.

Swashbuckling, grand, and tragically romantic, Mistress of Bones is a can't-miss start to a duology about love, loss, and, of course, death.

Visit Maria Z. Medina's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Middlebrow Musical"

New from Oxford University Press: The Middlebrow Musical: Between Broadway and Opera in 1940s America by James O'Leary.

About the book, from the publisher:

Rattled by two world wars, ongoing discrimination, and economic calamity, a group of critics in 1940s New York sought to promote art that would do nothing less than heal the world. The primary obstacle to this project, they believed, was that American culture had splintered into factions, which in turn divided American audiences: highbrow art, which these writers regarded as obscure and elitist; folk art, which they found provincial and alienating; and popular culture, which they considered merely commercial. Blending these kinds of art, they argued, could draw together a fractured society into mutual understanding (if not necessarily agreement) by situating the most sophisticated ideas within longstanding expressive traditions, accessible to all. Their contemporaries called this culture “middlebrow” and believed that its culmination appeared on Broadway.

The Middlebrow Musical straddles the study of popular musical theater and opera, and in so doing charts a new path through modernism. Through detailed archival work, this book uncovers the crucial critical networks that originally theorized a middlebrow approach to culture, beginning in the literary circles of Van Wyck Brooks and Archibald MacLeish, and radiating outward to major theater and music critics including Brooks Atkinson and Olin Downes. Their broad influence on theater becomes clear as this book follows three shows from their earliest conceptions to their opening-night reviews: Richard Rodgers's and Oscar Hammerstein II's Oklahoma!, Duke Ellington's and John Latouche's Beggar's Holiday, and Kurt Weill's, Elmer Rice's, and Langston Hughes's Street Scene. Each chapter features behind-the-scenes communications, which reveal how these Broadway writers explicitly deployed middlebrow theories to negotiate high-art aspirations toward operas, symphonies, and experimental theater; toward contemporary folk-music studies; and toward popular-culture accessibility, all with civic intentions of pulling disparate audiences together into a thoughtful reflection upon the modern, war-torn world.

While The Middlebrow Musical focuses on Broadway, it also offers new strategies for understanding the relationship between popular and highbrow culture during the early decades of the twentieth century. Compared to the experiments of high modernism, many of the works featured in this book have struck previous scholars as conservative or cautious. The Middlebrow Musical invites readers to take another look, to consider the forgotten principles that inspired these works, and to recognize them as equally daring and controversial contributions to twentieth-century art.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Dwelling"

New from Farrar, Straus and Giroux: Dwelling: A Novel by Emily Hunt Kivel.

About the book, from the publisher:

A dazzling, surrealist fairy tale of a young woman's quest for house and home—from New York to the Texas hinterlands and, maybe, back again.

The world is ending. It has been ending for some time. When did the ending begin? Perhaps when Evie’s mother died, or when her father died soon after. Perhaps when her sister, Elena, was forcibly institutionalized in a psychiatric hippie commune in Colorado. Certainly at some point over the last year, as New York City spun down the tubes, as bedbugs and vultures descended, as apartments crumbled to the ground and no one had the time or money to fight it, or even, really, to notice.

And then, one day, the ending is complete. Every renter is evicted en masse, leaving only the landlords and owners—the demented, the aristocratic, the luckiest few. Evie—parentless, sisterless, basically friendless, underemployed—has nothing and no one. Except, she remembers, a second cousin in Texas, in a strange town called Gulluck, where nothing is as it seems.

And so, in the surreal, dislodged landscape, beyond the known world, a place of albino cicadas and gardeners and thieves, of cobblers and shoemakers and one very large fish, a place governed by mysterious logic and perhaps even miracles, Evie sets out in search of a home.

A wry and buoyant fairy tale set at the apex of the housing crisis, Emily Hunt Kivel’s Dwelling takes us on a hapless hero’s journey to the end of the world and back again. Madcap and magical, hilarious and existential, Dwelling holds a funhouse mirror to our mome

Visit Emily Hunt Kivel's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Native America"

New from Princeton University Press: Native America: The Story of the First Peoples by Kenneth L. Feder.

About the book, from the publisher:

An epic deep history of the Indigenous peoples of North America, covering more than 20,000 years of astonishing diversity, adaptation, resilience, and continuity

Native America presents an infinitely surprising and fascinating deep history of the continent’s Indigenous peoples. Kenneth Feder, a leading expert on Native American history and archaeology, draws on archaeological, historical, and cultural evidence to tell the ongoing story, more than 20,000 years in the making, of an incredibly resilient and diverse mixture of peoples, revealing how they have ingeniously adapted to the many changing environments of the continent, from the Arctic to the desert Southwest.

Richly illustrated, Native America introduces close to a hundred different peoples, each with their own language, economic and social system, and religious beliefs. Here, we meet the Pequot, Tunxis, Iroquois, and Huron of the Northeast; the Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, and Apache of the Southwest; the Hidatsa, Mandan, and Lakota of the Northern Plains; the Haida, Kwakiutl, Nootka, and Salish of the Northwest Coast; the Tule River and Mohave of Southern California; the Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole of the Southeast; and the Inuit and Kalaallit of the Arctic. We learn about hunters of enormous Ice Age beasts; people who raised stone toolmaking to the level of art; a Native American empire ruled by a king and queen, with a huge city at its center and colonies hundreds of miles away; a society that made the desert bloom by designing complex irrigation networks; brilliant architects who built fairy castles in sandstone cliffs; and artists who produced beautiful and moving petroglyphs and pictographs that reflect their deep thinking about history, the sacred, the land, and the sky.

Native America is not about peoples of the past, but vibrant, living ones with an epic history of genius and tenacity—a history that everyone should know.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Mess"

Coming August 12 from Harper Perennial: Mess: A Sharp and Witty Tale of a Perfectionist Organizer Battling the Chaos of Hollywood and Her Own Heart by Michael Chessler.

About the book, from the publisher:

Marie Kondo meets The Real Housewives in this charming and perceptive story of a professional organizer to Hollywood’s elite who learns to find love and acceptance amid the messiness of life.

To the world, Jane Brown, a Los-Angeles based professional organizer, is a model of composure and reticence. But inside, she’s fiercely judgmental and critical of herself and others. A lover of order and tidiness, she struggles to accept the world’s exasperating messiness of both her own clients—a superficial sphere of influencers and rich creatives—and her live-in boyfriend, who is becoming as aggravating as he is comforting.

When she arrives at the home of a new client, a has-been Hollywood actress—a woman opposite to her in every way—Jane finds herself unexpectedly moved. Realizing how desperately she wants to lower her defenses and open her heart, Jane decides to declutter the mess of her own mindset. Organizing her own feelings turns out to be the most daunting job she’s ever tackled, but one that promises big rewards if she succeeds, including freedom—and even love.

Set against the dazzlingly rich, beautiful, and shallow world of Hollywood money and mansions, Mess is an honest, heartfelt, and often hilarious response to the disorder of our lives today.

Visit Michael Chessler's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Explaining our Actions"

New from Cambridge University Press: Explaining our Actions: A Critique of Common-Sense Theorizing by Peter Carruthers.

About the book, from the publisher:

We often explain our actions and those of others using a commonsense framework of perceptions, beliefs, desires, emotions, decisions, and intentions. In his thoughtful new book, Peter Carruthers scrutinizes this everyday explanation for our actions, while also examining the explanatory framework through the lens of cutting-edge cognitive science. He shows that the 'standard model' of belief–desire psychology (developed, in fact, with scant regard for science) is only partly valid; that there are more types of action and action-explanation than the model allows; and that both ordinary folk and armchair philosophers are importantly mistaken about the types of mental state that the human mind contains. His book will be of great value to all those who rely in their work on assumptions drawn from commonsense psychology, whether in philosophy of mind, epistemology, moral psychology, ethics, or psychology itself. It will also be attractive to anyone with an interest in human motivation.

The Page 99 Test: Human Motives.

--Marshal Zeringue

"What's Yours Is Mine"

Coming soon from Lake Union: What's Yours Is Mine: A Novel by Jennifer Jabaley.

About the book, from the publisher:

Determined daughters. Controlling mothers. There’s no such thing as friendly competition in a twisty novel of suspense about ambition, revenge, and unrealized dreams.

Valerie Yarnell is a hardworking single mother who’d do anything for her daughter, Kate. Kate is a dancer with dreams of stardom, just like her talented best friend, Colette. Despite Valerie’s sacrifices, it’s Colette’s mother, former prima ballerina Elise, whom Kate adores. And Colette has become like the practically perfect sister Kate never had. How can Valerie not feel frustrated, ineffectual, and a little jealous of the queen bee of dance moms? Not only has she hijacked her daughter, but Elise is married to the man Valerie pines for.

Rivalries are forming. Tension is mounting. In preparation for an elite dance competition, Kate outshines the more promising Colette onstage, and the pressure is on for Colette to keep her position in the spotlight―and especially to keep her demanding mother happy. Who could have foreseen the violent attack that sabotages everything? Anyone who’s been watching closely.

As ruthless and sinister ambitions are exposed, a media firestorm and an explosive town scandal erupt. Before it’s over, two mothers and two daughters will learn just how fierce and dangerous a rivalry can still get.

Visit Jennifer Jabaley's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Industrial Islamism"

New from the University of California Press: Industrial Islamism: How Authoritarian Movements Mobilize Workers by Utku Baris Balaban.

About the book, from the publisher:

Industrial Islamism analyzes the relationship, since the end of the Cold War, between the rise of political Islamism in Muslim-majority countries and the rise of a new global "middle class" of industrial entrepreneurs. Challenging common assumptions, Utku Balaban questions the idea that political Islamism represents the antithesis of Western modernity and industrialization. On the contrary: the more enthusiastically a Muslim-majority country industrializes, the more "Islamized" its politics becomes.

The book focuses on Turkey, historically the most industrialized Muslim-majority country in the world, with the most successful Islamist movement and a relatively competitive electoral system. It provides a fine-grained historical and ethnographic analysis at the local level of urban-industrial control over workers in sweatshops and working-class neighborhoods by this new global middle class, whom Balaban calls the faubourgeoisie. As the central actor behind Turkey's post–Cold War industrialization, the faubourgeoisie allies with the Islamist movement to control its workers and significantly influence national politics.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Mad Sisters of Esi"

Coming soon from DAW Books: Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta.

About the book, from the publisher:

Susanna Clarke's Piranesi meets Italo Calvino's If On a Winter's Night a Traveler in this stunning meta fantasy about the power of stories, belief, and sisterhood

Myung and her sister Laleh are the sole inhabitants of the whale of babel—until Myung flees, beginning an adventure that will spin her through dreams, memories, and myths

Ask for the story of the mad sisters of Esi, and you’ll get a thousand contradictory folktales. Superstitious sailors, curious children, and obsessed academics have argued over the particulars for generations. They have wondered about the mad sisters’ two greatest marvels: the museum of collective memory that sprawls underneath our universe, waiting for any who call for it, and the living, impossible, whale of babel.

Myung and her sister Laleh are the sole inhabitants of the whale of babel. They roam within its cosmic chambers, speak folktales of themselves, and pray to their creator, the Great Wisa. For Laleh, this is everything. For Myung, it is not enough.

When Myung flees the whale, she stumbles into a new universe full of people, shapeshifting islands, and argumentative ghosts. In her search for Great Wisa and her longing for her sister Laleh, Myung sets off on an adventure that will unravel the mystery that has confounded everyone for centuries: the truth about the mad sisters of Esi.

Fables, dreams and myths come together in a masterful work of fantasy full of wonder and awe, that asks: in the devastating chaos of the world, where all is in flux, and the truth is ever-changing, what will you choose to hold on to? And what stories will you choose to tell?

Visit Tashan Mehta's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"In God's Image"

New from NYU Press: In God's Image: How Western Civilization Was Shaped by a Revolutionary Idea by Tomer Persico.

About the book, from the publisher:

The idea that all human beings were created in God’s image was core to the creation of the modern West

In God’s Image examines the central role that the idea that all people were created in the image of God played in the development of Western civilization. Focusing on five themes―selfhood, freedom, conscience, equality, and meaning―the book guides the reader through a cultural history of the West, from ancient times through modernity. It explains how each of these ideals was profoundly influenced by the central biblical conception of humanity’s creation in God’s image, embracing an essential equality among all people, while also emphasizing each human life’s singularity and significance.

The book argues that the West, and particularly Protestant Christianity, grew out of ideas rooted deeply in this notion, and that it played a core role in the development of individualism, liberalism, human rights discourse, and indeed the secularization process. Making the case for a cultural understanding of history, the volume focuses on ideas as agents of change and challenges the common scholarly emphasis on material conditions. Offering an innovative perspective on the shaping of global modernity, In God’s Image examines the relationship between faith and society and posits the fundamental role of the idea of the image of God in the making of the moral ideals and social institutions we hold dear today.

Visit Tomer Persico's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"I'll Follow You"

Coming October 1 from Mindy's Book Studio: I'll Follow You: A Novel by Charlene Wang.

About the book, from the publisher:

For two best friends desperate to escape their dead-end town, a viral online persona becomes a dangerous game of control in a twisting psychological thriller about class, power, and identity.

Faith and her charismatic best friend, Kayla, always vowed to escape their trailer park together. After their social media persona, Hannah Primrose, goes viral, their fates seem more entwined than ever. But when Faith is accepted into prestigious Harkness College, she must decide whether to keep her promise to Kayla or learn to tell her own story.

By the time Faith arrives on campus, Kayla is no longer speaking with her. Struggling to fit in with her wealthy classmates, Faith reinvents herself, drawing the attention of her enigmatic art history professor. Then Kayla shows up outside her dormitory one night. I need to stay with you.

Having Kayla on campus is thrilling―and dangerous. Posing as a student, Kayla charms everyone she encounters, and soon enough they’re posting together again. Hannah Primrose, after all, is perfect for a place like Harkness. But as Faith risks her future for the persona she helped create, she begins to realize that Kayla is playing a deadly game…and it may be too late to regain control of the narrative.

Visit Charlene Wang's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Operation Wrath of God"

Coming August 7 from Cambridge University Press: Operation Wrath of God: The Secret History of European Intelligence and Mossad's Assassination Campaign by Aviva Guttmann.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this unprecedented history of intelligence cooperation during the Cold War, Aviva Guttmann uncovers the key role of European intelligence agencies in facilitating Mossad's Operation Wrath of God. She reveals how, in the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre, Palestinians suspected of involvement in terrorism were hunted and killed by Mossad with active European cooperation. Through unique access to unredacted documents in the Club de Berne archive, she shows how a secret coalition of intelligence agencies supplied Mossad with information about Palestinians on a colossal scale and tacitly supported Israeli covert actions on European soil. These agencies helped to anticipate and thwart a number of Palestinian terrorist plots, including some revealed here for the first time. This extraordinary book reconstructs the hidden world of international intelligence, showing how this parallel order enabled state relations to be pursued independently of official foreign policy constraints or public scrutiny.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Bluest Night"

Coming October 7 from Severn House: The Bluest Night by Aaron Philip Clark.

About the book, from the publisher:

A Black cop turned PI. An unspeakable crime. A Californian beach town ready to combust. The new shocking, completely gripping Trevor Finnegan thriller.

Families are complicated. Former LAPD detective turned private investigator Trevor Finnegan might have only just learned he has an adult half-brother, but when Avery Dixion goes missing along with his girlfriend Keisha, he springs into action to track his sibling down. Trevor knows from his time in law enforcement that missing Black folk are often at the bottom of the cops’ priority list, and soon his worst fears are realized when Keisha is found dead in Malibu―and Avery is suspected of the crime.

What were Avery and Keisha doing in Malibu when they had arranged to meet Trevor’s father, Shaun “Pop” Finnegan, for the first time in Palm Springs? And if Avery killed his girlfriend, why is he so badly beaten that he can barely remember his own name?

Convinced his brother’s no killer, Trevor turns to a dangerous former client, wealthy Malibu resident Cassandra Boyle, for help navigating the inner workings of the conservative beach town. But the deeper Trevor digs into what really happened to Keisha, the closer he gets to a deadly conspiracy so vast and vile that if he survives he’ll never be the same again.

Visit Aaron Philip Clark's website.

My Book, The Movie: Under Color of Law.

The Page 69 Test: Blue Like Me.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Josephus and Jesus"

Coming August 22 from Oxford University Press: Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ by T. C. Schmidt.

About the book, from the publisher:

This book brings to light an extraordinary connection between Jesus of Nazareth and the Jewish historian Josephus. Writing in 93/94 CE, Josephus composed an account of Jesus known as the Testimonium Flavianum. Despite this being the oldest description of Jesus by a non-Christian, scholars have long doubted its authenticity due to the alleged pro-Christian claims it contains. This book, however, authenticates Josephus' authorship of the Testimonium Flavianum and reveals a startling observation: Josephus was directly familiar with those who put Jesus on trial. Consequently, Josephus would have had access to highly reliable information about the man from Nazareth. The book concludes by describing what Josephus tells us about the Jesus of history, his miracles, and his resurrection.

Visit T. C. Schmidt's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Housewarming"

New from Thomas & Mercer: The Housewarming: A Novel by Kristin Offiler.

About the book, from the publisher:

In a haunting novel of psychological suspense, a summer getaway gone wrong rips apart a group of lifelong friends, thrusting their story into the true crime spotlight―and potentially their secrets, too.

For five friends vacationing on Block Island, it was a summer to remember. How could they forget it when only four made it back to the mainland?

Now, half a decade after Zoe Gilbert’s unsolved disappearance, Callie Sutter invites estranged friends Meg, Tess, and Lindsey―the last to see Zoe on that fateful trip―to reunite on the anniversary of the mystery that tore them apart. Back on Block Island, Callie reasons, they can come together again, memorialize Zoe, allay old resentments and recriminations, and put the past to rest. But it won’t be so easy. Patricia Adele, a true crime podcaster who once made a name for herself by casting suspicion on Zoe’s surviving friends all those years ago, is most eager for the reunion. She’s resurfaced with a book proposal claiming to expose them all as cold-blooded liars and conspirators in a crime once and for all.

Driven by self-preservation, the women must reckon with their long-held secrets and shared history if they’re to find out what really happened to Zoe on that hot August day. But will the truth set them free or condemn them all? No one is prepared to find out.

Visit Kristin Offiler's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Bankers' Trust"

New from Cornell University Press: Bankers' Trust: How Social Relations Avert Global Financial Collapse by Aditi Sahasrabuddhe.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Bankers' Trust, Aditi Sahasrabuddhe reveals a crucial element behind the resolution of global financial crises: trust between central bank leaders.

Central bank cooperation during global financial crises has been anything but consistent. While some crises are arrested with extensive cooperation, others are left to spiral. Going beyond explanations based on state power, interests, or resources, Sahasrabuddhe argues that central bank cooperation—or the lack thereof—often boils down to ties of trust, familiarity, and goodwill between bank leaders. These personal relations influence the likelihood of access to ad hoc, bilateral arrangements with more favorable terms.

Drawing on archival evidence and elite interviews, Sahasrabuddhe uncovers just how critical interpersonal trust between central bankers has been in managing global financial crises. She tracks the emergence of such relationships in the interwar 1920s, how they helped prop up the Bretton Woods system in the 1960s, and how they prevented the 2008 global financial crisis from turning into another Great Depression. When traditional signals of credibility fell short during these periods of crisis and uncertainty, established ties of trust between central bank leaders mediated risk calculations, alleviated concerns, and helped innovate less costly solutions.

Sahasrabuddhe challenges the idea that central banking is purely apolitical and technocratic. She pinpoints the unique transnational power central bank leaders hold as unelected figures who nonetheless play key roles in managing states' economies. By calling attention to the influence personal relationships can have on whether countries sink or swim during crises, Bankers' Trust asks us to reconsider the transparency and democratic accountability of global financial governance today.

Visit Aditi Sahasrabuddhe's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"One Killer Night"

Coming October 14 from Montlake: One Killer Night (To Die For Book 1) by Trilina Pucci.

About the book, from the publisher:

USA Today bestselling author Trilina Pucci cranks up the heat in this sexy slasher filled with dark family secrets, classic horror tropes, and banter as sharp as a deranged killer’s knife.

Love is patient.

Love is kind.

Love will stab you from behind.

It’s Halloween night, and out-of-work writer Goldie Monroe’s trip to the drugstore scares up more than the fake blood she’s looking for. It leads to the man of her naughtiest dreams. And in spite of her costume, sparks fly from the moment they meet.

Noah Adler, aspiring sneaker designer, is impossibly gorgeous―like a tatted-up version of Goldie’s favorite blue-eyed vampire. He’s there for candy, but it’s Goldie he can’t resist. When she invites him to her sister’s F/X company bash, he’s all in without a second thought.

The pair’s flirty connection heats up fast, carrying them to electrifying new heights. But after Goldie discovers Noah is hiding a dark secret, it all starts to crumble. Looking for answers about her own past awakens new dangers, and when Goldie and Noah land at a slasher camp for adults, a deadly tragedy threatens to repeat itself. If they can survive this one killer night, they can definitely slay a happily ever after.

Visit Trilina Pucci's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Rewiring Democracy"

Coming October 21 from The MIT Press: Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship by Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the New York Times–bestselling author of The Hacker's Mind and Data & Goliath, an informative and wide-ranging exploration of how AI will alter every facet of democracy, and how to harness the technology to distribute rather than concentrate power.

AI will change democracy. The only question is how.

AI’s impact on democracy will go far beyond headline-grabbing political deepfakes and automated misinformation. Everywhere it will be used, it will create risks and opportunities to shake up long-standing power structures.

In this highly readable and advisedly optimistic book, Rewiring Democracy, security technologist Bruce Schneier and data scientist Nathan Sanders cut through the AI hype and examine the myriad ways that AI could dramatically change every aspect of democracy— for both good and ill.

The authors describe how the sophistication of AI will fulfill demands from lawmakers for more complex legislation, reducing deference to the executive and altering the balance of power between legislators and administrators. They show how the scalability of AI is enabling civil servants to enforce regulations on corporations used to skirting the rules, which will reshape private-sector behavior. They also explain how both lawyers and judges will leverage the speed of AI, upending how we think about law enforcement, litigation, and dispute resolution.

Whether these outcomes enhance or degrade democracy depends on how we shape the development and use of AI technologies. Powerful players in private industry and public life are already using AI to increase their influence, and AIs built by corporations to drive shareholder value aren’t designed to deliver the fairness and trust necessary to enhance democratic governance. But, steered in the right direction, the broad scope of an AI-augmented democracy would help citizens build consensus, express their voice, and organize against anti-democratic policies.

Democracy is facing new challenges worldwide, and AI will be a part of that. It can inform, empower, and engage citizens. It can also disinform, disempower, and disengage them. The choice is up to us. Schneier and Sanders blaze the path forward, showing us how we can use it to make an AI-infused democracy stronger and more participatory.

The Page 99 Test: Bruce Schneier's Liars and Outliers.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Literati"

Coming September 9 from Harper Muse: The Literati: A Novel by Susan Coll.

About the book, from the publisher:

An unexpected catastrophe of literary proportions...

Aspirant, bookish, and close to broke, 26-year-old Clemi steps into her dream job at a prestigious literary nonprofit and finds herself in the bull's eye of a financial, legal, and existential calamity. The executive director has disappeared, leaving behind an inscrutable cat to which she is highly allergic. Meanwhile, the bank accounts have been overdrawn, the FBI is asking questions, and she has three days to pull off the annual fundraising gala, a glamorous affair filled with famous writers and local literati.

On the upside, she will get to meet her all-time favorite writer, who has won the award. Clemi has read and reread her novels, pouring over her every word. But her interactions with the author and her eight-year-old son, as well as with the nonprofit's Board Members, leave her wondering whether certain writers are better on the page than in person.

All the while, Clemi is trying to sort out her own life: her current boyfriend is, like every boyfriend before him, a pompous poseur, and the clock is running on her apartment-sitting gig. She finds herself wondering what all the goings-on in this dysfunctional, scandal-plagued nonprofit have to do with literature. And if it's time to let go of her literary aspirations and apply to law school.

In the week in which this madcap story unfolds, USA TODAY bestselling author Susan Coll weaves together a charmingly witty and warm comedy of manners that offers a peek behind the literary curtain--one that anyone who's ever been a little bit uncertain of what the future might hold can relate to.

Visit Susan Coll's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Susan Coll & Zoe.

The Page 69 Test: Acceptance.

The Page 69 Test: Beach Week.

The Page 69 Test: The Stager.

The Page 69 Test: Real Life and Other Fictions.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Swiftynomics"

Coming January 2026 from the University of California Press: Swiftynomics: How Women Mastermind and Redefine Our Economy by Misty L. Heggeness.

About the book, from the publisher:

A feminist romp through pop culture that illuminates how women impact and shape the economy.

Taylor Swift and Beyoncé aren’t just pop megastars. They are working women, whose astounding accomplishments defy patriarchal norms. And while not all women can be Rihanna or Dolly Parton or Reese Witherspoon, their successes help us understand the central role of everyday women in today’s economy.

Swiftynomics assesses the complex economic lives of American women. Drawing insights from pathbreakers like Taylor Swift, Misty Heggeness digs into the data revealing women’s hidden contributions and aspirations—the unexamined value they create by following their own ambitions. She confronts misconceptions about the roles women play in today’s economy by highlighting the abundance of productive activity occurring in their daily lives and acknowledging the barriers they still face.

Lighthearted but substantive, Swiftynomics explores critical reforms like paying caregivers for work on behalf of their families and collecting statistical documentation of gendered labor that currently goes unrecognized. Heggeness also offers advice for women so they can thrive in an economy that was not built for them.

Visit Misty L. Heggeness's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"American Mythology"

New from Doubleday: American Mythology: A Novel by Giano Cromley.

About the book, from the publisher:

A charming and comic debut novel about a quirky ensemble embarking on an epic quest to find Bigfoot

Every month at St. Pete’s Tavern in rugged western Montana, a meeting is convened by the Basic Bigfoot Society’s members—both of them. Jute and Vergil are lifelong friends, bound by an affinity for the elusive North American Wood Ape. Their monthly meetings and annual expeditions are a tradition that keep their friendship alive when so much else about their small town has fallen away.

But things are about to get exciting for the Basic Bigfoot Society. Dr. Marcus Bernard, the country’s foremost Bigfoot “expert,” approaches them with a proposition that seems almost too good to be true: to join their next expedition, along with an ambitious young documentarian, Vicky Xu. Thankfully, Vergil’s daughter Rye is home from college, and decides to tag along in order to make sure her dad and Jute aren’t made fools of. Once in the woods, strange things begin to happen to them that seem to defy rational explanation. Is this a hoax? Or are they on the precipice of the greatest anthropological discovery ever?

A spooky adventure story and a wry and heartwarming tale of friendship, American Mythology is a fabulous debut about the power of belief and our sacred bond to nature.

Visit Giano Cromley's website, Facebook page, and follow him on Instagram and Threads.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Giano Cromley & Kaiya and Tanka.

My Book, The Movie: The Last Good Halloween.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Ties That Bind"

New from the University of Nebraska Press: Ties That Bind: People and Perception in U.S. and Korean Transnational Relations, 1905-1965 by Hannah Kim.

About the book, from the publisher:

Ties That Bind narrates five stories of how a transnational community helped shape American perceptions and understandings of Korea and Koreans, from a time when only a small number of Americans knew anything about Korea to a time when most Americans were aware of Korea’s geopolitical significance. Three of the moments took place when Korea was a colony of Japan: the so-called Conspiracy Case in 1911, the independence movement of 1919, and the efforts to recognize Korean independence during World War II. The other two moments transpired in the context of the Cold War, when Korean orphans and Korean exchange students came to the United States in the 1950s.

In these five stories, the interplay of people, perceptions, and official and unofficial policy can be seen in the work of people who tried to influence U.S. and Korean relations by binding Americans and Koreans through shared values and experiences. They did so by portraying Koreans as Christian converts, as supporters of democracy and democratic ideals, and as people embracing Western or American cultural norms. The actors in this book did not always succeed in their goals, but through their endeavors, they facilitated policy discussions, forged ties between the United States and Korea, and began to break down cultural barriers between Koreans and Americans.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Memory Hunters"

New from Kensington: The Memory Hunters by Mia Tsai.

About the book, from the publisher:

Inception meets Indiana Jones in this cinematic, slow burn, romantic fantasy following a headstrong academic and her equally stubborn bodyguard as they unearth an ancient secret that rocks the foundations of their society…and challenges their unspoken love for one another. A sapphic, dark academia-adjacent, climate dystopia — with mushrooms — for readers of Blood Over Bright Haven, A Memory Called Empire, and Ink Blood Sister Scribe.

Kiana Strade can dive deeper into blood memories than anyone alive. But instead of devoting her talents to the temple she’s meant to lead, Key wants to do research for the Museum of Human Memory. . . and to avoid the public eye.

Valerian IV's twin swords protect Key from murderous rivals and her own enthusiasm alike. Vale cares about Key as a friend—and maybe more—but most of all, she needs to keep her job so she can support her parents and siblings in the storm-torn south.

But when Key collects a memory that diverges from official history, only Vale sees the fallout. Key’s mentor suspiciously dismisses the finding; her powerful mother demands she stop research altogether. And Key, unusually affected by the memory, begins to lose moments, then minutes, then days.

As Vale becomes increasingly entangled in Key’s obsessive drive for answers, the women uncover a shattering discovery—and a devastating betrayal. Key and Vale can remain complicit, or they can jeopardize everything for the truth.

Either way, Key is becoming consumed by the past in more ways than one, and time is running out.

Visit Mia Tsai's website.

Q&A with Mia Tsai.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Tolkien and the Mystery of Literary Creation"

New from Cambridge University Press: Tolkien and the Mystery of Literary Creation by Giuseppe Pezzini.

About the book, from the publisher:

Taking his readers into the depths of a majestic and expansive literary world, one to which he brings fresh illumination as if to the darkness of Khazad-dûm, Giuseppe Pezzini combines rigorous scholarship with an engaging style to reveal the full scale of J. R. R. Tolkien's vision of the 'mystery of literary creation'. Through fragments garnered from across a scattered body of writing, and acute readings of primary texts (some well-known, others less familiar or recently published), the author divulges the unparalleled complexity of Tolkien's work while demonstrating its rich exploration of literature's very nature and purpose. Eschewing any overemphasis on context or comparisons, Pezzini offers rather a uniquely sustained, focused engagement with Tolkien and his 'theory' on their own terms. He helps us discover – or rediscover – a fascination for Tolkien's literary accomplishment while correcting long-standing biases against its nature and merits that have persisted fifty years after his death.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Game Is Murder"

New from Berkley: The Game Is Murder by Hazell Ward.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this fresh and immersive murder mystery that riffs on crime classics, the reader is put in the role of the Great Detective, reinvestigating an infamous never-before-solved case from 1970s England.

You are invited to a very special murder mystery party. The game is simple: Listen to the witnesses. Examine the evidence. Solve the case. Be careful. Trust no one. All might not be as it seems.

If you agree to play the role of the Great Detective, you must undertake to provide a complete solution to the case. A verdict is not enough. We need to know who did it, how they did it, and why. Are you ready? Can you solve the ultimate murder mystery—and catch a killer?

A word of warning: Unsolved mysteries are not permitted. . . .

Visit Hazell Ward's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Under the Same Sky"

New from the University of Pennsylvania Press: Under the Same Sky: Everyday Politics of Religious Difference in Southern Turkey by Seçil Daǧtaș.

About the book, from the publisher:

An ethnographic study of the everyday lives of religious minorities near Turkey’s border with Syria

How do people coexist in a world shaped by longstanding differences, political instability, and recurrent displacement? In Under the Same Sky, Seçil Daǧtaș addresses this question by exploring the everyday politics of religious difference among minority communities in Turkey’s southern borderlands.

In a region often portrayed through the lens of conflict and division, this ethnography brings to life the subtle, often overlooked negotiations occurring in social spaces such as bustling city bazaars, shared worship sites, interfaith unions, home gatherings, and a multireligious choir. Set against the backdrop of major political upheavals in Turkey and Syria before the 2023 earthquakes devastated the region, the book demonstrates how Arab ‘Alawis, Christians, and Jews, alongside their Sunni Muslim neighbors, use familiar social idioms―kinship, hospitality, love, and companionship―to reproduce religious differences.

Daǧtaș argues that religious difference is more than an identity marker for these communities, as it is often treated in studies focused on statecraft or political movements. It is a dynamic aspect of social relations which is constantly redefined by race, class, citizenship, and gender, and unsettled by overlapping practices and multireligious belonging. Under the Same Sky focuses on religious difference as lived and reworked in daily encounters―within the larger context of a majoritarian Turkish Sunni state―inviting readers to reconsider secularism, religious plurality, and the nature of political life.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Fiend"

Coming September 16 from G.P. Putnam's Sons: Fiend by Alma Katsu.

About the book, from the publisher:

Historical horror maven Alma Katsu turns her talents to the modern world for the first time, in this terrifying tale about an all-powerful family with an ancient evil under its thumb.

Imagine if the Sackler family had a demon at their beck and call.

The Berisha family runs one of the largest import-export companies in the world, and they’ve always been lucky. Their rivals suffer strokes. Inconvenient buildings catch on fire. Earthquakes swallow up manufacturing plants, destroying harmful evidence. Things always seem to work out for the Berishas. They’re blessed.

At least that is what Zef, the patriarch, has always told his three children. And each of them knows their place in the family—Dardan, as the only male heir, must prepare to take over as keeper of the Berisha secrets, Maris’s most powerful contribution, much to her dismay, will be to marry strategically, and Nora’s job, as the youngest, is to just stay out of the way. But when things stop going as planned, and the family blessing starts looking more like a curse, the Berishas begin to splinter, each hatching their own secret scheme. They didn’t get to be one of the richest families in the world without spilling a little blood, but this time, it might be their own.

Visit Alma Katsu's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Taker.

My Book, The Movie: The Hunger.

The Page 69 Test: The Hunger.

Writers Read: Alma Katsu (March 2020).

The Page 69 Test: The Deep.

The Page 69 Test: Red Widow.

Q&A with Alma Katsu.

The Page 69 Test: The Fervor.

Writers Read: Alma Katsu (April 2022).

My Book, The Movie: Red London.

The Page 69 Test: Red London.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Injustice of Property"

New from the University of Georgia Press: The Injustice of Property: Homeless Encampments and the Limits of Liberalism by Stephen Przybylinski.

About the book, from the publisher:

With the rise of homelessness in many U.S. cities, municipal governments are sanctioning organized encampments as an official strategy for sheltering unhoused people. Examining the shortcomings and consequences of these municipal policies, The Injustice of Property explores how unhoused individuals living in self-managed encampments navigate and organize themselves within and against the confines of liberal property systems. Through ethnographic research in Portland, Oregon, a paradigmatic city in advancing this model of homeless shelter, Stephen Przybylinski details the everyday struggles of self-managed encampments to highlight how key contradictions inherent to liberal ideology maintain property as a means of structuring sociopolitical equality. He argues that justice cannot be realized for unhoused communities within the liberal model of private property due to how liberalism and liberal ideology prioritize the rights and values of property over the personal rights of self-governance.

The Injustice of Property is a conceptually robust and empirically rich account of the limits of liberal thinking regarding what “just” property relations look like for unhoused and housed people alike. The book shows that while encampment communities struggle to establish alternative property relationships to the traditional model of private ownership, the injustices that residents of encampments face provoke a necessary reevaluation of how beneficiaries of property systems influence who can become housing stable and on which terms. This insightful book reveals how the injustices surrounding Portland’s encampment communities reflect the limits and injustice of liberal property more broadly.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Ashes to Ashes"

New from Soho Press: Ashes to Ashes by Thomas Maltman.

About the book, from the publisher:

Small-town Minnesota teenager Basil “The Brute” Thorson—a shy, reluctant wrestling star and “special” tracked into special education classes—vows to make his family whole again in the wake of multiple tragedies, during a year in which his community is roiled by strange religious and mythological events.

Another perceptive and empathetic novel from the author of Indie Next and All Iowa Reads selection Little Wolves, blending myth, history, and religion with a nuanced look at contemporary rural life, perfect for fans of Marilynne Robinson, Richard Russo, and Paul Harding.

When the ashes from an Ash Wednesday service in the prairie town of Andwhen, Minnesota, refuse to wash off, members of a small congregation are left wondering whether they’ve been blessed or cursed. For Basil—a “gentle giant” of a teen reeling from a farming accident that shattered his family and haunted by his mother’s decade-long confinement in a state mental hospital—the ashes become a sign. He embarks on a secret ritual of fasting and prayer, seeking meaning in his unraveling world.

Meanwhile, Basil and his friends, Lukas and Morgan (who self-identify as “a gay, a goth, and a giant”), stumble upon what may be the centuries-old remains of a Viking explorer in a local meadow, a find that brings its own complications, as folk history clashes with the agendas of online racists. As Basil’s relentless fasting warps his grip on reality, the danger he poses to himself and his family escalates.

Blending the fragments of a Norse saga with a finely observed portrait of rural Midwestern life at the start of the pandemic, Thomas Maltman delivers a novel of narrative daring and profound empathy—his most inventive and compassionate work yet.

Learn more about the book and author at Thomas Maltman's website.

The Page 69 Test: Little Wolves.

Writers Read: Thomas Maltman (February 2013).

--Marshal Zeringue

"Theatres of the Body"

New from Temple University Press: Theatres of the Body: Dance and Discourse in Antebellum Philadelphia by Lynn Matluck Brooks.

About the book, from the publisher:

Theatres of the Body is Lynn Matluck Brooks’ critical examination of danced stage productions in antebellum Philadelphia. Starting in the 1820s, Brooks explores visual art and social and theatrical dancing across different classes, focusing on the work of E. W. Clay. Continuing through the 1830s, she looks at pantomime ballets and blackface minstrelsy through a political lens, asking questions regarding citizenship, slavery, and freedom. At the time, the city boasted the largest number of native-born ballet dancers in the young nation. Philadelphia also became a creative home to blackface star T. D. Rice, who helped popularize that performance genre.

Reviewing print culture in the 1840s, Brooks shows how newspapers, magazines, and popular fiction provided documentation of dancing in Philadelphia as well as the responses of dance commentators, practitioners, and moralists. Theatres of the Body also considers the interplay of science with dance in the 1850s, which impacted both dance practices and reception.

Providing an expansive historiography of these significant contributions to dance in the United States, Brooks deepens our understanding of antebellum culture and history.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Love You To Death"

New from Bantam: Love You To Death: A Novel by Christina Dotson.

About the book, from the publisher:

When two best friends’ hobby of crashing weddings takes a deadly turn, they’re forced to embark on a road trip of survival in this addictive thriller.

How well do we really know our friends?

As the only Black women at an antebellum-themed wedding, Kayla and Zorie should’ve known this heist was doomed from the start. They should never have come, but when their financial situation became dire, they agreed to hit one last wedding.

Jaded and cynical Kayla has spent the last decade trying to fix her life since an angsty teen prank led to her arrest. Now, with her housekeeping job at a subpar hotel and her disappointing, Cinderella-esque relationship with her dad and obnoxious stepsister, she hates the life she’s built. Her only bright spots are her best friend, Zorie, and their favorite weekend pastime of crashing weddings to steal the money and pawn the gifts. But what started as a lark has evolved into a greedy obsession, making each wedding haul riskier than the last.

While trying to avoid the angry bride and groom, Kayla and Zorie’s getaway takes a gruesome turn and suddenly the “Wedding Crasher Killers” are national news. The best friends are forced to hit the road to dodge the authorities, but their escape plan leaves behind a bloody trail of destruction from Georgia all the way to the bayou. As past grudges resurface, Kayla realizes that the best friend she thought she knew is more dangerous than she could ever have realized.

Sharp, unpredictable, and madcap from start to finish, Love You to Death is the most fun—and deadly—road trip you’ll ever take.

Follow Christina Dotson on Instagram and Threads.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Closed Seasons

New from the University of North Carolina Press: Closed Seasons: The Transformation of Hunting in the Modern South by Julia Brock.

About the book, from the publisher:

In a unique and personal exploration of the game and fish laws in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi from the Progressive Era to the 1930s, Julia Brock offers an innovative history of hunting in the New South. The implementation of conservation laws made significant strides in protecting endangered wildlife species, but it also disrupted traditional hunting practices and livelihoods, particularly among African Americans and poor whites.

Closed Seasons highlights how hunting and fishing regulations were relatively rare in the nineteenth century, but the emerging conservation movement and the rise of a regional “sportsman” identity at the turn of the twentieth century eventually led to the adoption of state-level laws. Once passed, however, these laws, were plagued by obstacles, including insufficient funding and enforcement. Brock traces the dizzying array of factors—propaganda, racial tensions, organizational activism, and federal involvement—that led to effective game and fish laws in the South.

Visit Julia Brock's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Entirely True Story of the Fantastical Mesmerist Nora Grey"

New from Kensington: The Entirely True Story of the Fantastical Mesmerist Nora Grey by Kathleen Kaufman.

About the book, from the publisher:

As spiritualism reaches its fevered pitch at the dawn of the 20th century, a Scottish girl crosses the veil to unlock a powerful connection within an infamous asylum in this thrillingly atmospheric, exquisitely evocative exploration of feminine rage and agency for readers of Sarah Penner, Alice Hoffman, and Hester Fox.

Leaving behind a quiet life of simple comforts, Nairna Liath traverses the Scottish countryside with her charlatan father, Tavish. From remote cottages to rural fairs, the duo scrapes by on paltry coins as Tavish orchestrates “encounters” with the departed, while Nairna interprets tarot cards for those willing to pay for what they wish to hear.

But beyond her father’s trickery, Nairna possesses a genuine gift for communicating with the spirit world, one that could get an impoverished country girl branded a witch. A talent inherited from her grandmother, Lottie Liath, widow of a Welsh coalminer, whose story of imprisonment and exploitation in a notorious asylum is calling out to Nairna from four decades past—a warning to break free from the manipulations, greed, and betrayals of others.

What do the cards hold for Nairna’s future?

Rescued from homelessness by a well-connected stranger, Nairna is whisked into a new life among Edinburgh’s elite Spiritualist circle, including visiting American star Dorothy Kellings. Researchers, doctors, psychics, and thrill-seekers clamor for the rising young medium. But after a séance with blood-chilling results, a shocking scandal ensues, and Nairna flees to a secluded community near Boston, where she assumes a new identity: Nora Grey.

But Nora can’t stay hidden when Dorothy Kellings offers her the chance to face all comers and silence skeptics at a spectacular séance at Boston’s Old South Meeting Hall, where Nora will come face to face at last with her spiritual guide: the courageous Lottie Liath, whose heart-wrenching story and profound messages are indelibly tied to Nora’s destiny.

Visit Kathleen Kaufman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Disreputable Women"

New from the University of California Press: Disreputable Women: Black Sex Economies and the Making of San Diego by Christina Jessica Carney.

About the book, from the publisher:

Disreputable Women is a deeply transdisciplinary study of how black women use sex work and place making to claim economic, bodily, and sexual autonomy in a militarized city that is intent on displacing and caging them. Christina Jessica Carney distills the production of these "disreputable women" during two major twentieth-century urban development processes in downtown San Diego, where municipal police, public health officials, and even activists designated street-involved sex workers and the places they congregated as blight.

Carney documents how some black women reconceptualized the public and private spheres by using residential hotels and multiuse commercial spaces for housing and work, controlling their erotic economies and their sexual-cultural lives. She marks how discrete and explicit intellectual, economic, and political practices by black women complicate a dominant understanding of red-light areas and black sex workers as undesirable contaminators to be "cleaned out." Instead, her intuitive framework of "disreputability" offers a more ethical and workable approach to imagining the built environment and its inhabitants—developing a rich and robust grammar for understanding black women's lives amid scenes of militarization and gendered anti-blackness.

Visit Christina J. Carney's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"August Lane"

New from Grand Central Publishing: August Lane by Regina Black.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the author of The Art of Scandal comes a small town romance about the visibility of Black women’s voices in country music, for readers of The Final Revival of Opal & Nev.

Every Thursday night, former country music heartthrob Luke Randall has to sing “Another Love Song.” God, he hates that song. But performing his lone hit at an interstate motel lounge is the only regular money he still has. Following another lackluster performance at the rock bottom of his career, Luke receives the opportunity of his dreams, opening for his childhood idol—90’s era Black country music star, JoJo Lane, who’s being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. But the concert is in Arcadia, Arkansas, the small hometown he swore he’d never see again. Going back means facing a painful past of abuse and neglect. It also means facing JoJo’s daughter, August Lane—the woman who wrote the lyrics he’s always claimed as his own.

August also hates that song. But she hates Luke Randall even more. When he shows up ten years too late to apologize for his betrayal, she isn’t interested in making amends. Instead, she threatens to expose his lies unless he co-writes a new song with her and performs it at the concert, something she hopes will launch her out of her mother's shadow and into a songwriting career of her own. Desperate to keep his secret, Luke agrees to put on the rogue performance, despite the risk of losing his shot at a new record deal.

When Luke’s guitar reunites with August’s soulful alto, neither can deny that the passionate bond they formed as teenagers is still there. As the concert nears, August will have to choose between an overdue public reckoning with the boy who betrayed her, or trusting the man he’s become to write a different love song.

Visit Regina Black's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Between the Sheets"

New from Cornell University Press: Between the Sheets: Sexuality, Classified Advertising, and the Moral Threat to Press Freedom in France by Hannah Frydman.

About the book, from the publisher:

Between the Sheets reveals a space, hidden in plain sight in Third Republican Paris, where deviant sexualities and lives could be experimented with and financed, despite republican attempts at growing and norming the population through the heterosexual family. That space was the newspaper, which was not simply a tool of normalization and a site of "dominant discourse," as it has frequently been imagined. Reading between the lines, Hannah Frydman shows how, through the Belle Époque classifieds, the newspaper became a tool for living lives otherwise as information flowed from it not just vertically but also laterally, facilitating person-to-person communication.

The sexual relationships, exchanges, and services enabled by this communication were far from utopian: Surviving and thriving outside of social norms often required exploiting others. Yet by attending to the lives and livelihoods enabled by the classifieds, ethical or otherwise, Between the Sheets demonstrates that, thanks to new innovations in media technologies, queer and nonnormative lives in this period were lived in the center as well as on the margins. It was this centrality, however, that inspired efforts to place new (moral) controls on mass cultural forms and technologies. After World War I, in an interwar moment often characterized as one of sexual liberation, the press's queerness was subjected to ever-increasing surveillance and control, with repercussions for press freedom writ large. These repercussions echo into our age of social media, with its promise of unfettered connection, which inspires repressive legislation to keep sexuality (and with it, freedom) in its crosshairs.

--Marshal Zeringue