"Kill the Beast"

New from Tor Books: Kill the Beast by Serra Swift.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Witcher meets Howl’s Moving Castle in this debut original faerie tale of revenge, redemption, and friendship—for fans of T. Kingfisher, Naomi Novik, and cozy fantasy with a dash of gritty adventure.

The night Lyssa Cadogan's brother was murdered by a faerie-made monster known as the Beast, she made him a promise: she would find a way to destroy the immortal creature and avenge his death. For thirteen years, she has been hunting faeries and the abominations they created. But in all that time, the one Beast she is most desperate to find has never resurfaced.

Until she meets Alderic Casimir de Laurent, a melodramatic dandy with a coin purse bigger than his brain. Somehow, he has found the monster’s lair, and—even more surprising—retrieved one of its claws. A claw Lyssa needs in order to forge a sword that can kill the Beast.

Alderic is ill-equipped for a hunt and almost guaranteed to get himself killed. But as the two of them search for the rest of the materials that will be the Beast's undoing, Alderic reveals hidden depths: dark secrets that he guards as carefully as Lyssa guards hers. Before long, and against Lyssa's better judgment, an unlikely friendship begins to bloom—one that will either lead to the culmination of Lyssa's quest for vengeance, or spell doom for them both.

Visit Serra Swift's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Extracting the Future"

New from the University of California Press: Extracting the Future: Lithium in an Era of Energy Transition by Mark Goodale.

About the book, from the publisher:

Bolivia's troubled efforts to develop a commercial lithium industry.

Bolivia's lithium accounts for a significant percentage of the world's known reserve. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research, Mark Goodale traces the development of Bolivia's closely guarded lithium project through the perspectives of a wide array of people and institutions, including workers at the Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat; the state lithium company in La Paz; Latin America's first electric vehicle company; and energy entrepreneurs in Bolivia, the United States, and Germany. He points to a fundamental contradiction: a so-called green energy transition dependent on the ever-greater extraction of yet another nonrenewable resource.

But without access to Bolivia's lithium, and at megaindustrial scales that far outstrip current production, there won't be sufficient lithium supply to make the batteries needed for a truly global EV revolution. Extracting the Future shows how the lithium economy is deeply embedded in a global capitalist system that continues to rely on resource extraction, unsustainable economic growth, and geopolitical violence.

Visit Mark Goodale's website.

The Page 99 Test: Surrendering to Utopia.

The Page 99 Test: Reinventing Human Rights.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Hitchhikers"

New from St. Martin's Press: The Hitchhikers: A Novel by Chevy Stevens.

About the book, from the publisher:

The open road beckons.
A chance for them to reconnect.
Then they make a fatal mistake.

It’s the summer of 1976 and Alice and Tom set out on the remote Canadian highways in their new RV, hoping to heal their broken hearts after a devastating tragedy.

They’ve planned the trip perfectly, taken care of every detail. Then they meet two young hitchhikers down on their luck and offer them a ride. But Simon and Jenny aren’t what they seem. They’ve left a trail of blood, destruction, and madness behind them.

Now Alice and Tom are trapped, prisoners in a deadly game, with nowhere to turn. As the tension builds, the lines blur, and the question becomes, In whose heart does evil truly lie? What secrets are Jenny and Simon hiding? And who will live another day?

A chilling, twist-laden ride to the final page, THE HITCHHIKERS is that rare novel that will break your heart as well as hold you in suspense. The author of the classic thrillers STILL MISSING and THOSE GIRLS has delivered her next breathtaking novel.

Visit the official Chevy Stevens website.

My Book, The Movie: Still Missing.

The Page 69 Test: That Night.

My Book, The Movie: That Night.

The Page 69 Test: Never Let You Go.

Writers Read: Chevy Stevens (March 2017).

My Book, The Movie: Never Let You Go.

--Marshal Zeringue

"From Frontiers to Borders"

New from Cambridge University Press: From Frontiers to Borders: How Colonial Technicians Created Modern Territoriality by Kerry Goettlich.

About the book, from the publisher:

How did modern territoriality emerge and what are its consequences? This book examines these key questions with a unique global perspective. Kerry Goettlich argues that linear boundaries are products of particular colonial encounters, rather than being essentially an intra-European practice artificially imposed on colonized regions. He reconceptualizes modern territoriality as a phenomenon separate from sovereignty and the state, based on expert practices of delimitation and demarcation. Its history stems from the social production of expertise oriented towards these practices. Employing both primary and secondary sources, From Frontiers to Borders examines how this expertise emerged in settler colonies in North America and in British India – cases which illuminate a range of different types of colonial rule and influence. It also explores some of the consequences of the globalization of modern territoriality, exposing the colonial origins of Boundary Studies, and the impact of boundary experts on the Paris Peace Conference of 1919–20.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Workhorse"

New from Flatiron Books: Workhorse: A Novel by Caroline Palmer.

About the book, from the publisher:

A richly drawn, unsettling, and wickedly funny story of envy and ambition set against the glamor and privilege of media and high society in New York City at its height.

At the turn of the millennium, Editorial Assistant Clodagh “Clo” Harmon wants nothing more than to rise through the ranks at the world’s most prestigious fashion magazine. There’s just one problem: she doesn’t have the right pedigree. Instead, Clo is a “workhorse” surrounded by beautiful, wealthy, impossibly well-connected “show horses” who get ahead without effort, including her beguiling cubicle-mate, Davis Lawrence, the daughter of a beloved but fading Broadway actress. Harry Wood, Davis’s boarding school classmate and a reporter with visions of his own media empire, might be Clo’s ally in gaming the system—or he might be the only thing standing between Clo and her rightful place at the top.

In a career punctuated by moments of high absurdity, sudden windfalls, and devastating reversals of fortune, Clo wades across boundaries, taking ever greater and more dangerous risks to become the important person she wants to be within the confines of a world where female ambition remains cloaked. But who really is Clo underneath all the borrowed designer clothes and studied manners—and who are we if we share her desires?

Hilariously observant and insightful, Workhorse is a brilliant page-turner about what it means to be in thrall to wealth, beauty, and influence, and the outrageous sacrifices women must make for the sake of success.

Visit Caroline Palmer's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The First Right"

New from Oxford University Press: The First Right: Self-Determination and the Transformation of International Order, 1941–2000 by Bradley R. Simpson.

About the book, from the publisher:

The idea of self-determination is one of the most significant in modern international politics. For more than a century diplomats, lawyers, scholars, activists, and ordinary people in every part of the globe have wrestled with its meaning and implications for decolonization, human rights, sovereignty, and international order. The First Right argues that there was no one self-determination, but a century-long contest between contending visions of sovereignty and rights that were as varied and changing as the nature of sovereignty itself. In this globe-spanning narrative, Simpson argues that self-determination's meaning has often emerged not just from the United Nations but from the claims of movements and peoples on the margins of international society. Powerful states, he shows, persistently rejected expansive self-determination claims, arguing that these threatened great power conflict, the dissolution of international order, or the unravelling of the world economy.

Pacific Island territories, indigenous peoples, regional and secessionist movements, and transnational solidarity groups, among others, rejected the efforts of large, powerful states to define self-determination along narrow lines. Instead, international historian Bradley R. Simpson shows they offered expansive visions of economic, political, and cultural sovereignty ranging far beyond the movement for decolonization with which they are often associated. As they did so, these movements and groups helped to vernacularize self-determination as a language of social justice and rights for people around the world.

An ambitious work of global breadth on a key geopolitical issue, The First Right transforms how we think about the making of the twentieth century world order and the place of the global South and decolonization in it.

--Marshal Zeringue

"O, Deadly Night"

New from Crooked Lane Books: O, Deadly Night: A Year-Round Christmas Mystery by Vicki Delany.

About the book, from the publisher:

’Tis the season for mischief and murder in the eighth Year-Round Christmas mystery from national bestselling author Vicki Delany.

It’s Christmastime in Rudolph, New York, which means it’s time for the December Santa Claus parade. This year, shop owner Merry Wilkinson has decided to decorate her float as Santa’s elves' workshop and invites her landlady, Mabel D’Angelo, to help supervise the excited children playing the elves. But when Mrs. D’Angelo doesn’t show up, Merry begins to worry.

Worry quickly turns into frustration when Mrs. D’Angelo reveals she was delayed by new neighbors moving in. As the center for all things gossip, Mrs. D’Angelo is determined to introduce the new arrivals to the neighborhood. As the days pass, Mrs. D’Angelo notices strange things about the newcomers, but Merry, busier than an elf in Santa’s workshop, has little time for matters that really don’t concern her. But things turn from jolly to downright concerning when Mrs. D’Angelo disappears, and Merry is forced to admit that something might be terribly wrong.

With family and friends counting on her during this stressful holiday season, it is up to Merry to make sure this Christmas doesn’t end up wrapped in blood red.

Visit Vicki Delany's website, and follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

The Page 69 Test: Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen.

The Page 69 Test: A Scandal in Scarlet.

The Page 69 Test: Murder in a Teacup.

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (September 2021).

The Page 69 Test: Deadly Summer Nights.

The Page 69 Test: The Game is a Footnote.

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (January 2023).

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (January 2024).

The Page 69 Test: The Sign of Four Spirits.

The Page 69 Test: A Slay Ride Together With You.

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (December 2024).

The Page 69 Test: The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime.

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (July 2025).

The Page 69 Test: Tea with Jam & Dread.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Fuji: A Mountain in the Making"

New from Princeton University Press: Fuji: A Mountain in the Making by Andrew W. Bernstein.

About the book, from the publisher:

A panoramic biography of Japan’s iconic mountain from the Ice Age to the present

Mount Fuji is everywhere recognized as a wonder of nature and enduring symbol of Japan. Yet behind the picture-postcard image is a history filled with conflict and upheaval. Violent eruptions across the centuries wrought havoc and instilled fear. Long an object of worship, Fuji has been inhabited by deities that changed radically over time. It has been both a totem of national unity and a flashpoint for economic and political disputes. And while its soaring majesty has inspired countless works of literature and art, the foot of the mountain is home to military training grounds and polluting industries. Tracing the history of Fuji from its geological origins in the remote past to its recent inscription as a World Heritage Site, Andrew Bernstein explores these and other contradictions in the story of the mountain, inviting us to reflect on the relationships we share with the nonhuman world and one another.

Beautifully illustrated, Fuji presents a rich portrait of one of the world’s most celebrated sites, revealing a mountain forever in the making and offering a meditation on the ability of landscape both to challenge and inspire.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Graceview Patient"

New from St. Martin's Press: The Graceview Patient: A Novel by Caitlin Starling.

About the book, from the publisher:

Misery meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers in this genre-bending, claustrophobic hospital gothic from the bestselling author of The Death of Jane Lawrence.

Margaret’s rare autoimmune condition has destroyed her life, leaving her isolated and in pain. It has no cure, but she’s making do as best she can—until she’s offered a fully paid-for spot in an experimental medical trial at Graceview Memorial.

The conditions are simple, if grueling: she will live at the hospital as a full-time patient, subjecting herself to the near-total destruction of her immune system and its subsequent regeneration. The trial will essentially kill most of, but not all of her. But as the treatment progresses and her body begins to fail, she stumbles upon something sinister living and spreading within the hospital.

Unsure of what's real and what is just medication-induced delusion, Margaret struggles to find a way out as her body and mind succumb further to the darkness lurking throughout Graceview's halls.

Visit Caitlin Starling's website.

Writers Read: Caitlin Starling (May 2019).

The Page 69 Test: The Luminous Dead.

The Page 69 Test: The Death of Jane Lawrence.

The Page 69 Test: Last to Leave the Room.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Heritage Fever"

New from Oxford University Press: Heritage Fever: Law and Cultural Politics in a Decolonizing State by Michelle Bigenho and Henry Stobart.

About the book, from the publisher:

The early twenty-first century ushered in a period of change in Bolivia. The country welcomed its first Indigenous president, a new constitution, and a profusion of laws that recognized individual music and dance expressions as intangible cultural heritage. Using cultural heritage lawmaking as a window through which to view the de-centered workings of the Indigenous-focused Plurinational Bolivian State, Heritage Fever unpacks the myriad motivations for heritage making in this this politically transformative moment. Heritage Fever reorients UNESCO-driven heritage debates towards a different set of questions--a pivot the authors call “heritage otherwise.”

These inquiries focus on how citizens use law to frame expressive culture and engage their new state. Through grounded case studies, Bigenho and Stobart reveal how competing claims over cultural expressions stimulate aficionado research and produce an abundance of cultural activities. Managing these productive conflicts often involves strategic uses of scale within the country's new political autonomies, even as old-style nationalisms lurk beneath a plurinational sheen. One case study highlights imagined Indigenous autonomy as bolstered by decolonizing historiography that predates the Plurinational State by several decades.

Privileging the stories told by those who championed or who were bureaucratically involved in the respective heritage-making campaigns, Heritage Fever's research draws from the authors' combined fieldwork in Bolivia over the last 30 years, recent multi-sited fieldwork conducted as a team, and ethnographic interviews conducted with Bolivians involved in heritage-making projects. Contributing to legal anthropology, critical heritage studies, ethnomusicology, and anthropology of the state, Heritage Fever looks beyond intellectual property frames, opens new perspectives on archival thinking, reflects on decolonizing practices in expertise and knowledge production, and uncovers the agency of mid-level citizens in a decolonizing state.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife"

New from Poisoned Pen Press: Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife by Martin Edwards.

About the book, from the publisher:

Six down-on-their-luck people with links to the world of crime writing have been invited to play a game this Christmas by the mysterious Midwinter Trust. The challenge seems simple but exciting: Solve the murder of a fictional crime writer in a remote but wonderfully atmospheric village in north Yorkshire to win a prize that will change your fortunes for good.

Six members of staff from the shadowy Trust are there to make sure everyone plays fair. The contestants have been meticulously vetted but you can never be too careful. And with the village about to be cut off by a snow storm, everyone needs to be extra vigilant. Midwinter can play tricks on people's minds.

The game is set - but playing fair isn't on everyone's Christmas list.

Learn more about the book and author at Martin Edwards’s website.

Writers Read: Martin Edwards (April 2013).

The Page 69 Test: The Frozen Shroud.

The Page 69 Test: Dancing for the Hangman.

The Page 99 Test: The Arsenic Labyrinth.

The Page 99 Test: Waterloo Sunset.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Cassius Marcellus Clay"

New from The University of North Carolina Press: Cassius Marcellus Clay: The Life of an Antislavery Slaveholder and the Paradox of American Reform by Anne E. Marshall.

About the book, from the publisher:

The nineteenth-century Kentucky antislavery reformer Cassius Marcellus Clay is generally remembered as a knife-wielding rabble-rouser who both inspired and enraged his contemporaries. Clay brawled with opponents while stumping for state constitutional changes to curtail the slave trade. He famously deployed cannons to protect the office of the antislavery newspaper he founded in Lexington. Despite attempts on his life, he helped found the national Republican party and positioned himself as a staunch border state ally of Abraham Lincoln. During the Civil War, he served as US minister to Russia, working to ensure that European allies would not recognize the Confederacy. And yet he was a slave owner until the end of the Civil War. Though often misremembered as an abolitionist, Clay was like many Americans of his time: interested in a gradual end to slavery but largely on grounds that the institution limited whites' ability to profit from free labor and the South’s opportunity for economic advancement. In the end, Clay’s political positions were far more about protecting members of his own class than advancing the cause of Black freedom.

This vivid and insightful biography reveals Cassius Clay as he was: colorful, yes, but in many ways typical of white Americans who disliked slavery in principle but remained comfortable accommodating it. Reconsidering Clay as emblematic rather than exceptional, Anne E. Marshall shows today’s readers why it took a violent war to finally abolish slavery and why African Americans' demands for equality struggled to gain white support after the Civil War.

The Page 99 Test: Creating a Confederate Kentucky.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Keep This for Me"

New from Atria: Keep This for Me: A Novel by Jennifer Fawcett.

About the book, from the publisher:

The acclaimed author of the “chilling, mesmerizing debut” (Rachel Harrison, author of The Return) Beneath the Stairs returns with a gripping, atmospheric suspense novel about a woman investigating a serial killer’s connection to her mother’s disappearance—for fans of I Have Some Questions for You and Notes on an Execution.

One hot August night in 1993, a young couple go to a party. When their car breaks down, they are picked up by a truck driver who attacks the man and abducts the woman. She is never seen again.

That woman was Fiona Green’s mother.

When the trucker, Eddie Ward, is caught, a mass grave of bodies is discovered in his backyard but Fiona’s mother isn’t there. Thirty years later, on his prison deathbed, Ward insists that he didn’t kill her, so Fiona finds herself back in the small town where her mother disappeared. Fighting demons of her own, she’s shocked when history repeats itself: another woman, another roadside breakdown, and another disappearance. Only this time the primary suspect is Jason Ward, Eddie’s son. Desperate, Fiona hunts down answers, unaware that she is being drawn into a dangerous trap.

With Jennifer Fawcett’s signature “suspenseful and immersive” (Library Journal) prose, Keep This for Me is a fresh, spellbinding exploration of what we unwillingly inherit from our parents and how one random act can send ripples years into the future.

Visit Jennifer Fawcett's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"An Actor's Tale"

New from the University of Michigan Press: An Actor's Tale: Theater, Culture, and Everyday Life in the Nineteenth-Century United States by Amy E. Hughes.

About the book, from the publisher:

Harry Watkins was no one special. During a career that spanned four decades, this nineteenth-century actor yearned for fame but merely skirted the edges of it. He performed alongside the brightest stars, wrote scores of plays, and toured the United States and England, but he never became a household name. Inspired by this average performer’s life and labor, An Actor’s Tale offers an alternative history of nineteenth-century theater, focusing on the daily rhythms and routines of theatrical life rather than the celebrated people, plays, and exceptional events that tend to dominate histories of US theater and performance. In the process, Hughes asks uncomfortable questions about the existence, predominance, and erasure of White male mediocrity in US culture, both in the past and present. When historians focus only on performers and plays with artistic “merit,” what communities, perspectives, and cultural trends remain invisible? How did men like Watkins advance themselves professionally, despite their mediocrity? Why did men like Watkins embrace and perpetuate myths like the American Dream, the “self-made man,” and meritocracy, and how have these ideals shaped casting, producing, and celebrity worship in today’s US entertainment industry?

Ultimately, Hughes reveals how this actor’s tale illuminates the widespread tendency to ignore, deny, and forgive White male mediocrity in US culture, and how a deeper understanding of people like Watkins can transform our understanding of the past—and our understanding of ourselves.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Poison and Pooches"

New from Severn House: Poison and Pooches by Sandra Balzo.

About the book, from the publisher:

Introducing Arial Kingston—dog-sitter, amateur sleuth, and owner of a guest house with a body under the floorboards.

Lucky dog-sitter Arial Mayes Kingston has inherited property in Monterey, California. But the novelty of being a first-time homeowner is short-lived due to a noxious termite fumigation in the guest house and the discovery of a body under the floorboards.

Foul play seems most likely, but who was the victim? And why would the killer stash the body under the guest house? Determined to put her observational skills to good use—and with her first doggie client, the adorable Monty, by her side—Arial must overcome neighborly tensions, unravel mysterious disappearances, and mop up canine misdemeanors as she attempts to sniff out a killer!

A page-turning cozy mystery full of clever twists, cunning characters, and canines! Fans of Laurien Berenson, Krista Davis, and dog lovers everywhere will adore Poison and Pooches.

Visit Sandra Balzo's website, Facebook page, and Instagram page.

My Book, The Movie: Triple Shot.

The Page 69 Test: Murder on the Orient Espresso.

The Page 69 Test: To The Last Drop.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Kicking the Hornet's Nest"

New from Simon & Schuster: Kicking the Hornet's Nest: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East from Truman to Trump by Daniel E. Zoughbie.

About the book, from the publisher:

The compelling, groundbreaking investigation of how the choices of twelve US presidents, from Truman to Trump, have fueled turbulence and turmoil in the Middle East. And the one president who chose a better way.

Kicking the Hornet’s Nest is a riveting exploration of how twelve US presidents have shaped the Middle East, often unleashing instability and conflict along the way. It is also the story of one US president who successfully charted a better course. From Truman to Trump, Daniel Zoughbie meticulously unpacks the decisions that have set the stage for today’s unrest. But this book is more than just a history lesson; it’s a sharp analysis of presidential decision-making and its far-reaching consequences.

Today, the Middle East stands as a volatile landscape, more tumultuous than at any time since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Zoughbie paints a vivid picture of how nearly every major nation-state in the Middle East and North Africa has grappled with existential crises in the recent years, paving the way for terrorist groups to threaten national sovereignty and for local conflicts to destabilize world order.

Drawing on a vast array of primary sources and interviews with world leaders, the narrative explores pressing issues like nuclear proliferation, genocide, and nationalist conflicts fueled by sectarian fervor that have triggered global refugee waves. Kicking the Hornet’s Nest is an eye-opening study of US presidential decision-making and foreign policy. With compassion and insight, Zoughbie reveals the essential information necessary for anyone seeking to understand eight decades of US foreign policy and its profound impact on billions of lives worldwide.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Resurrectionist"

New from Roaring Brook Press: The Resurrectionist: A Tale of Gothic Horror by Kathleen S. Allen.

About the book, from the publisher:

A young Victorian woman unwittingly unleashes a monster into being in this gothic tale of medical mystery and sinister suspense, perfect for fans of DON'T LET THE FOREST IN and BELLADONNA.

Death is just the beginning.

When seventeen-year-old Dilly Rothbart finds her recently deceased father's hidden journal, her entire world is upended—for what she finds within are the steps to bring a dead soul back to life.

Intent on finishing her father's work and establishing herself as the greatest scientist in history, Dilly plunges into a medical underworld of corpse-stealing, grave-robbing, and even murder. And when her twin sister steps in the way of her studies, she'll do whatever is necessary to secure the recognition she deserves.

This twisty, atmospheric, Frankensteinian tale is about a group of ambitious young scientists who descend into corruption when a breakthrough discovery grants them the power of gods.

Visit Kathleen S. Allen's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Logistics and Power"

New from the University of California Press: Logistics and Power: Supply Chains from Slavery to Space by Susan Zieger.

About the book, from the publisher:

From supply chains to surveillance, how logistics drives modern power—and its consequences.

Movement is the lifeblood of capital, even more so than growth. If goods, people, and information don't flow, then profits don't either. Ensuring that laborers, shipping containers, media, commercially valuable data, and much else are in the right place at the right time demands a subtle choreography. Enter logistics.

Susan Zieger argues that logistics is the foundation of power in our time. Blending detailed historical research with real-life stories that crystallize the human and ecological consequences of supply chains, Logistics and Power shows how the pursuit of efficient movement has come to organize economies while disordering societies and selves. Logistics emerges as the key to consumerism and the experience of work. It justifies corporate and police surveillance, illuminates patterns of migration and exploitation, and explains why the oceans are clotted with plastic. It is in the sphere of logistics that capitalist motives are most dramatically in tension with planetary needs.

A headfirst encounter with the obscure forces subordinating all goals below those of capital, Logistics and Power points the way to an alternative: a mindful and politically attentive kind of movement compatible with human thriving.

Visit Susan Zieger's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Hole in the Sky"

New from Doubleday: Hole in the Sky: A Novel by Daniel H. Wilson.

About the book, from the publisher:

A Native American first contact story and gripping thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse

On the Great Plains of Oklahoma, in the heart of the Cherokee Nation, a strange atmospheric disturbance is noticed by Jim Hardgray, a down-on-his-luck single father trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter, Tawny. At NASA’s headquarters in Houston, Texas, astrophysicist Dr. Mikayla Johnson observes an interaction with the Voyager 1 spacecraft on the far side of the solar system, and she concludes that something enormous and unidentified is heading directly for Earth. And in an undisclosed bunker somewhere in the United States, an American threat forecaster known only as the Man Downstairs intercepts a cryptic communication and sends a message directly to the president and highest-ranking military brass: “First contact imminent.”

Daniel H. Wilson’s Hole in the Sky is a riveting thriller in the most creative tradition of extraterrestrial fiction. Drawing on Wilson’s unique background as both a threat forecaster for the United States Air Force and a Cherokee Nation citizen, this propulsive novel asks probing questions about nonhuman intelligence, the Western mindset, and humans’ understanding of reality.

Learn more about the book and author at Daniel Wilson's website.

My Book, The Movie: A Boy and His Bot.

The Page 69 Test: Robopocalypse.

My Book, The Movie: Amped.

The Page 69 Test: Robogenesis.

My Book, The Movie: Robogenesis.

Writers Read: Daniel H. Wilson (June 2014).

--Marshal Zeringue

"Christianity and the Qur'an"

New from Yale University Press: Christianity and the Qur'an: The Rise of Islam in Christian Arabia by Gabriel Said Reynolds.

About the book, from the publisher:

A leading Qur’anic scholar’s revisionary account of how Islam emerged in dialogue with Christian traditions

Challenging the dominant narrative about the history of the Qur’an and the emergence of Islam in a predominantly pagan context, Gabriel Said Reynolds presents the Qur’an as a text born within a largely Christian culture. As he examines the ways the Qur’an engages with Christian traditions—not only those of the New Testament but also those of late antique Christian literature—and with Christians themselves, Reynolds also draws on recent scholarship on pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions suggesting that monotheism, Christianity in particular, was a significant presence in the pre-Islamic Hijaz, the region in which Muhammad preached.

This study re-situates the Qur’an as a text thoroughly concerned with Christianity, not just the longer narratives of individuals such as Mary and Jesus but also passages that do not mention Christians explicitly. The Qur’an’s stance toward Christianity is on occasion controversial, aiming to advance Islamic theology and undermine Christian apologetical arguments, yet the Qur’an is not always polemical. At times, the text makes use of the audience’s knowledge of the Bible to advance its own vision of God and God’s relationship with humanity.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Playing for Possession"

New from Montlake: Playing for Possession (Playing the Field, book 5) by Sasha Lace.

About the book, from the publisher:

“You don’t have to follow other people’s rules all the time.”

“And you don’t have to break them all the time either.”

Joanie

People assume Joanie’s a nepo baby, but they have no idea how hard she’s worked to get back on the pitch after injury.

She just wants to play football. The last thing she needs is to film an ad in Menorca with Kieran Earnshaw, the men’s team bad boy.

Kieran is gorgeous, though―and he seems different with her. Maybe it’s time this good girl finally experimented with her wild side…?

Kieran

Joanie’s dad is on the board. He’s warned Kieran off his daughter, but wants him to watch out for her on their trip. He can get Kieran on the England squad, his lifelong dream, so he’ll have to play by the rules―just this once.

Quiet Joanie likes to stay in the background. But Kieran’s realized anyone overlooking this woman is making a mistake. She’s the total package, beautiful inside and out.

He knows what he wants on and off the pitch―and he always plays to win. He’s risking everything, but sometimes opposites attract. And together, he reckons they could rewrite the whole rulebook…

Playing for Possession is the fifth book in the Playing the Field series―addictive romances full of heart and steam.

Follow Sasha Lace on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Hypocrisy Trap"

New from The MIT Press: The Hypocrisy Trap: How Changing What We Criticize Can Improve Our Lives by Michael Hallsworth.

About the book, from the publisher:

How our desire to stamp out hypocrisy is backfiring—and how learning to target our criticisms better can improve our politics, business, and personal relationships.

In our increasingly distrusting and polarized nations, accusations of hypocrisy are everywhere. But the strange truth is that our attempts to stamp out hypocrisy often backfire, creating what Michael Hallsworth calls The Hypocrisy Trap. In this groundbreaking book, he shows how our relentless drive to expose inconsistency between words and deeds can actually breed more hypocrisy or, worse, cynicism that corrodes democracy itself.

Through engaging stories and original research, Hallsworth shows that not all hypocrisy is equal. While some forms genuinely destroy trust and create harm, others reflect the inevitable compromises of human nature and complex societies. The Hypocrisy Trap offers practical solutions: ways to increase our own consistency, navigate accusations wisely, and change how we judge others’ actions. Hallsworth shows vividly that we can improve our politics, businesses, and personal relationships if we rethink hypocrisy—soon.

Visit Michael Hallsworth's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Murder Two Doors Down"

New from Crooked Lane Books: Murder Two Doors Down: An HOA Homicide Mystery by Chuck Storla.

About the book, from the publisher:

Welcome to the Estates at Chestnut Lake, home of perfect lawns, matching houses, and an inconvenient murder or two.

This hilarious and compelling whodunit mystery has the “crime close to home” feel of Only Murders in the Building and is perfect for readers who loved Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect and Finlay Donovan Is Killing It.

Brad Hanson’s life in his suburban Atlanta subdivision is unremarkable. He investigates insurance fraud, which is as dull as it sounds, though if he’s able to get a good bonus this year, his wife, Rhonda, will finally get to have her new kitchen. His highest achievement in life is being secretary and de facto parliamentarian on the homeowners association board, which is the center of all the neighborhood drama.

As frustrating—and heated—as the arguments over tennis court resurfacing and dog droppings may be, much like his subdivision compatriots, Brad would never kill a neighbor, but… he might enjoy thinking about it from time to time. (Who hasn’t?)

When someone murders cranky old Inga Oskarsdotter—a frequent source of complaints to the HOA board—a literal smoking gun turns Brad into the chief suspect. But Brad is not waiting around to be arrested—after all, he is an investigator by trade—and he takes it upon himself to find the real killer. Then the body count starts to rise.

One thing is sure: A murderer on the block is not good for property values.

Visit Chuck Storla's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Legacies of British Rule"

New from Princeton University Press: Legacies of British Rule: Colonialism, Statehood, and Nationalist Civil War by Matthew Lange.

About the book, from the publisher:

The relationship between colonial pluralism and nationalist civil war in former British colonies

Why do some communities fight civil wars over national self-rule while others do not? In Legacies of British Rule, Matthew Lange offers insight into this question through a rigorous multimethod and comparative analysis that pinpoints the combined impact of precolonial statehood and British colonialism. During transitions from empire to nation-state, postcolonial officials in places with large and long-standing precolonial states commonly try to build a unified nation around the dominant community in ways that discriminate against and exclude smaller communities. While such national chauvinism can fuel reactions leading to nationalist civil war, a history of British colonialism intensifies these reactions by increasing sensitivity to national chauvinism and empowering communities to act. Consequently, nationalist civil wars are three times more common in former British colonies than in other former overseas colonies.

And yet, Lange finds that British colonialism exerts a very different effect on places with a limited history of precolonial statehood; in an environment with little national chauvinism, British colonialism deters nationalist civil war by promoting more inclusive postcolonial states that strengthen plurinationalism and limit fear and anger over reduced communal autonomy. Lange’s account provides valuable new insights into the roots of nationalist civil war, broad patterns of conflict, and the mixed effects of colonialism and pluralism.

The Page 99 Test: Killing Others.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Higher Magic"

New from MIRA: Higher Magic: A Novel by Courtney Floyd.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this incisive, irreverent, and whimsical cozy dark academia novel for fans of Heather Fawcett’s Emily Wilde series and R.F. Kuang’s Babel, a struggling mage student with intense anxiety must prove that classic literature contained magic—and learn to wield her own stories to change her institution for the better.

First-generation graduate student Dorothe Bartleby has one last chance to pass the Magic program’s qualifying exam after freezing with anxiety during her first attempt. If she fails to demonstrate that magic in classic literature changed the world, she’ll be kicked out of the university. And now her advisor insists she reframe her entire dissertation using Digimancy. While mages have found a way to combine computers and magic, Bartleby’s fated to never make it work.

This time is no exception. Her revised working goes horribly wrong, creating a talking skull named Anne that narrates Bartleby’s inner thoughts—even the most embarrassing ones—like she's a heroine in a Jane Austen novel. Out of her depth, she recruits James, an unfairly attractive mage candidate, to help her stop Anne’s glitches in time for her exam.

Instead, Anne leads them to a shocking and dangerous discovery: Magic students who seek disability accommodations are disappearing—quite literally. When the administration fails to act, Bartleby must learn to trust her own knowledge and skills. Otherwise, she risks losing both the missing students and her future as a mage, permanently.

Visit Courtney Floyd's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Paper and the Making of Early Modern Literature"

New from the University of Pennsylvania Press: Paper and the Making of Early Modern Literature by Georgina Wilson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Paper and the Making of Early Modern Literature explores the crucial role of paper in the early history of books and of English literature. Taking up four paradigms of literary scholarship―authorship, composition, form, and reuse―Georgina Wilson shows how the material affordances of paper shaped the work of readers, writers, and critics of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Looking past the surface of printed texts to less legible forms of labor, Wilson models literary critical readings of paper’s physical aspects, from watermarks to rotatable paper dials, in Ben Jonson’s Sejanus His Fall and George Wither’s emblems, sheets, and fragments. Turning from paper's specific physical attributes to authors who were preoccupied with its imaginative potential, Wilson explores how paper’s tangible qualities intervened in what readers and writers did with it, tracing formalist, legal, and political debates on the textual and nontextual uses of paper through the works of John Taylor and eighteenth-century “it-narratives.”

Drawing upon examples from early modern drama, poetry, and prose to consider the real and imagined women and men who made and used paper, Wilson demonstrates how early modern paper was both the product of embodied labor and of the early modern imagination. Bringing together close reading, critical bibliography, archival research, and literary theory, Paper and the Making of Early Modern Literature shows how paper makes literature not only as a physical object but also as a discipline.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Door on the Sea"

New from Solaris: The Door on the Sea by Caskey Russell.

About the book, from the publisher:

An epic quest fantasy debut that is the Tlingit indigenous response to The Lord of the Rings

When Elān trapped a salmon-stealing raven in his cupboard, he never expected it would hold the key to saving his people from the shapeshifting Koosh invaders plaguing their shores. In exchange for its freedom, the raven offers a secret that can save Elān’s home: the Koosh have lost one of their most powerful weapons, and only the raven knows where it is.

Elān is tasked with captaining a canoe crewed by an unlikely team including a human bear-cousin, a massive wolf, and the endlessly vulgar raven. To retrieve the weapon, they will face stormy seas, cannibal giants and a changing world. But Elān is a storyteller, not a warrior.

As their world continues to fall to the Koosh, and alliances are challenged and broken, Elān must choose his role in his own epic story.

Visit Caskey Russell's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Serpent's Tale"

New from Columbia University Press: The Serpent's Tale: Kundalini, Yoga, and the History of an Experience by Sravana Borkataky-Varma and Anya Foxen.

About the book, from the publisher:

There is a standard narrative that recurs throughout popular writings on yoga and tantra, from South Asian texts to Western esoteric thought: Kuṇḍalinī is the Serpent Power. She rests coiled at the base of the spine. If awakened, this divine feminine energy rises toward the crown of the head. Some are apprehensive of Kuṇḍalinī’s intense power, fearing physical and psychological turmoil. Others seek it out, hungry for experiences, both spiritual and sensual. But what does this story leave out? What are its cultural and historical roots? What do the many ways of experiencing Kuṇḍalinī tell us about this elusive phenomenon?

The Serpent’s Tale traces the intricate global histories of Kuṇḍalinī, from its Sanskrit origins to its popularity in the West. Sravana Borkataky-Varma and Anya Foxen explore its symbolic link with the serpent, its fraught connections to sexuality, and its commercialization in the form of Kuṇḍalinī yoga. Ranging from esoteric texts to global gurus, from the cliffs of California to the charnel grounds of Assam, they show that there has never been one single “authentic” model of Kuṇḍalinī but a multiplicity of visions. Bridging the gaps between textual and historical analysis and the complexities of embodied practice, Borkataky-Varma and Foxen reflect on the narration and transmission of experiences, including their own. Lively, accessible, and nuanced, The Serpent’s Tale offers rich insights for scholars, practitioners, and all readers drawn to Kuṇḍalinī.

Visit Sravana Borkataky-Varma's website and Anya Foxen's website.

12 Yoga Questions with Anya Foxen, part 1 and part 2.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Curse of the Savoy"

New from Douglas & McIntyre: Curse of the Savoy: A Priscilla Tempest Mystery (Book 4, Priscilla Tempest Mysteries) by Ron Base and Prudence Emery.

About the book, from the publisher:

Curse of the Savoy, the fourth in the Priscilla Tempest mystery series, is a gripping tale of suspense set against the backdrop of high society and 1960s London.

In the luxurious setting of London’s Savoy Hotel, an opulent dinner party hosted by the legendary filmmaker Orson Welles takes a sinister turn. Amidst the grandeur of the Pinafore Room, fourteen renowned guests, including Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant, and the scandalous Miss Christine Keeler, gather for an unforgettable evening. However, the spectre of an old curse looms over the event—a curse said to bring doom to the first guest who leaves a dinner with thirteen attendees. Kasper, a three-foot-tall sculpture of a sleek black cat is said to be the antidote to the curse—if only the reckless attendees had paid heed to the superstition!

In the aftermath of the party, blackmail, betrayal, and murder ensue, entwining the guests in a web of deceit and danger. Once again, Priscilla Tempest, plucky head of the Savoy’s press office, finds herself at the heart of the intrigue. The mysterious events even draw the attention of the Queen, hinting at a conspiracy that reaches the highest echelons of society. Is the curse real, or is something more sinister at play? This riveting mystery, as sparkling as a Buck’s Fizz, promises celebrity gossip and scandal along with twists and turns that will delight readers until the very last page.

Visit Ron Base's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Mother of Washington in Nineteenth-Century America"

New from Oxford University Press: The Mother of Washington in Nineteenth-Century America by Kate Haulman.

About the book, from the publisher:

In May 1894, President Grover Cleveland gave a speech thanking those who gathered “to worship at this national shrine.” He was not referring to the battlefields at Gettysburg or Antietam, nor to Mount Vernon, but to the gravesite of Mary Ball Washington, mother of George. While dedicating the new monument that marked it in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Cleveland honored “the woman who gave our Nation its greatest and best citizen.” There could be no clearer valorization of eighteenth-century republican motherhood and its centrality to the nation's origin story.

The Mother of Washington in Nineteenth-Century America examines the role of motherhood in the commemoration of the American Revolution by tracing the creation and evolution of the Mother of Washington figure. Kate Haulman explores the nineteenth-century memory of an eighteenth-century woman known for and through her famous son, the nation's first president. Underpinned by a canon of stories about Mary that often involved George, the monument and the figure it memorialized overlapped, sometimes in surprising and even paradoxical ways. In print, in images, and on the landscape, memorializing Mary foregrounded maternal ideals based in traditional gender roles and ancestry in the public memory of the nation's founding. As some women framed their engagement with the state in maternal terms, other men and women used the Mother of Washington to link the virtues she represented to the nation's origins. Women memorialists finally took up the cause to complete the monument, finishing what elite men had begun decades earlier.

Then as now, groups used the past to construct American motherhood, as well as using motherhood to engage with the founding past. The Mother of Washington in Nineteenth-Century America offers fresh arguments about gender, race, and the politics of Revolutionary history and memory still contested 250 years later.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Murder in Matrimony"

New from Severn House: Murder in Matrimony by Mary Winters.

About the book, from the publisher:

Countess-turned-advice columnist Amelia Amesbury has a wedding to plan alongside a new murder in this charmingly deadly historical mystery.

Countess Amelia Amesbury has her work cut out. As well as balancing her alter ego—secret advice columnist, Lady Agony—and the blackmailer threatening to reveal her real identity, her sister has also announced she’s getting married. It’s joyous news, but places all the planning for a high society wedding firmly at Amelia’s door.

Luckily, her good friend and local vicar Mr. Cross has agreed to the expedited nuptials, so that’s one less thing to worry about. Until Cross is found dead at the church. Now in between bridal arrangements, Amelia must follow the clues Mr. Cross left behind.

Clearly, he’d made some enemies during his parishioner work, as strange mishaps begin to occur wherever Amelia goes. But when the danger becomes all too real, Amelia must rely on her friends and the handsome Simon Bainbridge to help solve the murder, save the wedding, and Amelia’s life too . . .

Perfect for fans of witty historical mystery and Regency romances with a similar feel to Verity Bright and T.E. Kinsey.

Visit Mary Winters's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Fighting with the Past"

New from The University of North Carolina Press: Fighting with the Past: How Seventeenth-Century History Shaped the American Civil War by Aaron Sheehan-Dean.

About the book, from the publisher:

Civil War Americans, like people today, used the past to understand and traverse their turbulent present. As Aaron Sheehan-Dean reveals in this fascinating work of comparative intellectual history, nineteenth-century Americans were especially conversant with narratives of the English Civil Wars of the 1600s. Northerners and Southerners alike drew from histories of the English past to make sense of their own conflict, interpreting the events of the past in drastically different ways. Confederates, for example, likened themselves to England’s Royalists (also known as Cavaliers), hoping to preserve a social order built on hierarchy and claiming the right to resist what they perceived as radicals' assaults on tradition. Meanwhile, conservative Northerners painted President Lincoln as a tyrant in the mold of English Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, while radical abolitionists drew inspiration from Cromwell and sought to rebuild the South as Cromwell had attempted with Ireland.

Surveying two centuries of history-making and everyday engagement with historical thought, Sheehan-Dean convincingly argues that history itself was a battlefront of the American Civil War, with narratives of the past exercising surprising agency in interpretations of the nineteenth-century present. Sheehan-Dean’s discoveries provide an entirely fresh perspective on the role of historical memory in the Civil War era and offer a broader meditation on the construction and uses of history itself.

Visit Aaron Sheehan-Dean's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Last One Seen"

New from Crooked Lane Books: Last One Seen: A Thriller by Rebecca Kanner.

About the book, from the publisher:

There are three people I suspect of killing her, and I’m one of them.

A woman fights her own mind and memory to understand how she got here: the passenger seat of a car speeding away from a murder scene. In this riveting, dual-timeline psychological thriller, perfect for fans of Riley Sager, nothing is as it seems.

Hannah arrived at Washington University in St. Louis brimming with hope. She was determined to take her mood stabilizer, stay out of trouble, and make a name for herself while completing her creative writing MFA. When she meets Justine, an enigmatic, wealthy, charismatic, and successful student in her program, she’s enchanted. And as Justine takes a special interest in her, Hannah falls completely under her spell.

When Hannah’s life starts spiraling out of control, she isn’t sure who to blame–Justine, for her intense and controlling influence, their jealous classmate Amelia, or herself. As her prescription fails her, she strays further and further from the straight and narrow.

Hannah can’t help but reflect on her time in grad school, especially when she knows Justine is lying dead somewhere back down the road Justine’s ex Eli is driving them away on. She knows Justine is gone. She knows someone killed Justine. And she knows it might’ve been her.

Visit Rebecca Kanner's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Nation at Sea"

New from Cambridge University Press: The Nation at Sea: The Federal Courts and American Sovereignty, 1789–1825 by Kevin Arlyck.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Nation at Sea tells a new story about the federal judiciary, and about the early United States itself. Most accounts of the nation's transformation from infant republic to world power ignore the courts. Their importance, if any, was limited to domestic politics. But the truth is that, in the critical decades following the Constitution's ratification, federal judges decided thousands of maritime cases that profoundly shaped the United States' relations with foreign nations. Judges ruled on the legality of naval captures made by European powers, regulated the conduct of American merchants, and tried pirates and slave traders who sought profit amid the turmoil of transatlantic war. Kevin Arlyck's vivid reconstruction of this forgotten history reveals how, over time, the federal courts helped realize an increasingly bold conception of American sovereignty, one that vindicated the Declaration of Independence's claim to the United States' place 'among the powers of the earth.'

--Marshal Zeringue

"If the Dead Belong Here"

New from Viking: If the Dead Belong Here: A Novel by Carson Faust.

About the book, from the publisher:

When a young girl goes missing, the ghosts of the past collide with her family’s secrets in a mesmerizing Native American Southern Gothic

When six-year-old Laurel Taylor vanishes without a trace, her family is left shattered, struggling to navigate the darkness of grief and unanswered questions. As their search turns to despair, Laurel’s older sister, Nadine, begins experiencing nightmares that blur the line between dream and reality, and she becomes convinced that Laurel’s disappearance could be connected to other family tragedies. Guided by her elders, Nadine sets out to uncover whether laying the ghosts to rest is the key to finding her sister and healing her fractured family.

Carson Faust captivates in this chilling literary debut that confronts the specter of colonization and the generational scars it leaves on Native American families. Steeped in Indigenous folklore and drawing from the author’s own family history, If the Dead Belong Here examines what it means to be haunted—both by the supernatural and by terrors of our own making. Faust crafts a powerful, kaleidoscopic tale about the complicated legacies of violence that shape our present, the importance of honoring our past, and the resilience of a family—and a people—determined to heal from old wounds.

Visit Carson Faust's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"American Conquest"

New from Stanford University Press: American Conquest: The Northwest Indian War and the Making of US Foreign Policy by Andrew A. Szarejko.

About the book, from the publisher:

The first war of America's existence as an independent state was fought against the Shawnee, the Miami, and other Ohio River Valley tribes in the Northwest Indian War of 1790–95. The war provides a window into how US conquest of the continent would proceed through the next century and comprise a central element of US foreign policy into the future. Szarejko examines why the United States first engaged in this war to secure its claim to the Old Northwest and how the reverberations of the war extend far beyond the process of settlement. In focusing on US strategy during the war—its reliance on military bases to project power and a nascent counterinsurgency doctrine—Szarejko expertly traces the patterns established by this conflict throughout American political history and demonstrates how that military victory continues to be legitimized today through local commemorations of the war. This innovative book argues forcefully against the conventional claim that early US foreign policy was isolationist, brings Indigenous politics more fully into the realm of international relations, and allows researchers in several scholarly fields to better understand the nature of American conquest.

Visit Andrew A. Szarejko's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Willing Prey"

New from Berkley: Willing Prey by Allie Oleander.

About the book, from the publisher:

An exhilarating, primal summer fling in the woods leads to an intensely sexy, edgy romance, where anything goes—just remember your safe word.

Divorced and buried in student loan debt, Claire Collins eagerly enters a spicy business agreement with an acquaintance who wants to explore his primal desires. The deal is simple: thirty days as his sexual prey, $30,000 in her bank account. All she has to do is give Shane Underwood the hunt of his life.

Claire’s a physical education teacher and perfectly happy to spend her summer having wild, kinky sex instead of working her usual serving job. But once they cross the tree line, she realizes how little she knows about the corporate lawyer paying her to be his prey.

Shane is different in the woods. Brutal. Devastating. Feral.

That’s okay with Claire—she is, too. And she’s sinking her teeth a little deeper into Shane’s heart every time he catches her.

Visit Allie Oleander's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Monumental Designs"

New from the University Press of Mississippi: Monumental Designs: Infrastructure and the Culture of the Tennessee Valley Authority by Ted Atkinson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Established by Congress as part of the New Deal, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) designated parts of seven southern states for economic rehabilitation through various means, including flood control, rural electrification, and social programs. The goal was to deploy federal resources to reshape the region through infrastructure—mainly a network of hydroelectric dams. To garner political and public support, TVA officials mobilized artists. Soon state-sponsored cultural productions emerged, resulting in a body of work comprising an array of mediums. The TVA swayed public opinion and generated positive reviews at the outset because of the vital role that culture played in making public meaning, particularly regarding the near-total transformation of the Tennessee Valley through infrastructural development as part of a larger ideological and economic investment in public works. While the content was geared toward promoting the TVA agenda, aesthetic innovations had a lasting impact, influencing subsequent generations of artists who portrayed the TVA enterprise with complexity, nuance, and depth. At a time when the country is grappling with issues surrounding climate change, fossil fuels consumption, and strip mining, the TVA now struggles to balance its reputation for prosperity and development with public suspicion and skepticism.

In Monumental Designs: Infrastructure and the Culture of the Tennessee Valley Authority, author Ted Atkinson presents a cultural history of the TVA that examines representations of the agency in selected works from the New Deal era to the present. With chapters organized according to medium—photography and photobooks, documentary films, New Deal theater, fiction film, and novels—Monumental Designs seeks to illuminate the entwined forms of infrastructural development and cultural production that have made the TVA a source of multivalent power and influence. This examination of cultural history intends to foster critical thinking about how public works can come to be regarded as monumental expressions of national purpose and modern engines of progress defined in terms of perpetual growth and development.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Lost Hours"

New from Crooked Lane Books: The Lost Hours: A Thriller by Lynn Tavernier.

About the book, from the publisher:

When an embattled detective investigates the suspicious death of a wealthy young socialite, she unearths long-buried family secrets in this tense thriller for fans of Lisa Gardner.

Detective Andrea Stuart thought her weeklong escape to the quiet shores of Jamestown would be a time to rest, to reconnect, to forget. But a blocked call in the early hours of the morning pulls her back into a world she’s been trying to leave behind—and into a case no one wants her to solve.

Hope Philbrick—young, beautiful, and heir to one of Rhode Island’s most powerful families—has fallen to her death from a seaside cliff after her lavish pre-wedding celebration. Everyone says it was an accident. Her fiancé is grieving. The family wants silence. And Andrea has been told, in no uncertain terms, to keep her head down and follow orders.

But something about the scene doesn't sit right. Not the missing witnesses. Not the body’s position. Not the lies—because Andrea can smell them. The deeper she digs, the more the glittering façade of privilege cracks, revealing a dark web of pressure, secrets, and betrayal that threatens to destroy more than just reputations.

To uncover the truth, Andrea must risk her career—and confront a haunting past she’s never truly escaped.

Gripping, atmospheric, and richly written, The Lost Hours is a spellbinding mystery about power, trauma, and the cost of doing the right thing.

Visit Lynn Tavernier's website.

--Marshal Zeringue