"Midnight Curfew"

New from Berkley: Midnight Curfew by Penelope Douglas.

About the book, from the publisher:

Two rivals from opposing families fight their forbidden attraction to each other in the brand new romance from New York Times bestselling author Penelope Douglas.

Summertime is off-season in southern Florida. Families leave their homes to escape the heat, the streets are empty, and the nights are quiet. Perfect time for a little mischief while the police aren’t looking.

As the middle Jaeger brother, Dallas was often lost in the shuffle growing up. Now a man, he’s prideful of his community on the wrong side of the tracks—Sanoa Bay—and aggressively protective of his land and his inner circle. He’s hungry and ready for a fight.

Callum Ames has a reputation in St. Carmen, the affluent neighborhood abutting Sanoa Bay. The hottest. The most popular. Rich. Powerful. Strong. The one all the women want. After four years away, he’s back, but for all his bravado, he’s got one major secret: he doesn’t want a woman.

Summer is also storm season. Heat, wind, rain…

And a lockdown.

In a desperate bid to impress his influential father, Callum suggests a curfew to hinder their rivals in the Bay.

Unfortunately, the Jaegers don’t like rules.

As Dallas and Callum face off and engage, out for each other's blood, they can't stop the consuming fire between them and the outcome they already see coming...

The storm of the century.

Visit Penelope Douglas's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Aging and the Ethics of Longevity Science"

New from Oxford University Press: Aging and the Ethics of Longevity Science by Colin Farrelly.

About the book, from the publisher:

A century of advances in experimental science have revealed new insights into the biology of aging, thus making the aspiration of healthy longevity a feasible goal for public health and medicine in the twenty-first century. However, significant obstacles must be overcome to reap the societal benefits of the science of healthy aging. These include the prevalence of ageism, the dominance of the intellectual presuppositions of public health's "War Against Disease" paradigm, and the politicalization of science. This book advances a pragmatic ethical analysis designed to enhance the public understanding of the importance of healthy longevity and the scientific study of aging.

Visit Colin Farrelly's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"An A-List for Murder"

New from Severn House: An A-List for Murder (An Evelyn Galloway Mystery) by Amy Patricia Meade.

About the novel, from the publisher:

An irresistible historical cozy series featuring Evelyn Galloway, Hollywood script supervisor turned sleuth!

The list you’d die to be on...

March, 1940, and script supervisor Evelyn Galloway is enjoying being reunited with Alfred Hitchcock on his new film. Until twenty-three-year-old Phoebe Dillon, an aspiring actress hoping to be an extra in the movie, is found strangled in downtown L.A. Evelyn encountered Phoebe in the studio just hours before she died. Did she really have audition jitters as she claimed, or was she frightened of something— or someone?

Visit Amy Patricia Meade's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"How Economics Discovered Women"

New from the University of California Press: How Economics Discovered Women: Bringing Gender Economics into the Twenty-First Century by Shelly Lundberg.

About the book, from the publisher:

Rethinking the economics of gender.

In the 1970s, as women started to enter the labor force in unprecedented numbers, economists began to examine their roles as economic actors. The result was the rise of gender economics, now a major subfield with powerful data and new methods comparing the economic lives of men and women. Yet despite decades of progress, many of the most consequential questions about gender inequality remain unresolved.

In this bold and reflective book, renowned economist and demographer Shelly Lundberg argues that the problem is not a lack of evidence but a failure to challenge entrenched economic models and outmoded assumptions about markets and gender that have limited what the field can explain.

Why does occupational segregation persist? Why do "women's jobs" pay less? Why are men falling behind in education? And why do policies like paternity leave fail to change behavior? Drawing on more than five decades in the field and integrating insights from other social sciences, Lundberg explains signs of recent progress and charts a path toward a more realistic, socially grounded economics capable of meeting the challenges of gender inequality today.

Visit Shelly Lundberg's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Dreams of Earth and Sky"

New from Lake Union: Dreams of Earth and Sky: A Novel by Shirley Perez West.

About the book, from the publisher:

A ranchero’s daughter in 1845 California fights for her home in a sweeping historical romance of rebellious love, family loyalty, identity, and sacrifice.

California, 1845. Mexican rancheros reign, and while American ambitions threaten their future, the Ávila family’s rancho, El Sueño, is for now a safe haven.

It’s time for twenty-year-old Mariana Ávila, the strong-willed daughter of a wealthy ranchero, to accept tradition and marry. Though Ramón, her childhood sweetheart, is her best prospect, Mariana bristles against convention and aims to follow her own path. When foreign settlers and US forces encroach on the Californios, Mariana meets Irish immigrant Patrick Murphy and is suddenly caught between two admirers and two worlds about to collide. As everything Mariana knows collapses around her, she must navigate the twists of fate to come and the devastating price of American conquest that threatens more than her beloved El Sueño.

Set against the epic backdrop of a tumultuous moment in California’s history, this is, at its heart, the intimate story of a young woman’s fight to protect her family’s legacy and search for love across an impossible divide.

Visit Shirley Perez West's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Secular-Christian Social Justice"

New from NYU Press: Secular-Christian Social Justice: Climate, Race, and Gender in the Twenty-First Century by Noa Ben-Asher.

About the book, from the publisher:

Explores the Christian-theological foundations of modern social justice movements and how they've shaped contemporary debates on climate, race, and gender

From Pope Francis’s call to “repent for ecological sins” to murals depicting George Floyd in the Virgin Mary’s arms, Christian motifs have permeated contemporary justice discourse. In Secular Christian-Social Justice, legal scholar Noa Ben-Asher investigates the often-hidden theological foundations of seemingly secular social justice movements, exploring how climate, racial, and gender justice are fundamentally animated by Christian themes and values.

Combining critical legal theory, theology, feminist and queer thought, and cultural analysis, Ben-Asher demonstrates that contemporary social justice movements operate through four distinctly Christian theological frameworks: apocalyptic worldviews that frame social crises as existential battles between good and evil; trauma-centered narratives that mirror Christian concepts of grace and redemption; appeals to human dignity rooted in Catholic social teaching; and critiques of material inequality that echo biblical economic justice traditions. This interdisciplinary approach allows for tracing the subtle yet pervasive influence of Christian thought across climate, racial, and gender justice. Thus, Ben-Asher argues, the so-called “culture wars” in the United States aren’t taking place between religious and secular forces, but between two Christianities: one traditional and institutional, the other reformist and ostensibly secular.

The book contends that reckoning with these theological foundations is essential for both intellectual honesty and effective legal and political action. Providing a critical diagnosis of contemporary law and activism, Secular-Christian Social Justice challenges and deepens readers’ understanding of the relationship between religion, law, and politics in America, and calls for more radical forms of climate, racial, and gender justice that transcend inherited theological paradigms.

--Marshal Zeringue

"In the Woods They Wait"

Coming September 22 from Little, Brown and Company: In the Woods They Wait: A Novel by Carrie Lee South.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Years ago, she lost her brother. Now the woods have taken another.

From a powerful new voice, a story that's at once a haunting southern gothic and a satisfying page-turner, perfect for fans of Stephen King and Liz Moore alike.

Fifteen years ago, Audrey Figg's little brother, Benny, vanished on a family vacation to Devil's Den state park, a day that split her life in two. Now, Audrey is a park ranger in the very same woods with expertise in wilderness search and rescue. Audrey has found a rhythm to her days: training new rangers, tending to injured hikers, protecting the backcountry, and still, searching.

When a little girl, Ivy, suddenly goes missing on the trails, Audrey can’t help but notice the similarities to her own brother’s case. As Audrey widens the scope of her search, she begins to believe Ivy wasn't merely lost; it looks like she was taken by something―and maybe Benny was too. Yet the closer Audrey comes to answers, the more old memories push to the surface. Audrey is haunted not only by her brother's loss, but a terrible secret from that day. A secret she has never shared with anyone.

Utterly absorbing and disquieting, In the Woods They Wait is an enthralling page-turner, one that asks how far you would go for a sense of closure―and what would you be willing to face to get it.

Visit Carrie Lee South's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Jefferson's Landmark Deal"

New from the University Press of Kansas: Jefferson's Landmark Deal: The Politics of the Louisiana Purchase by Lara M. Brown.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this concise history of the Louisiana Purchase, renowned presidential scholar Lara M. Brown explores how Thomas Jefferson’s skilled diplomacy and political strategy helped secure the historic bargain and changed the course of American history.

Thomas Jefferson is one of the more inscrutable characters in American history. While he is best known for the Declaration of Independence and his conflicting legacy on race and slavery, his pursuit of the Louisiana Purchase was a crucial decision for the trajectory of the country and the development of the presidency. In this volume of the Landmark Presidential Decisions series Lara M. Brown casts Jefferson as a shrewd and calculating politician. Brown examines the historical and political circumstances that led to the Louisiana Purchase, in which Jefferson’s inclination to pursue a strategy of misinformation and patient persuasion rather than engaging in a direct confrontation or a show of force with Napoleon helped to transform a series of accidents into a historic moment of luck.

In addition to exploring the international politics and domestic pressures that helped bring about this deal, Brown examines the larger theoretical issues related to the presidency itself. While Jefferson expressed concern about the constitutionality of the agreement and briefly considered passing a constitutional amendment, his decision to follow Madison’s advice and move quickly on the purchase established the “national emergency” rationale upon which the “imperial presidency” was partly constructed. Moreover, Jefferson relied on American ministers to act as his representatives in executing the deal, underlining the importance of governance, communication, and the management of a burgeoning executive branch.

The Louisiana Purchase is essential to understanding territorial expansion, foreign policy in the early republic, and the perennial political dilemmas surrounding the ambiguity of Article II in the Constitution. Lara Brown expertly guides readers through one of the most consequential decisions in early American history.

Visit Lara M. Brown's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Sisters Alone"

Coming soon from G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers: Sisters Alone by Shifa Saltagi Safadi.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the National Book Award–winning author of Kareem Between comes a powerful novel in verse about two sisters trapped in a blizzard in a heart-wrenching story of sisterhood and survival.

Two sisters. One storm. A fight for their lives.

Rama is all fire—fierce, quick to anger, and trying to hold her family together while battling the monster of intrusive thoughts. Leena is all ice—quiet, numbed to the vibrancy of the world, as she silently blames herself for their mother’s death.

When their father must travel for work, a sudden blizzard traps the sisters alone at their rural home. As the storm tears through their house, they’re left without power, without food, without shelter—and with no one to rely on but each other.

Told in powerful, poetic verse, Sisters Alone is a heart-stopping story of sisterhood, survival, and the quiet strength it takes to keep going, even when the world feels like it's falling apart.

Visit Shifa Safadi's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Out of Chaos"

New from Basic Books: Out of Chaos: How the Nation State Emerged from the Ruins of World War II by Jon Wilson.

About the book, from the publisher:

A provocative history of how nation states arose out of the ashes of World War II, showing how catastrophe, compromise, and contested visions forged the fragile order we still live in today.

Nation states―self-contained territories with their own economy, population, and culture―dominate today’s world. Nationalists claim the modern nation state is rooted in deep historical time, while many scholars say it was a nineteenth-century creation. In Out of Chaos, historian Jon Wilson challenges these narratives, arguing instead that the nation state emerged suddenly and unexpectedly in the years following World War II and brought order to a world in crisis.

Wilson traces how political leaders still reeling from the chaos of war debated how to partition the people, land, and economies of the world. The nation state emerged as the only form of organization leaders from different ideological positions―communist and capitalist, former colonizer and former colonized―could agree upon. But this new order never fully displaced other ways of imagining political power.

From separatist movements in Nigeria and Indonesia, to apologists for empire, to human rights activists fighting for universal justice, non-national groups continued to challenge the nation state’s authority. Out of Chaos restores the history of the nation state, revealing it as a recent and contested construction that has ordered global society for the past seventy-five years and will continue to shape geopolitics in the future.

--Marshal Zeringue