"I Don't Wish You Well"

New from Delacorte Press: I Don't Wish You Well by Jumata Emill.

About the book, from the publisher:

A teen investigative podcaster decides to dig into the truth behind a grisly murder spree that rocked his hometown five years ago, but soon discovers that this cold case is still hiding deadly secrets—in this chilling thriller perfect for fans of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.

Five years ago, the infamous Trojan murders turned the small town of Moss Pointe, Louisiana into a living nightmare. Four teen boys—all star players on Moss Pointe High's football team—were murdered one after the other by a Trojan-mask wearing killer.

Eventually, the murderer was unmasked. But the community has never forgotten—and some folks in town still wonder whether the police got it right.

Eighteen-year-old Pryce Cummings is one of them. An aspiring journalist, Pryce is pretty sure he just stumbled upon evidence that throws the killer's guilt into question. It's the perfect story for his own podcast, and a reason to go back to the hometown he's avoided since coming to terms with his sexuality while at college.

But in Moss Pointe, digging into the past is anything but welcome. There's so much more to what happened there five years ago, and Pryce is ready to crack it all wide open . . . if he lives to tell the tale.

Visit Jumata Emill's website.

Q&A with Jumata Emill.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Pipeline Cinema"

New from the University of California Press: Pipeline Cinema: The Cultural Infrastructure of Oil Extraction in Iran and Iraq by Mona Damluji.

About the book, from the publisher:

Pipeline Cinema explores the intertwined histories of documentary film and the oil industry in mid-twentieth century Iran and Iraq. Reading against the grain of oil company archives, Mona Damluji reveals how wells, pipelines, pumping stations, and refineries were sites of cinematic production and exhibition, at once normalizing and challenging neocolonial extraction. Shining a light on cultural workers and labor movements, this book offers a distinctly humanistic lens on an otherwise dehumanizing petroleum industry.

--Marshal Zeringue

"George Falls Through Time"

New from William Morrow: George Falls Through Time: A Novel by Ryan Collett.

About the book, from the publisher:

Less meets the year 1300 in this exhilarating and thoughtfully genre-defying literary novel about a man transported through time in a moment of extreme stress, whose modern anxieties are replaced by medieval brutalities

Newly laid off George’s internet bill is in his ex-boyfriend’s name. He’s got a spider-infested apartment, and two of the six dogs he’s walking in London have just escaped. It’s pure undiluted stress that sends him into a spiral, all the way to the year 1300.

When he comes to, George recognizes the same rolling hills of Greenwich Park. But the luxuries and phone service of modernity are nowhere. In their place are locals with a bizarre, slanted speech in awe of his foreign clothes, who swiftly toss him in a dungeon. Despite the barbarity of a medieval world, a servant named Simon helps George acclimate to a simpler, easier existence—until a summons from the King threatens to send his life up in flames.

George Falls Through Time is as much an inward journey as an outward one: an immersive exploration of identity and dislocation that pits present-day sensibilities against a raw and alien backdrop, a strangely perfect canvas for the absurd anxieties of our modern lives. It's a profound meditation on the nature of desire perfect for fans of Madeline Miller and The Ministry of Time.

Visit Ryan Collett's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Strange Fruit and Bitter Roots"

New from the University Press of Mississippi: Strange Fruit and Bitter Roots: Black History in Contemporary Graphic Narrative: Black History in Contemporary Graphic Narrative by Daniel Stein.

About the book, from the publisher:

Since the publication of The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo by Tom Feelings, more African American creators have used graphic narratives to explore key moments in colonial and US history. These graphic stories address the painful legacies of anti-Black violence and the long history of racial injustice, using the power of comics to both confront the past and offer visions for the future.

From the Middle Passage and slavery to the civil rights movement and today’s fight for Black Lives, these narratives reimagine history and challenge oppressive systems. Through creative artwork and storytelling, they give fresh perspectives on racial violence and racism in US visual culture, developing new visual languages and techniques to express these complex histories.

Strange Fruit and Bitter Roots connects scholarly research on Black history with some of the most impactful African American graphic novels. The book explores works such as King by Ho Che Anderson; The Middle Passage by Tom Feelings; Nat Turner by Kyle Baker; Black Panther by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Nnedi Okorafor; Bitter Root by David Walker, Chuck Brown, and Sanford Greene; Blue Hand Mojo by John Jennings; Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martínez; and many others, bringing a deeper understanding of how graphic narratives can challenge historical narratives and shape conversations about race and identity today.

Visit Daniel Stein's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Room 706"

New from SJP Lit: Room 706: A Novel by Ellie Levenson.

About the book, from the publisher:

A married woman is trapped with her lover in a hotel under siege: If she knew it would end this way, would it ever have begun?

Kate’s children and her husband are her whole world. Since marrying young, she’s dedicated her life to making her little family grow. But in the last few years, she’s carved out something just for herself: hours stolen away with another man. After one midday tryst with her lover, Kate’s double life is thrown into chaos when she turns on the TV to find their hotel has been overtaken by an unnamed, dangerous group. As Kate’s life hangs in the balance, she is faced with “a gripping exploration of the murky grey areas of marriage, relationships, and womanhood” (Hazel Hayes).

Visit Ellie Levenson's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Lutheranism and American Culture"

New from LSU Press: Lutheranism and American Culture: The Making of a Distinctive Faith in the Civil War Era by Timothy D. Grundmeier.

About the book, from the publisher:

Timothy D. Grundmeier’s Lutheranism and American Culture examines the transformation of the nation’s third-largest Protestant denomination over the course of the nineteenth century. In the antebellum era, leading voices within the church believed that the best way to become American was by modifying certain historic doctrines deemed too Catholic and cooperating with Anglo-evangelicals in revivalism and social reform. However, by the mid-1870s, most Lutherans had rejected this view. Though they remained proudly American, most embraced a religious identity characterized by a commitment to their church’s confessions, isolation from other Christians, and a conservative outlook on political and social issues.

Grundmeier shows that this transformation did not happen in a vacuum. Throughout the Civil War and early years of Reconstruction, disputes over slavery and politics led to quarrels about theology and church affairs. During the war and immediately after, the Lutheran church in the United States experienced two major schisms, both driven by clashing views on the national conflict. In the postbellum years, Lutherans adopted increasingly conservative positions in theology and politics, mainly in reaction to the perceived “radicalism” of the era. By the final decades of the nineteenth century, Lutherans had established a rigorously conservative and definitively American form of the faith, distinct from their coreligionists in Europe and other Protestants in the United States.

Although Grundmeier focuses on a single religious tradition, his study has implications for several areas of Civil War scholarship. First, it demonstrates how the Lutheran experience diverged from that of other Protestant groups, thereby expanding our understanding of how American Christians responded to the era’s crises, including slavery, sectionalism, and national identity. In addition, his work reinforces and extends many of the findings in other historical fields: the political culture of the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, the views of German and Scandinavian immigrants, and the various forms of conservatism among white northerners. Grundmeier’s most significant contribution, however, is examining a previously unexplored subject. In the vast corpus of works on the Civil War era and American religious history, scholars have almost entirely overlooked the views and experiences of Lutherans. Lutheranism and American Culture seeks to remedy that neglect and serve as the starting point for understanding the formative decades of this distinctive faith.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Way of the Walker"

Coming soon from Angry Robot: Way of the Walker by Salinee Goldenberg.

About the book, from the publisher:

Return to the Thai-inspired world of Suyoram in this vicious follow up to 2024's The Last Phi Hunter, exploring mythology, colonialism, and feminine rage. A perfect read for fans of Iron Widow and The Sword of Kaigen.

With her constant connection to the Everpresent – the mystical plane where hunters draw their powers – Isaree’s a natural Phi Hunter, with a future predetermined by tradition: to stalk the Kingdom of Suyoram’s haunted lands and slay troublesome ghosts.

But the more Ree learns about the Phi Hunter Guild’s legacy, the more she questions their rigid doctrine. And as colonizing forces from Grisland tighten their grip across the region, Ree begins to wonder if the hunter’s path is her true calling.

Elsewhere, the famed Storm Prince Tanung has one desire: death or glory. Grappling with a fading legacy and a mysterious illness, his ambition drives him on a mission to capture a brutal rebel leader known for leaving horrific massacres in their wake. But the further he goes, the further he’s drawn into a war rumbling beyond his reality, and out of anyone’s control.

Their paths were never meant to cross. But unmoored by their legacies, the shadows they cast decide whether they’ll be remembered as heroes – or villains.

Visit Salinee Goldenberg's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Counterpoints of Ecstasy"

New from the State University of New York Press: Counterpoints of Ecstasy: Music, Mysticism, and the Enchantment of Modern America by Lytton N. McDonnell.

About the book, from the publisher:

A cultural history of the relationship between music and trance in America, from the early colonial era to the Jazz Age.

Counterpoints of Ecstasy provides an engaging exploration of the relationship between music and self-transcendent experiences in America from the 1620s to the 1920s. It investigates how diverse Americans-from Puritan settlers to vaudeville entertainers-used music to find meaning in ecstasy, trance, and other mystical experiences that drastically altered their senses of subjectivity. These moments of profound transformation unfolded in settings as diverse as revival tents, concert halls, parlors, and movie theaters. The book introduces four distinct modes of self-transcendent experience-supernatural, natural, internal, and equivocal-demonstrating how various interpretations of ecstasy evolved out of and alongside each other. Blending historical analysis with cultural theory, the book integrates traditional narratives of disenchantment and re-enchantment, offering a richly textured account of music's power to dissolve boundaries and foster connection. A vital contribution to the histories of religion, spirituality, music, and American culture, Counterpoints of Ecstasy invites readers to reconsider the profound, sometimes paradoxical, role that music played in the quest for meaning beyond the self.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Loon Point"

Coming soon from Lake Union: Loon Point: A Novel by Carrie Classon.

About the book, from the publisher:

Set against the rugged beauty of the northern woods, the heartwarming first novel by columnist Carrie Classon explores how chosen family can sweeten bitterness into surprising joy.

Alone in the Northwoods, Norry Last settles in for another springtime lull at the remote resort she inherited from her father. She’s content with the solitude, maybe resigned. But when a blizzard hits, those little cabins by the lake start to fill up fast.

First to arrive is Lizzie, an eight-year-old with resilience and wisdom beyond her years, neglected by a mother struggling with addiction. Next comes Wendell, a cantankerous old fellow whose house collapses in the storm, the same way hope collapsed inside him long before. And then there’s Bud, the helpful handyman who’s always buzzing around, his kindness thawing something Norry thought she’d buried deep in the Minnesota snow.

As white melts to green, the Last Resort’s unlikely companions learn to share space, stories, and quiet comforts―an unexpected family that makes perfect sense. After all, Lizzie needs to be cared for. Wendell needs to care. Norry needs to open up. And Bud? Bud just might fix everything.

Visit Carrie Classon's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Republic of Producers"

New from Yale University Press: A Republic of Producers: Completing Our Jeffersonian Economy with Hamiltonian Finance by Robert C. Hockett.

About the book, from the publisher:

A radically original solution to our most intractable economic problems: wage stagnation, productive atrophy, and wealth inequality

This sweeping and ambitious book locates the source of American economic and social decline in a simple but profound observation: the nation’s forms of citizen ownership have not kept up with its sources of wealth. In the early republic, the Jeffersonian ideal of an agrarian citizenry, whose productive assets lay primarily in land ownership and their own education, more or less matched the productive sources of wealth in the nation as a whole. But as we grew from an agrarian nation to an industrial one, the forms of citizen ownership did not change with the economy: instead, efforts toward land ownership were transferred to ownership in unproductive real estate—that is, homes. It is the effort to draw wealth from limited and relatively unproductive sources that makes the average American citizen fall farther and farther behind in income, and also caused the artificial inflation of real estate that led to the 2008 crash.

Advancing a theory of “income-compositional symmetry,” Robert C. Hockett argues that in order to remedy wage stagnation, productive atrophy, and extreme wealth inequality, industrial, financial, and commercial forms of ownership need to be as universally accessible to citizens as land and education. Hockett presents a unique, financially engineered program for doing so, showing how it coheres with our political and legal traditions as well as what he calls our “endowment psychologies.”

--Marshal Zeringue