"Ignorance"

New from Columbia University Press: Ignorance: What We Do Not Know, Cannot Know, Must Not Know, and Refuse to Know by George G. Szpiro.

About the book, from the publisher:

Does the lack of evidence mean that aliens don’t exist? Why does an unproven mathematical hypothesis have profound consequences? Are humans capable of grasping the nature of divinity? Is it ethical to give a patient a placebo? Why do people persist in demonstrably false beliefs like flat earth theory? Should someone want to know when they will die?

George G. Szpiro examines these questions and many others, offering an engaging and witty tour of what we can learn from ignorance. In a series of fast-paced chapters, he unravels problems ranging across science, mathematics, law, economics, politics, religion, psychology, and philosophy—some esoteric, others drawn from everyday life. Ignorance comes in many forms, Szpiro shows. Some questions are only temporarily unsolved; others are inherently unanswerable. Sometimes authorities keep answers from us, for good or ill. Often our assumptions and biases keep us from overcoming our ignorance, and occasionally we choose to remain ignorant—for surprisingly rational reasons.

Ultimately, Szpiro argues, ignorance is not purely negative. It can motivate the pursuit of learning and wisdom—as long as we acknowledge it. Presenting sophisticated topics in an accessible way, this book shows how ignorance sheds light on the nature of knowledge.

Visit George G. Szpiro's website.

The Page 99 Test: Perplexing Paradoxes.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Great Houses of Pill Hill"

New from Soho Crime: The Great Houses of Pill Hill by Diane Josefowicz.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A scintillating, wickedly intricate locked-room mystery following an unconventional woman who makes miniatures of murder scenes and finds herself entangled in a real one when the client of her dream job turns up dead.

Hannah “Cookie” Cooke, an interior decorator with a sideline making miniature reproductions of crime scenes for the local police department, lands her dream job when New Preston’s wealthiest couple hires her to renovate their historic New England home. But things go spectacularly wrong when her client Chuck—with whom she is having an affair—is murdered at the housewarming party.

The detective on the case commissions one of Cookie’s miniatures to help solve the baffling murder. While grappling with her own complicated role in Chuck’s life—and the thorny layers of her own envies, resentments, and ambitions—Cookie delves into the strange details of his death, including his overly involved therapist, his wife’s nebulous textile empire, and a room decorated in nineteenth-century Egyptian kitsch hidden on the premises. In untangling the mystery, Cookie reveals an ugly truth about New Preston’s elite that might prove deadly.

At once an irreverent interpretation of the hard-boiled genre and a skewering of traditional domesticity, this show-stopping work of crime fiction is crackling with narrative voice, resulting in a read that is equally engrossing and electrifying.

Visit Diane Josefowicz's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Markets of Pain"

New from Oxford University Press: Markets of Pain: Opium, Capitalism, and the Global History of Painkillers by Benjamin Robert Siegel.

About the book, from the publisher:

Markets of Pain offers a sweeping history of the business of licit opium--following cultivators, merchants, scientists, and policymakers--and shows how this potent crop reshaped global trade, medicine, and geopolitics.

For centuries, opium has been a source of both profit and peril, its legacy entangled with addiction, imperialism, and the complex interplay of global trade and national development. While the illicit opium trade is infamous, the history of licit opium--how it was farmed, refined, and used to build modern medicine and shape state power--has remained largely untold.

Drawing on archival sources from Asia, Europe, and the United States, Markets of Pain traces the global arc of licit opium from poppy fields and processing plants in India, Turkey, and Australia to the clinics and laboratories of modern medicine. It shows how both the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic treated the opium poppy as a national resource and a means of securing global stature. In postcolonial India, by contrast, nationalist leaders initially rejected opium's imperial legacy before embracing its strategic value amid the shifting currents of the Cold War. At the heart of this story are the cultivators, scientists, bureaucrats, and policymakers who shaped the licit opium trade and grappled with its far-reaching consequences. Their work and visions demonstrate how colonial empires and postcolonial states helped forge the global pharmaceutical industry as it struggled to govern a drug it could not abandon.

Markets of Pain reveals how a seemingly marginal crop became an unlikely engine of modernization, a tool of Cold War geopolitics, and a harbinger of today's global opioid crisis. Blending vivid scenes from opium's fields and factories with incisive analysis of scientific and diplomatic archives, Benjamin Robert Siegel recovers a buried history with urgent relevance for global supply chains, international power, and public health.

Visit Benjamin R. Siegel's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Language of Liars"

New from Tordotcom: The Language of Liars by S. L. Huang.

About the book, from the publisher:

Speak another people's language. Know them. Become them.
And discover you've destroyed them.

In his training as a spy, Ro was warned: you will always be living a lie.

Jumping into a Star Eater's mind in the first place requires a moment of perfect psychic connection, and he has studied all his life to comprehend their species. Admires them, respects them, is reverent at the idea of being one of them―the only species physiologically capable of mining the element needed for lightyear-spanning space travel. The species all others crave to know more of, but who have notoriously shared so very little. The species Ro's own small civilization, with its dwindling resources and withering reach, needs to know more about.

It will feel real, his elders impressed upon him. It will never be real.

But Ro's certainty runs deep: he will be different. Ro will not be an imposter hiding the truth of his past, because his heart will be one of them. He will be one of them.

To understand is to become. It never occurs to him that the mere act of understanding can destroy.

Visit S. L. Huang's website.

The Page 69 Test: Zero Sum Game.

The Page 69 Test: Null Set.

Writers Read: S. L. Huang (September 2019).

The Page 69 Test: Critical Point.

--Marshal Zeringue

"On the Future of Species"

New from The MIT Press: On the Future of Species: Authoring Life by Means of Artificial Biological Intelligence by Adrian Woolfson.

About the book, from the publisher:

A bold and visionary account of how genome writing can help preserve the planet—but may also undermine human nature and disrupt ecosystems.

From a scientist at the forefront of synthetic genomics.

Imagine a future where we grow houses rather than build them. Where smartphones are alive, clothing has opinions and all human knowledge fits into a speck of DNA. A world where disease is a thing of the past and the human lifespan is dramatically extended.

To achieve this, says Adrian Woolfson, founder of the genome writing company Genyro, we must transform biology into a predictive, programmable engineering material. That means decoding the generative grammar of DNA: the language of life itself. We will then be able to author genomes—and, if we choose, even rewrite our own.

In On the Future of Species, Woolfson describes how we are at the cusp of a technological revolution, driven by the convergence of artificial intelligence and synthetic biology. Currently at the scribbling phase—writing the genomes of viruses, bacteria and yeast—we will eventually author the genomes of extinct and never-before-realized species. Life will become computable, detached from its past and no longer bound by Darwinian evolution.

While offering extraordinary opportunities, this power also carries great risk, and it is vital for everyone to understand what the future might hold. In this groundbreaking work, Woolfson provides a guide to this bold new world, offering a moral compass to help us do so safely, wisely and ethically.

Visit Adrian Woolfson's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Killing Spell"

New from S&S/Saga Press: The Killing Spell by Shay Kauwe.

About the novel, from the publisher:

In this spellbinding fantasy debut set in a future where language magic reigns, a young Hawaiian woman must solve a murder to clear her name.

Kea Petrova is dealing with more than her fair share of trouble.

At just twenty-five years old, she’s the youngest of five Hawaiian clan leaders living on the Homestead in outer Los Angeles. Nearly 200 years ago, when a catastrophic flood submerged the Hawaiian islands and unleashed magic into the world, these clans forged a treaty with the city, establishing a new Hawaiian homeland. But that treaty is about to expire.

Kea struggles to keep her small clan afloat, scraping together rent each month through odd jobs and selling her own crafted Hawaiian language spells. While her talent for language magic is her saving grace, she feels like a shadow of those who came before her. Just when she thinks things can’t get any more complicated, the murder of Angelo Reyes—LA’s most prominent Filipino activist—turns her world upside-down.

Angelo was killed by a death spell—something that, due to the properties of each school of language magic, can only exist in Hawaiian. With independent spellsmithing being technically illegal, Kea quickly becomes the prime suspect, known for her spellwork on the Homestead. To clear her name, she must unravel the mystery behind Angelo’s murder and confront LA’s most powerful (and dangerous) players, each wielding their own type of magic. The clock is ticking—can Kea save herself, her clan, and the Homestead before it’s too late?

Visit Shay Kauwe's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Detroit Model"

New from The University of North Carolina Press: The Detroit Model: Manufacturing American Men and Women in the Industrial City by Nicole Greer Golda.

About the book, from the publisher:

As Detroit reached dizzying new heights of industrial success and urban growth at the turn of the twentieth century, hundreds of thousands of migrants flocked to the Motor City. In response, organizations such as the YMCA and Ford Motor Company launched wide-reaching Americanization programs to instill patriotism, conservative gender roles, traditional family values, and industry-favorable labor relations in the city’s immigrant communities. As the “Ford Man” became a model for masculinity and the housewife for femininity, supporters of these programs believed Detroit could become a model for the nation. In this impressively researched book, Nicole Greer Golda reveals how the Detroit Model became embedded in American culture as the ideal of proper American citizenship.

Delving into Immigration Bureau files, migrant letters, and unexplored Ford Motor Company records, Greer Golda examines debates over family order, sexual relationships, race and labor relations, immigration policy, and the status of women. She illustrates how businessmen, government officials, white women, native-born workers, immigrants, and Black Detroiters challenged each other for the power to define the contours of the new American city. Ultimately, the Americanization programs prevailed, and their conservative values enabled the Cold War consensus to gain popularity. As The Detroit Model contends, the backlash to shifting demographics in Detroit shaped American life for decades to come.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Final System"

New from 47North: The Final System by Anthony Tardiff.

About the book, from the publisher:

A vigilante hacker and a young politician must risk everything to destroy a chilling new advancement in artificial intelligence in this action-packed science fiction thriller about the blurry boundary between human and machine.

Decades ago, the Cybercrash destroyed the internet, and almost destroyed the nation. From the ashes rose OverNet, a new realm of cybersecurity created by tech genius Dr. Andrew Norman.

But gamer Jason Cromartie witnesses a brutal side to Norman’s system when his twin sister becomes a casualty of its algorithmic choices. Now Jason will do anything to bring down the man he holds responsible, even become a “phreaker” working for a dangerous hacker ring via Sprite, his secretive handler.

For Chloe Dunne-Carr, an ambitious politician who has reaped only the benefits of OverNet despite being one of Norman’s staunchest opponents, the algorithm’s growing control means raising her daughter in a world that’s losing touch with its humanity.

When Norman unveils the Final System, a revolutionary Artificial General Intelligence set to impose a new world order, Jason and Chloe find themselves pawns in Norman’s twisted game of man versus technology. Now, may the best player win.

Visit Anthony Tardiff's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Arab Bureau"

New from Oxford University Press: The Arab Bureau: The Story of Britain's Most Ingenious Intelligence Unit by Eamonn Gearon.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the midst of the First World War, an extraordinary intelligence unit operated from Cairo's Savoy Hotel, combining the skills of archaeologists, academics and soldiers to revolutionize how Britain gathered information and shaped events in the Middle East. Overshadowed by Lawrence of Arabia, the Arab Bureau's true significance has remained hidden in plain sight ever since.

This fascinating study uncovers the Bureau's remarkable story through newly discovered Arabic documents and previously overlooked archives. At its heart lies an astonishing find: Thawrat al-Arab, an ambitious Arabic-language book and the longest piece of British propaganda produced during the war. From the Arab Bulletin's secret intelligence reports to sophisticated propaganda campaigns, the Bureau was decades ahead of its time. The team--including archaeologists fresh from desert digs and scholars fluent in local dialects--developed new methods of cultural intelligence that would influence future generations.

Eamonn Gearon's compelling narrative reveals how this unique organization navigated the complexities of Arab politics, tribal rivalries and Ottoman intelligence, while developing techniques that resonate with today's challenges in intelligence-gathering. Essential reading for anyone interested in intelligence history, the Middle East or how innovation occurs in wartime, this book transforms our understanding of a crucial moment in world history.

Visit Eamonn Gearon's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Fair Chase"

New from Grand Central Publishing: Fair Chase by Travis Mulhauser.

About the book, from the publisher:

From Travis Mulhauser, “who always honors his characters with firebrand intelligence, knife-sharp wit, and reckless heart,” (Nickolas Butler) comes the gripping story of a desperately hopeful foster child who’s searching for his family—even though they’re dangerous, complicated, and never see him coming.

There hasn't been a gray wolf in Michigan's lower peninsula in over 100 years, but when one migrates onto the Sawbrook family's vast acreage, the small community of Cutler finds itself in the throes of a panic. A trail of mutilated chickens and barn cats have peppered the area's remote outskirts, and concerns about safety are accompanied by the economic and political cost of an endangered species' uninvited return to northern Michigan. The Sawbrook siblings—Lucy, Buckner, and Jewell—find themselves at odds with locals, property owners, and the state's department of resources.

When fourteen-year-old runaway, Delos Harris, arrives on the family property claiming to be the siblings’ second cousin, and to have knowledge of the wolf’s exact location, the Sawbrooks are skeptical, but desperate, and can’t deny something about the boy seems oddly familiar. With time running out, they forge ahead together against gathering threats.

The state wants the wolf moved, the locals and the developers want it dead, and the Sawbrooks see its return as a decisive victory in their battle to preserve the natural world in northern Michigan. But when a poacher is hired to settle the matter permanently, the Sawbrooks must fight to protect each other, their land, and the brave child whose mysterious connection to the wolf will either save them all, or deliver the Sawbrooks to their final ruin.

Visit Travis Mulhauser's website.

Q&A with Travis Mulhauser.

--Marshal Zeringue