"Liberty Island"

New from St. Martin's Press: Liberty Island: A Novel by Virginia Hume.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the bestselling author of Haven Point comes a sweeping historical novel about the generations of a family that spends summers in a seaside enclave on the rocky Maine coastline, for fans of Elin Hilderbrand, Beatriz Williams, and Sarah Blake.

1900: 28-year-old Anna Bradley spends summer days supervising three little girls, including her niece, Julia Demarest, on an island off the coast of Haven Point, Maine. There, the girls run free, pretending to be all the things society says they cannot: pirates and rum runners, treasure hunters and Roughriders.

A college graduate determined to remain unmarried, Anna is eager to establish herself independently. Inspired by the summer antics of Julia and her friends, Anna writes "Liberty Island"—a depiction of girls unshackled from the domestic sphere—under a pen name. Young readers are rhapsodic, and it is a runaway bestseller, but it’s not well received by the society matrons in her sister’s circle, who believe that books for girls should prepare them for their future as wives and mothers.

With "Liberty Island" growing in popularity, Anna’s secret is in peril, and when she’s suddenly thrown together with the former object of her affections, she must rethink everything she thought she knew about independence, marriage, and her dreams for her future.

1922: 29-year-old Julia Demarest was once proud of her aunt’s "Liberty Island" books. But as new, bohemian ideas take hold amongst her peers, she has come to see them as quaint, at best. In hindsight, her childhood summers on the island seem like more of an exile than a liberation, and her Boston Brahmin family—particularly her mother, Elizabeth Demarest—like relics of an unlamented past.

But in an effort to break free of expectations, she has ended up alienated from her family and heartbroken when a romantic entanglement with a free-spirited intellectual ends badly. When Elizabeth urgently calls her back to Haven Point, Julia is confronted by all the things she's been trying to escape, and forced to reconsider what truly brings her happiness.

A sweeping saga set in the first tumultuous decades of the twentieth century, Liberty Island is an ode to mothers and daughters, love, friendship, and the ways in which women define freedom on their own terms.

Visit Virginia Hume's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Won't Back Down"

New from W.W. Norton: Won't Back Down: Heartland Rock and the Fight for America by Erin Osmon.

About the book, from the publisher:

One of America’s leading music journalists on heartland rock’s glory days and its role in the populist politics of the 1980s.

Hear “American Girl” or “Born in the U.S.A.” and, like it or not, chances are you begin to hum along. The soundtrack of grocery stores, pool halls, bowling alleys, flea markets, chain restaurants, drug stores, and political rallies―heartland rock, while beloved by some and derided by others, is inescapable even today. As rollicking as the music it describes, acclaimed music critic Erin Osmon’s Won’t Back Down tells the story of the origins, chart-topping development, and tangled legacy of heartland rock, the music that ruled the airwaves of the 1980s and remains instantly recognizable to millions.

Spinning an entertaining and eye-opening account, Osmon delves into the complicated afterlife of heartland rock’s classic albums and songs, including Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run,” Bob Seger’s “Against the Wind,” John Mellencamp’s “Small Town,” and Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” She demonstrates the centrality of often-overlooked women like Melissa Etheridge, Bonnie Raitt, and Lucinda Williams―explaining how some of the most popular music of the time was made beyond its white-male stereotypes. She traces the genre’s connections to country and Americana, and reveals how legendary figures like Prince were inspired by and expanded heartland rock. And she shows how its success revitalized the careers of figures like Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Through it all, she explores the ’80s cultural developments that fostered the genre―such as the rise of MTV and the switch to CDs―and argues that the music played a vital role in opposition to ’80s conservatism and in support of LGBTQ rights, labor issues, and the environmental movement.

A fair-minded critic with an ear for a great behind-the-scenes story, Osmon makes clear that at its best, heartland rock connected with millions of overlooked people longing to be heard.

Visit Erin Osmon's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Seek Immediate Shelter"

New from Flatiron Books: Seek Immediate Shelter: A Novel by Vincent Yu.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A BREATHTAKING DEBUT novel about survival, hope, and second chances in an Asian American community in Massachusetts, when a false missile throws the residents' lives into chaos.

On an otherwise unremarkable morning, the residents of a small town in Massachusetts all receive the same alert: BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

Confronted with the options of fight or flight, planning or panicking, the people of Beckitt are stripped to their basest instincts and revealed as their truest selves. Russ squeezes his family into the bathtub, leaving his own survival in question; Nina sends an unforgivable text to her daughter; Milly confesses her unrequited love; and David hits the gas, speeding away from his wife and child.

Then the second message comes in: FALSE ALARM. PLEASE DISREGARD. ALL CLEAR. First comes relief, then comes the reckoning, as each person is forced to face the unforeseen aftermath of decisions they thought might be their last.

Vincent Yu’s searing debut follows this eclectic cast of characters over a period of many years, suggesting that the conflicts the missile exacerbated were simmering under the surface long before, and proving the ripple effects of the false alarm will be felt for years to come.

An urgent, fiercely heartfelt exploration of relationships in all forms, Seek Immediate Shelter explores the balance between love and loyalty, betrayal and forgiveness. What choices would you make if you thought your life were on the line? And if you survive, can you ever redeem yourself?

Visit Vincent Yu's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Narco-Democratization"

New from the University of Pittsburgh Press: Narco-Democratization: Organized Crime and Political Transition in Bolivia by Allan Gillies.

About the book, from the publisher:

The development of the global illicit drug trade has posed significant challenges to democracy throughout Latin America. Scenes of violence and disorder linked to organized crime and the “war on drugs” are imprinted in the popular consciousness. The case of Bolivia, though, shows that the dominant narrative wasn’t the only one. Following decades of authoritarian government, Bolivia democratized in 1982. Its cocaine economy grew rapidly, and the United States made Bolivia a focus of its war on drugs. Such factors are often associated with increased violence in Latin America, yet Bolivia largely avoided a similar fate. State-narco networks―relations of patronage between state actors and Bolivia’s organized crime groups―played an important role in suppressing violent competition in the cocaine trade. These networks were established during the country’s authoritarian period and reflected the historic clientelistic functions of the Bolivian state. As Bolivia democratized, state-narco networks evolved and became bound to a fragile post-transition settlement between the main political actors. Allan Gillies reveals how these networks shaped Bolivia’s political transition while controlling violence, but also limited the function of democracy by reinforcing authoritarian and corrupt practices.

--Marshal Zeringue

"An Inheritance of Lies"

New from Lake Union: An Inheritance of Lies by Rebecca A. Carter.

About the novel, from the publisher:

In this sweeping historical fiction tinged with mystery and romance, a young woman must navigate societal expectations, family secrets, and her own awakening independence in the shadow of World War I and the RMS Lusitania’s doomed voyage.

In the wake of World War I, New York heiress Alexandra Benson finds her life irrevocably changed after the tragic and mysterious death of her parents. Now, in a cruel twist of fate, her father’s testament delivers the agonizing blow, granting her uncle control over her inheritance―unless she marries.

To safeguard her future, Alexandra hatches a plan with the aid of a dashing stranger to fake an engagement and claim what’s rightfully hers. Caught amid wartime tensions and her uncle’s devious plots, Alexandra and her fiancé are forced to embark on the fateful voyage to England aboard the RMS Lusitania. Where nothing is as it seems.

When wartime secrets beckon questions of espionage and betrayal, Alexandra must navigate societal expectations and her own awakening independence as she finds her heart torn by her fake engagement scheme and devastating family secrets in this sweeping tale of one woman’s quest for truth and autonomy at the brink of tragedy.

Visit Rebecca A. Carter's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Egypt's Mediterranean"

New from the University of California Press: Egypt's Mediterranean: Muslim Merchants and the Business of Empire in the Eighteenth Century by Zoe Ann Griffith.

About the book, from the publisher:

Egypt's Mediterranean explores the intersections of commerce and statecraft in the eighteenth-century Ottoman Empire through the lives of overlooked intermediaries who lived and worked on Egypt's Mediterranean coast. Egypt's port cities mediated the geographic distance and economic scales between the province's agricultural landscape, its Red Sea connections, its hegemonic capital city, and its position within the wider Ottoman realm, while Ottoman Muslim merchants acted as linchpins of imperial governance in Egypt, mediating the state's access to Egyptian wealth. Drawing on Arabic, Ottoman, and French sources, Egypt's Mediterranean foregrounds the role of Muslims and Islamic law in Mediterranean history, decentering European capital and actors in an interconnected story of imperial realignment and changing fortunes on the eve of modernity.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Lovers, the Liars, and Me"

Coming June 23 from Atheneum Books for Young Readers: The Lovers, the Liars, and Me by DeAndra Davis.

About the book, from the publisher:

A teen travels to Jamaica hoping to answer questions about her absent mother, only to discover more about her identity than she could have ever expected—and find herself caught up in an unexpected love triangle—in this dazzling young adult coming-of-age novel by award-winning author DeAndra Davis.

Jaliya Powell has never had a real adventure, a real boyfriend, or spoken up for herself. She’s never even been kissed. Despite being valedictorian of her high school class, Jaliya is used to fading into the background.

But this summer will be different.

This summer, Jaliya is visiting her uncle and his family in Jamaica. Under the guise of one last vacation before college, she plans to find out more about her estranged mother, whose absence has remained an unspoken mystery. But things have changed in the seven years since Jaliya last visited. Her cousin has his own life and is reluctant to let Jaliya in, her childhood crush has only gotten hotter and more unavailable, and her aunt and uncle aren’t everything she remembered, either. Then she meets India, who’s vibrant, gorgeous, and free-spirited. And who makes Jaliya feel something she’s never felt before.

While searching for traces of her mother across the island, Jaliya finds herself entangled in complicated relationships, tricky secrets, and a passionate new love. As she navigates this perfectly complicated summer, Jaliya must choose between who she has always been or who she hopes to become.

Visit DeAndra Davis's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Ties That Bound"

New from Princeton University Press: Ties That Bound: Slavery and Power in Africa by J. C. Sharman.

About the book, from the publisher:

How slavery and the slave trade provided African rulers with a path to political power

Across history, slavery has been central to political power. By the nineteenth century, African rulers dominated the slave trade with the European and Islamic worlds. In Ties That Bound, J. C. Sharman shows how these rulers were empowered by slavery, converting profits from the market for humans into political might. As demand for African captives grew, a new breed of African bandit slave traders–turned–kings leveraged the increasing returns to seize and hold power, paying off followers and buying weapons. Eventually, there were more enslaved Africans within Africa than in the Americas; African kingdoms were secured and administered by slave soldiers and slave officials. Engaging in the slave trade became vital for political survival; success for a few powerful leaders meant misery for millions across the continent.

Arguing that slavery is fundamentally political and relational, Sharman examines the effects of Africa’s slavery-centered connections and linkages with the wider world. This route to power by enslaving others required engagement with other countries, sometimes in war, sometimes in trade and sometimes in both. More than any other region, Africa’s experiences show how slavery as a foundation of power depended on ties between insiders and outsiders. Sharman describes how African rulers became locked into increasingly destructive competition with each other. As much of the continent was ravaged by warlords, the very factors that strengthened rulers individually weakened them collectively, and the resulting destruction paved the way for European conquest in the late nineteenth century’s “Scramble for Africa.”

--Marshal Zeringue

"Homebound"

New from Scribner: Homebound: A Novel by Portia Elan.

About the book, from the publisher:

Five interlocking lives. One beloved story. A dazzling adventure across centuries and continents in search of the things that hold us together.

It’s 1983 and Becks can’t wait to get the hell out of Cincinnati. She’s nineteen, blasting her Walkman, and hiding from the fact that her beloved uncle, the only person who understood her, is dead. But she has work to do: he left her a half—finished game to complete—one last collaboration to find her way out of loneliness.

Little does she know, what Becks is making will echo far into the future and shape the lives of a scientist, a sentient automaton, and a flinty sea captain in ways she cannot imagine. All are bound together by their search for connection—and by a futuristic traveler on a mysterious mission through space.

A novel about our deep interconnectedness, Homebound is a clear—eyed, hopeful adventure into humanity’s future and capacity for love.

Visit Portia Elan's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Boom to Bust"

New from the University of California Press: Boom to Bust: How Streaming Broke Hollywood Workers by Miranda Banks and Kate Fortmueller.

About the book, from the publisher:

A timely investigation into the rise of Peak TV and the perfect storm that caused a rapid decline in Hollywood work

When Hollywood writers and actors went on strike in 2023, they drew attention to the rapidly changing nature of film and television production. In Boom to Bust, media industry experts Miranda Banks and Kate Fortmueller combine economic and cultural analysis and interviews with industry workers to capture the lived experience of Hollywood in crisis. Tracking major disruptions of the preceding decade―including the transformation of streaming services into studios, the overproduction of series during Peak TV, as well as #MeToo and COVID―the authors explain how the conflicting interests of studio executives, creative workers, and workers' unions compelled a renegotiation of the terms of work. Grounding readers in the history of Hollywood labor negotiations, the authors provide a road map to make sense of Hollywood’s present―and what comes next.

The Page 99 Test: Kate Fortmueller's Hollywood Shutdown.

--Marshal Zeringue