"On Muscle"

New from Algonquin Books: On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters by Bonnie Tsui.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the bestselling author of Why We Swim comes a mind-expanding exploration of muscle—from our ancient obsession with the ideal human form to the modern science of this amazing and adaptable tissue—that will change the way you think about what moves us through the world.

In On Muscle, Bonnie Tsui brings her signature blend of science, culture, immersive reporting, and personal narrative to examine not just what muscles are but what they mean to us. Cardiac, smooth, skeletal—these three different types of muscle in our bodies make our hearts beat; push food through our intestines, blood through our vessels, babies out the uterus; attach to our bones and allow for motion. Tsui also traces how muscles have defined beauty—and how they have distorted it—through the ages, and how they play an essential role in our physical and mental health.

Tsui introduces us to the first female weightlifter to pick up the famed Scottish Dinnie Stones, then takes us on a 50-mile run through the Nevada desert that follows the path of escape from a Native boarding school—and gives the concept of endurance new meaning. She travels to Oslo, where cutting-edge research reveals how muscles help us bounce back after injury and illness, an important aspect of longevity. She jumps into the action with a historic Double Dutch club in Washington, D.C., to explain anew what Charles Darwin meant by the brain-body connection. Woven throughout are stories of Tsui’s childhood with her Chinese immigrant artist dad—a black belt in karate—who schools her from a young age in a kind of quirky, in-house Muscle Academy.

On Muscle shows us the poetry in the physical, and the surprising ways muscle can reveal what we’re capable of.

Visit Bonnie Tsui's website.

The Page 99 Test: Why We Swim.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Every Sweet Thing Is Bitter"

New from Crooked Lane Books: Every Sweet Thing Is Bitter: A Novel by Samantha Crewson.

About the book, from the publisher:

A woman with a violent past gets a chance at redemption in this upmarket suspense debut, perfect for fans of Lisa Taddeo and Tiffany McDaniel.

Thirteen years ago, Providence Byrd threw the family car in reverse and ran over her mother. Even though her mother survived, that single instant of teenage madness made Providence a felon and irrevocably altered her life. When her mother disappears years later under suspicious circumstances, Providence tells herself that returning home is her chance to find closure after a prolonged estrangement from her family. Never mind that this is only half of the truth: she’s also returning to finally confront her abusive father, Tom Byrd. Nothing can stamp out Providence’s certainty that he is guilty of whatever terrible thing has happened to her mother.

As the search unfolds, Providence is haunted by the wounds of her past, none of which cut as deep as the distance between her and her younger sisters. Harmony and Grace are both uniquely scarred by her attempted matricide, and both have their own idea of what reconciliations might look like – if reconciling is even possible. Harmony urges Providence to make their father pay for his sins; Grace begs her to end the cycle of violence that has haunted their family for generations. As her thirst for vengeance collides with her desire to heal her relationships with her sisters, Providence must decide which she values more: revenge or redemption.

Sharp and poignant, Every Sweet Thing Is Bitter is a stunning novel that eschews picture-perfect endings and dares to tell a story about a resilient queer woman and her relentless determination to persevere.

Visit Samantha Crewson's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Jew Who Would Be King"

New from the University of California Press: The Jew Who Would Be King: A True Story of Shipwreck, Survival, and Scandal in Victorian Africa by Adam Laurence Rovner.

About the book, from the publisher:

This vivid reconstruction of one man’s life reveals the harsh realities and moral ambiguities of colonial power

The Jew Who Would Be King tells the story of Nathaniel Isaacs—a nineteenth-century British Jew who helped establish the Zulu kingdom only to become a ruthless warlord and slaveholder. Isaacs’ thrilling journey begins with his shipwreck on the shores of Zululand and proceeds to ports across West Africa, including Freetown, Sierra Leone. There, tasked by the colonial governor to end the local slave trade, Isaacs brokered deals that reinforced his own power.

Adam Rovner's meticulous archival research in England, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and St. Helena, coupled with his own travels to the remnants of Isaacs’ island stronghold in Guinea, brings this complex figure to life. Through Isaacs’ story, Rovner exposes the entangled forces of Jewish emancipation and antisemitism, slavery and abolition, the stark dichotomies of civilization and “savagery,” and the creation of whiteness versus Blackness.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Summer Light on Nantucket"

New from Ballantine Books: Summer Light on Nantucket: A Novel by Nancy Thayer.

About the book, from the publisher:

A touching novel about parenthood, first love, family bonds, and rekindled relationships from the New York Times bestselling author and beloved Nantucket storyteller Nancy Thayer.

Blythe Benedict is content. Her life didn’t end when her marriage did. In fact, she’s more than happy living in her comfortable house in Boston, working as a middle school teacher, and raising four wonderful children. With three of her kids in the throes of teenagerhood and one not too far behind them, Blythe has plenty of drama to keep her busy every single day.

But no amount of that drama could change the family’s beloved annual summer trip to Nantucket. Blythe has always treasured the months spent at her island home-away-from-home, and has fond memories of her children growing up there. But this summer’s getaway proves to be much more than she bargained for.

Yes, there are sunny days enjoyed at the beach. But Blythe must contend with teenage angst, her ex-mother-in-law’s declining health, and a troubling secret involving her ex-husband. Meanwhile, Blythe reconnects with her first love, her former high school sweetheart Aaden. But their second-time-around romance becomes complicated when another intriguing man enters the picture.

It’s all a bit out of Blythe’s comfort zone. This particular island summer may not be as relaxing as Blythe had hoped, but she’s never felt that life has given her more than she can handle—especially when she has the love and support of her family around her.

Visit Nancy Thayer's website.

The Page 69 Test: Summer House.

The Page 69 Test: Beachcombers.

My Book, The Movie: Beachcombers.

Writers Read: Nancy Thayer.

My Book, The Movie: The Guest Cottage.

The Page 69 Test: The Guest Cottage.

The Page 69 Test: Summer Love.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Worlds Apart"

New from Columbia University Press: Worlds Apart: Genre and the Ethics of Representing Camps, Ghettos, and Besieged Cities by Benjamin Paloff.

About the book, from the publisher:

A number of European authors who survived concentration camps, ghettos, and besieged cities in the middle of the twentieth century chose not to write straightforward memoirs or testimonials but instead to fictionalize their experiences. By manipulating narrative time and point of view and altering biographical facts, these writers produced literary texts that challenge common notions of what constitutes an appropriate representation of collective trauma. How might such works provide a deeper understanding of historical truth than the facts alone? What does the literature of the camps reveal about present-day spaces of confinement?

Worlds Apart explores the ethics of representation by reading the works of writers who use the techniques of literary fiction to depict survival in these precarious spaces. Benjamin Paloff traces the complex relationship between fact and truth in these texts, disentangling writers’ individual experiences from fictional elements that universalize that experience and, in so doing, show the camp to be an institution of the present. Touring the unusual genre conventions of these works, he weighs crucial questions about what constitutes “truth” in historical representation, literature, and the popular imagination. Reading across Czech, French, German, Polish, Russian, and Yiddish, including lesser-known and untranslated works, Paloff considers portrayals of the Shoah, the Gulag, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the blockade of Leningrad. Bold, nuanced, and rich in comparative insight, Worlds Apart argues forcefully for the moral urgency of recognizing that the camp is not simply a historical artifact but a basic institution of contemporary society.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Favorite Daughter"

New from Viking: Favorite Daughter: A Novel By Morgan Dick.

About the book, from the publisher:

A darkly funny debut novel about two estranged sisters who are unknowingly thrown together by their problematic father’s dying wish

Mickey and Arlo are half sisters. But they’ve never spoken and never met. Arlo adored her father—but always lived in the shadow of his magnetic personality and burdensome vices. Meanwhile, their father abandoned ​Mickey and her mother years ago, and Mickey has hated him since. When she receives news of her father’s passing, Mickey is shocked to learn that he’s left her his not-inconsiderable fortune. The catch: Mickey must attend a series of therapy sessions before the money can be released.

Unbeknownst to either woman, the psychologist Mickey’s father has ensured she meets with is her half sister, Arlo. Having cared for her beloved father on his sickbed, Arlo is devastated to discover he’s cut her out of his will. She resolves to learn where the money went and why.

Working together as therapist and patient—with no idea that they’re in fact sisters—Arlo and Mickey soon get under each other’s skin. Arlo, eager to outrun a mistake in her professional past, is keen to redeem herself with her new client. But Mickey is far from the model patient. As Mickey’s personal and professional lives spiral out of control and Arlo uncovers the truth about who her new patient really is, the sisters find themselves on a crash course that will break—or save—them both.

Visit Morgan Dick's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"After Mass Media"

New from NYU Press: After Mass Media: Storytelling for Microaudiences in the Twenty-First Century by Amanda D. Lotz.

About the book, from the publisher:

Explores the cultural role of screen storytelling in society

With significant evolutions in digital technologies and media distribution in the past two decades, the business of storytelling through screens has shifted dramatically. In the past, blockbuster movies and TV shows like Friends aimed first for domestic mass audiences, although the biggest hits circulated globally. Now, transnational distribution plays a primary role and imagined audiences are global. At the same time, the once-mass audience has significantly fragmented to enable an expansion in the range of commercially viable stories, as evident in series as varied as Atlanta, Better Things, and dozens of others that are not widely known, but deeply loved by their microaudiences.

Delving into the changing landscape of commercial screen storytelling, After Mass Media explores how industrial shifts and technological advancements have remade the narrative landscape over the past two decades. Television and movies have long shaped society, whether by telling us about the worlds around us or far away. By examining the internationalization of screen businesses, the rise of streaming services with multi-territory reach, and the stories made for this environment, this book sheds light on the profound transformations in television and film production and circulation. With a keen focus on major changes in the types of screen stories being told, Amanda D. Lotz unravels the industrial roots that made these transformations possible, challenges some conventional distinctions of screen storytelling, and provides new conceptual tools to make sense of the abundance and range of screen stories on offer.

Through its comprehensive analysis, After Mass Media exposes how contemporary industrial dynamics, particularly the erosion of traditional distribution models based on geography and mass audience reach, have far-reaching implications for our understanding of national video cultures.

Visit Amanda D. Lotz's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Blood on the Vine"

New from Crooked Lane Books: Blood on the Vine by J. T. Falco.

About the book, from the publisher:

True Detective meets the rolling hills of Napa in this wine-soaked thriller perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell and Allison Brennan.

Lana Burrell grew up on an idyllic Napa Valley vineyard with her best friend Jess–until Jess mysteriously disappeared and Lana’s father was falsely accused of her murder. Over twenty years later, he’s still serving a life sentence, but Lana knows he’s innocent, just like she knows Jess’s real killer is still out there.

Now, as a seasoned FBI agent in the San Francisco field office, Lana figures she can handle just about anything—until a killer strikes the Valley again and those old wounds come bursting open. Two women are slain in ritualistic fashion near the vineyard she once called home, and Lana has no choice but to revisit the site of the nightmarish past she tried to leave behind, a past that seems to be repeating itself as the blood and wine continue to spill all over Napa Valley.

With rumors of a dangerous cult embedded at the center of wine country, the most powerful family in the Valley breathing down her neck, and a mysterious stranger stalking her every move, Lana’s quest to solve the murders takes an even darker turn when she soon realizes the awful truth: she might be the next to die.

Visit J.T. Falco's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Strange History of Samuel Pepys's Diary"

New from Cambridge University Press: The Strange History of Samuel Pepys's Diary by Kate Loveman.

About the book, from the publisher:

During the 1660s, Samuel Pepys kept a secret diary full of intimate details and political scandal. Had the contents been revealed, they could have destroyed his marriage, ended his career, and seen him arrested. This engaging book explores the creation of the most famous journal in the English language, how it came to be published in 1825, and the many remarkable roles it has played in British culture since then. Kate Loveman - one of the few people who can read Pepys's shorthand - unlocks the riddles of the diary, investigating why he chose to preserve such private matters for later generations. She also casts fresh light on the women and sexual relationships in Pepys's life and on Black Britons living in or near his household. Exploring the many inventive uses to which the diary has been put, Loveman shows how Pepys's history became part of the history of the nation.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Book Club for Troublesome Women"

New from Harper Muse: The Book Club for Troublesome Women: A Novel by Marie Bostwick.

About the book, from the publisher:

Margaret Ryan never really meant to start a book club . . . or a feminist revolution in her buttoned-up suburb.

By 1960s standards, Margaret Ryan is living the American woman's dream. She has a husband, three children, a station wagon, and a home in Concordia--one of Northern Virginia's most exclusive and picturesque suburbs. She has a standing invitation to the neighborhood coffee klatch, and now, thanks to her husband, a new subscription to A Woman's Place--a magazine that tells housewives like Margaret exactly who to be and what to buy. On paper, she has it all. So why doesn't that feel like enough?

Margaret is thrown for a loop when she first meets Charlotte Gustafson, Concordia's newest and most intriguing resident. As an excuse to be in the mysterious Charlotte's orbit, Margaret concocts a book club get-together and invites two other neighborhood women--Bitsy and Viv--to the inaugural meeting. As the women share secrets, cocktails, and their honest reactions to the controversial bestseller The Feminine Mystique, they begin to discover that the American dream they'd been sold isn't all roses and sunshine--and that their secret longing for more is something they share. Nicknaming themselves the Bettys, after Betty Friedan, these four friends have no idea their impromptu club and the books they read together will become the glue that helps them hold fast through tears, triumphs, angst, and arguments--and what will prove to be the most consequential and freeing year of their lives.

The Book Club for Troublesome Women is a humorous, thought provoking, and nostalgic romp through one pivotal and tumultuous American year--as well as an ode to self-discovery, persistence, and the power of sisterhood.

Visit Marie Bostwick's website.

--Marshal Zeringue