"Free Girls"

New from Flatiron Books: Free Girls by Kristen McCallum.

About the book, from the publisher:

A heartfelt coming-of-age debut about a girl starting over while keeping secret that she’s spent the last year in juvenile detention. Perfect for fans of Nicola Yoon and Leah Johnson.

Sixteen-year-old Jasmine Cooper is back after twelve months at Guiding Hearts Home for Troubled Girls, and nothing is the way it was. Her mom has remarried and now there’s a big new house, a shiny new family, and a fancy new school. Jas feels completely out of place, and things only get more complicated when her mom insists that her “fresh start” include hiding the truth of where she’s been and cutting off people from her past.

As Jas settles into her new life bonding with her seemingly perfect stepsister, making a close-knit group of besties, and maybe even falling for the cute girl in class, it starts to feel like her second chance might actually be real.

But when a friend from the detention center reaches out to reconnect, Jas worries that everything she’s built could fall apart. How long can she keep her past a secret? And how many times can she spin the truth before she forgets who she really is?

Visit Kristen McCallum's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Henry Tudor Must Die"

New from Berkley: Henry Tudor Must Die by Jillian Laine.

About the novel, from the publisher:

One queen exiled. Another headed for the gallows. Both hungry for revenge. England’s most infamous queens unite in vengeance against Henry VIII.

Anne Boleyn is going to die, and neither her cleverness nor her witchery can save her. So when her late rival, Catalina de Aragón, miraculously appears in her cell at the Tower of London on the eve of her execution, very much alive and offering a daring escape plan, no one is more surprised than Anne.

Lina doesn’t have Anne’s magic—but she has just as much hate for England’s wretched king. Severed from her daughter and stripped of all her influence, Lina breathes only for the Hellebore Sisterhood, a clandestine and powerful society with a vested interest in keeping both queens alive . . . and using their particular skills to advance womankind.

Anne and Lina’s old rivalries pale in comparison to a common enemy. And they're not alone. Anna von Kleve, Kat Howard, and even Catherine Parr all have their own bones to pick with the king. One by one, they capture their pawns, infiltrating the court and eliminating the men who plotted against them. Always inching closer to their true target...

And they want his head.

Visit Jillian Laine's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Territorializing Democracy"

New from the University of Georgia Press: Territorializing Democracy: Strategies of Popular Participation in Buenos Aires by Sam Halvorsen.

About the book, from the publisher:

Territorializing Democracy argues that the political control of space is key to understanding political participation in the city. Drawing on a decade of research in Buenos Aires, this book shows that participation is not simply a response to innovations in urban governance; it is a strategy rooted in the relational context of territory. Examining key sites of activism over recent years―campaigning for a people’s park, upgrading an informal settlement, the “national-popular” movement of Kirchnerism, and struggles over urban redevelopment―the analysis contributes to pressing democratic debates around autonomy and self-management, populism and clientelism, and democratic innovation and “participatory articulations.” Through the lens of space and geography, this book offers a relational analysis of popular participation, working between multiple neighborhoods and scales, across different struggles, and between the streets and political institutions, activists, and politicians. In doing so, Halvorsen proposes a dual understanding of the territorialization of democracy: a reflection of the changing political conditions shaping cities today and a tool for assessing how democratic practices emerge from specific, grounded struggles over space.

--Marshal Zeringue

"No One Leaves the Manor"

New from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers: No One Leaves the Manor by Kelly McWilliams.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A deliciously twisted, fast-paced YA horror, where debutante dreams become bloody nightmares—perfect for fans of House of Hollow and Their Vicious Games.

It’s 1921, and Mrs. Caroline Reginald Kane, the last surviving descendant of a family of oil barons, has invited four young debutantes to visit her at Greystone Manor. There, they'll compete for the ultimate prize: to become heir to her unspeakably vast fortune.

But only one girl can win.

And the manor is watching.

Dorothea is a thief, and the best liar in the American Northeast. Her mother vanished at Greystone years ago, and she’s determined to find out why—so long as no one uncovers her secrets first.

Vaughn isn’t crazy. She was born for this life—and she won’t let anyone come between her and the fortune she deserves.

Birdie doesn’t know why she’s been invited, but she believes everything happens for a reason…and that reason just might be divine.

Elspeth is called “pretty as a peach, dim as a doorknob.” But she sees things that the others can't: whispering birds, shifting doors, and a language that should never be spoken.

And there’s something else hidden behind these walls. Something sinister.

It doesn’t plan to let them leave alive.

Visit Kelly McWilliams's website.

The Page 69 Test: Agnes at the End of the World.

Q&A with Kelly McWilliams.

The Page 69 Test: Your Plantation Prom Is Not Okay.

--Marshal Zeringue

"American Pogroms"

New from Oxford University Press: American Pogroms: How Forgotten Massacres Shape America by Daniel Byman.

About the book, from the publisher:

Amidst heightened rhetoric and increasing polarization in the United States, American Pogroms chronicles the causes and consequences of two centuries of mob violence in American history, highlighting exactly what's at stake when we allow leaders to legitimate violence and the mob to rule.

For much of American history, members of the majority population of the United States indiscriminately attacked and terrorized minority communities. In some parts of the country, mob violence seemed a near-constant part of the region's history, while in others it was a brief, horrific spasm that perpetrators--but not victims--quickly forgot.

In American Pogroms, terrorism expert Daniel Byman argues that there is a word for this type of communal violence: pogrom. Although pogroms are historically associated with the orchestrated campaigns of anti-Jewish violence in Tsarist Russia, Byman asserts that pogroms have been an all-too-frequent feature of American history. Tracing two centuries of communal violence, Byman recounts cases of attacks against American religious minorities such as Catholics and Mormons, the killing of thousands of ethnic Mexicans in Texas, the murder and wholesale expulsion of Chinese workers from the American West, and the repeated attacks on the Black community that killed thousands and enabled decades of brutal discrimination. In all these cases, pogroms helped cement a system of injustice that left religious, ethnic, and racial minorities politically and economically marginalized. While the idea of mob violence now strikes most Americans as unthinkable, Byman warns that increased polarization and selective news consumption in recent years has coarsened discourse and legitimized violence, raising the risk that at least some violence will return.

A broad-ranging synthesis of how and why majorities have so frequently resorted to community-level violence to restore or cement their power, American Pogroms illustrates the outsized role of violence in U.S. history and how it shapes the country today.

The Page 69 Test: The Five Front War.

The Page 99 Test: A High Price.

Writers Read: Daniel Byman (June 2011).

The Page 99 Test: Spreading Hate.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Fire Must Burn"

New from Severn House: Fire Must Burn (A Sparks and Bainbridge Mystery, 8) by Allison Montclair.

About the novel, from the publisher:

The owners of The Right Sort Marriage Bureau are back, and more determined than ever to bring love matches to the residents of Post-WWII London . . . so something as trivial as being dragged into a spy mission isn’t going to stop them!

Sparks fly when an old friend comes to town...

London, 1947. After recent events have left the normally steadfast Iris Sparks thoroughly shaken, she’s looking forward to some peace. With The Right Sort doing well, she and business partner Gwen Bainbridge are due a holiday. Until Iris’s former boss enlists their help for a secret mission.

Iris, who left British intelligence after the war, is being recruited for her Cambridge connection to one Anthony Danforth. She hasn’t seen Tony in almost ten years, yet she and Gwen must manipulate him into hiring their marriage service.

Tony’s suspected of being a Soviet operative, and an undercover agent posing as his perfect match could discover the truth. Despite her reluctance at being dragged back into the world of espionage, Iris agrees. After all, Tony was once a very good friend. If he’s innocent, she’ll happily prove it. If not? Well, no one ever said being a spy was easy...

Those who enjoy reading Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher Mysteries and Dorothy Sayers will adore this warm and witty historical mystery!

Visit Alan Gordon's website.

The Page 69 Test: An Excellent Thing in a Woman.

Q&A with Allison Montclair.

My Book, The Movie: An Excellent Thing in a Woman.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Enduring Illegality"

New from the University of Calfornia Press: Enduring Illegality: Time and the State of Waiting in Undocumented Middle Life by Angela S. García.

About the book, from the publisher:

Enduring Illegality chronicles the lives of undocumented Mexican immigrants who have spent decades in the United States waiting for a path to legalization that has yet to arrive. Based on longitudinal fieldwork, this book traces how people who migrated as young adults have transitioned into middle age still undocumented, caught in a state of legal and temporal suspension. Focusing on parents who would have qualified for the failed Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) program, Angela S. García argues that illegality is not only a legal condition but a temporal one, produced and reproduced through decades of waiting for reform. Even in the face of such exclusion, migrants sustain lives, labor, and care across borders. Enduring Illegality offers a critical account of how the state uses time as a mechanism of immigration control, structuring lives and inequality in ways that outlast any single policy or presidential administration.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Erebus-13"

New from Orbit: Erebus-13 (Red Space, 3) by David Wellington.

About the book, from the publisher:

The crew of the Artemis has escaped the nightmare of Paradise-1, but at great cost.

Parker is gone. Petrova’s past continues to haunt her. Worst of all, Erebus—a timeless entity of pure darkness—has been released from its prison.

Now it’s headed for Earth.

Petrova must rally her crew for one final mission. Somehow, they must find a way to unite the disparate factions of the solar system—the United Earth Government, the Lunar colonies, and the outer planets—and find a way to stop Erebus.

The fate of humanity—and the galaxy—is in their hands.

Learn more about the book and author at David Wellington's website.

The Page 69 Test: Chimera.

The Page 69 Test: The Hydra Protocol.

The Page 69 Test: Positive.

My Book, The Movie: The Cyclops Initiative.

The Page 69 Test: The Last Astronaut.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Who Is American?"

New from Princeton University Press: Who Is American?: Belonging and the Question of Jewish Citizenship by Lila Corwin Berman.

About the book, from the publisher:

A groundbreaking history of how modern American citizenship has worked—and not worked—for Jews in the United States

The history of Jews in the United States is often told as if they immigrated, gained citizenship, and almost immediately achieved full legal rights. Yet this story fundamentally misses how citizenship rights worked for Jews and countless others who arrived on American shores. In Who Is American? Lila Corwin Berman draws on case law, statutes, and debates to argue that both the laws of American citizenship and Jews’ position in them changed repeatedly across the twentieth century. Courts, policymakers, and the public persistently asked what it meant to be Jewish under the law. Were Jews a race, a nationality, a religion—or some combination of each? The answer carried profound legal consequences. Not only did it determine Jews’ citizenship status, but it also affected the rights they could exercise. Just as significantly, the meaning of the categories under law changed over time, affecting Jews’ self-understanding, their political ideals, and their relationships to other groups of Americans.

Who Is American? tells a history that resonates powerfully with today’s high-stakes battles over citizenship and rights. As Berman concludes, citizenship law has always been better at posing questions about the terms of belonging than at providing any ultimate resolution. The tangled story of Jewish citizenship demonstrates the limits of law and explains why the United States continues to fall into new and, often, unsettling debates about who is American.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Astronaut!"

New from W.W. Norton: Astronaut!: A Novel by Oana Aristide.

About the book, from the publisher:

A darkly funny and politically resonant novel by an acclaimed new novelist.

Romania, 1989, the twilight of Ceau?escu’s dictatorship: Daily news flashes of seemingly random murders grip the nation. The suspect? A man-eating bear.

Amid the fear of informants, official lies, and daily rationing, two bright lives collide. Constantin, an idealistic police detective prone to scribbling fairy tales in his notebook, is tasked with solving the string of mysterious deaths. Lia, a rebellious, inquisitive schoolgirl pining for more color in her life, is unwittingly drawn into an eccentric elderly neighbor’s secret plot against the regime. While everyone around them is flattened into submission, the two find the spirit to carry out small acts of defiance. Their decisions will have sweeping consequences―for themselves, for their families, and for their country.

Masterfully plotted and psychologically astute, Astronaut! is both a chilling detective novel and a moving coming-of-age tale. It carries a powerful message: the lies we accept today become the truths of tomorrow.

--Marshal Zeringue