"The Forest Becomes Her"

New from St. Martin's Press: The Forest Becomes Her: A Novel by Julie Carrick Dalton.

About the novel, from the publisher:

The perfect choice for your next book club: Julie Carrick Dalton's The Forest Becomes Her is a timely, unforgettable novel about three women from different generations navigating the complexities of family, grief, the impacts of our choices, and our deep connections to the natural world beneath our feet.

In historic, bucolic Concord, Massachusetts, a centuries-old forest has been removed to make way for a new, eco-friendly housing development. The locals are upset by the destruction, but out-of-towners like Hazel Stoddard are flocking to put down roots in their new guilt-free dream homes.

Soon a tragedy leaves Hazel unmoored in her new life, and she begins to feel the pull of the absent forest. Hazel is not alone―her neighbors, real estate agent Stella Flint and teenage environmentalist Polly Bauer, each have their own trauma and relationship to the land. The three women are drawn together to save the last remaining oak tree, or they risk losing themselves to lingering shadows that only they can see.

In The Forest Becomes Her, Julie Carrick Dalton evocatively explores the power of multigenerational female relationships, the ever-evolving female form, humanity’s connection to our changing world, and the unexpected mysteries of nature.

Visit Julie Carrick Dalton's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Mary Wollstonecraft Against Modernity"

New from Stanford University Press: Mary Wollstonecraft Against Modernity by Julie Murray.

About the book, from the publisher:

For many, Mary Wollstonecraft functions as Western feminism's indisputable origin point and anchor. Once scorned as scandalous, later rehabilitated by the Victorians as a figure of hardworking traditional femininity, Wollstonecraft is today incorporated into a story of feminism as the West's cherished export to the rest of the world.

With Wollstonecraft as its guide, this book argues that Western feminism and global modernity are not the natural intellectual and political allies they have long been made out to be, but have in fact been at odds for over two centuries. Julie Murray explores those aspects of Wollstonecraft's work that call us to understand modernity, and the form of white womanhood it celebrates, as a problem with which feminism must contend.

Refracting the history of feminism through the reception of Wollstonecraft's life and thought by contemporaries such as Mary Hays and Elizabeth Hamilton, as well as by twentieth-century thinkers like Hannah Arendt, Betty Friedan, Ruth Benedict, and Margaret Mead, Murray offers a potent critique of how liberal feminism tells celebratory tales of extraordinary women in part to manage its own contradictions. Reclaiming Wollstonecraft from the genre of female biography, this book ultimately finds her an astute critic of Western feminism itself.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Time Of My Heist"

New from Severn House: The Time Of My Heist by S.K. Golden.

About the novel, from the publsher:

A fast-moving action comedy blending crime and romance, with all the thrills of a blockbuster.

Fake dating can be murder!

All Shepherd wants is to live a quiet life as a single dad and owner of a successful pizza restaurant while managing his ever-present anxiety. But against his better judgment, he's somehow found himself agreeing to become the fake boyfriend of Ginny—the employee he's definitely not in love with—in order to appease her terrifying mother.

When her mother gets kidnapped from a murder scene, Shepherd finds himself in way over his head. Now he must navigate Ginny's massively dysfunctional family, several organized crime syndicates, pull off a heist, and solve the crime—or risk being implicated in a murder he might accidentally have committed.

As the stakes get higher, every clue brings him close to Ginny, and to the truth. But the biggest crime of all might just be the way she is stealing his heart...

The Time of My Heist is perfect for fans of Sara Desai, Janet Evanovich, and Sarah Fox.

Visit S.K. Golden's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

'Indignant Liberalism"

New from the University of Texas Press: Indignant Liberalism: Political Protest and Generational Change in El Salvador by Ellen Moodie.

About the book, from the publisher:

Documenting the rise and disillusionment of El Salvador’s postwar activists in the face of populist authoritarian politics.

The conclusion of El Salvador’s long civil war, in 1992, was supposed to bring about equality and political freedom. Leftist insurgents laid down arms, and the government formally embraced liberal ideals. Yet today, El Salvador is ruled by an authoritarian president who was reelected via unconstitutional means. What went wrong?

Anthropologist and journalist Ellen Moodie embedded with indignados―young middle-class protestors, demanding that the government live up to its liberal commitments―to better understand the course of political change since the civil war. Yet the “post-postwar” generation is only the latest demographic disappointed with liberalism in practice. Moodie examines a nineteenth-century “racial liberalism” that saw descendants of colonists “civilizing” Indigenous people while dispossessing them of lands and mobilizing them for labor. Today, the failure to make good on the promises of postwar liberalism has inspired robust support for strongman Nayib Bukele. Moodie argues that El Salvador’s case, though inflected by local concerns, is not unique. Rather, it is another stark demonstration of how liberalism’s imaginary social contract gives rise to populist authoritarianism.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Fighting Edge"

Coming September 8 from Crooked Lane Books: Fighting Edge: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima.

About the book, from the publisher:

Major crimes intersect in this nail-biting installment of the Timber Creek K-9 mysteries by award-winning author Margaret Mizushima.

A routine welfare check becomes a nightmare when Deputy Mattie Walker finds a young mother dead and a hysterical toddler, possibly the only witness to a brutal crime. Before the investigative team can start piecing together what happened, Mattie discovers another criminal act in Timber Creek.

During a traffic stop for speeding, Mattie observes a nervous driver and a teenage passenger frozen with fear. A quick sweep of the car with her K-9 partner, Robo, reveals a dangerous mix of drugs and suspected human trafficking, providing Mattie with grounds to arrest the driver. After she places the teenager in protective custody, the sheriff’s department hands the case over to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

As the team gathers evidence and information, Mattie’s husband, veterinarian Cole Walker, notices suspicious activity during ambulatory calls at dog kennels, indicating yet a third crime lurking in the shadows. What begins as isolated incidents quickly reveals a chilling truth: Organized crime has infiltrated their rural mountain community.

Every clue leads to more questions, and each answer brings them closer to greater danger. Do Mattie and her law enforcement partners have what it takes to shut down this criminal ring before it claims more victims? And could its next victim be someone Mattie loves?

Visit Margaret Mizushima's website and follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

Coffee with a Canine: Margaret Mizushima & Hannah, Bertie, Lily and Tess.

Coffee with a Canine: Margaret Mizushima & Hannah.

My Book, The Movie: Burning Ridge.

The Page 69 Test: Burning Ridge.

The Page 69 Test: Tracking Game.

My Book, The Movie: Hanging Falls.

The Page 69 Test: Hanging Falls.

Q&A with Margaret Mizushima.

The Page 69 Test: Striking Range.

The Page 69 Test: Standing Dead.

The Page 69 Test: Gathering Mist.

Writers Read: Margaret Mizushima (October 2024).

The Page 69 Test: Dying Cry.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Bodies of Evidence"

New from the University of California Press: Bodies of Evidence: A History of Rape Kit Protocols in US Emergency Nursing and Global Humanitarian Medicine by Jaimie Morse.

About the book, from the publisher:

Bodies of Evidence disrupts popular understandings of the rape kit by examining it as a complex assemblage of practices and protocols that stands at the uneasy nexus of law and medicine. Jaimie Morse traces how this assemblage was championed as a rights project in medicine, moving from the margins to the center of health care responses to sexual violence through new clinical standards of care, first in the United States and then in global humanitarian medicine. Drawing on archival research, interviews with experts and activists, and fieldwork at international meetings, the book chronicles a novel process of legal mobilization in medicine and interrogates the existential meanings and stakes of rape kits, their associated practices, and their underlying assumptions and expectations for survivors of sexual violence.

Visit Jaimie Morse's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The 10:12"

Coming October 20 from Harper Perennial: The 10:12: A Novel by Anna Maloney.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A twisty, high-stakes thriller in the breathless, page-turning style of Ruth Ware, Lisa Jewell, and Claire Douglas, in which nothing is as it seems and saving the day is only the beginning.

Claire Fitzroy was on the way home to London when her train from Manchester was hijacked by a group of armed men. In one terrifying moment she faced the starkest of choices: to passively stand back or act and fight back—knowing that with either choice, she could die.

With nothing to lose, the middle-aged art lecturer gathered and led a squad of passengers who, against all odds, overcame the hijackers and saved hundreds of lives. But what at first looks like heroism may play out very differently in the courts of law and public opinion. Especially when you have the blood of two men on your hands.

Opinions are heated and divided. Was she a selfless and quick-thinking hero? Or an attention-seeking vigilante and unrepentant murderer? Until now Claire has remained silent. Now, she’s finally speaking out about what happened that morning on the 10:12.

But is it the whole story?

--Marshal Zeringue

"Undesirable"

New from the University of New Mexico Press: Undesirable: The Vietnam War and a Father's Battle for Justice by Laura Kalpakian.

About the book, from the publisher:

The powerful true story of a parent’s unflagging battle on behalf of a beloved son struggling with PTSD, mental illness, and addiction and a family who bore the burdens of war for decades.

In January 1969, angry after a fight with his father, nineteen-year-old Doug Johnson—in what will be a fateful choice—decides to enlist in the Army. Once in Vietnam as a point man, Doug becomes addicted to speed and heroin, goes AWOL multiple times, and is court martialed and imprisoned. In order to avoid a second court martial, he agrees to accept an “undesirable” discharge that denies him veterans’ benefits and any recognition of his wartime service. In late August 1970, drugged, malnourished, and clutching the sandal of a dead Viet Cong, Doug staggers off a plane into the arms of his father.

But Doug’s return home is only the beginning of this story. The core of Undesirable recounts another war: Doug’s father against the US Army. For three years, he fights to have his son’s “undesirable” discharge changed to “honorable.” Half a century later Laura Kalpakian—devoted daughter and sister—exhumes the evidence her father collected. From this trove of documents she assembles a heartbreaking story of a father’s love for his son and a son’s experience at war. Undesirable: The Vietnam War and a Father’s Battle for Justice demands that we ask what we—and our government—owe to our veterans for the physical, psychological, and emotional sacrifices they and their families make.

Visit Laura Kalpakian's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Axe Marks the Spot"

New from Forever: Axe Marks the Spot (Starlight Haven Lumbersnacks, 2) by Kayla Grosse.

About the novel, from the publisher:

One struggling single mom resorts to hiring an online Dom to know what it feels like for someone to take care of her for once—only to realize he’s the rugged lumbersnack leading her kid’s summer camp.

Lindsey Clark is a single mom doing her best to stay afloat. Between nursing shifts and legal bills, she barely has time to breathe—let alone date. One night, after too much wine and social media scrolling, she stumbles on the anonymous account of @DomInTheWoods. His voice? Commanding. His faceless profile? Hot. And Lindsey? Intrigued enough to email him.

Dane Woods is a professional Dom who keeps his identity private and his boundaries firm. He offers structure, discipline, and control—but nothing physical, nothing emotional. No exceptions … even for his tantalizing new sub, Lindsey, who he can’t stop thinking about.

But when Dane steps in to run a kids’ camp as a favor to a friend, the last person he expects to see is Lindsey. Now that their worlds have collided, the lines between professional and personal start to blur.

Maybe some boundaries are meant to be axed.

Visit Kayla Grosse's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Imaginary Realities"

New from Oxford University Press: Imaginary Realities: The Psychology of Everyday Delusions by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett.

About the book, from the publisher:

Why do people believe the unbelievable? Why do fictional ideas so often inspire real-world action-sometimes joyful, sometimes destructive-while the people inspired by them never recognize that they are fictional? In Imaginary Realities, Jeffrey Jensen Arnett explores the psychological and cultural forces that lead people to embrace beliefs that defy logic yet shape lives, societies, and history. From religious and magical thinking to conspiracy theories and superstitions, Arnett reveals how these "imaginary realities" help us make sense of a chaotic world and why we adhere to them even when they mislead us.

This groundbreaking book examines the psychological roots of irrational beliefs and how they soothe anxiety and foster social cohesion; how they underlie the double-edged sword of moral egoism, which motivates many of our best and worst behavior; the surprising role of imaginary realities in joy, humor, and group celebration; and the looming threats posed by modern myths surrounding AI, ecological collapse, and genetic engineering.

With clarity, insight, and cultural depth, Imaginary Realities challenges readers to rethink what we believe and why.

Visit Jeffrey Jensen Arnett's website.

--Marshal Zeringue