"Love Felt Like This"

New from Berkley: Love Felt Like This by Julie Olivia.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A grumpy rock star and a joyful children’s show creator revive television magic in this standalone, cozy small-town romance.

Griffin Harvey lives his life in the spotlight. Reluctantly. The brooding famous singer-songwriter is on the cusp of composing his sophomore album ... if only he could find the notes. But after gaining custody of his two-year-old daughter, the only music he’s writing is about shapes and counting to ten.

Enter Beverly, who lives her life in the background producing children’s television and laughter. Except joy is hard to find when her nonprofit loses funding. She sinks all of her savings to revive the children’s show by herself, but when her variety show appearance collides with Griffin’s, their banter and chemistry is caught on live television.

Suddenly, Griffin is singing a new tune. He needs a muse, and Beverly needs all the help she can get. With his secret daughter in tow, they hide out in her cozy mountain hometown, attempting to script, compose, and revive television magic. Their dynamic shouldn’t work. He’s all harsh tattoos and rough hands while she’s bright colors and gentle touches. Once their three months of work are done, they’ll return to their separate worlds. But what happens when it seems the true magic might be found in each other?

Visit Julie Olivia's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Doubting Thomas"

New from University of Notre Dame Press: Doubting Thomas: Early Franciscan Disputes with Aquinas by Brendan W. Case.

About the book, from the publisher:

Doubting Thomas presents a deep analysis of four key debates between Aquinas and his contemporaries, offering a fresh perspective on behalf of the saint’s major critics.

While Thomas Aquinas remains by far the most influential philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages, many of his contemporaries considered him a dangerous innovator whose enthusiasm for the newly rediscovered Aristotle at points led him astray. Some theologians of the Franciscan Order, especially, were vocal critics of his thought.

In Doubting Thomas, Brendan W. Case examines four interrelated critiques of Aquinas leveled by Franciscan theologians Bonaventure of Bagnoregio and his student Peter John Olivi over the nature of human knowledge, the proper way to understand how unity and trinity relate in God, the nature of time, and the nature of matter and its relation to spiritual beings. By arguing that the Franciscans had the better of Aquinas in each of these debates, Case offers a much-needed corrective to the one-sided focus on Aquinas’s thought in recent theology and philosophy.

--Marshal Zeringue

"It Looks Like You in the Dark"

Coming October 13 from Tor Nightfire: It Looks Like You in the Dark by Mathilda Zeller.

About the book, from the publisher:

It Looks Like You in the Dark is a propulsive Indigenous horror debut, expertly blending Alaskan Native folklore and supernatural thrills, from Mathilda Zeller, author of the acclaimed short story "Kushtuka" featured in the bestselling horror anthology, Never Whistle at Night.

The only people who know are the people who have gone. Those people no longer have throats to tell us.

Tapeesa is newly out of high school and working in a fish processing plant in the Inupiat village, Chukchi, where she’s lived her whole life. Maybe that’s why people tend to assume she isn’t that bright―or maybe her mama is right and she does have bad blood. Either way, she knows the legend, and she knows the history. Her Ahna told her that the hungry creature―the kushtuka―appears to us in the form of someone we love. It will try to get us to follow it. Follow it where? Those who have gone no longer have throats to tell us.

The Kobuk River Valley of remote Alaska draws greedy white men time and time again. But whenever they come, death comes too. This time the white men are here for the long term, to create an open pit, a rare earths mine just north of the village. When her sister Esther goes missing, Tapeesa will do anything to get her back. Seeking justice, Tapeesa must track down the kidnapper in the darkening Arctic. What awaits beyond the warmth of her village is more horrible than she could imagine and closer to her than she knows.

It Looks Like You in the Dark is a fast-paced, grab-you-by-the-throat story about love, loyalty, and all the fearsome monsters that emerge when we turn our backs on the land and each other.

Visit Mathilda Zeller's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Logic of Corruption"

New from Cambridge University Press: The Logic of Corruption: Why it Persists and Why Reforms Fail by Chandra Shekhar.

About the book, from the publisher:

Corruption continues despite abundant government legislation, public protests, and an overwhelming consensus that it threatens modern liberal institutions, hard-earned global prosperity, human rights, and justice. While we understand corruption better than the ancients, the puzzle of why it remains a timeless societal vice remains unsolved. This book addresses that puzzle by challenging assumptions about individual behavior and bureaucratic design. It analyzes corruption in three of India's major state bureaucracies. The book argues that corruption is organized into grand and petty forms, rather than being uniform. Several markets for grand and petty corruption exist within bureaucracies, linked to and driven by the market for grand corruption in bureaucratic transfers controlled by politicians. The nature, strength, and stability of these linkages explain the persistence of corruption and why top-down approaches fail. The book offers an original account of corruption's 'sticky' nature and proposes an agenda for reform.

--Marshal Zeringue

"In This Life or Another"

New from Lake Union: In This Life or Another: A Novel by Melissa Payne.

About the novel, from the publisher:

On the brink of death, a man comes to terms with the life he lived versus the one he never pursued in an emotionally rich novel of parallel lives, redemption, and finding purpose.

On the eve of his sixtieth birthday, mechanic Rusty Wilson takes a bullet to save the patrons of a small-town Colorado diner―and awakens to a strange realm between life and death.

However, he finds that this limbo is not the end. There are still choices to be made and a lifetime to review. Paths open for a man who believes the life he did live was one of disappointments, grief, and devastating family estrangements. Given a chance to experience an alternate reality, Rusty is visited by figures from his past and present, sees what could have been if he had pursued a woman he loved from afar, and confronts a family secret that shaped everything. Now it’s Rusty’s choice: accept the imperfect existence he knew, or the what-if that could still be his.

At the heart of this poignant exploration of mortality, memory, and second chances is the profoundly simple question: What makes a life truly meaningful?

Visit Melissa Payne's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Melissa Payne & Max.

My Book, The Movie: The Secrets of Lost Stones.

The Page 69 Test: The Secrets of Lost Stones.

Q&A with Melissa Payne.

The Page 69 Test: The Night of Many Endings.

My Book, The Movie: The Night of Many Endings.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Shadow Over the World"

Coming soon from Simon & Schuster: A Shadow Over the World: Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Rise of Fascism, and the Making of America's World War II by William I. Hitchcock.

About the book, from the publisher:

From New York Times bestselling author William I. Hitchcock, a riveting, revelatory portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the lead-up to World War II, tracing his—and America’s—awakening to the threat of fascism.

How did FDR and the American public respond to the rise of dictators across Europe and Asia on the eve of World War II? The familiar narrative is that they reacted with indifference and embraced isolationism. Only with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor were Americans reluctantly drawn into the global conflict. But distinguished historian William I. Hitchcock reveals a far more complex and surprising story.

From the time Mussolini came to power in 1922 to America’s entry into the war in 1941, Americans engaged in a fraught national debate over the rising threat—and for some, the lure—of fascism. At the center of this debate was Roosevelt himself. When he took office in 1933, Roosevelt was determined to avoid foreign entanglements that would harm his ambitious domestic agenda of the New Deal. But over the course of his first two terms, a network of journalists, activists, advisers, and diplomats gradually awakened him to the global dangers of fascism.

Roosevelt’s transformation was part of a larger national reckoning with authoritarianism around the world. A Shadow Over the World shines a light on a time when a coalition of courageous humanists gathered around a visionary leader to forge a new purpose for America: to protect democracy, oppose imperialism, support human rights, and lead a global fight for freedom. Their successful struggle against the dark forces of fascism holds powerful lessons for our own perilous times.

The Page 99 Test: The Age of Eisenhower.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Midnight Curfew"

New from Berkley: Midnight Curfew by Penelope Douglas.

About the book, from the publisher:

Two rivals from opposing families fight their forbidden attraction to each other in the brand new romance from New York Times bestselling author Penelope Douglas.

Summertime is off-season in southern Florida. Families leave their homes to escape the heat, the streets are empty, and the nights are quiet. Perfect time for a little mischief while the police aren’t looking.

As the middle Jaeger brother, Dallas was often lost in the shuffle growing up. Now a man, he’s prideful of his community on the wrong side of the tracks—Sanoa Bay—and aggressively protective of his land and his inner circle. He’s hungry and ready for a fight.

Callum Ames has a reputation in St. Carmen, the affluent neighborhood abutting Sanoa Bay. The hottest. The most popular. Rich. Powerful. Strong. The one all the women want. After four years away, he’s back, but for all his bravado, he’s got one major secret: he doesn’t want a woman.

Summer is also storm season. Heat, wind, rain…

And a lockdown.

In a desperate bid to impress his influential father, Callum suggests a curfew to hinder their rivals in the Bay.

Unfortunately, the Jaegers don’t like rules.

As Dallas and Callum face off and engage, out for each other's blood, they can't stop the consuming fire between them and the outcome they already see coming...

The storm of the century.

Visit Penelope Douglas's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Aging and the Ethics of Longevity Science"

New from Oxford University Press: Aging and the Ethics of Longevity Science by Colin Farrelly.

About the book, from the publisher:

A century of advances in experimental science have revealed new insights into the biology of aging, thus making the aspiration of healthy longevity a feasible goal for public health and medicine in the twenty-first century. However, significant obstacles must be overcome to reap the societal benefits of the science of healthy aging. These include the prevalence of ageism, the dominance of the intellectual presuppositions of public health's "War Against Disease" paradigm, and the politicalization of science. This book advances a pragmatic ethical analysis designed to enhance the public understanding of the importance of healthy longevity and the scientific study of aging.

Visit Colin Farrelly's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"An A-List for Murder"

New from Severn House: An A-List for Murder (An Evelyn Galloway Mystery) by Amy Patricia Meade.

About the novel, from the publisher:

An irresistible historical cozy series featuring Evelyn Galloway, Hollywood script supervisor turned sleuth!

The list you’d die to be on...

March, 1940, and script supervisor Evelyn Galloway is enjoying being reunited with Alfred Hitchcock on his new film. Until twenty-three-year-old Phoebe Dillon, an aspiring actress hoping to be an extra in the movie, is found strangled in downtown L.A. Evelyn encountered Phoebe in the studio just hours before she died. Did she really have audition jitters as she claimed, or was she frightened of something— or someone?

Visit Amy Patricia Meade's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"How Economics Discovered Women"

New from the University of California Press: How Economics Discovered Women: Bringing Gender Economics into the Twenty-First Century by Shelly Lundberg.

About the book, from the publisher:

Rethinking the economics of gender.

In the 1970s, as women started to enter the labor force in unprecedented numbers, economists began to examine their roles as economic actors. The result was the rise of gender economics, now a major subfield with powerful data and new methods comparing the economic lives of men and women. Yet despite decades of progress, many of the most consequential questions about gender inequality remain unresolved.

In this bold and reflective book, renowned economist and demographer Shelly Lundberg argues that the problem is not a lack of evidence but a failure to challenge entrenched economic models and outmoded assumptions about markets and gender that have limited what the field can explain.

Why does occupational segregation persist? Why do "women's jobs" pay less? Why are men falling behind in education? And why do policies like paternity leave fail to change behavior? Drawing on more than five decades in the field and integrating insights from other social sciences, Lundberg explains signs of recent progress and charts a path toward a more realistic, socially grounded economics capable of meeting the challenges of gender inequality today.

Visit Shelly Lundberg's website.

--Marshal Zeringue