"Cutting Life Short"

New from the University of Wyoming Press: Cutting Life Short: A Second Look at Life Sentences by Dan Fetsco.

About the book, from the publisher:

Cutting Life Short challenges the idea that people who commit murder or other serious crimes are incapable of rehabilitation. The book tracks the growing population of people serving life in Wyoming and the US and explores research that indicates that much of the public, including victims of violent crime, support second chances for people who are serving excessive sentences.

Just over 200,000 Americans are now serving life sentences―more than the entire US prison population in 1970―in a cruel and fiscally irresponsible system, even though many inmates have demonstrated sustained rehabilitation over decades. Through individual case studies of Wyoming inmates, ranging from those who deserve release to rare cases like Matthew Shepard’s killer, who should remain imprisoned, the book explores themes of punishment, redemption, and justice reform while examining issues like prosecutorial misconduct, three-strike penalties, and restorative justice programs. Cases include the stories of Darla Rouse (one of Wyoming’s few commutation recipients), Russell Harrison (who claims he had an early release deal), and James Koester (whose investigating detective became his advocate). Drawing from a decade of experience on the Wyoming parole board, where he witnessed hundreds of rehabilitated inmates denied release despite widespread support from corrections officials and sometimes even victims, author Daniel Fetsco advocates creating systematic review processes for lengthy sentences that remove elected officials from clemency decisions, alongside broader reforms like restoring voting rights for former felons and promoting responsible crime reporting over fear-mongering sensationalism.

This forward-looking book argues that most of the people sentenced to life in prison can be, and should have been, safely released into the community and offers recommendations to help alleviate the problems associated with life sentences in Wyoming and across the US criminal justice system. It is of significance to students, scholars, professionals, and the general public invested in law, criminal justice and social justice.

Visit Dan Fetsco's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Farewitch of Foxe Holler"

New from S&S/Saga Press: The Farewitch of Foxe Holler by Ellen Pauley Goff.

About the book, from the publisher:

Steel Magnolias meets Practical Magic in this charming contemporary fantasy about a thirty-something kitchen witch who is recruited to help a reclusive warlock and discovers love on the other side of the next bake.

Honey Frost is Foxe Holler’s dependable Farewitch. With a dash of flour and a pinch of charm, Honey carries on her family’s legacy for healing any ailment with the right recipe. She just didn’t expect to inherit the role twenty years early.

When the Holler’s reclusive Warlock suddenly requests a Farewitch to cure his mysterious illness, Honey’s ordered life turns upside down. Honey is reluctant to help—witches and warlocks do not get along. Then he tempts her with the one thing she can’t resist: access to his infamous library of spellbooks and kitchen grimoires.

Soon, Honey is the newest resident of his moody farmhouse, which has one gorgeous kitchen. And a Warlock that maybe…isn’t so frightful after all. Or old. Or bad looking.

Healing the Warlock would be simple if he weren’t hiding a web of secrets. As Honey works to unravel his illness, a darker threat looms: the Widow Witch, who steals a soul from Foxe Holler every year, is due—and this time, she wants the Warlock.

Visit Ellen Pauley Goff's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Trinity"

New from the University of North Carolina Press: The Trinity: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Civil Rights in African American Memory by Sharron Wilkins Conrad.

About the book, from the publisher:

A striking triptych once displayed in countless African American households, the Trinity typically features Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King Jr., and John F. Kennedy. More than decoration, these portraits were deliberate acts of memory and quiet resistance, a medium through which African Americans asserted their own narratives of hope, leadership, and the fight for justice.

In this provocative history, Sharron Wilkins Conrad traces the Trinity across several decades, showing how African Americans didn’t merely remember the civil rights movement; they shaped its meaning. The Trinity reveals why Kennedy’s image hung beside King and Christ, while Lyndon B. Johnson, despite signing landmark legislation such as the 1964 Civil Rights Act, remained largely unheralded. Kennedy’s charisma, symbolic promise, and perceived martyrdom placed him among sacred icons, while Johnson—seen as transactional and confronted by the era’s growing impatience—never secured the same emotional legacy. In a gripping exploration of memory and meaning-making, Conrad reveals how communities create historical truths by elevating some leaders, sidelining others, and preserving their own visions in defiance of the official record.

Visit Sharron Wilkins Conrad's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Love Operation"

Coming November 1 from Mindy’s Book Studio: The Love Operation: A Novel by Melissa R. Collings.

About the book, from the publisher:

A brilliant spine surgeon gains the power to perfectly recall her past―only to discover that some memories are better left undisturbed. A witty, emotional story about the intersection of medicine, memory, and the messy reality of loving imperfectly.

Dr. Cordelia Wren has always been in control―of her surgical career, her emotions, and especially her memories. But when she joins a cutting-edge memory enhancement study at her hospital, she gains an unexpected ability: the power to vividly relive any moment from her past. It seems like the perfect opportunity to analyze her failed relationships and finally understand why every man she’s ever loved has walked away.

There’s just one problem. Actually, three:

• She may have…borrowed…access to the highly restricted memory study.
• She’s secretly dating the hospital’s new COO while competing for chief of surgery―a relationship that could destroy both their careers if discovered.
• Her first love has just reappeared in her life, stirring up feelings she thought she’d buried.

As Cordelia dives deeper into her past, the lines between memory and reality begin to blur. The truth she uncovers forces her to question everything she thought she knew about love, ambition, and what it means to be “in control.”

With her career hanging in the balance and her heart pulled in two directions, Cordelia must decide: Should she trust the memories that have shaped her life, or finally let go of the past to embrace an uncertain future?

Perfect for fans of Emily Henry and Ali Hazelwood, The Love Operation is a witty, emotional story about the intersection of medicine, memory, and the messy reality of loving imperfectly.

Visit Melissa R. Collings's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Wards of the State"

New from the University of California Press: Wards of the State: Care and Custody in a Maximum-Security Prison by Nick Iacobelli.

About the book, from the publisher:

In 1976, the Supreme Court affirmed incarcerated people's right to healthcare under the Eighth Amendment. Wards of the State examines the everyday instantiation of incarcerated people's right to healthcare within a men's maximum-security prison in Pennsylvania. Drawing on two years of ethnographic fieldwork, Nicholas Iacobelli observes how the prison's medical unit operates as a "ward of the state"―a space that reproduces the state's ideological commitment to punishment through its obligation to provide care. Incarcerated men are also cast as wards of the state, becoming its biological and financial property. These dynamics result in complex systems of dependence, refusal, and skepticism―and troubling ideas of what constitutes health and illness in prison. Despite this, the right to care also opens spaces for men to envision futures and make both personal and structural appeals to justice.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Happier Here With You"

New from Lake Union: Happier Here With You: A Novel by Amy Gail Hansen.

About the book, from the publisher:

A widowed mother finds the recipe for happiness when she visits a long-lost relative in a heart-lifting novel about family, food, and second chances.

Widowed and overworked, museum curator and food historian Maggie Brodbeck struggles to spend quality time with her five-year-old daughter, Hannah. Fueled by on-the-go meals, she doesn’t even have time to breathe, let alone pursue personal happiness. Then, out of the blue, Maggie receives an invitation from her estranged great-aunt Alice to visit her Wisconsin farm. The time has come, Magpie.

Desperate for a break, for herself and for Hannah, Maggie finds Rosehill Farm to be a revelation. In the enigmatic Alice, Maggie finds a kindred spirit. Whether baking together or just looking at the stars, they share a natural rhythm. The calming pace of country living is made even sweeter when Maggie meets the charismatic Brady, a local pastry chef.

Then Maggie opens her aunt’s treasured box of generations-old recipes and discovers the surprising threads of her heroic family history. The recipes not only shed light on the past, but reconnect Maggie to her love of cooking and to a life of contentment close to her heart―and back to herself.

Visit Amy Gail Hansen's website.

Writers Read: Amy Gail Hansen (August 2013).

The Page 69 Test: The Butterfly Sister.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Recipes for the Melting Pot"

New from Columbia University Press: Recipes for the Melting Pot: The Lives of The Settlement Cook Book by Nora L. Rubel.

About the book, from the publisher:

In 1901, Lizzie Black Kander put together a cookbook based on the classes she taught at the Milwaukee Jewish Mission. “I was trying to teach a group of young foreign girls in a crowded neighborhood how to cook simple and nutritious food, yet have it attractive and inexpensive as we prepare it in America,” she recalled. The Settlement Cook Book would go on to be the most successful charitable cookbook in American history, remaining a best-seller into the 1970s. Despite including nonkosher recipes, it became a mainstay in Jewish kitchens and an enduring touchstone of Jewish American culture.

Recipes for the Melting Pot tells the remarkable story of The Settlement Cook Book, demonstrating how it shaped Jewish American identity―and was in turn shaped by generations of Jewish women. Nora L. Rubel traces the cookbook’s evolution across forty editions over several decades, through waves of immigration, shifting gender roles, upward mobility, suburbanization, and rapid changes in Jewish life. She argues that the book celebrates pluralism, allowing it to serve at once as a tool for Americanization, a repository of tradition, and a platform for culinary innovation. Ultimately, The Settlement Cook Book is a record of American Jewish women’s history, told through the food they made and the lives they led. A cultural biography of an iconic cookbook, this lively and inviting book shares an inclusive vision of American cuisine.

Visit Nora L. Rubel's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Refuge"

Coming September 8 from Crooked Lane Books: The Refuge: A Novel by Carly Hillman.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Ava loves the wildlife refuge where she grew up, but the long-buried secrets she discovers there threaten to destroy her family—and the paradise they call home.

But is it really paradise if you’re trapped inside?

When wildlife ranger Johnny Hayward discovers a terrified young girl hiding in the grasses, he joins the tight-knit staff in trying to solve the mystery of how the girl, Maeve, came to their land. But when the police arrive, she tells them that Johnny is her father. He goes along with the lie, a split-second decision that entangles them both in a lifelong cover-up.

Decades later, Maeve’s daughter, Ava, grows up believing that same lie. Ava’s love for the Refuge, where she lives in the staff cabins with her mother and is training to be a tour ranger, prevents her from dwelling on the fact that her mother never leaves the grounds—and won’t explain why. But after starting to date a local boy, Ava begins to question her sheltered upbringing, shocked to discover that life outside their fences is not the nightmare her mother always taught her to fear. She is obsessed with answering one question: What is her mother so afraid of?

Angry that her mother and Johnny won’t give her answers, Ava follows a string of clues to investigate the disturbing events that led to Maeve’s arrival all those years ago, unearthing secrets that some will do anything to keep buried.

Visit Carly Hillman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Becoming George"

New from W.W. Norton: Becoming George: The Invention of George Sand by Fiona Sampson.

About the book, from the publisher:

A long-overdue reappraisal of the groundbreaking nineteenth-century writer who reshaped the literary and social norms of her age.

By the age of thirty, the young woman who was born Aurore Dupin in 1804 in a Paris garret had become the internationally renowned George Sand. In English, her novels were outselling even Victor Hugo. Her enormous and radical corpus would grow to include seventy novels, travel writing, plays, autobiography, and political writing. But despite this prodigious talent, Sand was simultaneously a figure of scandal. Cigar-smoking, cross-dressing, and promiscuous, she seemed to break all the rules society set for women.

Was her iconoclasm simply an act of courage, a declaration of absolute autonomy? Or did her sexual and emotional relationships with the leading figures of her day―from Fryderyk Chopin to Gustave Flaubert, and Alfred de Musset to Eugène Delacroix―form part of her dialogue with the world around her: a dialogue that’s intrinsic to writing itself? To what extent do we invent ourselves? And what can we learn, from Sand’s life and art, about how writers in particular invent themselves, and are reinvented by the society around them?

This year marks the 150th anniversary of Sand’s death, and Becoming George is a fitting celebration of her literary genius―as well as the first new biography in nearly twenty-five years. Award-winning poet and biographer Fiona Sampson rehabilitates an artistic and intellectual giant who still speaks to us today. Brilliantly prescient―about ecology, politics, society, gender―George Sand was truly a figure ahead of her time.

Visit Fiona Sampson's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Date"

New from Thomas & Mercer: The Date by T. H. Murdock.

About the book, from the publisher:

What would you do if your first date ended in murder?

A year ago, after a perfect date, Miles Deverill was charged with murder. The handsome young actor became front-page news when he was accused of killing Caira Kennedy, a social worker he had just met that night.

Now acquitted, Miles can’t escape the past. He tries to rebuild his life, but journalists won’t leave him alone. And then the threatening messages start―in Caira's own voice: this is not over. Is she still alive or is someone playing a twisted game?

Desperate to escape, Miles joins friends on a remote road trip. But deep in an isolated forest, one of their group is murdered. Someone close to Miles knows exactly what happened on his date―and this time he has to face the truth. Guilty or innocent, there is nowhere left to run…

Visit T. H. Murdock's website.

--Marshal Zeringue