"Whose Body in the Library"

New from Crooked Lane Books: Whose Body in the Library: A Lighthouse Library Mystery by Eva Gates.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A new librarian’s first day goes terribly wrong when she finds a dead body on the front steps of the library.

In the thirteenth installment of the beloved Lighthouse Library mysteries, a new character takes the reins.

While Lucy McNeil is enjoying her new job as the mother of twin boys and library director, new librarian Nichelle Gilchrest has just arrived at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library, reporting for duty. But life throws a wrench on Nichelle’s first day when she finds a body on the steps—a body that bears a startling resemblance to her father, who disappeared on a fishing trip to the Outer Banks thirty-eight years ago.

Fingerprints confirm the dead body is indeed Nichelle’s father, now living in Nags Head under the name Brian Saunders. Brian had been befriending older lonely women in exchange for money, but was he working alone?

Detective Rhonda Thomas is on the case, and the suspect list is only getting longer. Sorting through the wronged women and their relatives, Detective Thomas discovers Nichelle’s own brother, Brad, had been in Nags Head a few days before the murder happened and has been lying about his whereabouts.

Hoping to clear her brother’s name, Nichelle decides to investigate what happened. With seasoned sleuth Lucy’s gentle encouragement for the amateur, Nichelle is in for an exciting and dangerous first week at the library.

Follow Eva Gates on Facebook, and visit Vicki Delany's website.

The Page 69 Test: Death By Beach Read.

Writers Read: Eva Gates (June 2022).

The Page 69 Test: Death Knells and Wedding Bells.

Writers Read: Eva Gates (June 2023).

Writers Read: Eva Gates (May 2024).

The Page 69 Test: The Stranger in the Library.

The Page 69 Test: Shot Through the Book.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Print for the Pocket"

New from Oxford University Press: Print for the Pocket: Circulation, Scale, and Nineteenth-Century Imaginaries of the Book by Madeline Lee Zehnder.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Print for the Pocket, Madeline Zehnder examines how nineteenth-century Americans understood a common but often overlooked feature of their publishing landscape: the pocket-sized book.

Analyzing archival print artifacts alongside both major and little-known texts, Print for the Pocket argues that the material properties of small, portable books offered Americans conceptual frameworks as well as practical resources for grappling with challenges posed by their country's vast and growing size. During the early nineteenth century, the territorial growth and rapidly expanding population of the United States intensified national anxieties about cultural and social cohesion. For many nineteenth-century commentators, pocket-sized books suitable for carrying close to the body promised both to ease movement across long distances and to choreograph the opinions and embodied behaviors of newly dispersed reading audiences.

Reassessing longstanding scholarly associations between increased print circulation and liberal progress, this study of early American print cultures shows how books designed “for the pocket” inspired fantasies as well as practices of nineteenth-century spatial and population management. Its chapters shed light on diverse American reading audiences-from children to soldiers-while illuminating pivotal national sites ranging from the frontier to the Union Army camp. Although rhetoric of the great and vast has dominated understandings of American literature and culture, Print for the Pocket establishes smallness as a concept deserving of fresh critical attention.

Visit Madeline Lee Zehnder's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Beauty of the Days Gone By"

New from Atlantic Montly Press: The Beauty of the Days Gone By: A Novel by Jason Stone.

About the book, from the publisher:

1866. On a sun-drenched stretch of West Texas prairie, the Terry brothers are playing near their family ranch when a Kiowa war party suddenly descends. Former Texas Ranger RL Terry returns to total devastation: his home in flames, his wife Sally mortally wounded, and his two boys carried off into captivity.

With the help of his close friend, the great cattleman Charles Goodnight, Terry begins a relentless search for his missing sons. He rides across the vast Southern plains and into the heartland of the Comanche Empire, where buffalo hunters massacre the great herds that once blackened the horizon and soldiers under Colonel Ranald Mackenzie wage brutal campaigns to exterminate the tribes. Meanwhile, Terry’s eldest, Sam, realizes that if he is to survive his captivity, he must abandon his old life for a new one. Under the tutelage of the legendary Comanche chief Quanah Parker, he takes a new name and slowly learns the ways of a proud, embattled people.

Years pass. Track is laid, fences go up, and reservation lines redraw the map of the West. Sam forgets the world of his childhood, and father and son find themselves on opposite sides of an existential conflict. Their paths are destined to cross at the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon, where the captured horse herds are slaughtered by the thousands and the fate of the Comanche nation hangs in the balance.

The story unfolds across two eras: the brutal post–Civil War frontier and the 1920s, where an aging Goodnight is cared for by a devoted young woman and a historian determined to record his memories. As they draw out his stories of blazing the Goodnight-Loving Trail and settling the land once known as Comancheria, the old plainsman reflects on the clash of cultures that defined the American West—and must at last confront the full truth of what passed between him and his old friend RL Terry.

Visit Jason Stone's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Stay Tuned"

New from Rutgers University Press: Stay Tuned: Listening to the Network Era by Patrick Sullivan.

About the book, from the publisher:

Since the 1950s, television flooded the American soundscape with not just pictures but sounds, a constant aural stream infiltrating domestic life. In Stay Tuned, Patrick Sullivan treats network-era television sound not as background noise or auxiliary signal but as a formative texture of aesthetic life in postwar America. He theorizes how television’s sonic forms―asynchronous audiovisuals, noises, affective rhythms, what he collectively terms “network aurality”―trouble traditional aesthetic theory. Stay Tuned takes up critiques of television sound and repurposes them as evidence of a deeper philosophical discomfort: Namely, that television sound does something to aesthetic categories that they weren’t built to handle. From the laugh track to the cartoon “boinks,” from noises to the jingle, Sullivan reads television sounds not as cultural detritus but as formal interventions―forcing a redefinition of what aesthetics means when form is mass-produced, commercial, and built for syndication. What emerges is not just a new theory and history of television sound but a reimagined account of aesthetic experience itself―expanded, recalibrated, and a little wacky.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Every Lie I Told"

New from Blackstone: Every Lie I Told by Hilary Davidson.

About the novel, from the publisher:

From bestselling and award-winning author Hilary Davidson, Every Lie I Told is a propulsive, twisty thriller about the devastating consequences of the lies we tell to protect others--and ourselves.

How far would you go to protect a killer?

Jackie Swift does whatever it takes to succeed. At work, she spins lies to protect questionable clients at a shady public-relations firm. At home, she helps her younger sister, Madi, evade consequences for dangerous choices she's made about friends and drugs. But Jackie's professional and personal worlds collide one night when she gets a call from Madi telling her she overdosed. Rushing to the rescue, Jackie stumbles on an awful scene at an Upper East Side mansion. Madi is nowhere to be found, but she's left behind a dead body.

Worse for Jackie, she knows the dead man all too well: He's her former boss and mentor, and she's been paid to cover up his crimes in the past.

Jackie is willing to do anything to protect her missing sister, even as the NYPD builds a case against Madi, who may be involved in the deaths of other sexually abusive men. As Jackie searches for her sister--and sets up plausible suspects to take Madi's place in the eyes of the police--she's haunted by the terrible things she's done in service of her career. And she soon discovers there are people who've been waiting in the shadows for a chance to take her down.

Visit the official Hilary Davidson site.

The Page 69 Test: The Damage Done.

The Page 69 Test: Blood Always Tells.

The Page 69 Test: One Small Sacrifice.

Writers Read: Hilary Davidson (July 2019).

The Page 69 Test: Don't Look Down.

The Page 69 Test: Her Last Breath.

Q&A with Hilary Davidson.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Future in Their Hands"

New from the University of California Press: The Future in Their Hands: Making Mexico's Foreign-Educated Elite by Rachel Grace Newman.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Future in Their Hands is a deep history of the politics of foreign education in Mexico, where many influential figures have degrees from European or US institutions. Reconstructing the history of student mobility from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century, Rachel Grace Newman unveils the social hierarchies, political languages, and institutional mechanisms that created Mexico’s foreign-educated elite. Study abroad began as a private phenomenon for young elites to acquire specific forms of knowledge and to preserve their status. But after the 1910 revolution, elites gradually convinced the Mexican state, under the guise of modernizing the nation, to underwrite their ambitions with merit-based scholarships. Student mobility naturalized the expectation that Mexico’s sovereignty and development required knowledge from elsehwere. For historians of Mexico and other countries with foreign-educated elites, this book reveals the subtle, insidious processes by which states reinforce privilege through education policy.

Visit Rachel Grace Newman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"You Know Why"

Coming August 25 from Thomas & Mercer: You Know Why by J.T. Ellison.

About the book, from the publisher:

From New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison comes a suspenseful domestic thriller about identity, revenge, and the dangerous secrets kept hidden from the ones we love most.

It’s the holidays, and photographer Brooklyn Locke is bound for Italy with her husband, Trey, and their two children. But when Trey vanishes from the airport, missing their connecting flight, their impromptu vacation—and life as she knows it—begins to unravel.

Desperate to find her husband, Brooklyn accepts help from a stranger on the same flight, Eden Barrow. But Eden soon makes a shocking claim. She is the sister of Trey’s first wife, and ten years ago he was the main suspect in her murder.

Struggling to comprehend these accusations, fate delivers one more blow: a violent accident that leaves Brooklyn fighting for her life. With nowhere else to turn, Brooklyn leans on Eden for support. But each kindness feels too rehearsed, feeding her doubts about Eden’s motives and Trey’s true past.

Brooklyn has her own dark history she’d rather forget and confronts an unsettling possibility. Her life is not what it seems, and the truth is a trap—laid by someone waiting for the perfect time to strike.

Visit J.T. Ellison's website.

The Page 69 Test: Edge of Black.

The Page 69 Test: When Shadows Fall.

My Book, The Movie: When Shadows Fall.

My Book, The Movie: What Lies Behind.

The Page 69 Test: What Lies Behind.

The Page 69 Test: No One Knows.

My Book, The Movie: No One Knows.

The Page 69 Test: Lie to Me.

My Book, The Movie: Good Girls Lie.

The Page 69 Test: Good Girls Lie.

Writers Read: J. T. Ellison (January 2020).

Q&A with J.T. Ellison.

The Page 69 Test: A Very Bad Thing.

The Page 69 Test: Last Seen.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Self-Realization Nation"

New from the University of California Press: Self-Realization Nation: How Artists of the Creative Counterculture Made a New America by John Kapusta.

About the book, from the publisher:

The story of an unexpected group of performing artists who led one of the most influential artistic movements in contemporary American history.

After World War II, personal fulfillment emerged as a defining American cultural ideal. Self-realization—the quest to become our authentic selves—remains a powerful part of American culture and arts today.

In Self-Realization Nation, John Kapusta provides a lively cultural history of how an overlooked movement of musicians, dancers, and actors championed the ideal of self-realization. These performers, who spanned many backgrounds, identities, genres, and artistic styles, became what he calls the creative counterculture. Artists as varied as Sonny Rollins, John Cage, Anna Halprin, Alice and John Coltrane, and Pauline Oliveros shared an approach to creativity focused on letting go of limiting beliefs and subverting oppressive social norms. Through colorful vignettes, Kapusta reveals how these artists made their art and how their approach spread beyond the performing arts to influence such fields as psychology, education, and wellness. Ultimately, these creative counterculturists came to define a new vision of an America where everyone was free to be themselves, together.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Survival Show"

Coming August 4 from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers: Survival Show by Juno Dawson.

About the book, from the publisher:

American Idol meets The Hunger Games in this campy, dystopian satire about a teen betting her life that her singing talent can make her a star from the celebrated author of This Book Is Gay, Juno Dawson.

The world just seems to take and take from Taryn Beck, but there’s one thing it’ll never have: her voice. Only when she’s singing does Taryn feel like she can escape her reality—free from the aftermath of the War, free from the Scottish refugee camps where she and her family now live, and free from the responsibility of making ends meet for the sake of her sick brother.

Taryn’s voice is her one ticket out, and that’s why she enters to be a contestant on the world’s most watched television program: Starmaker, where kids from the New Peace Global Alliance compete for the chance to join an all-singing, all-dancing pop group. Rise to the top, and a life of luxury, stardom, and money awaits.

There’s only one small catch. The lowest ranking face a televised public execution. Starmaker thanks their participants for their noble sacrifice to Project Population.

Taryn’s about to sing for her life.

Visit Juno Dawson's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe"

New from Basic Books: Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe by Katja Hoyer.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the author of the international bestseller Beyond the Wall, a history of interwar Germany told through the town of Weimar, the cultural capital that was both the birthplace of the country’s first full democracy and a launchpad for the Nazis.

The Central German town of Weimar is perhaps most familiar to non-Germans for giving its name to the Weimar Republic. After Germany’s inglorious defeat in World War I, the signing of a new constitution in Weimar marked the nation’s first experiment with full-fledged democracy. And yet this storied town, long known as a center of German culture and tradition, was also the place where Nazis were first welcomed into a local government, a milestone in Adolf Hitler’s fateful rise to power.

In Weimar, historian Katja Hoyer examines Weimar as a microcosm for the entire German nation between the world wars. The Weimar Republic saw a flourishing in culture and the arts, including the establishment in Weimar of the Bauhaus school of architecture. But after Hitler seized the chancellorship in 1933, the town underwent rapid Nazification, with many ordinary Weimarers basking in the attention they and their town received from the regime and from Hitler personally.

Combining gripping narrative with deep historical analysis, Weimar explores both the political upheavals and the rhythms of daily life in one town, revealing how fascism took hold first there, and then across the nation.

Visit Katja Hoyer's website.

--Marshal Zeringue