"This Is Not a Dead Girl Story"

New from Viking Books for Young Readers: This Is Not a Dead Girl Story by Kate Sweeney.

About the book, from the publisher:

A dark and powerful mystery perfect for fans of Courtney Summers and true crime podcasts, in which a teen girl must do whatever it takes to find her missing cousin—who everyone else thinks is dead.

Remy Green is missing. Eight days after the death of her boyfriend, River O’Dell, the magnetic, golden-haired girl disappeared in the dead of night.

Jules Green, Remy’s cousin, is her opposite in every way: awkward, shy, and a bit strange, never feeling at home in the small town of Black Falls, NY. The only place she has ever belonged is with River and Remy. Now she’s on her own—and everyone around her believes that Remy is dead.

But Jules can still hear Remy’s voice in her head, urging her to keep looking. With the help of River’s cousin Sam, a troubled and mysterious boy, Jules starts untangling the truth of what exactly happened. Through her search, Jules must delve into the dark corners of her hometown—unearthing family secrets and hidden truths about the two people she thought she knew most.

Who was Remy, really, behind the popular-girl façade she wore? What trouble was she involved in? And can Jules find a way to save her from it? Or is this a dead girl story after all?

Visit Kate Sweeney's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Dragon from Chicago"

New from Beacon Press: The Dragon from Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany by Pamela D. Toler.

About the book, from the publisher:

For fans of unheralded women’s stories, a captivating look at Sigrid Schultz—one of the earliest reporters to warn Americans of the rising threat of the Nazi regime

We are facing an alarming upsurge in the spread of misinformation and attempts by powerful figures to discredit facts so they can seize control of narratives. These are threats American journalist Sigrid Schultz knew all too well. The Chicago Tribune's Berlin bureau chief and primary foreign correspondent for Central Europe from 1925 to January 1941, Schultz witnessed Hitler’s rise to power and was one of the first reporters—male or female—to warn American readers of the growing dangers of Nazism.

In The Dragon From Chicago, Pamela D. Toler draws on extensive archival research to unearth the largely forgotten story of Schultz’s years spent courageously reporting the news from Berlin, from the revolts of 1919 through the Nazi rise to power and Allied air raids over Berlin in 1941. At a time when women reporters rarely wrote front-page stories and her male colleagues saw a powerful unmarried woman as a “freak,” Schultz pulled back the curtain on how the Nazis misreported the news to their own people, and how they attempted to control the foreign press through bribery and threats.

Sharp and enlightening, Schultz's story provides a powerful example for how we can reclaim truth in an era marked by the spread of disinformation and claims of “fake news.”

Visit Pamela D. Toler's website.

The Page 99 Test: Women Warriors: An Unexpected History.

--Marshal Zeringue

"An Eye for an Eye"

Coming September 24 from HarperCollins: An Eye for an Eye by Jeffrey Archer.

About the book, from the publisher:

In one of the most luxurious cities on earth…

A billion-dollar deal is about to go badly wrong. A lavish night out is about to end in murder. And the British government is about to be plunged into crisis.

In the heart of the British establishment…

Lord Hartley, the latest in a line of peers going back over two hundred years, lies dying. But his will triggers an inheritance with explosive consequences.

Two deaths. Continents apart. No obvious connection.

So why are they both at the centre of a master criminal's plot for revenge?

And can Scotland Yard's elite squad uncover the truth before it's too late…

Visit Jeffrey Archer's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Teaching Honesty in a Populist Era"

New from Oxford University Press: Teaching Honesty in a Populist Era: Emphasizing Truth in the Education of Citizens by Sarah M. Stitzlein.

About the book, from the publisher:

Democracy is struggling in an age of populism and post-truth. In a world swirling with competing political groups stating conflicting facts, citizens are left unsure whom to trust and which facts are true. The role of honesty in civic life is in jeopardy. When we lose sight of the importance of honesty, it hampers our ability to solve pressing problems. Teaching Honesty in a Populist Era asserts that to better enable young citizens to successfully engage in civic inquiry, the role of honesty must be foregrounded within education.

The book posits that honesty is a key component of a well-functioning democracy. Building upon this foundation, Sarah M. Stitzlein defines what honesty is, how it is connected to truth, and why both are important to and at risk in democracies today. Furthermore, the chapters offer guidance on how honesty and truth should be taught in schools. Situated within the philosophical perspective of pragmatism, the book examines the relationships between honesty, truth, trust, and healthy democratic living and provides recommendations for improving citizenship education and our ability to engage in civic reasoning.

Teaching Honesty in a Populist Era offers an improved path forward within our schools by detailing how to cultivate habits of truth-seeking and truth-telling. Such honesty will better enable citizens to navigate our difficult political moment and increase the likelihood that citizens can craft long-term solutions for democratic life together.

Visit Sarah M. Stitzlein's website.

The Page 99 Test: American Public Education and the Responsibility of its Citizens.

The Page 99 Test: Learning How to Hope.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Brothers Kenney"

New from Blackstone Publishing: The Brothers Kenney by Adam Mitzner.

About the book, from the publisher:

From master of the mystery genre and bestselling author Adam Mitzner comes The Brothers Kenney, a murder mystery that pushes one family to the breaking point.

Former track star Sean Kenney used to be on top of the world, but that was a very long time ago. Now he's been estranged from his loved ones for the past two years--until the unthinkable calls him home.

While struggling to make sense of the devastating death that has shaken the Kenney family to its core, Sean grasps at the opportunity to seek forgiveness for his past mistakes--from his family and himself--while clinging to the belief that if he can discover what really happened that day, he might somehow be redeemed.

Both a family saga and a thrilling mystery, The Brothers Kenney searches for forgiveness and the meaning of home as assiduously as it does the identity of a killer.

Visit Adam Mitzner's website.

The Page 69 Test: A Conflict of Interest.

My Book, The Movie: A Conflict of Interest.

The Page 69 Test: A Case of Redemption.

My Book, The Movie: A Case of Redemption.

The Page 69 Test: Losing Faith.

My Book, The Movie: Losing Faith.

The Page 69 Test: A Matter of Will.

My Book, the Movie: A Matter of Will.

My Book, The Movie: The Perfect Marriage.

The Page 69 Test: The Perfect Marriage.

Q&A with Adam Mitzner.

Writers Read: Adam Mitzner (May 2023).

My Book, The Movie: Love Betrayal Murder.

The Page 69 Test: Love Betrayal Murder.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Civic Activism in South Korea"

New from Columbia University Press: Civic Activism in South Korea: The Intertwining of Democracy and Neoliberalism by Seungsook Moon.

About the book, from the publisher:

In recent decades, neoliberalism has transformed South Korean society, going far beyond simply restructuring the economy. In response, a number of civic organizations that emerged from the democratization movement with a conscious emphasis on social change have sought to address socioeconomic and political problems caused or aggravated by the neoliberal transformation.

Examining how “citizens’ organizations” in South Korea negotiate with the market and neoliberal governance, Seungsook Moon offers new ways to understand the intricate relationship between democracy and neoliberalism as modes of ruling. She provides in-depth qualitative studies of three different types of organizations: a large national advocacy organization run by professional staff activists, two medium-size local branches of a national feminist organization run by mostly volunteer activists, and a small local organization run by volunteer activists with a focus on foreign migrants. Bringing together these rich empirical cases with deft theoretical analysis, Moon argues that neoliberalism and democracy are entwined in complex ways. Although neoliberalism undermines democratic practices of social equality by shrinking or destroying public resources, institutions, and space, it also can facilitate participatory practices that arise to fill needs left by privatization and deregulation as long as those practices do not seriously challenge the workings of capitalism. Showing how neoliberalism simultaneously enables and constrains civic activism, this book illuminates the contradictions of social engagement today, with global implications.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Clickbait"

New from Harper Perennial: Clickbait: A Novel by Holly Baxter.

About the book, from the publisher:

With the dark comedy and sharp observations of Monica Heisey and Dolly Alderton, a whip-smart and laugh-out-loud funny debut novel about a disgraced, newly divorced journalist demoted to a “clickbait” job at a Manhattan tabloid.

The first thing they tell you when you begin your training is never to become the news.

Natasha has screwed up royally. Her mistake isn’t just embarrassing, it's a breach of journalistic ethics that makes headlines and costs her a plum job reporting from London. Back in New York at thirty-five and single, divorced from a kind man she loved, she finds herself at the bottom of the media food chain—a junior reporter at a clickbait factory, rewriting sensational tabloid stories to make them just different enough to avoid lawsuits.

As if her professional fall from grace weren’t bad enough, she’s taken the money she’d saved for a down payment for a home on a charming Brooklyn block with her husband, and rashly bought a boxy apartment overlooking the gray ocean in Rockaway Beach, Queens.

Though seeing friends and family only serves to remind her of what she’s lost, things begin to pick up when her ex-boyfriend Zach moves back to New York and accepts her offer of a spare bedroom. The arrangement is strictly platonic, of course—for him. But Natasha can't help but wonder whether he might be the solution to all her problems.

As Natasha's obsession with Zach grows and her involvement in increasingly dystopian "churnalism" deepens, her worlds threaten to collide in the most cataclysmic, extremely public way.

Visit Holly Baxter's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Like Children"

New from NYU Press: Like Children: Black Prodigy and the Measure of the Human in America by Camille Owens.

About the book, from the publisher:

A new history of manhood, race, and hierarchy in American childhood

Like Children argues that the child has been the key figure giving measure and meaning to the human in thought and culture since the early American period. Camille Owens demonstrates that white men’s power at the top of humanism’s order has depended on those at the bottom. As Owens shows, it was childhood’s modern arc―from ignorance and dependence to reason and rights―that structured white men’s power in early America: by claiming that black adults were like children, whites naturalized black subjection within the American family order. Demonstrating how Americans sharpened the child into a powerful white supremacist weapon, Owens nevertheless troubles the notion that either the child or the human have been figures of unadulterated whiteness or possess stable boundaries.

Like Children recenters the history of American childhood around black children and rewrites the story of the human through their acts. Through the stories of black and disabled children spectacularized as prodigies, Owens tracks enduring white investment in black children’s power and value, and a pattern of black children performing beyond white containment. She reconstructs the extraordinary interventions and inventions of figures such as the early American poet Phillis Wheatley, the nineteenth-century pianist Tom Wiggins (Blind Tom), a child known as “Bright” Oscar Moore, and the early-twentieth century “Harlem Prodigy,” Philippa Schuyler, situating each against the racial, gendered, and developmental rubrics by which they were designated prodigious exceptions. Ultimately, Like Children displaces frames of exclusion and dehumanization to explain black children’s historical and present predicament, revealing the immense cultural significance that black children have negotiated and what they have done to reshape the human in their own acts.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Snap"

New from Doubleday: The Snap: A Novel by Elizabeth Staple.

About the book, from the publisher:

Dangerous secrets. A toxic workplace. And an unsolved murder. . . . A football professional reckons with the choices that made her career in the boys’ club world of sports possible in this riveting and sharp Friday Night Lights meets I Know What You Did Last Summer debut

Poppy Benjamin, Media Relations Director of Syracuse’s storied NFL team, the Bobcats, fought tooth and nail for her career. Ever since her intern season fifteen years ago, it’s been nothing but early mornings, late nights, barely-dodged inappropriate advances, and relationships lost with boyfriends who didn’t get it. That’s why Poppy relies on the Women Against Groping Shitheads, a support network that knows her far better than her own family. In-house counsel for an NBA team, a celebrated reporter–all of the W.A.G.S. are high-ranking women in sports who need a release from the indignities and frustrations that come with navigating the ultimate boys’ club.

But on the very same morning that Poppy’s legendary head coach is found dead in his home, five notes threatening tell the truth or pay the consequences hit the W.A.G.S. like 300-pound linemen. Who’s aware of the little group they’ve tried their best to keep under wraps, and what reason would they have to threaten it? As long-buried secrets are brought to light, Poppy is forced to revisit a dangerous mistake from the start of her career that puts everything she’s built at risk.

An unmissable novel about responsibility, regret, clouded moral compasses, and the ins and outs of professional football.

Visit Elizabeth Staple's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Britain's Slavery Debt: Reparations Now!"

New from Oxford University Press: Britain's Slavery Debt: Reparations Now! by Michael Banner.

About the book, from the publisher:

A concise, reasoned, practical case for why Britain should pay reparations for historic wrongs to present Caribbean inhabitants.

Britain owes reparations to the Caribbean. The exploitation of generations of those trafficked from Africa, or born into enslavement, to work the immensely profitable sugars plantations, enriched both British individuals and the British nation. Colonialism, even after emancipation, perpetuated the exploitation. The Caribbean still suffers, and Britain still benefits, from these historic wrongs.

There are some fairly standard objections to reparations -- 'slavery ended a long time ago'; 'Britain should be celebrating its role in abolishing slavery'; 'slavery was legal back then and we shouldn't judge the past by the standards of the present'; 'you shouldn't visit the sins of the fathers on the sons'; and so on. And there is a sense that the practical problems of who should pay what to whom are immensely difficult.

Michael Banner carefully considers and answers these objections. He argues that reparations are not about punishment, but about the restoration of wrongful gains. In Reparations Now! he makes a specific and practical proposal regarding reparations, picking up on the programme suggested by Caribbean countries (through CARICOM), and taking as a starting point the nearly £20 million paid as compensation by the British government at abolition, not to those who had suffered slavery, but to those who lost enslaved labourers.

Reparations Now! discusses what can be done, here and now, by individuals and institutions, to advance the case for reparations between national governments.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Blood Red Morning"

New from Minotaur Books: A Blood Red Morning: A Henri Lefort Mystery by Mark Pryor.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this unputdownable WWII series, Paris detective Henri Lefort, must solve a complex case when a man is murdered on the policeman's own doorstep.

January 1941: It's cold and still dark when Paris Detective Henri Lefort wakes up to an empty apartment, irritated with his roommate for not even starting the coffee.

Irritation turns to suspicion when he starts his walk to work and spots a large blood stain in front of the building. At the office his boss, chief of homicide, is incredulous that Henri didn't hear the gunshot that killed a man right outside his apartment. On the plus side, this means that Henri isn't a witness and can investigate the case.

It first appears that the dead man is a nobody—but Henri soon finds out he's a nobody with a classified police file. Henri confronts his bosses and then the Germans, but is stonewalled. So he turns his investigation to the other tenants in his building. Coincidentally, each resident claims ignorance. When Henri learns that the dead man was a German agent, he must face the real possibility that one of his friends and neighbors is a killer. It's his job to find the truth no matter what, but when he does he faces the biggest dilemma of his career—whether in times like these the rules of justice should be, just sometimes, trumped by the rules of war.

Visit Mark Pryor's website.

My Book, The Movie: Dominic.

Writers Reads: Mark Pryor (January 2018).

My Book, The Movie: Die Around Sundown.

Q&A with Mark Pryor.

My Book, The Movie: The Dark Edge of Night.

Writers Read: Mark Pryor (August 2023).

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Slow Death of Slavery in Dutch New York"

New from Cambridge University Press: The Slow Death of Slavery in Dutch New York: A Cultural, Economic, and Demographic History, 1700–1827 by Michael J. Douma.

About the book, from the publisher:

Original and deeply researched, this book provides a new interpretation of Dutch American slavery which challenges many of the traditional assumptions about slavery in New York. With an emphasis on demography and economics, Michael J. Douma shows that slavery in eighteenth-century New York was mostly rural, heavily Dutch, and generally profitable through the cultivation of wheat. Slavery in Dutch New York ultimately died a political death in the nineteenth century, while resistance from enslaved persons, and a gradual turn against slavery in society and in the courts, encouraged its destruction. This important study will reshape the historiography of slavery in the American North.

Visit Michael J. Douma's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Kisses, Codes, and Conspiracies"

New from Feiwel & Friends: Kisses, Codes, and Conspiracies by Abigail Hing Wen.

About the book, from the publisher:

Tan Lee finds himself embroiled in an unusual love triangle, all while trying to defuse a heist, unravel a conspiracy, and navigate the most complicated babysitting assignment ever in this YA novel by New York Times and Indie bestselling author Abigail Hing Wen.

After a magical kiss at Prom, best friends Tan Lee and Winter Woo agree to cool it off, a plan that goes awry when their parents jointly head off to Hawaii and leave Tan and Winter to babysit Tan's sister Sana together. If that isn't complicated enough, Tan's ex-girlfriend from Shanghai arrives on his doorstep with money stolen from her billionaire father and thugs on her heels.

Tan soon finds himself on the run through the San Francisco Bay Area, trying to out-manuever international hackers and protect his friends, family and sister—and his own heart.

Visit Abigail Hing Wen's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Teaching a Dark Chapter"

New from Cornell University Press: Teaching a Dark Chapter: History Books and the Holocaust in Italy and the Germanys by Daniela R. P. Weiner.

About the book, from the publisher:

Teaching a Dark Chapter explores how textbook narratives about the Fascist/Nazi past in Italy, East Germany, and West Germany followed relatively calm, undisturbed paths of little change until isolated "flashpoints" catalyzed the educational infrastructure into periods of rapid transformation. Though these flashpoints varied among Italy and the Germanys, they all roughly conformed to a chronological scheme and permanently changed how each "dark past" was represented.

Historians have often neglected textbooks as sources in their engagement with the reconstruction of postfascist states and the development of postwar memory culture. But as Teaching a Dark Chapter demonstrates, textbooks yield new insights and suggest a new chronology of the changes in postwar memory culture that other sources overlook. Employing a methodological and temporal rethinking of the narratives surrounding the development of European Holocaust memory, Daniela R. P. Weiner reveals how, long before 1968, textbooks in these three countries served as important tools to influence public memory about Nazi/Fascist atrocities.

As Fascism had been spread through education, then education must play a key role in undoing the damage. Thus, to repair and shape postwar societies, textbooks became an avenue to inculcate youths with desirable democratic and socialist values. Teaching a Dark Chapter weds the historical study of public memory with the educational study of textbooks to ask how and why the textbooks were created, what they said, and how they affected the society around them.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Hate to Fake It to You"

New from St. Martin's Griffin: Hate to Fake It to You: A Novel by Amanda Sellet.

About the book, from the publisher:

A waitress masquerading as an influencer and a wildlife photographer are on a collision course with romance—and chaos—in Hate to Fake It to You, a zany modern twist on a screwball comedy classic about figuring out what you really want—by pretending to be someone you’re not.

Everyone gets a glow-up on social media, but Libby Lane's online persona is the fakest of fakes. Cooked up as a joke by Libby and her best friends, Lillibet is the affluent, healthier-than-thou opposite of her glam-free life on the side of Oahu most tourists never see. The phony fronting is all in good fun, until a real influencer stumbles onto the Love, Lillibet Instagram feed and starts making waves.

When Hildy Johnson, the ambitious junior member of a media dynasty, travels to Hawaii to talk to Lillibet about parlaying her lifestyle brand into a job, Libby and her friends scramble to take the make-believe to a new level. Complicating the charade even further is Hildy’s handsome companion, a wildlife photographer named Jefferson Jones, whose keen eye sees more than he lets on.

Between the pretend husband, borrowed goats, a made-up holiday, and Libby’s very real attraction to Jefferson, it’s anyone’s guess which lie will blow their cover first . . . especially since Lillibet isn’t the only one with something to hide.

Visit Amanda Sellet's website.

Q&A with Amanda Sellet.

The Page 69 Test: By the Book.

Writers Read: Amanda Sellet (December 2022).

--Marshal Zeringue

"From South Central to Southside"

New from Temple University Press: From South Central to Southside: Gang Transnationalism, Masculinity, and Disorganized Violence in Belize City by Adam Baird.

About the book, from the publisher:

When he visited in 2011, sociologist Adam Baird wondered what the Bloods and Crips were doing in Southside Belize City. He soon discovered that migrant Belizean members of colors gangs from South Central Los Angeles were deported there in the 1980s. Once established “back home,” membership in the Bloods and Crips was seen as an aspirational pathway to manhood for the urban underclass.

From South Central to Southside charts the genesis and evolution of a transnational gang culture. Baird provides firsthand interviews with gang members and “narco” families and explains the surprising source of Belize City’s severe violence and skyrocketing homicide rates. He identifies gang violence in the U.S. and Belize as stemming from populations blighted by historical, brutal inequality and marginalization. Analyzing the gendered dynamics as young men and women face the temptations, risks, and dangers of gang life, Baird shines a light on “chronic vulnerability" in Belize City.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Our Narrow Hiding Places"

New from Ecco: Our Narrow Hiding Places: A Novel by Kristopher Jansma.

About the book, from the publisher:

An elderly woman recounts her Dutch family’s survival during the final years of Nazi occupation, shedding new light on old secrets that rippled through subsequent generations.

Eighty-year-old Mieke Geborn’s life is one of quiet routine. Widowed for many years, she enjoys the view from her home on the New Jersey shore, visits with friends, and tai chi at the local retirement community. But when her beloved grandson, Will, and his wife, Teru, show up for a visit, things are soon upended. Their marriage is threatening to unravel, and Will has questions for his grandmother—questions about family secrets that have been lost for decades and are now finally rising to the surface.

But telling Will the truth involves returning to the past, and to Mieke’s childhood in coastal Holland. There, in the last years of World War II, she survived the Hunger Winter, a brutal season when food and heat were cut off and thousands of Dutch citizens starved. Her memories weave together childhood magic and the madness of history, and carry readers from the windy beaches of the Hague to the dark cells of a concentration camp, through the bends of eel-filled rivers, and, finally, to the story of Will’s father, absent since Will’s childhood.

Our Narrow Hiding Places is a sweeping story of survival and of the terrible cost of war—and a reminder that sometimes the traumas we inherit come along with a resilience we never imagined.

Visit Kristopher Jansma's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Historical Turns"

New from the University of California Press: Historical Turns: Weimar Cinema and the Crisis of Historicism by Nicholas Baer.

About the book, from the publisher:

Historical Turns reassesses Weimar cinema in light of the "crisis of historicism" widely diagnosed by German philosophers in the early twentieth century. Through bold new analyses of five legendary works of German silent cinema—The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Destiny, Rhythm 21, The Holy Mountain, and Metropolis—Nicholas Baer argues that films of the Weimar Republic lent vivid expression to the crisis of historical thinking. With their experiments in cinematic form and style, these modernist films revealed the capacity of the medium to engage with fundamental questions about the philosophy of history. Reconstructing the debates over historicism that unfolded during the initial decades of moving-image culture, Historical Turns proposes a more reflexive mode of historiography and expands the field of film and media philosophy. The book excavates a rich archive of ideas that illuminate our own moment of rapid media transformation and political, economic, and environmental crises around the globe.

--Marshal Zeringue

"All the Way Gone"

New from Minotaur Books: All the Way Gone: A Detective Annalisa Vega Novel by Joanna Schaffhausen.

About the book, from the publisher:

The fourth installment in the beloved Detective Annalisa Vega series

Is there such a thing as a good sociopath? Newly minted private investigator Annalisa Vega is skeptical, but her first client, Mara Delaney, insists that some sociopaths are beneficial to society. Mara has even written a book titled The Good Sociopath centered around Chicago neurosurgeon Craig Canning. Dr. Canning has saved hundreds of lives so it shouldn’t matter that he doesn’t actually care about his patients, should it? But Mara has a more urgent problem, she is now concerned that Canning might not be such a good sociopath after all. A young woman in Canning’s apartment building mysteriously plunged to her death from a balcony, and Mara fears Canning could be responsible. She needs to uncover the truth about Canning before the book comes out, so Annalisa has little time to search for answers.

Annalisa quickly discovers that more than one person wanted the young woman dead. Canning insists he didn’t do it. His charming, unflappable demeanor suggests that either he’s telling the truth or Mara is right and he’s cold-hearted to the core. But the cops believe the girl’s death was an accident. The more Annalisa probes, the more she becomes convinced it’s a fiendishly clever murder, one only a brilliant psychopath could pull off. She draws deeper into a battle of wits with Canning, so determined to prove his guilt that she forgets Mara’s most important warning—that sociopaths only care about winning at all costs. When Annalisa finally peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the horrifying truth of the girl’s death, she may be too late to save herself..

Visit Joanna Schaffhausen's website.

The Page 69 Test: All the Best Lies.

Writers Read: Joanna Schaffhausen (February 2020).

Q&A with Joanna Schaffhausen.

My Book, The Movie: Gone for Good.

The Page 69 Test: Gone for Good.

Writers Read: Joanna Schaffhausen (August 2022).

The Page 69 Test: Dead and Gone.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Left Behind"

New from PublicAffairs: Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places by Paul Collier.

About the book, from the publisher:

The bestselling author of The Bottom Billion returns to examine the fate of the poorest regions of the world, some of which exist in the richest nations

Since the 1970s, the Western consensus in economic policy has been governed by the assumption that any poor area—a city, a state or even an entire country—will find a way to progress through market forces. If local economies fail to revive, and market shifts have made a location unsuited to business needs, the workforce can and should relocate to more prosperous locales. Either way, no outside intervention is necessary: one way or another, the problem will work itself out.

Except it doesn’t. Using examples of the “left behind” regions, renowned development economist Paul Collier shows that centralized western economies have been the most ineffective to alleviate poverty—even if nationally the country seems to be growing. South Yorkshire, once a hub of the steel industry, is now the poorest region in England. From the United States to Japan, Zambia to Colombia, regions and nations experiencing economic decline find themselves with little recourse, ignored by the powers that could come to their aid.

In Left Behind, Collier examines how this one-size-fits-all, hands-off approach to economic policy has devastated areas and nations all over the world and made society vastly more unequal. With keen insight, he draws lessons from such disparate fields as behavioral psychology, evolutionary biology, and moral philosophy to explain how we can adapt to the needs of individual economies in order to build a brighter and fairer global future.

Learn more about the book and author at Paul Collier's website.

Read J. Tyler Dickovick's interview with Collier about his award-winning book, The Bottom Billion.

The Page 99 Test: The Bottom Billion.

Writers Read: Paul Collier.

The Page 99 Test: The Plundered Planet.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Gemma"

New from Arcade Crimewise: Gemma: A Novel by Lauren A. Forry.

About the book, from the publisher:

What happened at the river last night? A twisty psychological thriller for readers of Megan Miranda, Megan Abbott, Taylor Adams, and Catriona Ward

Sometime between the late night and early morning hours, in a dank, uncomfortable interrogation room, sits a young woman about to tell you a chilling story. Her pregnant sister, Sarah, is missing. Her cousin is somehow involved. They were all down by the Schuylkill River last night, she says, but she won’t say why. She’s cold, terrified, and confused about what happened. Or is she just lying?

You want to believe her. Her story seems plausible on the surface. But as you dig deeper, it’s clear something is very wrong. Instead of helping to find her sister, she keeps telling you stories about her ex-roommate, Gemma. Gemma, who came into their lives offering a six-month cash deposit up front, proffered from a dirty gym bag. Gemma, who disrupted their routines with her manipulative behavior, her bizarre habits, and her secrets. Gemma, who disappeared quietly several months ago, leaving no trace of where she went or that she had ever lived with them all.

Who was Gemma and what happened to her? What does it have to do with Sarah’s disappearance? Are they part of some elaborate game or is something else going on? And what happened by the river last night? Why can’t she just tell the truth?

From the author of They Did Bad Things, Gemma is a devious new mystery and slowly escalating psychological thriller with a touch of horror.

Visit Lauren A. Forry's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Capturing News, Capturing Democracy"

New from Oxford University Press: Capturing News, Capturing Democracy: Trump and the Voice of America by Kate Wright, Martin Scott, and Mel Bunce.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Voice of America (VOA) is the oldest and largest US government-funded international media organization. In 2020, Donald Trump nominated Michael Pack, a right-wing documentarian and close friend of Steve Bannon, to lead the US Agency for Global Media - the independent federal agency overseeing US-funded international media. During Pack's seven-month tenure, more than 30 whistleblowers filed complaints against him and a judge ruled that he had infringed journalists' constitutional right to freedom of speech.

How did such a major international public service media network become intensely politicized by government allies in such a short time, despite having its editorial independence protected by law?

Capturing News, Capturing Democracy puts these events in historical and international context―and develops a new analytical framework for understanding government capture and its connection to broader processes of democratic backsliding. Drawing from in-depth interviews with network managers and journalists, and analysis of private correspondence and internal documents, Kate Wright, Martin Scott, and Mel Bunce analyze how political appointees, White House officials, and right-wing media influenced VOA― changing its reporting of the Black Lives Matter movement and the 2020 presidential election. The authors stress that leaving the VOA unprotected leaves it and other public media open to targeting by authoritarian leadership and poses serious risks to US democracy. Further, they offer practical recommendations for how to protect the network and other international public service media better in the future.

--Marshal Zeringue

"April Storm"

Coming November 12 from Harper: April Storm: A Novel by Leila Meacham.

About the book, from the publisher:

Katherine Walker enjoys an enviable life. Her husband is an accomplished doctor, her children are bright and successful, and she devotes herself to charity work that uplifts her Suburban Colorado community. Settling into a new year, her life couldn’t be better. . .

Until April.

For Katherine, April has always rained trouble—but this time may be even stormier than the fraught past she’s trying to overcome. Already distraught over the child she miscarried in this same cursed month many years ago, the emotionally fragile woman isn’t ready to consider the overwhelming evidence that someone may be trying to take her husband—and her life.

Featuring the complex characters and powerful storytelling that are the beloved hallmarks of Leila Meacham’s novels beginning with her breakout debut Roses, April Storm is a page-turning triumph that caps a remarkable literary career.

Visit Leila Meacham's website.

The Page 69 Test: Roses.

The Page 69 Test: Titans.

My Book, The Movie: Titans.

Writers Read: Leila Meacham (April 2016).

--Marshal Zeringue

"Political Moods"

New from the University of California Press: Political Moods: Film Melodrama and the Cold War in the Two Koreas by Travis Workman.

About the book, from the publisher:

Melodrama films dominated the North and South Korean industries in the period between liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945 and the hardening of dictatorship in the 1970s. The films of each industry are often read as direct reflections of Cold War and Korean War political ideologies and national historical experiences, and therefore as aesthetically and politically opposed to each other. However, Political Moods develops a comparative analysis across the Cold War divide, analyzing how films in both North and South Korea convey political and moral ideas through the sentimentality of the melodramatic mode. Travis Workman reveals that the melancholic moods of film melodrama express the somatic and social conflicts between political ideologies and excesses of affect, meaning, and historical references. These moods dramatize the tension between the language of Cold War politics and the negative affects that connect cinema to what it cannot fully represent. The result is a new way of historicizing the cinema of the two Koreas in relation to colonialism, postcolonialism, war, and nation building.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Cold, Cold World"

New from Severn House: A Cold, Cold World by Elena Taylor.

About the book, from the publisher:

A female sheriff tries to fill her late father's boots and be the sheriff her small Washington State mountain town needs as a deadly snow storm engulfs the town, in this dark, twisty mystery.

The world felt pure. Nature made the location pristine again, hiding the scene from prying eyes. As if no one had died there at all.

In the months since Bet Rivers solved her first murder investigation and secured the sheriff's seat in Collier, she's remained determined to keep her town safe. With a massive snowstorm looming, it's more important than ever that she stays vigilant.

When Bet gets a call that a family of tourists has stumbled across a teen injured in a snowmobile accident on a mountain ridge, she braves the storm to investigate. However, once she arrives at the scene of the accident it's clear to Bet that the teen is not injured; he's dead. And has been for some time . . .

Investigating a possible homicide is hard enough, but with the worst snowstorm the valley has seen in years threatening the safety of her town, not to mention the integrity of her crime scenes - as they seem to be mounting up as well - Bet has to move fast to uncover the complicated truth and prove that she's worthy of keeping her father's badge.

Visit Elena Taylor's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Intimate Subjects"

New from the University of Chicago Press: Intimate Subjects: Touch and Tangibility in Britain's Cerebral Age by Simeon Koole.

About the book, from the publisher:

An insightful history of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain told through a single sense: touch.

When, where, and who gets to touch and be touched, and who decides? What do we learn through touch? How does touch bring us closer together or push us apart? These are urgent contemporary questions, but they have their origins in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain, when new urban encounters compelled intense discussion of what touch was, and why it mattered. In this vividly written book, Simeon Koole excavates the history of these concerns and reveals how they continue to shape ideas about “touch” in the present.

Intimate Subjects takes us to the bustling railway stations, shady massage parlors, all-night coffee stalls, and other shared spaces where passengers, customers, vagrants, and others came into contact, leading to new understandings of touch. We travel in crammed subway cars, where strangers negotiated the boundaries of personal space. We visit tea shops where waitresses made difficult choices about autonomy and consent. We enter classrooms in which teachers wondered whether blind children could truly grasp the world and labs in which neurologists experimented on themselves and others to unlock the secrets of touch. We tiptoe through London’s ink-black fogs, in which disoriented travelers became newly conscious of their bodies and feared being accosted by criminals. Across myriad forgotten encounters such as these, Koole shows, touch remade what it meant to be embodied—as well as the meanings of disability, personal boundaries, and scientific knowledge.

With imagination and verve, Intimate Subjects offers a new way of theorizing the body and the senses, as well as a new way of thinking about embodiment and vulnerability today.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The House on Cold Creek Lane"

New from Severn House: The House on Cold Creek Lane by Liz Alterman.

About the book, from the publisher:

An unflinching examination of motherhood and the dark side of domesticity set against a suburban backdrop that's anything but blissful. This twisty tale invites readers to a slow motion

unravelling that culminates in a devastating finale!

Who was I? What had I become?
Breathe, I c

ommanded. You're doing this for your family.

When Laurel and Rob West move into their new home in New Jersey, it seems too good to be true. But Laurel can't shake off her old feelings of anxiety. The neighbor who pays far too much attention to the Wests' two young children . . . Rob watching her every misstep . . . and there's something people aren't telling her about this house . . .

I promised myself I wouldn't go to that neighborhood again. Not that street. Not so soon.
But I couldn't help it. They made it too easy.

Corey Sutton is trying to outrun her past. Recently divorced and reeling from a devastating loss, she moves into her widowed mother's retirement condo in Florida. Everyone says she just needs some time to recover and rebuild . . . but is Corey beyond saving? She wants answers. And there's very little she won't do to get them.

Though Laurel and Corey have never met, the women have something in common, and if they're not careful, it may just destroy them both . . .

Visit Liz Alterman's website.

Q&A with Liz Alterman.

My Book, The Movie: The Perfect Neighborhood.

The Page 69 Test: The Perfect Neighborhood.

--Marshal Zeringue

"To Fix a National Character"

New from Johns Hopkins University Press: To Fix a National Character: The United States in the First Barbary War, 1800-1805 by Abigail G. Mullen.

About the book, from the publisher:

A new history of the First Barbary War, a conflict that helped plant the seeds for the United States' ascent to a global superpower.

After the American Revolution, maritime traders of the United States lost the protection of Britain's navy, leading privateers from the Barbary States—Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and the Sultanate of Morocco—to prey on American shipping in the Mediterranean, kidnapping and enslaving American sailors. While most European countries made treaties to circumvent this predation, this option was fiscally untenable for the young nation, and on May 14, 1801, Tripoli declared war on the United States.

In To Fix a National Character, Abigail G. Mullen argues that the First Barbary War represented much more than the military defeat of an irritating minor power. The United States sought a much more ambitious goal: entrance to the Mediterranean community, as well as respect and recognition as an equal member of the European Atlantic World. Without land bases in the region, good relations with European powers were critical to the United States' success in the war. And because the federal government was barely involved in the distant conflict, this diplomacy fell to a series of consuls and commodores whose goals, as well as diplomatic skills, varied greatly.

Drawing on naval records, consular documents, and personal correspondences, Mullen focuses on the early years of the war, when Americans began to build relationships with their Mediterranean counterparts. This nuanced political and diplomatic history demonstrates that these connections represented the turning point of the war, rather than any individual battles. Though the war officially ended in 1805, whether the United States truly "won" the war is debatable: European nations continued to regard the United States as a lesser nation, and the Barbary states continued their demands for at least another decade.

Visit Abby Mullen's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Singer Sisters"

New from Flatiron Books: The Singer Sisters: A Novel by Sarah Seltzer.

About the book, from the publisher:

Two generations of a folk-rock dynasty collide over art, love, longing, and family secrets in this captivating and poignant debut

It's 1996, and alt-rocker Emma Cantor is on tour, with her sights trained on a record deal. Emma’s got no lack of inspiration for her music — chiefly her mother Judie, a 1960s folk legend whose confessional songs made her an icon before her mysterious withdrawal from the public eye. Emma is baffled by Judie's coldness, and is deeply shaken when she learns a long-kept secret about their family. When Emma uncovers more about her mother's past, she is vaulted to new heights as a performer. But the knowledge she gains also propels her toward a musical betrayal that further fractures her relationship with Judie. Increasingly famous, but fragile and isolated, Emma grapples with her mother’s legacy and what it means for her own future.

With the richness of a beloved folk song, The Singer Sisters moves between ’60s folk clubs and ’90s music festivals, chronicling the ups and downs of stardom while asking what women artists must sacrifice for success.

Visit Sarah Seltzer's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Taking Funny Music Seriously"

New from Indiana University Press: Taking Funny Music Seriously by Lily E. Hirsch.

About the book, from the publisher:

Take funny music seriously! Though often dismissed as silly or derivative, funny music, Lily E. Hirsch argues, is incredibly creative and dynamic, serving multiple aims from the celebratory to the rebellious, the entertaining to the mentally uplifting.

Music can be a rich site for humor, with so many opportunities that are ripe for a comedic left turn. Taking Funny Music Seriously includes original interviews with some of the best musical humorists, such as Tom Lehrer, "the J. D. Salinger of musical satire"; Peter Schickele, who performed as the invented composer P. D. Q. Bach, the supposed lost son of the great J. S. Bach; Kate Micucci and Riki Lindhome of the funny music duo Garfunkel and Oates; comedic film composer Theodore Shapiro; Too Slim of the country group Riders in the Sky; and musical comedian Jessica McKenna, from the podcast Off Book, part of a long line of "funny girls." With their help, Taking Funny Music Seriously examines comedy from a variety of genres and musical contexts―from bad singing to rap, classical music to country, Broadway music to film music, and even love songs and songs about death.

In its coverage of comedic musical media, Taking Funny Music Seriously is an accessible and lively look at funny music. It offers us a chance to appreciate more fully the joke in music and the benefits of getting that joke―especially in times of crisis―including comfort, catharsis, and connection.

Visit Lily E. Hirsch's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Plays Well with Others"

New from William Morrow: Plays Well with Others: A Novel by Sophie Brickman.

About the book, from the publisher:

It takes a village...just not this one.

Annie Lewin is at the end of her rope. She’s a mother of three young children, her workaholic husband is never around, and the vicious competition for spots in New York City’s kindergartens is heating up. A New York Times journalist-turned-parenting-advice-columnist for an internet start-up, Annie can’t help but judge the insanity of it all—even as she finds herself going to impossible lengths to secure the best spot for her own son.

As Annie comes to terms with the infinitesimal odds of success, her intensifying rivalry with hotshot lawyer Belinda Brenner—a deliciously hateful nemesis, what with her perfectly curated bento box lunches and effortless Instagram chic—pushes her to the brink. Of course, this newly raw and unhinged version of Annie is great for the advice column: the more she spins out, the more clicks and comments she gets.

But when she commits a ghastly social faux pas that goes viral, she’s forced to confront the question: is she really any better than the cutthroat parents she always judged?

A shimmering epistolary novel incorporating emails, group texts, advice columns, newspaper profiles, and more, Plays Well with Others is a whip-smart, genuinely funny romp through the minefield of modern motherhood. But beneath its fast-paced, satirical veneer, Brickman gives us a fresh, open-hearted, all-too-real take on what it means to be a parent—fierce love, craziness, and all.

Visit Sophie Brickman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Bodies in the Middle"

New from the University of South Carolina Press: Bodies in the Middle: Black Women, Sexual Violence, and Complex Imaginings of Justice by Maya Hislop.

About the book, from the publisher:

A probing analysis of Black women's attempts to pursue justice for sexual-violence victims within often hostile social and legal systems

In Bodies in the Middle: Black Women, Sexual Violence, and Complex Imaginings of Justice, Maya Hislop examines the lack of place that Black women experience, specifically when they are victims of sexual violence. Hislop uses both historical and literary analyses to explore how women, in the face of indifference and often hostility, have sought to redefine justice for themselves within a framework she calls "Afro-pessimistic justice." Afro-pessimism begins from the belief that Black life in America, and in turn the American justice system, is constrained within a framework of anti-Blackness meant to enforce white supremacy. Inspired by the work of Black-studies luminaries such as Orlando Patterson, Sylvia Wynter, and Fred Moten, Hislop asks what justice can look like in the absence of total victory and how Black women have attempted to define alternative paths to a just future.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Strange Folk"

New from Atria Books: Strange Folk: A Novel by Alli Dyer.

About the book, from the publisher:

A woman returns to her estranged, magical family in Appalachia, where a conjuring meant to protect the community may have summoned something sinister in this lush, shimmering, and wildly imaginative debut novel, perfect for fans of Alice Hoffman, Deborah Harkness, and Sarah Addison Allen.

Lee left Craw Valley at eighteen without a backward glance. She wanted no part of the generations of her family who tapped into the power of the land to heal and help their community. But when she abandons her new life in California and has nowhere else to go, Lee returns to Craw Valley with her children in tow to live with her grandmother, Belva.

Lee vows to stay far away from Belva’s world of magic, but when the target of one of her grandmother’s spells is discovered dead, Lee fears that Belva’s magic may have conjured something far more sinister.

As she and her family search for answers, Lee travels down a rabbit hole of strange phenomena and family secrets that force her to reckon with herself and rediscover her power in order to protect her family and the town she couldn’t leave behind.

Visit Alli Dyer's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Land of Sunshine"

New from the University of Nebraska Press: Land of Sunshine: Race, Gender, and Regional Development in a California Periodical by Sigrid Anderson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Although denied the right to vote, late nineteenth-century women writers engaged in debates over land settlement and expansion through literary texts in regional periodicals. In “Land of Sunshine”: Race, Gender, and Regional Development in a California Periodical, Sigrid Anderson uncovers the political fictions of writers Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Mary Austin, Constance Goddard DuBois, Beatriz Bellido de Luna, and Edith Eaton (Sui Sin Far), all of whom were contributors to the Southern California periodical Land of Sunshine.

In this magazine, which generally touted the superiority of the West and its white settlers, women authors undercut triumphalist narratives of racial superiority and rapid development by focusing on the stories of hardship experienced by the marginalized communities displaced by white expansion. By telling stories from the points of view of marginalized peoples who had been disempowered in the political sphere and shaping those stories to offer solutions to land settlement questions, these women writers used literature to make a political point. “Land of Sunshine” unpacks the competing visions of Southern California embedded in this periodical while revealing the essential role of magazines in place-making.

--Marshal Zeringue

"In Every Life"

New from Harper Muse: In Every Life by Rea Frey.

About the book, from the publisher:

What happens when a husband's dying wish is for his wife to find a new love . . . before he's even gone?

Harper is living a life she never expected. After a failed attempt at making it as an artist in New York while falling for and losing her first love, her dreams crumbled in the span of a week. A decade later, Harper is happily living a simpler life as an art teacher in Chattanooga with her beloved new husband, Ben.

When Ben is diagnosed with late-stage cancer, their whole world shifts. Despite the bad news, Ben comes up with one final wish for his wife: he wants Harper to find a new partner before he dies. When the New York Times sends a journalist to do a feature story about Ben's life, Harper comes face to face with Liam Hale, the man she fell madly in love with all those years ago and never saw again.

Suddenly, Harper is faced with all of those old what-ifs:

What if Harper had ended up with Liam instead of Ben?

What if she'd pursued life as an artist instead of teaching?

What if it had all turned out differently?

After making a wish, Harper wakes up to find herself in a parallel universe . . . where her what-ifs become a reality.

Is the grass really greener, or is she standing right where she should be--no matter the cost?

Visit Rea Frey's website.

My Book, The Movie: Not Her Daughter.

The Page 69 Test: Not Her Daughter.

Writers Read: Rea Frey (September 2018).

--Marshal Zeringue

"Monuments Decolonized"

New from Stanford University Press: Monuments Decolonized: Algeria's French Colonial Heritage by Susan Slyomovics.

About the book, from the publisher:

"Statuomania" overtook Algeria beginning in the nineteenth century as the French affinity for monuments placed thousands of war memorials across the French colony. But following Algeria's hard-fought independence in 1962, these monuments took on different meaning and some were "repatriated" to France, legally or clandestinely. Today, in both Algeria and France, people are moving and removing, vandalizing and preserving this contested, yet shared monumental heritage.

Susan Slyomovics follows the afterlives of French-built war memorials in Algeria and those taken to France. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in both countries and interviews with French and Algerian heritage actors and artists, she analyzes the colonial nostalgia, dissonant heritage, and ongoing decolonization and iconoclasm of these works of art. Monuments emerge here as objects with a soul, offering visual records of the colonized Algerian native, the European settler colonizer, and the contemporary efforts to engage with a dark colonial past. Richly illustrated with more than 100 color images, Monuments Decolonized offers a fresh aesthetic take on the increasingly global move to fell monuments that celebrate settler colonial histories.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Spice Gate"

New from HarperVoyager: The Spice Gate: A Fantasy by Prashanth Srivatsa.

About the book, from the publisher:

The weight of spice is more than you know.

Relics of a mysterious god, the Spice Gates connect the eight far-flung kingdoms, each separated by a distinct spice and only accessible by those born with a special mark. This is not a caste of distinction, though, but one of subjugation: Spice Carriers suffer the lashes of their masters, the weight of the spices they bear on their backs, and the jolting pain of the Gates themselves.

Amir is one such Spice Carrier, and he dreams of escaping his fate of being a mule for the rich who gorge themselves on spices like the addicted gluttons they are. More important than relieving his own pain, though, is saving his family, especially his brother, born like him with the unfortunate spice mark that designates him for a life of servitude.

But while Amir makes his plans for freedom, something stirs in the inhospitable spaces between the kingdoms. Fate has designs of its own for Amir, and he soon finds himself drawn into a conspiracy that could disrupt the delicate dynamics of the kingdoms forever.

The more Amir discovers truth and myth blurring, the more he realizes that his own schemes are insignificant compared to the machinations going on around him. Forced to chase after shadows with unlikely companions, searching for answers that he never even thought to question, Amir’s simple dream of slipping away transforms into a grand, Spice Gate–hopping adventure. Gods, assassins, throne-keepers, and slaves all have a vested interest in the spice trade, and Amir will have to decide—for the first time in his life—what kind of world he wants to live in…if the world survives at all.

Visit Prashanth Srivatsa's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Heavyweight"

New from Duke University Press: Heavyweight: Black Boxers and the Fight for Representation by Jordana Moore Saggese.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Heavyweight, Jordana Moore Saggese examines images of Black heavyweight boxers to map the visual terrain of racist ideology in the United States, paying particular attention to the intersecting discourses of Blackness, masculinity, and sport. Looking closely at the “shadow archive” of portrayals across fine art, vernacular imagery, and public media at the turn of the twentieth century, shedemonstrates how the images of boxers reveal the racist stereotypes implicit in them, many of which continue to structure ideas of Black men today. With a focus on both anonymous fighters and notorious champions, including Jack Johnson, Saggese contends that popular images of these men provided white spectators a way to render themselves experts on Blackness and Black masculinity. These images became the blueprint for white conceptions of the Black male body—existing between fear and fantasy, simultaneously an object of desire and an instrument of violence. Reframing boxing as yet another way whiteness establishes the violent mythology of its supremacy, Saggese highlights the role of imagery in normalizing a culture of anti-Blackness.

Visit Jordana Moore Saggese's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Truth According to Ember"

New from Berkley: The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava.

About the book, from the publisher:

A Chickasaw woman who can’t catch a break serves up a little white lie that snowballs into much more in this witty and irresistible rom-com by debut author Danica Nava.

Ember Lee Cardinal has not always been a liar—well, not for anything that counted at least. But her job search is not going well and when her resumé is rejected for the thirty-seventh time, she takes matters into her own hands. She gets “creative” listing her qualifications and answers the ethnicity question on applications with a lie—a half-lie, technically. No one wanted Native American Ember, but white Ember has just landed her dream accounting job on Park Avenue (Oklahoma City, that is).

Accountant Ember thrives in corporate life—and her love life seems to be looking up too: Danuwoa Colson, the IT guy and fellow Native who caught her eye on her first day, seems to actually be interested in her too. Despite her unease over the no-dating policy at work, they start to see each other secretly, which somehow makes it even hotter? But when they're caught in a compromising position on a work trip, a scheming colleague blackmails Ember, threatening to expose their relationship. As the manipulation continues to grow, so do Ember’s lies. She must make the hard decision to either stay silent or finally tell the truth, which could cost her everything.

Visit Danica Nava's website.

--Marshal Zeringue