"My So-Called Family"

New from Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR): My So-Called Family by Gia Gordon.

About the book, from the publisher:

A moving middle grade debut about foster care, self-advocacy, and realizing that a found family is a real family.

It’s the first week of middle school, and Ash (don’t call her “Ashley”) already has a class assignment: Make a family tree. But how can Ash make a family tree if she doesn’t have a family? Ever since she was four years old, Ash has been in foster care, living with one so-called family after another. Now she’s stuck with Gladys. And the only place Ash feels safe is in the branches of her favorite tree, drawing in her sketchbook, hidden from the view of Gladys’ son Jordan.

As Jordan becomes harder to hide from, and more dangerous to be around, Ash isn’t sure who she can trust. A new friend, an old friend, some teachers at school? Sometimes the hardest part of asking for help is knowing who to ask.

In My So-Called Family, Gia Gordon weaves a lyrical story about complicated family dynamics that’s perfect for fans of Fish in a Tree and Counting by 7s.

Visit Gia Gordon's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Putin's Revenge"

New from Columbia University Press: Putin's Revenge: Why Russia Invaded Ukraine by Lucian Kim.

About the book, from the publisher:

In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in a bloody escalation of a conflict that had begun eight years earlier. What drove Vladimir Putin to launch Europe’s largest land war since World War II?

Lucian Kim―an on-the-ground reporter in the region for decades―offers a gripping, definitive account of Russia’s path to war, from Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution and the 2014 Maidan uprising right up to the full-scale invasion. He examines the Kremlin’s motives, tracing Putin’s transformation from a seemingly pragmatic leader into an embittered tyrant who saw it as his historical mission to reconquer Ukraine. Kim places the war in the broader context of the Soviet Union’s collapse, arguing that it represents a clash between those who reject the Soviet past―like Volodymyr Zelensky and Alexei Navalny―and those who still identify with it. He debunks the Kremlin narrative that the West instigated the conflict, and he instead identifies the root causes of the war in the legacy of Russian imperialism and Putin’s dictatorial rule. At the same time, Kim is critical of the West’s empty promises to Ukraine, which made the country vulnerable to a revanchist Russia.

Putin’s Revenge features insight from Kim’s first-hand reporting on key moments, such as Russia’s occupation of Crimea and the beginning of the Russian-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine. This book tells the story of the lead-up to the invasion with revelatory detail and fresh analysis, shedding new light on a conflict that has roiled the post–Cold War order.

Visit Lucian Kim's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Ghosts of Waikiki"

New from Crooked Lane Books: Ghosts of Waikiki: A Novel by Jennifer K. Morita.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this atmospheric debut mystery, an out-of-work journalist and the homicide detective who broke her heart must cipher out a murder before the clock runs out, perfect for fans of Naomi Hirahara and Jane Pek.

After the newspaper she works for folds and the freelance assignments no longer pay the bills, Maya Wong reluctantly returns to her native Hawaiʻi to ghostwrite controversial land developer Parker Hamilton’s biography. But when the Hamilton patriarch is found dead under suspicious circumstances, Maya is unwittingly drawn into the investigation.

Maya’s family and friends aren’t happy about her work for Hamilton. And now, with her ex, Detective Koa Yamada, on the case, she’s forced to contend with the very person she was determined to avoid.

All too soon, Maya is dodging assailants and digging for clues while juggling girls’ nights out with her old BFFs and weekly family dinners. Convinced the police are after the wrong man, Maya is determined to stop the killer before it’s too late.

Exploring timely issues in Hawaiʻi, including locals getting priced out of paradise, Ghosts of Waikīkī is an engrossing mystery in the vein of The Verifiers.

Visit Jennifer K. Morita's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Forbidden"

New from NYU Press: Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig by Jordan D. Rosenblum.

About the book, from the publisher:

A surprising history of how the pig has influenced Jewish identity

Jews do not eat pig. This (not always true) observation has been made by both Jews and non-Jews for more than three thousand years and is rooted in biblical law. Though the Torah prohibits eating pig meat, it is not singled out more than other food prohibitions. Horses, rabbits, squirrels, and even vultures, while also not kosher, do not inspire the same level of revulsion for Jews as the pig. The pig has become an iconic symbol for people to signal their Jewishness, non-Jewishness, or rebellion from Judaism. There is nothing in the Bible that suggests Jews are meant to embrace this level of pig-phobia.

Starting with the Hebrew Bible, Jordan D. Rosenblum historicizes the emergence of the pig as a key symbol of Jewish identity, from the Roman persecution of ancient rabbis, to the Spanish Inquisition, when so-called Marranos (“Pigs”) converted to Catholicism, to Shakespeare’s writings, to modern memoirs of those leaving Orthodox Judaism. The pig appears in debates about Jewish emancipation in eighteenth-century England and in vaccine conspiracies; in World War II rallying cries, when many American Jewish soldiers were “eating ham for Uncle Sam;” in conversations about pig sandwiches reportedly consumed by Karl Marx; and in recent deliberations about the kosher status of Impossible Pork.

All told, there is a rich and varied story about the associations of Jews and pigs over time, both emerging from within Judaism and imposed on Jews by others. Expansive yet accessible, Forbidden offers a captivating look into Jewish history and identity through the lens of the pig.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne"

Coming March 25 from G.P. Putnam’s Sons: The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne by Ron Currie.

About the book, from the publisher:

A mythic, propulsive novel about the tangled fates of a matriarchal crime family in Maine.

Your ancestors breathe through you. Sometimes, they call for vengeance.

Babs Dionne, proud Franco-American, doting grandmother, and vicious crime matriarch, rules her small town of Waterville, Maine, with an iron fist. She controls the flow of drugs into Little Canada with the help of her loyal lieutenants, girlfriends since they were teenagers, and her eldest daughter, Lori, a Marine vet struggling with addiction.

When a drug kingpin discovers that his numbers are down in the upper northeast, he sends a malevolent force, known only as The Man, to investigate. At the same time, Babs’s youngest daughter, Sis, has gone missing, which doesn’t seem at all like a coincidence. In twenty-four hours, Sis will be found dead, and the whole town will seek shelter from Babs’s wrath.

The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne is a crime saga like no other, with a ferocious matriarch at its bruised, beating heart. With sharp wit and profound empathy, award-winning author Ron Currie, delivers an unforgettable novel exploring love, retribution, and the ancestral roots that both nurture and trap us.

Learn more about the book and author at Ron Currie's website.

The Page 69 Test: God Is Dead.

My Book, The Movie: God Is Dead.

The Page 69 Test: Everything Matters!.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Invoking the Fathers"

New from Johns Hopkins University Press: Invoking the Fathers: Dangerous Metaphors and Founding Myths in Congressional Politics by Sarah Kornfield.

About the book, from the publisher:

Why is the metaphor of the "Founding Fathers" so insidious—and how does it impact American politics?

American politicians routinely invoke the metaphor of the "Founding Fathers" when referring to the men who supposedly set the United States on a path to greatness. On average, the term "Founding Fathers" is uttered by a congressional member every single day that Congress is in session. Why is this metaphor repeated constantly—and what effect does it have on policy? In Invoking the Fathers, communication scholar Sarah Kornfield links this rhetorical strategy to the rise of patriarchal white supremacy and Christian nationalism in the United States.

Using the House and the Senate as the objects of her study, Kornfield traces the trope of fatherhood across congressional discourse and theorizes a rhetoric of sovereignty in which the founders' most obvious heirs—white Christian men—inherit America and its governance. Congressional politicians use this metaphor in four ways: to supposedly advocate for rights and liberties, to demand checks and balances, to celebrate American exceptionalism, and to call for bipartisan politics. These four situations are all, at their core, disputes over what kind of nation America is or should be.

Metaphors are not harmless, Kornfield argues, and this one is particularly pernicious: the fatherhood metaphor is taken up and violently embodied by men's rights groups, white supremacist groups, and Christian nationalists. Ultimately, the book demonstrates how this gendered metaphor creates and reinforces a legislative system in which some are considered more equal than others.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Rolling Toward Clear Skies"

New from Lake Union: Rolling Toward Clear Skies: A Novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde.

About the book, from the publisher:

A foster mother must contend with the emotional turmoil of her new blended family in a heartfelt novel of hope and second chances by New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde.

Maggie Blount, divorced mother of two and California physician, puts her private practice on hold when disaster strikes. Doctors on Wheels takes her and Alex―Maggie’s professional and romantic partner―wherever they’re needed. After rolling into rural Louisiana in the wake of a category five hurricane, Maggie immediately bonds with two sisters and their puppy, all orphaned by the storm. It’s enough to break Maggie’s heart, and she’s not leaving them behind.

Feeling blessed and looking forward to their new foster home in affluent Vista del Mar―a world apart from the one they’ve known―Jean and Rose are polite, appreciative, and humble. Frankly, they're the polar opposite of Maggie’s own self-involved teenage daughters, Willa and Gemma, who resist this intrusion by strangers into their privileged lives. Soon enough, Maggie’s new blended family is in chaos.

Teaching Willa and Gemma about gratitude and empathy will be hard enough. Maggie must also admit her own role in their entitled upbringing, undo the damage, and anticipate the needs of all four girls and a puppy, all amid faraway natural disasters and those closer to home.

Visit Catherine Ryan Hyde's website.

Q&A with Catherine Ryan Hyde.

The Page 69 Test: Brave Girl, Quiet Girl.

The Page 69 Test: My Name is Anton.

The Page 69 Test: Seven Perfect Things.

The Page 69 Test: Boy Underground.

The Page 69 Test: Dreaming of Flight.

The Page 69 Test: So Long, Chester Wheeler.

The Page 69 Test: A Different Kind of Gone.

The Page 69 Test: Life, Loss, and Puffins.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Depth: A Kantian Account of Reason"

New from Oxford University Press: Depth: A Kantian Account of Reason by Melissa Zinkin.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Depth : A Kantian Account of Reason Melissa Zinkin provides a new and highly original interpretation of Kant's view of reason. Unlike recent interpretations, which claim that for Kant reason is valuable because it is the source of moral value, this book argues that Kant considers reason to be the source of a more fundamental and wider ranging value: depth. Although philosophers often use the term “depth” to indicate a kind of value, they rarely make explicit what they mean. For instance, they strive to make objections that go “deep into the theory” at issue. They stress the importance of beliefs that are “deeply held” and of “deep desires.” They praise works of great “emotional depth.” Often, these references to depth do real work in an argument. Yet the concept of depth itself remains obscure.

Zinkin argues that depth is the value of the cognition that results from systematic reflection, which is the distinctive activity of human reason. This value, however, is not just a moral or an epistemic value. Rather, it is best understood as an aesthetic value. In other words, what is good about deep cognition is the same as what is good about our experience of a work or art--it engages us, it makes us think, and it is meaningful. An account of Kant's view of reason as the source of depth has advantages over other accounts because it can solve several interpretative puzzles and can show that, throughout his texts, Kant has a unified view of reason. Moreover, it can reveal the deep connection that Kant saw between our reason and our humanity. An implication of this account is that the deep, rational, reflection that is exemplified, and cultivated, by the arts, is important for other human endeavors, such as science and moral action.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Open Minded"

New from William Morrow: Open Minded: A Novel by Chloe Seager.

About the book, from the publisher:

Chloe Seager creates a fun yet thought-provoking novel about two very different women, Holly and Fliss, who are grappling with drastic changes in their relationships after Holly’s boyfriend wants to “open” their relationship and Fliss’s boyfriend wants to “close” theirs.

After nine years of dating, Holly is sure her boyfriend Will is going to propose. But instead of popping the question, he shocks her by suggesting they open their relationship to date other people.

For the last three years, Fliss and her boyfriend Ash have been in a happily open relationship. But now that they’re turning thirty, he wants to close it, throwing Fliss’s whole ethos of living life on her terms rather than society’s expectations into question.

When Fliss overhears Holly crying in the toilets during her first date in nine years, they decide to ditch their dates and have dinner together. They strike up an instant friendship with Fliss agreeing to teach Holly everything she knows about being in an open relationship, while Holly, who’s been with one person for almost a decade, can help Fliss try monogamy.

Fliss is willing to give up dating other people if it means staying with Ash, and Holly is willing to try anything if it means she gets her happy ending with Will. But perhaps both Fliss and Holly will learn that there’s no one size fits all when it comes to relationships...

--Marshal Zeringue

"Unruly Labor"

New from Stanford University Press: Unruly Labor: A History of Oil in the Arabian Sea by Andrea Wright.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the mid-twentieth century, the Arabian Peninsula emerged as a key site of oil production. International companies recruited workers from across the Middle East and Asia to staff their expanding oil projects. Unruly Labor considers the working conditions, hiring practices, and, most important, worker actions and strikes at these oil projects. It illuminates the multiple ways workers built transnational solidarities to agitate for better working conditions, and how worker actions informed shifting understandings of rights, citizenship, and national security. Andrea Wright highlights the increasing associations between oil, governance, and racialized management practices to map how labor was increasingly depoliticized. From the 1940s to 1971, a period that includes the end of formal British imperialism in the Arabian Sea and the development of new state governments, citizenship became both an avenue for workers to advocate for their rights and, simultaneously, a way to limit other solidarities. Examining the interests of workers, government officials, and oil company managers alike, Wright offers a new history of Middle Eastern oil and twentieth-century capitalism—a history that illuminates how labor management and national security concerns have shaped state governance and economic policy priorities.

Andrea Wright is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Asian & Middle Eastern Studies at William & Mary. She is the author of Between Dreams and Ghosts: Indian Migration and Middle Eastern Oil (2021).

--Marshal Zeringue

"Flopping in a Winter Wonderland"

New from HarperCollins: Flopping in a Winter Wonderland by Jason June.

About the book, from the publisher:

Sparks are flying in Winter Wonderland this Christmas in this LGBTQ+ young adult rom-com from Jason June, New York Times bestselling author of Out of the Blue, Jay’s Gay Agenda, and Riley Weaver Needs a Date to the Gaybutante Ball!

All Aaron wants for Christmas is for his brother, Casey, to get over his ex, Raquel. He’d prefer not to be at Winter Wonderland, the island north of Alaska that’s home to a year-round Christmas theme park. But Casey loves Christmas, so here they are. Unfortunately for Aaron, Casey’s determined to do anything to win Raquel back.

All Kris wants for Christmas is for his uncle to move back to Winter Wonderland to be the first gay Santa. To make that happen Kris needs to win the Race, his grade’s annual competition to see who can get a guest to fall in love with them first. Winning means a trip to New York, where Kris would be able to plead his uncle’s case to the founder of Winter Wonderland himself.

After some slippery ice sends Aaron and Kris literally flopping into each other, Kris agrees to help Aaron with his plan to keep Casey single. But in all their scheming, both can’t stop thinking about kissing the other, and it’s not just because of the mistletoe around every corner. Too bad true love isn’t on either of their Christmas lists....

This adorable rom-com from New York Times bestselling author Jason June unwraps the healing power of love and the magic of the Christmas season.

Visit Jason June's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Bibles of the Far Right"

New from Oxford University Press: The Bibles of the Far Right by Hannah M. Strømmen.

About the book, from the publisher:

This study explores the role that Bibles have come to play in the worldview of the contemporary European far right. Taking the case of far-right terrorism in Norway on 22 July 2011 as a starting point, Hannah M. Strømmen argues that particular perceptions of “the Bible” and particular uses of biblical texts have been significant in staking claims to European identity in opposition to Islam. Such perceptions and uses are not only to be found in the case of far-right extremism. The Bible-use that this study maps operates more broadly in counter-jihadist writings, transnational right-wing movements, and conservative philosophy. Crucially, connections and continuities with past Bible-use are brought to light.

Strømmen charts new directions for research in biblical studies, presenting a proposal for mapping how Bibles operate in the world as assemblages. Mapping biblical assemblages allows scholars of biblical reception to analyse diverse forms of Bible-use. Such mapping goes beyond the notion of the Bible as text to be read in order to address questions of agency, affect, and materiality. Ultimately, Strømmen proposes new ways to understand political Bible-use today in order to respond to violence inspired by biblical texts.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Lies We Leave Behind"

New from MIRA: The Lies We Leave Behind: A Novel: A harrowing epic love story set in WWII by Noelle Salazar.

About the book, from the publisher:

For readers of Kate Quinn and Beatriz Williams, this sweeping story follows a fearless nurse who must leave love behind when duty calls her back to the front.

Somewhere in the Pacific, 1943. Kate Campbell is a nurse who bravely flies back and forth from the front to rescue wounded soldiers, amid long days, harsh conditions and often dangerous weather. Driven by a deep personal need to help in the war effort, she is disappointed when an accident leaves her injured and sends her home to New York. By the time she's healed, the war has moved on, and rather than being returned to her post in the Pacific, Kate is sent to the English countryside.

There, Kate comes face-to-face with the enemy and confronts the heavy toll of violence while tending to the soldiers in her care. She never intended to fall in love, but despite herself, she falls for an officer with a broken femur, startling blue eyes and a wicked sense of humor. For the first time, Kate sees a future for herself. But before she can pursue it, a secret from her past calls her to duty, and she'll have to travel back into danger one more time to rescue a part of herself she'd left behind. But will she make it back? And if she does, will her future still be waiting for her if she does?

Visit Noelle Salazar's website.

Writers Read: Noelle Salazar (August 2019).

My Book, The Movie: The Flight Girls.

The Page 69 Test: The Flight Girls.

--Marshal Zeringue

"How to Kill An Asteroid"

New from W. W. Norton & Company: How to Kill an Asteroid: The Real Science of Planetary Defense by Robin George Andrews.

About the book, from the publisher:

A gripping account of the “city-killer” asteroids that could threaten Earth and the race to build a planetary defense system.

There are approximately 25,000 “city killer” asteroids in near-Earth orbit―and most are yet to be found. Small enough to evade detection, they are capable of large-scale destruction, and represent our greatest cosmic threat. But in September 2022, against all odds, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission deliberately crashed a spacecraft into a carefully selected city killer, altering the asteroid’s orbit and proving that we stand a chance against them.

In How to Kill an Asteroid, award-winning science journalist Robin George Andrews―who was at DART mission control when it happened―reveals the development of the technology that made it possible, from spotting elusive asteroids and comets to figuring out their geologic defenses and orchestrating a deflection campaign. In a propulsive narrative that reads like a sci-fi thriller, Andrews tells the story of the planetary defense movement, and introduces the international team of scientists and engineers now working to protect Earth.

Visit Robin George Andrews's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"To Die For"

New from Grand Central Publishing: To Die For by David Baldacci.

About the book, from the publisher:

From #1 New York Times bestselling author, David Baldacci, the 6:20 Man returns, this time sent to the Pacific Northwest to aid the FBI in a case that gets more complicated with the more questions Devine asks—and he’s about to come face-to-face with his nemesis, the girl on the train.

Travis Devine has become a pro at adapting to any situation to accomplish the mission set in front of him. Whether it’s a high-powered corporate setting or small-town community, Devine will become the man for the job. His time as an Army Ranger and on the financial battlefields of Wall Street gave him the skills he needed, and he’s put them to good use. But this time it’s not his skills that send him to Seattle to aid the FBI in escorting orphaned, twelve-year-old Betsy Odom to a meeting with her uncle, who’s under investigation for RICO charges. Instead, he’s hoping to lie low and keep off the radar of an enemy that he evaded on a train in Switzerland and who has been after him ever since—the girl on the train.

But as Devine gets to know Betsy, questions begin to arise around the death of her parents. Betsy is adamant that they had never used drugs, but the police in the small rural town where they died insist the Odoms died of an overdose. Devine starts digging for answers, and what he finds points to a conspiracy bigger than he could’ve ever imagined. The question is, how do Betsy, her uncle, and various government agencies all fit into it.

It might finally be time for Devine and the girl on the train to come face-to-face, and when that happens, Devine is going to find himself unsure of who are his allies and who are his enemies. And in some cases, they might well be both.

Visit David Baldacci's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America"

New from the University of Chicago Press: Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America by Rachel Louise Moran.

About the book, from the publisher:

A powerful look at the changing cultural understanding of postpartum depression in America.

New motherhood is often seen as a joyful moment in a woman’s life; for some women, it is also their lowest moment. For much of the twentieth century, popular and medical voices blamed women who had emotional and mental distress after childbirth for their own suffering. By the end of the century, though, women with postpartum mental illnesses sought to take charge of this narrative. In Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America, Rachel Louise Moran explores the history of the naming and mainstreaming of postpartum depression. Coalitions of maverick psychiatrists, psychologists, and women who themselves had survived substantial postpartum distress fought to legitimize and normalize women’s experiences. They argued that postpartum depression is an objective and real illness and fought to avoid it being politicized alongside other fraught medical and political battles over women’s health.

Based on insightful oral histories and in-depth archival research, Blue reveals a secret history of American motherhood, women’s political activism, and the rise of postpartum depression advocacy amid an often-censorious conservative culture. By breaking new ground with the first book-length history of postpartum mental illness in the twentieth century, Moran brings mothers’ battles with postpartum depression out of the shadows and into the light.

Visit Rachel Louise Moran's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Falls to Pieces"

Coming February 18 from Thomas & Mercer: Falls to Pieces by Douglas Corleone.

About the book, from the publisher:

A mother and daughter in hiding are threatened by more than secrets and lies in a twisting novel of paranoia, revenge, and psychological suspense by bestselling author Douglas Corleone.

For two years, Kati Dawes and her teenage daughter, Zoe, have lived off the grid in Hawaii, hiding from a past Kati must forget as if her life depends on it. New names. Anonymous online presence. So far, safe. Until Kati’s fiancé, attorney Eddie Akana, disappears along a popular hiking trail in a Maui national park. Now all eyes are on Kati. Exposure can make a woman with so many secrets very paranoid.

Eddie’s law partner, Noah Walker, is doing everything he can to protect his new client from the press that’s hovering like a vulture and the authorities whose suspicions about Kati―and the disappearance―are rising. Then suddenly, Zoe goes missing as well. Kati will risk anything to find her. But the worst is still to come. Because Kati’s not the only one with secrets. And buried among them is a twist she never saw coming.

Follow Douglas Corleone on Facebook.

--Marshal Zeringue

"If All the World Were Paper"

New from Columbia University Press: If All the World Were Paper: A History of Writing in Hindi by Tyler W. Williams.

About the book, from the publisher:

How do writing and literacy reshape the ways a language and its literature are imagined? If All the World Were Paper explores this question in the context of Hindi, the most widely spoken language in Southern Asia and the fourth most widely spoken language in the world today. Emerging onto the literary scene of India in the mid-fourteenth century, the vernacular of Hindi quickly acquired a place alongside “classical” languages like Sanskrit and Persian as a medium of literature and scholarship. The material and social processes through which it came to be written down and the particular form that it took―as illustrated storybooks, loose-leaf textbooks, personal notebooks, and holy scriptures―played a critical role in establishing Hindi as a language capable of transmitting poetry, erudition, and even revelation.

If All the World Were Paper combines close readings of literary and scholastic works with an examination of hundreds of handwritten books from precolonial India to tell the story of Hindi literature’s development and reveal the relationships among ideologies of writing, material practices, and literary genres. Tyler W. Williams forcefully argues for a new approach to the literary archive, demonstrating how the ways books were inscribed, organized, and used can tell us as much about their meaning and significance as the texts within them. This book sets out a novel program for engaging with the archive of Hindi and of South Asian languages more broadly at a moment when much of that archive faces existential threats.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Magnificent Ruins"

New from Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill: The Magnificent Ruins by Nayantara Roy.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this "rare feast" of a novel, a young Indian American book editor inherits her estranged family’s ancestral home–and their long-buried secrets (Rachel Lyon, author of Self-Portrait With Boy).

It is the summer of 2015, and Lila De is on the verge of a breakthrough in her career at a prestigious New York publishing house. But when she gets a call from her mother in India, informing her that she’s inherited her family’s sprawling estate, she must confront the legacy of an extended family that she thought she left behind sixteen years ago.  

Returning to Kolkata reunites Lila with her mother after a decade of estrangement, and then there are her grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins, all of whom still live in the house, all of whom resent her sudden inheritance. To make matters more complicated, her first boyfriend seeks her out when she arrives, and her star author—and occasional lover—is suddenly determined to make things serious.   

As Lila tries to come to terms with both past and present, long-suppressed secrets from her family emerge, culminating in an act of shocking violence, and she must finally reckon with her inherited custom of keeping everything under the surface. 

Wise, witty, and deeply moving, The Magnificent Ruins is an utterly addictive read and a stunning debut. 

Visit Nayantara Roy's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Penman of the Founding"

New from Oxford University Press: Penman of the Founding: A Biography of John Dickinson by Jane E. Calvert.

About the book, from the publisher:

Why is it that so many Americans have not heard of John Dickinson?

John Dickinson of Pennsylvania and Delaware was an early leader of the resistance to British rule in the American colonies. In fact, to many, he was the most prominent figure in the struggle for independence, though his Quaker-influenced opposition to violence kept him from signing one of its most famous documents in July 1776. Still, Dickinson, one of the wealthiest men in the colonies, did more to promote the cause behind it than almost anyone else, not only as the lead draftsman in all the national Congresses, but in his popular writing. His hugely influential Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania educated colonists about their rights and instructed them in how to defend those rights in non-violent ways. In essence he taught the colonists to think of themselves as Americans, united in a common cause. Despite his refusal to sign the Declaration of Independence, he continued to serve the nation in a number of capacities--in Congress, as governor of Delaware and Pennsylvania, as president of the Annapolis Convention, as delegate to the Federal Convention, and as president of the Delaware constitutional convention. Because of his close association with Quakerism, he also took stances unlike any other major figure of his day, making him among the first to advocate civil disobedience as a form of protest, freeing his slaves and embracing abolitionism, advocating rights for women, Indians, prisoners, and the poor. He nonetheless volunteered for active service in the Delaware militia during the War of Independence.

Despite the key part he played in the country's founding, few Americans today have heard of John Dickinson. Early chroniclers and historians, seeking to create a patriotic narrative and taking their cues from his political enemies, cast him as a coward and Loyalist for not signing the Declaration. Many later historians have simply accepted and echoed this distorted and dismissive view. Jane Calvert's fascinating, authoritative, and accessible biography, the first complete account of Dickinson's life and work, restores him to a place of prominence in the nation's formative years.

Visit Jane E. Calvert's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Don’t Tell Me How to Die"

Coming March 4 from Blackstone Publishing: Don’t Tell Me How to Die by Marshall Karp.

About the book, from the publisher:

I have one thing to do before I die.

And time is running out.

I had it all: a fantastic husband, two great kids, an exciting career. And then, at the age of forty-three, I found out I would be dead before my next birthday.

My mother also died at forty-three. I was seventeen, and she warned me that women would flock to my suddenly single father like stray cats to an overturned milk truck. They did. And one absolutely evil woman practically destroyed his life, mine, and my sister's.

I am not letting that happen to my family.

I have three months, and I plan to spend every waking minute searching for the perfect woman to take my place as Alex's wife, and mother to Kevin and Katie.

You're probably thinking, she'll never do it. Did I mention that in high school I was voted "Most Likely to Kill Someone to Get What She Wants"?

From thriller writer Marshall Karp (cocreator with James Patterson of the #1 New York Times bestselling NYPD Red series), and rich with Karp's deft array of three-dimensional characters and his signature biting humor, Don't Tell Me How to Die has so many twists and turns, you'd swear he wrote it with a corkscrew.

Visit Marshall Karp's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"New Orleans Pralines"

New from LSU Press: New Orleans Pralines: Plantation Sugar, Louisiana Pecans, and the Marketing of Southern Nostalgia by Anthony J. Stanonis.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Creole praline arrived in New Orleans with the migration of formerly enslaved people fleeing Louisiana plantations after the Civil War. Black women street vendors made a livelihood by selling a range of homemade foods, including pralines, to Black dockworkers and passersby. The praline offered a path to financial independence, and even its ingredients spoke of a history of Black ingenuity: an enslaved horticulturist played a key role in domesticating the pecan and creating the grafted tree that would form the basis of Louisiana’s pecan orchards.

By the 1880s, however, white New Orleans writers such as Grace King and Henry Castellanos had begun to recast the history of the praline in a nostalgic mode that harkened back to the prewar South. In their telling, the praline was brought to New Orleans by an aristocratic refugee of the French Revolution. Black street vendors were depicted not as innovative entrepreneurs but as loyal servants still faithful to their former enslavers. The rise of cultivated, shelled, and cheaply bought pecans―as opposed to the foraged pecans that early praline sellers had depended on―allowed better-resourced white women to move into the praline-selling market, especially as tourism emerged as a key New Orleans industry after the 1910s.

Indeed, the praline became central to the marketing of New Orleans. Conventions often hired Black women to play the “praline mammy” role for out-of-towners, while stores sold pralines with mammy imagery, in boxes designed to look like cotton bales. After World War II, pralines went national with items like praline-flavored ice cream (1950s) and praline liqueur (1980s). Yet as the civil rights struggle persisted, the imagery of the praline mammy was recognized as an offensive caricature.

As it uncovers the history of a sweet dessert made of sugar and pecans, New Orleans Pralines tells a fascinating story of Black entrepreneurship, toxic white nostalgia, and the rise of tourism in the Crescent City.

Visit Anthony J. Stanonis's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Deadly Animals"

New from Henry Holt & Company: Deadly Animals: A Novel by Marie Tierney.

About the book, from the publisher:

Finding a dead body is not normal. But Ava is not a normal teenager. In this chillingly beautiful mystery, only the obsessive spirit of youth can save a desperate town from the savagery within.

Ava Bonney is a compassionate and studious fourteen-year-old girl with a dark secret: she has an obsessive interest in the macabre. She is fascinated by the rate at which dead animals decompose. The highway she lives by regularly offers up gifts of roadkill, and in the dead of night Ava loves nothing more than to pull her latest discovery into her roadside den and record her findings.

One night, she stumbles across the body of her classmate and, fearing that her secret ritual could be revealed, she makes an anonymous call to the police. But when Detective Seth Delahaye is given the case, Ava won’t step back—not while teenagers continue to go missing.

Racing alongside the police or against them, Ava is determined to figure out who is hunting her classmates before she becomes the next prey. How hard can it be to track a killer?

Follow Marie Tierney on Instagram.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Blue Jerusalem"

New from Oxford University Press: Blue Jerusalem: British Conservatism, Winston Churchill, and the Second World War by Kit Kowol.

About the book, from the publisher:

The untold story of how Winston Churchill and the Conservative Party envisioned Britain's post-war future

We think we know all there is to know about Britain's Second World War. We don't.

This radical re-interpretation of British history and British Conservatism between 1939 and 1945 reveals the bold, at times utopian, plans British Conservatives drew up for Britain and the post-war world.

From proposals for world government to a more united Empire via dreams of a new Christian elite and a move back-to-the-land, Blue Jerusalem reveals how Conservatives were every bit as imaginative and courageous as their Labour and left-wing opponents in their wartime plans for a post-war world.

Bringing these alternative visions of Britain's post-war future back to life, Blue Jerusalem restores politics to the centre of the story of Britain's war. It demonstrates how everything from the weapons Britain fought with, to the theatres in which the fighting took place and the allies Britain chose were the product of political decisions about the different futures Conservatives wanted to make.

Rejecting notions of a 'people's war' that continue to cloud how we think of World War II, it explores how the Tories used their control of the home and battle front to fight a deeply Conservative war and build the martial, imperial, and Christian nation of which many of a conservative disposition had long dreamed.

A study of political thinking as well as political manoeuvre, Blue Jerusalem goes beyond an examination of the usual suspects - such as Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain - to reveal a hitherto lost world of British Conservativism and a set of forgotten futures that continue to shape our world.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Autumn of Ruth Winters"

New from Lake Union: The Autumn of Ruth Winters: A Novel by Marshall Fine.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this heartwarming story about second acts and second chances, a no-nonsense retiree, very much set in her ways, must learn to adapt and make peace with her past in order to build a fulfilling future.

Ruth Winters is retired, widowed, and resigned to spending the rest of her life alone in her suburban home. She likes her routine and uses it to avoid having to spend time with other people. She probably wouldn’t call herself fulfilled, but it’s too late now to go chasing happiness.

Then three things happen at once: a beloved niece makes a big announcement, an old flame reaches out, and her estranged sister receives life-changing news. Ruth finds herself reconnecting with people she thought were long gone from her world, as she is forced to reconsider her expectations for this phase of her life.

None of this fits into Ruth’s routine―in fact, the whole thing just blows to bits. But when Ruth starts to pick up the pieces, she discovers that maybe it’s not too late to make something new after all.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Asymptomatic"

New from Johns Hopkins University Press: Asymptomatic: The Silent Spread of COVID-19 and the Future of Pandemics by Joshua S. Weitz.

About the book, from the publisher:

The riveting account of how asymptomatic transmission drove COVID-19's global spread and catalyzed interventions to control it.

Why was COVID-19 so difficult to contain and so devastating to people and economies worldwide? In Asymptomatic, author Joshua S. Weitz explains how silent transmission enabled COVID-19's massive and tragic global impact.

Weaving the science of viral infections together with an insider's look at response efforts, Weitz guides readers through the shockwaves of successive epidemic waves as public health officials and academic research teams confronted the rise and risk of what was then a burgeoning global pandemic. The discovery of asymptomatic spread also fueled competing narratives: either COVID-19 was about to dissipate as quickly as it had emerged or completely disrupt life as we knew it.

Weitz, a physicist-turned-biologist who directs a quantitative viral dynamics research group and has been immersed in COVID-19 response efforts, explains both why and how scientists tried to wade through competing narratives and warn the public of COVID-19's profound risk. As explored through a careful analysis of local outbreaks, accessible descriptions of virus dynamics, and the use of predictive models to guide response efforts, Asymptomatic provides readers a unique look into the secret ingredient that allowed COVID-19 to spread across borders and the high-impact interventions needed to fight it and future pandemics.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Department"

Coming February 4 from Oceanview: The Department by Jacqueline Faber.

About the book, from the publisher:

Some secrets we keep even from ourselves

Philosophy professor Neil Weber can't think of one good reason to get up in the morning. His wife has left him, his academic research has sputtered, and the prospect of tenure is more remote than ever.

Until Lucia Vanotti disappears.

A college student at Neil’s Southern university, Lucia has a secret of her own—one that haunts her relationships and leads to reckless, destructive behavior. When Neil is drawn into the mystery of her disappearance, he finds new energy, purpose, and relevance. But at what cost? Each clue pulls him deeper into Lucia' s dark past, but also into the hidden lives of his closest friends and colleagues.

What has driven Lucia to risk everything? And why does Neil, a professor who hardly knew her, care so deeply about finding her? From campus classrooms to sex dens to backwoods hideaways, The Department reveals the world through the dual perspectives of Lucia and Neil as they descend into obsession, delusion, and the dangerous terrain of memory—uncovering the traumas that drive them to behave in ways they never could have predicted or imagined.

Perfect for fans of Jessica Knoll, Ruth Ware, and Gillian Flynn.

Visit Jacqueline Faber's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Print Markets and Political Dissent in Central Europe"

New from Oxford University Press: Print Markets and Political Dissent in Central Europe: Publishers in Central Europe, 1800-1870 by James M. Brophy.

About the book, from the publisher:

Moving book history in a new direction, this study examines publishers as brokers of Central Europe's political public sphere. They created international print markets, translated new texts, launched new journals, supported outspoken authors, and experimented with popular formats. Most of all, they contested censorship with finesse and resolve, thereby undermining the aim of Prussia and Austria to criminalize democratic thought. By packaging dissent through popular media, publishers cultivated broad readerships, promoted political literacy, and refashioned citizenship ideals. As political actors, intellectual midwives, and cultural mediators, publishers speak to a broad range of scholarly interests. Their outsize personalities, their entrepreneurial zeal, and their publishing achievements portray how print markets shaped the political world.

The narrow perimeters of political communication in the late-absolutist states of Prussia and Austria curtailed the open market of ideas. The publishing industry contested this information order, working both within and outside legal parameters to create a modern public sphere. Their expansion of print markets, their cat-and-mouse game with censors, and their ingenuity in packaging political commentary sheds light on the production and reception of dissent. Against the backdrop of censorship and police surveillance, the successes and failures of these citizens of print tell us much about nineteenth-century civil society and Central Europe's tortuous pathway to political modernization.

Cutting across a range of disciplines, this study will engage social and political historians as well as scholars of publishing, literary criticism, cultural studies, translation, and the public sphere. The history of Central Europe's print markets between Napoleon and the era of unification doubles as a political tale. It sheds important new light on political communication and how publishers exposed German-language readers to the Age of Democratic Revolution.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Streetlight People"

New from Dutton Books for Young Readers: Streetlight People by Charlene Thomas.

About the book, from the publisher:

A little bit Twin Peaks, a little bit Black Mirror, Streetlight People is a story of growing up in—and out of—a small town with a huge secret.

For most, Streetlight is a dot on the map you pass on your way to somewhere else. But if you live there, you’re either a Have-Not, like Kady, or a Have-Lot like her boyfriend, Nik, who also happens to be a member of the exclusive social club, The IV Boys.

Known for their powerful families and the coveted ball they host for a selective guest list, The IV Boys have always refused to accept Kady regardless of how much Nik loves her. All the Boys except for Aaron, who didn’t grow up in Streetlight and is one of the few who knows that life—real life—exists outside of it. But his stepmom has the kind of wealth and power even IV Boys can’t resist.

With Nik at college, Aaron stands by Kady’s side. But all Kady really wants is Nik, and when a chance encounter on Halloween hands her the power to twist and hold time, she doesn’t hesitate. Now she can keep Nik close for as long as she wants.

While Kady tries to relive her best moments with Nik, the IV Boys have her in their sights. A rumor’s spreading that Kady and Aaron are much more than friends—and not even twisting time is enough to defend against the power that the Boys were born with.

The more Kady changes the clock, the more dizzying reality becomes, until she stumbles upon a truth darker than anything she could have imagined. Streetlight is filled with monsters—and maybe she’s always been one, too.

Visit Charlene Thomas's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Pool Is Closed"

New from LSU Press: The Pool Is Closed: Segregation, Summertime, and the Search for a Place to Swim by Hannah S. Palmer.

About the book, from the publisher:

In 2018, while teaching her kids to swim and working on urban river restoration projects, Hannah S. Palmer began a journal of social encounters with water. As she found herself dangling her feet in a seemingly all-white swimming pool, she started to worry about how her young sons would learn to swim. Would they grow up accustomed to the stubbornly segregated pools of Atlanta? Was it safe for them to wade in creeks laced with urban runoff or dive into the ever-warming, man-made swimming holes of the South? Should they just join the Y?

But these weren’t just parenting questions. In the South, how we swim―and whether we have access to water at all―is tied up in race and class. As she took her sons pool-hopping across Atlanta, Palmer found an intimate lens through which to view the city’s neighborhoods. In The Pool Is Closed, she documents the creeks behind fences, the springs in the sewers, the lakes that had all but vanished since her own parents learned to swim. In the process, she uncovers complex stories about environmental history, water policy, and the racial politics of public spaces.

Nothing prepared Palmer for the contamination, sewage, and bodies that appear when you look at water too long. Her search for water became compulsive, a way to make sense of the world. The Pool Is Closed is a book about water: where it flows and where it floods, who owns it, and what it costs. It’s also a story about embracing parenthood in a time of environmental catastrophe and political anxiety, of dwindling public space and natural resources. It chronicles a year-long quest to find a place to swim and finding, instead, what makes shared water so threatening and wild.

Visit Hannah S. Palmer's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"An Age of Winters"

New from Lake Union: An Age of Winters: A Novel by Gemma Liviero.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the seventeenth century, witchfinders rule and paranoia thrives in a chilling novel about unrequited love, persecution, and betrayal by the bestselling author of The Road Beyond Ruin and Broken Angels.

In 1625, the Franconian village of Eisbach has been plagued by disease, famine, heinous crimes, and a merciless winter. Katarin Jaspers is the maidservant to the enigmatic Reverend Zacharias Engel, appointed by Rome to cure the village of suspected diabolism and save every God-fearing soul.

Zacharias soon finds his first witch, and the public burning of a local man could spell the end of misfortune. As a sense of peace settles over the village, Katarin finds herself increasingly infatuated with Zacharias, who is a disruption to her predictable existence and a balm for her cruel past. But peace for Katarin is short-lived. Margaretha Katz―the new midwife―is seen as a rival for the reverend’s attention. Fear and recrimination reach a fever pitch when a great tragedy sets the town fully on edge.

With the walls of winter closing in around Eisbach once again, rumours flourish and villagers turn on each other. Now, no one is safe from the pyre.

Visit Gemma Liviero's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Arendt's Solidarity"

New from Stanford University Press: Arendt's Solidarity: Anti-Semitism and Racism in the Atlantic World by David D. Kim.

About the book, from the publisher:

Hannah Arendt's work inspires many to stand in solidarity against authoritarianism, racial or gender-based violence, climate change, and right-wing populism. But what if a careful analysis of her oeuvre reveals a darker side to this intellectual legacy? What if solidarity, as she conceives of it, is not oriented toward equality, freedom, or justice for all, but creates a barrier to intersectional coalition building? In Arendt's Solidarity, David D. Kim illuminates Arendt's lifelong struggle with this deceptively straightforward yet divisive concept. Drawing upon her publications, unpublished documents, private letters, radio and television interviews, newspaper clippings, and archival marginalia, Kim examines how Arendt refutes solidarity as an effective political force against anti-Semitism, racial injustice, or social inequality. As Kim reveals, this conceptual conundrum follows the arc of Arendt's forced migration across the Atlantic and is directly related to every major concern of hers: Christian neighborly love, friendship, Jewish assimilation, Zionism, National Socialism, the American republic, Black Power, revolution, violence, and the human world. Kim places these thoughts in dialogue with dissenting voices, such as Thomas Mann, Gershom Scholem, Jean-Paul Sartre, James Baldwin, Frantz Fanon, James Forman, and Ralph Ellison. The result is a full-scale reinterpretation of Arendt's oeuvre.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Tribute of Fire"

New from Montlake: A Tribute of Fire by Sariah Wilson.

About the book, from the publisher:

The fate of a cursed nation depends on a princess who must outwit a mortal enemy and outlast the trials of a death-defying ritual in a thrilling adventure by USA Today bestselling author Sariah Wilson.

Lia is the princess of Locris, a dying desert nation cursed centuries ago by an earth goddess—one still worshipped by the thriving and adversarial nation of Ilion. Every year, Ilion offers the goddess a sacrifice: two Locrian maidens forced to compete in a life-and-death race to reach her temple. In a millennium, no maiden has made it out of Ilion alive. This year, Lia is one of the hunted.

An education in battle gives her a fighting chance, but the challenges are greater than she feared: Lia’s beloved but untrained sister Quynh has been put in the path of danger. The winding streets of Ilion itself have been transformed into a labyrinthine maze of countless choices and dead ends. And if the risks weren’t significant enough, Lia is reluctantly drawn to the commandingly attractive Jason, an Ilionian sailor she loathes to trust and desires like no man before.

The tribute game is on. It’s up to Lia to lift the goddess’s curse, restore Locris to its former glory, and change the fate of every young woman destined to follow in her path.

Visit Sariah Wilson's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Churchill's Citadel"

New from Yale University Press: Churchill's Citadel: Chartwell and the Gatherings Before the Storm by Katherine Carter.

About the book, from the publisher:

A major new history of Churchill in the 1930s, showing how his meetings at Chartwell, his country home, strengthened his fight against the Nazis

In the 1930s, amidst an impending crisis in Europe, Winston Churchill found himself out of government and with little power. In these years, Chartwell, his country home in Kent, became the headquarters of his campaign against Nazi Germany. He invited trusted advisors and informants, including Albert Einstein and T. E. Lawrence, who could strengthen his hand as he worked tirelessly to sound the alarm at the prospect of war.

Katherine Carter tells the extraordinary story of the remarkable but little known meetings that took place behind closed doors at Chartwell. From household names to political leaders, diplomats to spies, Carter reveals a fascinating cast of characters, each of whom made their mark on Churchill’s thinking and political strategy. With Chartwell as his base, Churchill gathered intelligence about Germany’s preparations for war—and, in doing so, put himself in a position to change the course of history.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Gardener's Plot"

New from Minotaur Books: The Gardener's Plot: A Mystery by Deborah J. Benoit.

About the book, from the publisher:

A woman helps set up a community garden in the Berkshires, only to find a body in one of the plots on opening day.

After life threw Maggie Walker a few curveballs, she’s happy to be back in the small, Berkshires town where she spent so much time as a child. Marlowe holds many memories for her, and now it also offers a fresh start. Maggie has always loved gardening, so it’s only natural to sign on to help Violet Bloom set up a community garden.

When opening day arrives, Violet is nowhere to be found, and the gardeners are restless. Things go from bad to worse when Maggie finds a boot buried in one of the plots… and there’s a body attached to it. Suddenly, the police are looking for a killer and they keep asking questions about Violet. Maggie doesn’t believe her friend could do this, and she’s going to dig up the dirt needed to prove it.

The Gardener’s Plot takes readers to the heart of the Berkshires and introduces amateur sleuth Maggie Walker in Deborah J. Benoit’s Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut.

Visit Deborah J. Benoit's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Border of Water and Ice"

New from Cornell University Press: Border of Water and Ice: The Yalu River and Japan's Empire in Korea and Manchuria by Joseph A. Seeley.

About the book, from the publisher:

Border of Water and Ice explores the significance of the Yalu River as a strategic border between Korea and Manchuria (Northeast China) during a period of Japanese imperial expansion into the region. The Yalu's seasonal patterns of freezing, thawing, and flooding shaped colonial efforts to control who and what could cross the border. Joseph A. Seeley shows how the unpredictable movements of water, ice, timber-cutters, anti-Japanese guerrillas, smugglers, and other borderland actors also spilled outside the bounds set by Japanese colonizers, even as imperial border-making reinforced Japan's wider political and economic power.

Drawing on archival sources in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and English, Seeley tells the story of the river and the imperial border haphazardly imposed on its surface from 1905 to 1945 to show how rivers and other nonhuman actors play an active role in border creation and maintenance. Emphasizing the tenuous, environmentally contingent nature of imperial border governance, Border of Water and Ice argues for the importance of understanding history across the different seasons.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Eleanore of Avignon"

New from Dutton Books: Eleanore of Avignon: A Novel by Elizabeth DeLozier.

About the book, from the publisher:

Rich with unforgettable characters, gorgeously drawn, and full of captivating historical drama, Eleanore of Avignon is the story of a healer who risks her life, her freedom, and everything she holds dear to protect her beloved city from the encroaching Black Death

Provence, 1347. Eleanore (Elea) Blanchet is a young midwife and herbalist with remarkable skills. But as she learned the day her mother died, the most dangerous thing a woman can do is draw attention to herself. She attends patients in her home city of Avignon, spends time with her father and twin sister, gathers herbs in the surrounding woods, and dreams of the freedom to pursue her calling without fear.

In a chance encounter, Elea meets Guigo de Chauliac, the enigmatic personal physician to the powerful Pope Clement, and strikes a deal with him to take her on as his apprentice. Under Chauliac’s tutelage she hones her skills as a healer, combining her knowledge of folk medicine with anatomy, astrology, and surgical techniques.

Then, two pieces of earth-shattering news: the Black Death has made landfall in Europe, and the disgraced Queen Joanna is coming to Avignon to stand trial for her husband’s murder. She is pregnant and in need of a midwife, a role only Elea can fill.

The queen’s childbirth approaches as the plague spreads like wildfire, leaving half the city dead in its wake. The people of Avignon grow desperate for a scapegoat and a group of religious heretics launch a witch hunt, one that could cost Elea—an intelligent, talented, unwed woman—everything.

Visit Elizabeth DeLozier's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Great Elector's Table"

New from the University of Virginia Press: The Great Elector's Table: The Politics of Food in Seventeenth-Century Brandenburg-Prussia by Molly Taylor-Poleskey.

About the book, from the publisher:

What food production, presentation, and consumption reveals about the exercise of power in early modern Germany

In politics, as with food, presentation is everything. At the court of Elector Friedrich Wilhelm in Brandenburg-Prussia, the two combined in a way that illuminates the social and cultural dynamics of seventeenth-century German life. In this remarkable book, the first of its kind, Molly Taylor-Poleskey offers an innovative critical approach to understanding how a particular dynasty and an unexceptional German state rose to their eminent position on the Central European stage following the devastation of the Thirty Years’ War. Food, she shows, functioned both as a tool of self-aggrandizement for rulers and as a means of coercion and leverage in power negotiations. From bakers to botanists, court servants up and down the social ladder each had a role to play in the political life of this court. Moving beyond dusty bureaucratic narratives, this colorful and inviting book offers readers a new way of appreciating how culture, politics, the natural environment, and science intertwined in early modern German statecraft.

Visit Molly Taylor-Poleskey's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Death and the Old Master"

New from Severn House: Death and the Old Master by G. M. Malliet.

About the book, from the publisher:

Cambridge University master Sir Flyte Rascallian has little interest in the innocent-looking set of old paintings he inherits from his aunt Beatrice, until he takes a closer look . . . and ends up dead.

Something is bothering Sir Flyte Rascallian, renowned art expert and Master of Hardwick College at the University of Cambridge. Are the grimy paintings he recently inherited from his aunt as worthless as he claims?

Curator Ambrose Nussknacker believes one of the paintings could be a genuine Rembrandt. Why is Sir Flyte so reluctant to get it authenticated, and so determined to avoid the tributes due to the discovery of one of the world’s great lost treasures?

When Sir Flyte is found murdered in the Master’s Lodge, Detective Chief Inspector Arthur St. Just must unravel his unusual actions to solve the death of the old master. College fellows, staff, and students all agree something was amiss. But as St. Just investigates, he quickly becomes entangled in a web of deception following the trail of priceless artwork people would kill to possess.

Visit G. M. Malliet's website, Facebook page, and Instagram home.

The Page 69 Test: A Fatal Winter.

The Page 69 Test: The Haunted Season.

Writers Read: G.M. Malliet (April 2017).

--Marshal Zeringue

"Disembodiment"

New from Oxford University Press: Disembodiment: Corporeal Politics of Radical Refusal by Banu Bargu.

About the book, from the publisher:

Disembodiment examines self-destruction, self-injury, and self-endangerment as actions that express the injustices and indignities of the life conditions of impoverished, dispossessed, and dominated peoples. Author Banu Bargu troubles the dominant approach that treats these acts as individual pathologies, cries for help, and signs of despair. Instead, she suggests that they should be read as unconventional performances of resistance and refusal that are erased, marginalized, and distorted by metanarratives of history as progress and of agency as freedom and intentionality. Situating these practices in a dialectic of desubjectivation and counter-subjectivation, Bargu argues that they dispel a western metaphysics of subjecthood and invoke alternative ways of being human and of relating to one's body and the world. Pursuing philosophical questions about the meaning of agency, the direction of history, and the limits of the political generated by the forfeiture of the body, Bargu offers a stark and unforgiving critique of our present.

As a work in global critical theory whose normative compass is the suffering body, Disembodiment brings together corporeal enactments of defiance and refusal from the global south with major thinkers of western modernity and prominent critical-theoretical traditions of the twentieth century. Bargu moves from such historical precedents as the suicides of enslaved Africans during the transatlantic crossing, the hunger strikes of woman suffragists in England's prisons, and Gandhian fasting practices in the Indian anticolonial struggle to contemporary examples that include the hunger and thirst strikes in the Maze and Guantánamo, the self-incineration of Mohammed Bouazizi, and the lip-sewing practices of migrants and asylum seekers in detention centers and border zones of the global north today. She takes the reader on an unsettling journey that delineates the emergence of a corporeal repertoire of contention. Performed by the powerless who find themselves in crisis, this repertoire is built on the expressive agency of the body and its ability to irrupt, undoing its training in composure and radicalizing the meaning of dignity.

Disembodiment presents a bold materialist theory of corporeal agency, which upholds the body's powers as fundamentally rebellious and ultimately undomesticatable.

--Marshal Zeringue