"The Party Line"

New from Montlake: The Party Line by Carolyn Brown.

About the book, from the publisher:

A niece’s inheritance comes with family secrets, new romance, and sweet Texas strawberries in a refreshing and warmhearted novel by New York Times bestselling author Carolyn Brown.

Returning home to Ditto, Texas, is bittersweet for Lila Matthews. Her dear and feisty aunt Gracie has passed away, leaving Lila her estate. That includes a centuries-old house, a field of the freshest strawberries in Atascosa County, more money than Lila can count, and a secret Aunt Gracie took to her grave. All the angels in heaven won’t be able to pry it out of her.

For more than eighty years, generations of folks in Ditto have whispered and gossiped about what the secret could be. When Lila inherits Aunt Gracie’s legacy, ears perk up and tongues start wagging. As Lila reacquaints herself with locals, finds warmth in family―extended and otherwise―and cozies up to a handsome new neighbor, she begins collecting clues to the past. They’re revealing an Aunt Gracie nobody knew―and a life of rebellion, broken hearts, and selfless love that affected more people than anyone realized.

Whatever reason Aunt Gracie had for leaving Lila the secret, will it now be Lila’s secret to keep?

Visit Carolyn Brown's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: The Wedding Pearls.

Writers Read: Carolyn Brown (January 2016).

My Book, the Movie: The Wedding Pearls.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Savings and Trust"

New from W.W. Norton: Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank by Justene Hill Edwards.

About the book, from the publisher:

A leading historian exposes how the rise and tragic failure of the Freedman’s Bank has shaped economic inequality in America.

In the years immediately after the Civil War, tens of thousands of former slaves deposited millions of dollars into the Freedman’s Bank. African Americans envisioned this new bank as a launching pad for economic growth and self-determination. But only nine years after it opened, their trust was betrayed and the Freedman’s Bank collapsed.

Fully informed by new archival findings, historian Justene Hill Edwards unearths a major turning point in American history in this comprehensive account of the Freedman’s Bank and its depositors. She illuminates the hope with which the bank was first envisioned and demonstrates the significant setback that the sabotage of the bank caused in the fight for economic autonomy. Hill Edwards argues for a new interpretation of its tragic failure: the bank’s white financiers drove the bank into the ground, not Fredrick Douglass, its final president, or its Black depositors and cashiers. A page-turning story filled with both well-known figures like Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Jay and Henry Cooke, and General O. O. Howard, and less well-known figures like Dr. Charles B. Purvis, John Mercer Langston, Congressman Robert Smalls, and Ellen Baptiste Lubin. Savings and Trust is necessary reading for those seeking to understand the roots of racial economic inequality in America.

Visit Justene Hill Edwards's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Misery Hates Company"

New from Crooked Lane Books: Misery Hates Company: A Novel by Elizabeth Hobbs.

About the book, from the publisher:

A young woman is invited to a mysterious relative’s estate and winds up entangled in a murder investigation in this witty historical mystery that pits the gothic eeriness of Crimson Peak against the comic absurdities of Knives Out.

Miss Marigold Manners may be steeped in the etiquette of her old-money Boston family, but she is also an accomplished, modern woman and an avid student of archaeology who can handle any situation with poise. When the death of her parents leaves her too destitute to pursue her academic career and she receives a letter from a distant relative on Great Misery Island, Marigold decides she must do what any person of superior sense and greater-than-average curiosity would: she mounts her trusty bicycle and heads up the craggy, fog-shrouded coast of New England for a date with fate.

Marigold arrives at Hatchet Farm, a moldering, gothic pile of a house inhabited by relatives so mired in the sins of the past, they have no future. She sets out to modernize the recluses with a brisk, ruthless efficiency, but her well-intentioned plans to manage their lives lead to malice—and murder. Marigold spies a body floating in the stormy waters surrounding the island, and her suspicions immediately turn to her hostile, weapon-wielding relatives when one of the local girls turns up missing. And she might not be the only one.

When another dead body is found in the garden of the estate, Marigold finds herself accused. She must enlist the help of an eccentric, colorful cast of friends and found family to save herself—and everything she holds dear. As secrets are uncovered and lies exposed, the question of “who done it?” turns into “who didn’t do it?” and Marigold must face a truth that shatters her steely poise and shakes her very sense of self.

Visit Elizabeth Hobbs's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Against Exclusion"

New from the Ohio State University Press: Against Exclusion: Disrupting Anti-Chinese Violence in the Nineteenth Century by Audrey Wu Clark.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Against Exclusion, Audrey Wu Clark dramatically reframes Asian American resistance via the lives of five early Chinese American public figures. In contrast to later activists who sought to defy stereotypes, Ah Toy, Mary Tape, Wong Chin Foo, Yan Phou Lee, and Yung Wing deployed the model minority and yellow peril tropes to make themselves visible during a period of rampant anti-Chinese violence and legal exclusion. In making themselves visible, they sought to expose and dismantle the contradictory exceptionalism of nineteenth-century US liberalism that both required and “disavowed” the deaths of Chinese Americans. In examining these figures and the ways in which they fought their exclusion as Chinese Americans—via court cases, autobiographical writings, journalism, and other forms of activism—Clark contributes to prevailing scholarly conversations about stereotypes of Asian Americans but contextualizes them in the nineteenth century. She traces the twinned emergences of the model minority and the yellow peril, excavating the exceptionalism with which Chinese Americans were racialized and subject to death—whether by lynching, other forms of driving out, or loss of citizenship or rights—and mapping its reverberations into the present day.

Visit Audrey Wu Clark's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Naturalist Society"

New from 47North: The Naturalist Society by Carrie Vaughn.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this magical tale of self-discovery from New York Times bestselling author Carrie Vaughn, a young widow taps into the power that will change the world―if the man’s world she lives in doesn’t destroy her and her newfound friends first.

In the summer of 1880, the death of Beth Stanley’s husband puts her life’s work in jeopardy. The magic of Arcane Taxonomy dictates that every natural thing in the world, from weather to animals, can be labeled, and doing so grants the practitioner some of that subject’s unique power. But only men are permitted to train in this philosophy. Losing her husband means that Beth loses the name they put on her work―and any influence she might have wielded.

Brandon West and Anton Torrance are campaigning for their expedition to the South Pole, a mission that some believe could make a taxonomist all-powerful by tapping into the earth’s magnetic forces. Their late friend Harry Stanley’s knowledge and connections would have been instrumental, but when they attempt to take custody of his work, they find that it was never his at all.

Tied together by this secret and its implications, Beth, Bran, and Anton must find a way for Beth to use her talent for the good of the world, before she’s discovered by those who would lay claim to her rare potential―and her very freedom.

Learn more about the author and her work at Carrie Vaughn's website and Facebook page.

The Page 99 Test: Kitty and the Silver Bullet.

The Page 99 Test: Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand.

The Page 69 Test: Discord's Apple.

The Page 69 Test: The Wild Dead.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Governing Climate"

New from the University of California Press: Governing Climate: How Science and Politics Have Shaped Our Environmental Future by Zeke Baker.

About the book, from the publisher:

After decades of debate about global warming, the fact of the climate crisis is finally widely accepted. People at all scales—from the household to the global market—are attempting to govern climate to deal with its causes and impacts. Although the stakes are different now, governing climate is centuries old. In this book, Zeke Baker develops a genealogy of climate science that traces the relationship between those who have created knowledge of the climate and those who have attempted to gain power and govern society, right up to the present, historic moment. Baker draws together over two centuries of science, politics, and environmental change to demonstrate the "co-production" of climate knowledge and power-seeking activity, with a focus on the United States. This book provides a fresh account of contemporary issues transecting science and climate politics, specifically the rise of "climate security," and examines how climate science can either facilitate or reconcile the unequal distribution of power and resources.

Visit Zeke Baker's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Legend in the Baking"

Coming soon from St. Martin's Griffin: A Legend in the Baking: A Novel (Sugar Blitz, 2) by Jamie Wesley.

About the book, from the publisher:

In A Legend in the Baking, the new romance from Jamie Wesley, a cupcake-baking football player gets assistance from a social media maven―and his best friend's little sister―to help promote his new bakery after accidentally going viral online.

August Hodges was supposed to be the silent partner in Sugar Blitz Cupcakes. Emphasis on silent. That is until his impromptu feminist rant about how women bakers are the backbone of the industry and baking cupcakes isn’t a threat to masculinity goes viral, making him the hottest bachelor in town. With a new location in the works, August and his partners decide to capitalize on this perfect opportunity to help cement their place in the community. But the hiring of his best friend’s younger sister, the woman who has haunted some of his best dreams for years, was as much of a shock as his new-found fame.

Social media manager Sloane Dell fell hard for her brother’s best friend the moment she met him more than a decade ago, but that teenage infatuation cost her dearly. Still, she accepts her brother’s request to revamp the bakery’s social media presence to take advantage of August’s newfound popularity, knowing it’s the big break her fledgling career needs. She’ll just ignore the fact that August is still August, i.e. sexier and sweeter than any man has a right to be. And that he drives her crazy with his resistance to all her ideas.

They vow to leave the past in the past. But when an explosive make-out session makes it clear their attraction burns hotter than ever, Sloane and August are forced to reconsider what it means to take a risk and chase your dreams.

As they’re both about to find out, all’s fair in love and cupcakes.

Visit Jamie Wesley's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Firebrands"

New from the University of Chicago Press: Firebrands: The Untold Story of Four Women Who Made and Unmade Prohibition by Gioia Diliberto.

About the book, from the publisher:

Guaranteed to change how you picture Prohibition, this lively history turns the spotlight on four women in the immediate aftermath of winning the vote who played influential roles on all sides of the Eighteenth and Twenty-First Amendments.

In the popular imagination, the story of Prohibition in America is a story of men and male violence, one full of federal agents fighting gangsters over the sale of moonshine. In contrast, Firebrands is the story of four Jazz Age dynamos—all women –who were forces behind the passage, the enforcement, the defiance, and, ultimately, the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. They battled each other directly, and they learned to marshal clout with cowed and hypocritical legislators, almost all of them men. Their clash over Prohibition stands as the first significant exercise of women’s political power since women gained the right to vote, and their influence on the American political scene wouldn’t be equaled for decades.

In Gioia Diliberto’s fresh and timely take on this period of history, we meet Ella Boole, the stern and ambitious leader of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, who campaigned fiercely to introduce Prohibition and fought desperately to keep it alive. We also meet Mabel Walker Willebrandt, the most powerful woman in America at the time, who served as the top federal prosecutor charged with enforcing Prohibition. Diliberto tells the story, too, of silent film star Texas Guinan, who ran New York speakeasies backed by the mob and showed that Prohibition was not only absurd but unenforceable. And, she follows Pauline Morton Sabin, a glamorous Manhattan aristocrat who belatedly recognized the cascading evil in Prohibition and mobilized the movement to kill it.

These women led their opposing forces of “Wets” and “Drys” across a teeming landscape of bootleggers, gangsters, federal agents, temperance fanatics, and cowardly politicians, many of them secret drunks. Building on the momentum of suffrage, they forged a path for the activists who followed during the great civil rights battles of the mid-twentieth century. Yet, they have been largely lost to history. In Firebrands, Diliberto finally gives these dynamic figures their due, creating a varied and dramatic portrait of women wielding power, in politics, society, and popular culture.

Visit Gioia Diliberto's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Secret of the Brighton House"

New from Lake Union: The Secret of the Brighton House by Cathy Hayward.

About the book, from the publisher:

Her family lied to protect her. Will the truth tear them apart?

Joanne’s always been told her mother died in childbirth, but she never questioned her dad’s love. When unpacking a box of her own old baby clothes, Joanne accidentally discovers a photo of her birth mum holding a newborn, and realises she’s been lied to.

As Joanne begins to dig into the past, she uncovers layers of secrets that threaten to destroy the very family she holds dear. What really happened to her mum? What could be so devastating that her dad has kept it from her for her whole life―and is she ready to find out?

Visit Cathy Hayward's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Medieval Scriptorium"

New from Reaktion Books: The Medieval Scriptorium: Making Books in the Middle Ages by Sara J. Charles.

About the book, from the publisher:

Illuminated with illustrations, an exploration of medieval manuscript production that offers insight into both the early history of the book and life in the Middle Ages.

This book takes the reader on an immersive journey through medieval manuscript production in the Latin Christian world. Each chapter opens with a lively vignette by a medieval narrator—including a parchment maker, scribe, and illuminator—introducing various aspects of manuscript production. Sara J. Charles poses the question “What actually is a scriptorium?” and explores the development of the medieval scriptorium from its early Christian beginnings through to its eventual decline and the growth of the printing press.

With the written word at the very heart of the Christian monastic movement, we see the immense amount of labor, planning, and networks needed to produce each manuscript. By tapping into these processes and procedures, The Medieval Scriptorium helps us to experience medieval life through the lens of a manuscript maker.

--Marshal Zeringue

"An Insignificant Case"

New from Minotaur Books: An Insignificant Case: A Thriller by Phillip Margolin.

About the book, from the publisher:

A new standalone legal thriller from the international bestselling author of GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN.

Charlie Webb is a third rate lawyer who graduated from a third rate law-school and, because he couldn’t get hired by any of the major law firms, has opened his own law firm, where he gets by handling cases for dubious associates from his youth and some court appointed cases. Described as “a leaky boat floating down the stream of life,” Charlie has led unremarkable life, personally and professionally. Until he’s appointed to be the attorney for a decidedly crackpot artist who calls himself Guido Sabatini (born Lawrence Weiss). Sabatini has been arrested – again – for breaking into a restaurant and stealing back a painting he sold them because he was insulted by where it was displayed. But as Lawrence Weiss, he’s also an accomplished card shark and burglar and while he was there, he stole a thumb drive from the owner’s safe.

Not knowing what else Sabatani has stolen, Webb negotiates the return of the painting and “other items’ for the owner dropping charges against Sabatini. But the contents of the flash drive threatens very powerful figures who are determined to retrieve it, the restaurant owner (Gretchen Hall) and her driver (Yuri Makarov) are being investigated for the sex trafficking of minors, and there are others who have a violent grudge against Sabatini. When a minor theft case becomes a double homicide, and even more, Charlie Webb, an insignificant lawyer assigned to an insignificant case, is faced with the most important, and deadliest, case of his life. Going back to his long-time bestselling roots, Phillip Margolin returns with a brilliant standalone legal thriller in the tradition of John Grisham.

Visit Phillip Margolin's website and Facebook page.

My Book, The Movie: Woman with a Gun.

The Page 69 Test: Woman with a Gun.

The Page 69 Test: Violent Crimes.

My Book, The Movie: Violent Crimes.

My Book, The Movie: The Third Victim.

The Page 69 Test: The Third Victim.

The Page 69 Test: The Perfect Alibi.

The Page 69 Test: A Reasonable Doubt.

My Book, The Movie: A Reasonable Doubt.

The Page 69 Test: Murder at Black Oaks.

The Page 69 Test: Betrayal.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Dignity and Judicial Authority"

New from Oxford University Press: Dignity and Judicial Authority by Rachel Bayefsky.

About the book, from the publisher:

Human rights movements and organizations all over the world cite the pursuit and preservation of dignity as one of their goals, but the legal implications of this term are highly contested. In Dignity and Judicial Authority, Rachel Bayefsky offers a theory of dignity that emphasizes respect for status, non-domination, and control over self-presentation to others. The book explains how US courts can recognize the loss of dignity as a legally actionable harm and provide remedies for this harm. In applying these ideas, the book explores a host of corresponding legal topics, including constitutional standing doctrine, the “dignitary torts,” and court-mandated apologies. It demonstrates the connections between dignity and subjects such as jurisdiction and remedies, which help to delineate the bounds of judicial authority.

This inquiry sheds light not only on the nature of dignity, but also on the power of courts and their proper functions in a constitutional democracy. How can judges decide whether dignity has been violated, especially when these decisions risk embroiling them in contentious social disputes? Will accepting dignitary claims burst open the proverbial “floodgates of litigation”? Through theoretical analysis and detailed doctrinal discussion, Bayefsky explains how courts can integrate dignity into legal determinations in a thoughtful and principled manner.

Exploring the subject from theoretical and practical perspectives, Dignity and Judicial Authority presents a cogent argument for when and how courts should use their powers to protect and preserve human dignity.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Paris Escape"

New from Lake Union: The Paris Escape: A Novel by James Tucker.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this sweepingly emotional story about what it takes to build the life you want, an heiress, her escort, and a young orphan must stick together during the tumultuous beginnings of World War II.

When Laura Powell and Henry Salter travel to Paris in 1938, neither considers the other very good company. Laura is a shallow, spoiled heir to a fortune, and Henry an opportunistic bore―or so they think. But as her father’s protégé, Henry is tasked with accompanying Laura for her safety, even as she continues to scorn him.

Orphaned stowaway David forces the pair to see eye to eye. They can ignore their growing feelings, but they can’t deny the boy’s need for protection. Yet even with this tentative truce, their problems are far from over.

The threat of war continues to grow until the Nazis occupy Paris. But Laura and Henry have opportunities they’re not willing to lose, and a home with David means more than safety outside France.

Before danger overtakes them, they’ll have to decide if the life they’re building can withstand what’s coming…and whether they have the strength to fight for it.

Visit James Tucker's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Holdouts.

The Page 69 Test: The Holdouts.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Slavery's Fugitives and the Making of the United States Constitution"

New from LSU Press: Slavery's Fugitives and the Making of the United States Constitution by Timothy Messer-Kruse.

About the book, from the publisher:

Slavery’s Fugitives and the Making of the United States Constitution unearths a long-hidden factor that led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. While historians have generally acknowledged that patriot leaders assembled in response to postwar economic chaos, the threat of popular insurgencies, and the inability of the states to agree on how to fund the national government, Timothy Messer-Kruse suggests that scholars have discounted Americans’ desire to compel Britain to return fugitives from slavery as a driving force behind the convention.

During the Revolutionary War, British governors offered freedom to enslaved Americans who joined the king’s army. Thousands responded by fleeing to English camps. After the British defeat at Yorktown, American diplomats demanded the surrender of fugitive slaves. When British generals refused, several states confiscated Loyalist estates and blocked payment of English creditors, hoping to apply enough pressure on the Crown to hand over the runaways. State laws conflicting with the 1783 Treaty of Paris violated the Articles of Confederation—the young nation’s first constitution—but Congress, lacking an executive branch or a federal judiciary, had no means to obligate states to comply.

The standoff over the escaped slaves quickly escalated following the Revolution as Britain failed to abandon the western forts it occupied and took steps to curtail American commerce. More than any other single matter, the impasse over the return of enslaved Americans threatened to hamper the nation’s ability to expand westward, develop its commercial economy, and establish itself as a power among the courts of Europe. Messer-Kruse argues that the issue encouraged the founders to consider the prospect of scrapping the Articles of Confederation and drafting a superseding document that would dramatically increase federal authority—the Constitution.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Pony Confidential"

New from Berkley: Pony Confidential by Christina Lynch.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this one-of-a-kind mystery with heart and humor, a hilariously grumpy pony must save the only human he’s ever loved after discovering she stands accused of a murder he knows she didn’t commit.

Pony has been passed from owner to owner for longer than he can remember. Fed up, he busts out and goes on a cross-country mission to reunite with Penny, the little girl who he was separated from and hasn’t seen in years.

Penny, now an adult, is living an ordinary life when she gets a knock on her door and finds herself in handcuffs, accused of murder and whisked back to the place she grew up. Her only comfort when the past comes back to haunt her is the memory of her precious, rebellious pony.

Hearing of Penny’s fate, Pony knows that Penny is no murderer. So, as smart and devious as he is cute, the pony must use his hard-won knowledge of human weakness and cruelty to try to clear Penny’s name and find the real killer.

This acutely observant, feel-good mystery reveals the humanity of animals and beastliness of humans in a rollicking escapade of epic proportions.

Visit Christina Lynch's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Italian Party.

The Page 69 Test: The Italian Party.

Writers Read: Christina Lynch (April 2018).

My Book, The Movie: Sally Brady's Italian Adventure.

Writers Read: Christina Lynch (June 2023).

The Page 69 Test: Sally Brady's Italian Adventure.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Women and the Reformations"

New from Yale University Press: Women and the Reformations: A Global History by Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks.

About the book, from the publisher:

A compelling, authoritative history of how women shaped the Reformations and transformed religious life across the globe

The Reformations, both Protestant and Catholic, have long been told as stories of men. But women were central to the transformations that took place in Europe and beyond. What was life like for them in this turbulent period? How did their actions and ideas shape Christianity and influence societies around the world?

In this rich and definitive study, renowned scholar Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks explores the history of women and the Reformations in full for the first time. Wiesner-Hanks travels the globe, examining well-known figures like Teresa of Avila, Elizabeth I, and Anne Hutchinson, as well as women whose stories are only now emerging. Along the way, we meet converts in Japan, Spanish nuns in the Philippines, and saints in Ethiopia and America. Wiesner-Hanks explores women’s experiences as monarchs, mothers, migrants, martyrs, mystics, and missionaries, revealing that the story of the Reformations is no longer simply European—and that women played a vital role.

The Page 99 Test: The Marvelous Hairy Girls.

--Marshal Zeringue

"This Girl's a Killer"

New from Sourcebooks: This Girl's a Killer: A Novel by Emma C. Wells.

About the book, from the publisher:

For readers of Finlay Donovan is Killing It and The Bandit Queens comes a bright and biting thriller following Cordelia Black, a best friend, a businesswoman, and, in her spare time, a killer of bad men.

Ask Cordelia Black why she did it. The answer will always be: He had it coming.

Cordelia Black loves exactly three things: Her chosen family, her hairdresser (worth every penny plus tip), and killing bad men.

By day she's an ambitious pharma rep with a flawless reputation and designer wardrobe. By night, she culls South Louisiana of unscrupulous men—monsters who think they've evaded justice, until they meet her. Sure, the evening news may have started throwing around phrases like "serial killer," but Cordelia knows that's absurd. She's not a killer, she is simply karma. And being karma requires complete and utter control.

But when Cordelia discovers a flaw in her perfectly designed system for eliminating monsters, pressure heightens. And it only intensifies when her best friend starts dating a man Cordelia isn't sure is a good person. Someone who might just unravel everything she has worked for.

Soon enough Cordelia has to come face to face with the choices she's made. The good, the bad, and the murderous. Both her family, and her freedom, depend on it.

Visit Emma C. Wells's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Unmaking Russia’s Abortion Culture"

New from Vanderbilt University Press: Unmaking Russia’s Abortion Culture: Family Planning and the Struggle for a Liberal Biopolitics by Michele Rivkin-Fish.

About the book, from the publisher:

As the predominant form of birth control in Soviet society, abortion reflected key paradoxes of state socialism: women held formal equality but lacked basic needs such as contraceptives. With market reforms, Russians enjoyed new access to Western contraceptives and new pressures to postpone childbearing until economically self-sufficient. But habits of family planning did not emerge automatically—they required extensive physician retraining, public education, and cultural transformation. In Unmaking Russia’s Abortion Culture, author Michele Rivkin-Fish examines the creative strategies of Russians who promoted family planning in place of routine abortion. Rather than emphasizing individual rights, they explained family planning’s benefits to the nation—its potential to strengthen families and prevent the secondary sterility that resulted when women underwent repeat, poor-quality abortions. Still, fierce debates about abortion and contraceptives erupted as declining fertility was framed as threatening Russia’s demographic sovereignty.

Although Russian family planners embraced a culturally meaningful liberalism that would rationalize public policy and reenchant relations, nationalist opponents cast family planning as suspicious for its association with the individualistic, “child-free” West. This book tells the story of how Russian family planners developed culturally salient frameworks to promote the acceptability of contraceptives and help end routine abortion. It also documents how nationalist campaigns for higher fertility denounced family planning and ultimately dismantled its institutions. By tracing these processes, Unmaking Russia’s Abortion Culture demonstrates the central importance of reproductive politics in the struggle for liberalizing social change that preceded Russia’s 2022 descent into war, repression, and global marginalization.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Unsinkable Cayenne"

New from Greenwillow Books: Unsinkable Cayenne by Jessica Vitalis.

About the book, from the publisher:

When her unconventional parents finally agree to settle down in one place, twelve-year-old Cayenne’s dreams come true—but the reality of fitting in is much harder than she imagined. Acclaimed author Jessica Vitalis crafts an unforgettable historical novel-in-verse about belonging, family, and social class for fans of Lisa Fipps’s Starfish and Jasmine Warga’s Other Words for Home.

Cayenne and her family drift from place to place, living in their van. It hasn’t been a bad life—Cayenne and her mother birdwatch in every new location, they have a cozy setup in their van, and they sing and dance and bond over campfires most nights. But they’ve never belonged anywhere.

As Cayenne enters seventh grade, her parents decide to settle down in a small Montana town. Cayenne hopes that this means she will finally belong somewhere and make some friends. But it turns out that staying in one place isn’t easy at all.

As her social studies class studies the Titanic tragedy (the wreckage has just been discovered and her teacher is obsessed), Cayenne sees more and more parallels between the social strata of the infamous ship and her own life. Will she ever squeeze her way into the popular girls’ clique, even though they live in fancy houses on the hill and she lives in a tiny, rundown home with chickens in the front yard? Is it possible that the boy she likes actually likes her back? Can she find a way to make room for herself in this town? Does she really want to? Maybe being “normal” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Unsinkable Cayenne is a character-driven novel-in-verse about family, friendship, first crushes, and fitting in. Set in the mid-1980s, this literary novel is for readers of Megan E. Freeman’s Alone and Erin Entrada Kelly’s We Dream of Space.

Visit Jessica Vitalis's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Wolf's Curse.

The Page 69 Test: The Rabbit's Gift.

Q&A with Jessica Vitalis.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Desiring Whiteness"

New from Cornell University Press: Desiring Whiteness: A Racial History of Prostitution in France and Colonial Senegal, 1848–1950 by Caroline Séquin.

About the book, from the publisher:

Desiring Whiteness uncovers the intertwined histories of commercial sex and racial politics in France and the French Empire. Since the French Revolution of 1789, the absence of laws banning interracial marriages has served to reinforce two myths about modern France―first, that it is a sexual democracy and second, it is a color-blind nation where all French citizens can freely marry whomever they wish regardless of their race. Caroline Séquin challenges the narrative of French exceptionalism by revealing the role of prostitution regulation in policing intimate relationships across racial and colonial boundaries in the century following the abolition of slavery.

Desiring Whiteness traces the rise and fall of the "French model" of prostitution policing in the "contact zones" of port cities and garrison towns across France and in Dakar, Senegal, the main maritime entry point of French West Africa. Séquin describes how the regulation of prostitution covertly policed racial relations and contributed to the making of white French identity in an imperial nation-state that claimed to be race-blind. She also examines how sex industry workers exploited, reinforced, or transgressed the racial boundaries of colonial rule.

Brothels served as "gatekeepers of whiteness" in two arenas. In colonial Senegal, white-only brothels helped deter French colonists from entering unions with African women and producing mixed-race children, thus consolidating white minority rule. In the metropole, brothels condoned interracial sex with white sex workers while dissuading colonial men from forming long-term attachments with white French women. Ultimately, brothels followed a similar racial logic that contributed to upholding white supremacy.

Visit Caroline Séquin's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Shadow Fox"

New from Candlewick Press: Shadow Fox by Carlie Sorosiak.

About the book, from the publisher:

Shadow the plucky fox and a girl named Bee might be the only ones who can save a secret magical island in the Great Lakes.

Shadow the fox does not trust humans. Well, except for Nan, who feeds her chunks of fish behind a lakeside motel every night. When Nan goes missing, a man from the mysterious Whistlenorth Island comes ashore to seek the aid of Nan’s granddaughter, Bee, whom he thinks is destined not only to help Nan, but also to save Whistlenorth from the greedy and destructive Night Islanders. The plans go topsy-turvy when it becomes obvious that Bee does not have the magic powers of a chosen one—but Shadow does! Can a fox really rescue an island of people? As Shadow grudgingly comes to trust her new human companions, she and Bee develop a mystical bond, a special connection between human and animal that might be the key to driving the Night Islanders from Whistlenorth for good. This enchanting adventure is narrated by Shadow herself, whose mind is unflinchingly “fox” and whose spirit is charming and bold.

Visit Carlie Sorosiak's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Carlie Sorosiak & Dany.

--Marshal Zeringue

"All of Us or None"

New from Duke University Press: All of Us or None: Migrant Organizing in an Era of Deportation and Dispossession by Monisha Das Gupta.

About the book, from the publisher:

In All of Us or None, Monisha Das Gupta tells the story of contemporary antideportation organizing in the United States by migrants and refugees labeled as criminal aliens. These activists, who live daily with criminalization, work against forms of deportation that Das Gupta calls settler carcerality—the United States’ use of deportation to exert territorial control in the face of Indigenous self-determination. Drawing on fieldwork with antideportation organizing groups in New York, Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Honolulu, Das Gupta documents the inventive methods of struggle against settler carcerality. Das Gupta shows how the organizers’ actions and visions depart from the settler colonial nature of the mainstream demands for a pathway to citizenship and civil rights. Through direct action, storytelling, political education, and youth and queer leadership, these organizations and collectives conceptualize an abolitionist vision of migration justice that rejects the settler state and encompasses all those who are disavowed. By highlighting this work, Das Gupta demonstrates the transformative promise offered by a dissident migrant-led politics working toward dismantling settler structures and logics.

--Marshal Zeringue

"We Are Not Alone"

New from HarperCollins: We Are Not Alone by Katryn Bury.

About the book, from the publisher:

From award-winning author Katryn Bury of the Drew Leclair series, this hopeful coming-of-age middle grade novel follows the unlikely friendship between Sam, a recent cancer survivor, and a popular girl at school as they come together on a quest to uncover the truth about alien life in honor of Sam’s best friend’s final wishes. This powerful story of friendship and grief is a gentle reminder that we are never alone in the universe.

Sam Kepler Greyson doesn’t want to be the “cancer kid.” After losing his best friend and fellow UFO enthusiast, Oscar, to brain cancer, Sam wants to focus on anything but his own cancer—maybe even a normal year of middle school.

But whispers in the halls and lingering grief over Oscar make Sam’s return much harder. To make matters worse, he is paired with popular girl Cat for a history project. Between Cat’s icy attitude and troubling rumors that Sam lied about having cancer, nothing seems to be going well.

Things start to look up when Cat and Sam unexpectedly bond over the UFO obsession he once shared with Oscar—but Sam isn’t sure he’s ready to open up to someone again. With the chance for a fresh start within reach, he worries that coming clean about his illness will only make Cat pity him. Hiding the truth also helps Sam avoid the biggest worry of all: What if his cancer comes back?

Visit Katryn Bury's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Enlightenment's Most Dangerous Woman"

New from Oxford University Press: The Enlightenment's Most Dangerous Woman: Émilie du Châtelet and the Making of Modern Philosophy by Andrew Janiak.

About the book, from the publisher:

Suppressed for centuries, the ideas of French philosopher Émilie Du Châtelet's are ever relevant today...

Just as the Enlightenment was gaining momentum throughout Europe, philosopher Émilie Du Châtelet broke through the many barriers facing women at the time and published a major philosophical treatise in French. Within a few short years, she became famous: she was read and debated from Russia to Prussia, from Switzerland to England, from up north in Sweden to down south in Italy. This was not just remarkable because she was a woman, but because of the substance of her contributions. While the men in her milieu like Voltaire and Kant sought disciples to promote their ideas, Du Châtelet promoted intellectual autonomy. She counselled her readers to read the classics, but never to become a follower of another's ideas. Her proclamation that a true philosopher must remain an independent thinker, rather than a disciple of some supposedly “great man” like Isaac Newton or René Descartes, posed a threat to an emerging consensus in the Enlightenment. And that made her dangerous.

After all, if young women took Du Châtelet's advice to heart, if they insisted on thinking for themselves, they might demand a proper education--the exclusion of women from the colleges and academies of Europe might finally end. And if young women thought for themselves, rather than listening to the ideas of the men around them, that might rupture the gender-based social order itself. Because of the threat that she posed, the men who created the modern philosophy canon eventually wrote Du Châtelet out of their official histories. After she achieved immense fame in the middle of the eighteenth century, her ideas were later suppressed, or attributed to the men around her. For generations afterwards, she was forgotten. Now we can hear her voice anew when we need her more than ever. Her lessons of intellectual independence and her rejection of hero worship remain ever relevant today.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Witch of Wol Sin Lake"

New from HarperCollins: The Witch of Wol Sin Lake by Lena Jeong.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the sequel to And Break the Pretty Kings, crown princess Mirae continues to unravel her tangled future in order to save her queendom—perfect for fans of This Savage Song and Six Crimson Cranes.

After her fraught journey to save her queendom, Mirae has finally cast the Netherking back into his dark cage in the Deep.

But his imprisonment brings her no peace—because in his final schemes, the Netherking managed to possess her beloved older brother, Minho, and it is his body that languishes in the Deep, tormented by his possessor.

Mirae is determined to free her brother and destroy the Netherking once and for all. But when the Netherking steals the all-powerful pearl of Seolla, all of Mirae’s careful plans are destroyed. She must set out once more to stop him, slipping in and out of the future with her divine powers as she races a path to the heavens itself.

When she discovers the truth about the Netherking’s intentions and learns that the only way to destroy him is with a sacrifice larger than she can bear, Mirae begins to doubt her free will and even the fate of the entire peninsula and the gods beyond.

Dark and thrilling, this action-packed sequel to And Break the Pretty Kings pulls readers deeper into its captivating world of lavish, fantastical magic and dangerous secrets, as Mirae faces overwhelming odds to save her queendom—and an impossible choice.

Visit Lena Jeong's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Finding God in All the Black Places"

New from Rutgers University Press: Finding God in All the Black Places: Sacred Imaginings in Black Popular Culture by Beretta E. Smith-Shomade.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Finding God in All the Black Places, Beretta E. Smith-Shomade contends that Black spirituality and Black church religiosity are the critical crux of Black popular culture. She argues that cultural, community, and social support live within the Black church and that spirit, art, and progress are deeply entwined and seal this connection. Including the work of artists such as Mary J. Blige, D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, Prince, Spike Lee, and Oprah Winfrey, the book examines contemporary Black television, film, music and digital culture to demonstrate the role, impact, and dominance of spirituality and religion in Black popular culture. Smith-Shomade believes that acknowledging and comprehending the foundations of Black spirituality and Black church religiosity within Black popular culture provide a way for viewers, listeners, and users not only to endure but also to revitalize.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Like Mother, Like Mother"

New from The Dial Press: Like Mother, Like Mother: A Novel by Susan Rieger.

About the book, from the publisher:

An enthralling novel about three generations of strong-willed women, unknowingly shaped by the secrets buried in their family’s past.

Detroit, 1960. Lila Pereira is two years old when her angry, abusive father has her mother committed to an asylum. Lila never sees her mother again. Three decades later, having mustered everything she has—brains, charm, talent, blond hair—Lila rises to the pinnacle of American media as the powerful, brilliant executive editor of The Washington Globe. Lila unapologetically prioritizes her career, leaving the rearing of her daughters to her generous husband, Joe. He doesn’t mind—until he does.

But Grace, their youngest daughter, feels abandoned. She wishes her mother would attend PTA meetings, not White House correspondents’ dinners. As she grows up, she cannot shake her resentment. She wants out from under Lila’s shadow, yet the more she resists, the more Lila seems to shape her life. Grace becomes a successful reporter, even publishing a bestselling book about her mother. In the process of writing it, she realizes how little she knows about her own family. Did Lila’s mother, Grace’s grandmother, die in that asylum? Is refusal to look back the only way to create a future? How can you ever be yourself, Grace wonders, if you don’t know where you came from?

Spanning generations, and populated by complex, unforgettable characters, Like Mother, Like Mother is an exhilarating, portrait of family, marriage, ambition, power, the stories we inherit, and the lies we tell to become the people we believe we’re meant to be.

--Marshal Zeringue

"LeRoy Neiman"

New from the University of Chicago Press: LeRoy Neiman: The Life of America’s Most Beloved and Belittled Artist by Travis Vogan.

About the book, from the publisher:

The untold story of an American hustler who upset the art world and became a pop culture icon, cutting a swath across twentieth-century history and culture.

LeRoy Neiman—the cigar-smoking and mustachioed artist famous for his Playboy illustrations, sports paintings, and brash interviews—stood among the twentieth century’s most famous, wealthy, and polarizing artists. His stylish renderings of musicians, athletes, and sporting events captivated fans but baffled critics, who accused Neiman of debasing art with popular culture. Neiman cashed in on the controversy, and his extraordinary popularity challenged the norms of what art should be, where it belongs, and who should have access to it.

The story of a Depression-era ragamuffin–turned–army chef–turned–celebrity artist, Neiman’s biography is a rollicking ride through twentieth-century American history, punctuated by encounters with the likes of Muhammad Ali, Frank Sinatra, Joe Namath, and Andy Warhol. In the whirlwind of his life, Neiman himself once remarked that even he didn’t know who he really was—but, he said, the fame and money that came his way made it all worth it. In this first biography of the captivating and infamous man, Travis Vogan hunts for the real Neiman amid the America that made him.

--Marshal Zeringue

"For She Is Wrath"

New from Wednesday Books: For She Is Wrath by Emily Varga.

About the book, from the publisher:

A sweeping, Pakistani romantic fantasy reimagining of The Count of Monte Cristo, where one girl seeks revenge against those who betrayed her—including the boy she used to love.

Three hundred and sixty-four days.

Framed for a crime she didn't commit, Dania counts down her days in prison until she can exact revenge on Mazin, the boy responsible for her downfall, the boy she once loved—and still can't forget. When she discovers a fellow prisoner may have the key to exacting that vengeance--a stolen djinn treasure--they execute a daring escape together and search for the hidden treasure.

Armed with dark magic and a new identity, Dania enacts a plan to bring down those who betrayed her and her family, even though Mazin stands in her way. But seeking revenge becomes a complicated game of cat and mouse, especially when an undeniable fire still burns between them, and the power to destroy her enemies has a price. As Dania falls deeper into her web of traps and lies, she risks losing her humanity to her fight for vengeance--and her heart to the only boy she's ever loved.

Visit Emily Varga's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Herald of a Restless World"

New from Basic Books: Herald of a Restless World: How Henri Bergson Brought Philosophy to the People by Emily Herring.

About the book, from the publisher:

The first English-language biography of Henri Bergson, the French philosopher who defined individual creativity and transformed twentieth-century thought

At the dawn of the twentieth century, Henri Bergson (1859–1941) became the most famous philosopher on earth. Where prior thinkers sketched out a deterministic, predictable universe, he asserted the transformative power of consciousness and creativity. An international celebrity, he made headlines around the world debating luminaries like Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein about free will and time. The vision of creative evolution and freedom he presented was so disruptive that the New York Times branded him “the most dangerous man in the world.”

In Herald of a Restless World, Emily Herring recovers how Bergson captivated a society in flux. She shows how his celebration of the time-bending uniqueness of individual experience struck a chord with those shaken by modern technological and social change. Long after he faded from public view, his insights io memory, time, laughter, and creativity continue to shape how we see the world around us.

Herald of a Restless World is an electrifying portrait of a singular intellect. Bergson’s extraordinary insight into life’s fundamental questions remains urgent and relevant to this day.

Visit Emily Herring's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"This Motherless Land"

New from Mariner Books: This Motherless Land: A Novel by Nikki May.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the acclaimed author of Wahala, a “vibrant” (Charmaine Wilkerson) decolonial retelling of Mansfield Park, exploring identity, culture, race, and love.

Quiet Funke is happy in Nigeria. She loves her art teacher mother, her professor father, and even her annoying little brother (most of the time). But when tragedy strikes, she’s sent to England, a place she knows only from her mother’s stories. To her dismay, she finds the much-lauded estate dilapidated, the food tasteless, the weather grey. Worse still, her mother’s family are cold and distant. With one exception: her cousin Liv.

Free-spirited Liv has always wanted to break free of her joyless family. She becomes fiercely protective of her little cousin, and her warmth and kindness give Funke a place to heal. The two girls grow into adulthood the closest of friends.

But the choices their mothers made haunt Funke and Liv and when a second tragedy occurs their friendship is torn apart. Against the long shadow of their shared family history, each woman will struggle to chart a path forward, separated by country, misunderstanding, and ambition.

Moving between Somerset and Lagos over the course of two decades, This Motherless Land is a sweeping examination of identity, culture, race, and love that asks how we find belonging and whether a family’s generational wrongs can be righted.

Visit Nikki May's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Nikki May & Fela and Lola.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Brothers Grimm: A Biography"

New from Yale University Press: The Brothers Grimm: A Biography by Ann Schmiesing.

About the book, from the publisher:

Wilhelm Grimm, known to history as the Brothers Grimm

More than two hundred years ago, the German brothers Jacob Grimm (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859) published a collection of fairy tales that remains famous the world over. It has been translated into some 170 languages—more than any other German book—and the Brothers Grimm are among the top dozen most translated authors in the world. In addition to collecting tales, the Grimms were mythographers, linguists, librarians, civil servants, and above all the closest of brothers, but until now, the full story of their lifelong endeavor to preserve and articulate a German cultural identity has not been well known.

Drawing on deep archival research and decades of scholarship, Ann Schmiesing tells the affecting story of how the Grimms’ ambitious projects gave the brothers a sense of self-preservation through the atrocities of the Napoleonic Wars and a series of personal losses. They produced a vast corpus of work on mythology and medieval literature, embarked on a monumental German dictionary project, and broke scholarly ground with Jacob’s linguistic discovery known as Grimm’s Law. Setting their story against a rich historical backdrop, Schmiesing offers a fresh consideration of the profound and yet complicated legacy of the Brothers Grimm.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A New Lease on Death"

New from Minotaur Books: A New Lease on Death: A Mystery by Olivia Blacke.

About the book, from the publisher:

Death is only the beginning in Olivia Blacke's A New Lease on Death, a darkly funny supernatural mystery that introduces an unlikely crime-solving duo.

Ruby Young's new Boston apartment comes with all the usual perks. Windows facing the brick wall of the next-door building. Heat that barely works. A malfunctioning buzzer. Noisy neighbors. A dead body on the sidewalk outside. And of course, a ghost.

Since Cordelia Graves died in her apartment a few months ago, she's kept up her residency, despite being bored out of her (non-tangible) skull and frustrated by her new roommate. When her across-the-hall neighbor, Jake Macintyre, is shot and killed in an apparent mugging gone wrong outside their building, Cordelia is convinced there’s more to it and is determined to bring his killer to justice.

Unfortunately, Cordelia, being dead herself, can't solve the mystery alone. She has to enlist the help of the obnoxiously perky, living tenant of her apartment. Ruby is twenty, annoying, and has never met a houseplant she couldn't kill. But she also can do everything Cordelia can't, from interviewing suspects to researching Jake on the library computers that go up in a puff of smoke if Cordelia gets too close. As the roommates form an unlikely friendship and get closer to the truth about Jake's death, they also start to uncover other dangerous secrets.

Visit Olivia Blacke's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Promise of Beauty"

New from Duke University Press: The Promise of Beauty by Mimi Thi Nguyen.

About the book, from the publisher:

In The Promise of Beauty, Mimi Thi Nguyen explores the relationship between the concept of beauty and narratives of crisis and catastrophe. Nguyen conceptualizes beauty, which, she observes, we turn to in emergencies and times of destruction, as a tool to identify and bridge the discrepancy between the world as it is and what it ought to be. Drawing widely from aesthetic and critical theories, Nguyen outlines how beauty—or its lack—points to the conditions that must exist for it to flourish. She notes that an absence of beauty becomes both a political observation and a call to action to transform the conditions of the situation so as to replicate, preserve, or repair beauty. The promise of beauty can then engender a critique of social arrangements and political structures that would set the foundations for its possibility and presence. In this way, Nguyen highlights the role of beauty in inspiring action toward a more just world.

Visit Mimi Thi Nguyen's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Perfect Fit"

New from St. Martin's Griffin: Perfect Fit: A Novel by Clare Gilmore.

About the book, from the publisher:

A hilarious and heartfelt rom-com about having it all, slowing down to see the big picture, and finding out that the person you least expect could be your perfect fit

Josephine Davis has spent her entire twenties building Revenant, a fashion brand headquartered in downtown Austin. When her biggest investor orders Josie to hire a consultant, the last person she expects to be working with is Will Grant – the twin brother of her ex best friend.

Sure, Will and Josie may have shared one mistake of a kiss during senior spring break nine years ago, but they’ve never been friends. She remembers him as moody; he always thought of her as shallow. Romance isn’t on the table for either of them until they blink, and realize there’s a reason they can’t stay away from each other.

But there’s Will’s sister to consider, whom Josie hasn’t spoken with since their falling out. Not to mention, Will and Josie live seventeen hundred miles apart. And it’s not like she has time for a boyfriend anyway when she’s an overworked CEO. As Josie’s burnout looms while she falls deeper and harder for Will, she contends with the fact that eventually, she’ll have to make a choice: stay alone to be productive, or slow down to be in love.

Visit Clare Gilmore's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Killing the Elites"

New from Columbia University Press: Killing the Elites: Haiti, 1964 by Jean-Philippe Belleau.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the summer and fall of 1964, a massacre took place in the small town of Jérémie, Haiti. After an ill-fated uprising, the brutal regime of François “Papa Doc” Duvalier ordered reprisals against the town that some of the insurgents were allegedly from. Entire families—all from the town’s upper class—were slaughtered. Through a rich historical ethnography of the massacre, Jean-Philippe Belleau offers a new account of the workings of the Duvalier regime and an innovative analysis of anti-elite violence.

Killing the Elites meticulously reconstructs the various phases of the massacre, identifying the victims and perpetrators, tracing the social ties that linked them, and examining the varying degrees of culpability from the state to bystanders. Although Duvalier and the military were responsible, the killings were attributed to popular social grievances. Examining how the Haitian state has brutalized the upper classes, Belleau develops a new theory of anti-elite violence. He challenges views that ideology or social difference can readily drive people to kill their neighbors and that the upper classes fall victim to popular rough justice, showing that social bonds within the town prevented organized violence from spreading. The state, Belleau underscores, is the primary perpetrator of violence against elites. Drawing on interviews with eyewitnesses and former regime members as well as a wide range of unexplored primary sources, this book provides a new lens on Haiti under Duvalier and reveals why the victimization of the elite is essential to mass violence.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Queen"

New from Gallery Books: The Queen: A Novel by Nick Cutter.

About the book, from the publisher:

“One of the hottest horror authors on the planet” (Paste) and writer of the #HorrorBookTok sensation The Troop returns with a heart-pounding novel of terror about a young woman searching for her missing friend and uncovering a shocking truth.

On a sunny morning in June, Margaret Carpenter wakes up to find a new iPhone on her doorstep. She switches it on to find a text from her best friend, Charity Atwater. The problem is, Charity’s been missing for over a month. Most people in town—even the police—think she’s dead.

Margaret and Charity have been lifelong friends. They share everything, know the most intimate details about one another...except for the destructive secret hidden from them both. A secret that will trigger a chain of events ending in tragedy, bloodshed, and death. And now Charity wants Margaret to know her story—the real story. In a narrative that takes place over one feverish day, Margaret follows a series of increasingly disquieting breadcrumbs as she forges deeper into the mystery of her best friend—a person she never truly knew at all...

Visit Nick Cutter's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Deep.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Out of Paper"

New from Yale University Press: Out of Paper: Drawing, Environment, and the Body in 1960s America by Katie Anania.

About the book, from the publisher:

A dynamic look at how artists used paper to radically redefine the relationship between the body and its surroundings, and to propose new conceptions of ecology

From sketches created inside pants pockets to paper-strewn performances that took cues from protests and riots, the work on paper in the 1960s acted as a mobile, flexible connective tissue between the body and the world around it. In this book, Katie Anania reveals how artists Carolee Schneemann, William Anastasi, Richard Tuttle, Robert Morris, and Charles White harnessed this historically intimate medium during a period in which Americans were becoming urgently concerned with identity, consumer culture, the overreach of state power, and the rapidly deteriorating natural world. Her reexamination of drawing shows how the omnipresence of paper facilitated artists’ critiques of dominant systems, from modern throwaway culture to bureaucracy to colonial violence.

Engaging a wide range of actions—such as recycling, recording, cutting, planning, and erasing—Anania offers fresh insights into paper’s role not merely as a preparatory medium but one essential to the histories of performance, minimalist, conceptual, and land art. Out of Paper uses materiality studies, social history, and feminist art historical methods to situate paper as a major conduit for thought in the postwar United States.

Visit Katie Anania's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Last Hamilton"

Coming February 11 from Crooked Lane Books: The Last Hamilton: A Novel by Jenn Bregman.

About the book, from the publisher:

After the last heir of Alexander Hamilton’s line is murdered, her heartbroken husband and best friend team up in this twisty thriller where a mysterious death uncovers not just an ancient secret society, but the treasures it holds—perfect for fans of Dan Brown and Sarah Penner.

The more they know, the more danger they’re in.

When Elizabeth Walker, the last heir of the Alexander Hamilton line, is tragically killed by a subway train in New York, foul play is immediately suspected. Elizabeth had been terrified, frantic, and manic during her last days, running mysterious errands, searching for a strange antique key, and sending cryptic messages to her best friend, Sarah Brockman.

The morning after Elizabeth’s death, a box of tattered documents lands on Sarah’s doorstep, confirming her suspicions about Elizabeth’s strange behavior and shocking death. She brings the box to Elizabeth’s grieving husband, Ralph. Working together, they are stunned to discover that Elizabeth was part of a secret society established by Hamilton himself to keep the United States just and free, its influence woven into every corner of the country’s history. As Sarah and Ralph race through the streets of New York to uncover the truth behind Elizabeth’s death, they must stop an ingenious and sinister plot before someone else catches up to them–and the secrets of Hamilton’s society are lost forever.

With fascinating details from the shadows of American history, The Last Hamilton is a sweeping and fast-paced thriller reminiscent of The Da Vinci Code.

Visit Jenn Bregman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue