"Fun City Heist"

New from Severn House: Fun City Heist by Michael Kardos.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A washed—up rockstar gets his old band back together for one final gig . . . and one daring robbery! A brilliantly funny, twisty heist caper from Pushcart Prize—winning author Michael Kardos.

Mo Melnick used to be a drummer in rock band Sunshine Apocalypse. He used to be someone. These days he rents beach umbrellas on the Jersey Shore.

The last thing he expects is for Johnny Clay, his old bandmate turned enemy, to ask him a favor. Johnny’s dying, and before he passes he wants Sunshine Apocalypse to reunite for one last gig at Fun City, the beachfront amusement park where their musical journey began.

Mo’s in—reluctantly. But then Johnny reveals his real plan: He doesn’t just want to play at Fun City on the fourth of July. He wants to rob it.

The plan is crazy. It has more holes than a golf course. But Mo’s sick of barely keeping his head above water, so he and his gang of middle—aged has—beens dive into what will be the most outrageous heist New Jersey’s ever seen—if, that is, they can pull it off alive . . .

Packed with astonishing twists and laugh—out—loud moments, Michael Kardos’ unique comedic thriller is perfect for fans of Elmore Leonard and Donald Westlake.

Visit Michael Kardos's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Three Day Affair.

My Book, The Movie: The Three-Day Affair.

My Book, The Movie: Before He Finds Her.

The Page 69 Test: Before He Finds Her.

The Page 69 Test: Bluff.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Desert Imaginations"

New from the University of California Press: Desert Imaginations: A History of Saharanism and Its Radical Consequences by Brahim El Guabli.

About the book, from the publisher:

Desert Imaginations traces the cultural and intellectual histories that have informed the prevalent ideas of deserts across the globe. The book argues that Saharanism—a globalizing imaginary that perceives desert spaces as empty, exploitable, and dangerous—has been at the center of all desert-focused enterprises. Encompassing spiritual practices, military thinking, sexual fantasies, experiential quests, extractive economies, and experimental schemes, among other projects, Saharanism has shaped the way deserts not only are constructed intellectually but are acted upon. From nuclear testing to border walls, and much more, Brahim El Guabli articulates some of Saharanism's consequential manifestations across different deserts. Desert Imaginations draws on the abundant historical literature and cultural output in multiple languages and across disciplines to delineate the parameters of Saharanism. Against Saharanism's powerful and reductive vision of deserts, the book rehabilitates a tradition of desert eco-care that has been at work in desert Indigenous people's literary, artistic, scholarly, and ritualistic practices.

--Marshal Zeringue

"All Eyes on Him"

New from Poisoned Pen Press: All Eyes on Him by Iliana Xander.

About the book, from the publisher:

From #1 bestselling author Iliana Xander comes a twisty, fast-paced psychological thriller, perfect for fans of Freida McFadden.

He's the Man of the Year. But what if he is a monster?

When Natalie saw her best friend leaving the club with a handsome stranger, she never would have thought that the next morning, her friend would be discovered unconscious at a bus stop.

What happened that night? Only her best friend knows. And until she recovers from her coma, she won't be able to tell her side of the story.

Natalie is desperate for answers—so she can't believe her luck when she comes across a photo of the man her friend left with. Except he's on the cover of a magazine, being heralded as the "Man of the Year." This man appears untouchable. He's a millionaire. He's famous. But Natalie suspects he's dangerous.

To prove it, she takes up a job as the housekeeper at his mansion. Her plan is simple. Watch his every move. Gather the evidence. And make him pay. But when she discovers that the last housekeeper went missing, she realizes she's in over her head.

She thought she was setting the trap—but has she just fallen into his?

Visit Iliana Xander's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Development Design"

New from the University of Pittsburgh Press: Development Design: Hotels and Politics in the Hispanic Caribbean by Erica Morawski.

About the book, from the publisher:

Underneath picturesque views of palm trees, fruity cocktails in hotel lounges, and day trips to preserved colonial zones lies a history of tourism design that intersects with larger projects of development and national and cultural identity formation. Locating modernity and coloniality as the key framework within which tourism development takes place, Development Design focuses on hotel design and its relation to larger urban and rural landscapes to uncover the way these seemingly carefree spaces are bound to local politics and international relations. Focusing on three sites in the Hispanic Caribbean—San Juan, Ciudad Trujillo, and Havana—Morawski traces different attitudes and approaches to tourism and its material design through five hotels that serve as case studies. Through examination of wicker chairs and lobby interiors, architecture and landscaping, public works and urban planning, Development Design illustrates the integral role hotel design played in negotiated and contested histories of development in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Dead Set on You"

New from Crooked Lane Books: Dead Set on You: A Novel by Lexi Alexander.

About the book, from the publisher:

A woman wakes up as a spirit in her rival coworker’s apartment in this charming contemporary romance for fans of The Dead Romantics and The Hating Game.

As workaholic Evie Pope nears thirty, she’s determined to slow down and start enjoying the “life” part of work-life balance. With a major promotion—and the financial security that comes with it—on the horizon, she might finally have her chance. But when she wakes up as a spirit in her work rival’s apartment and learns her body is stuck in a coma, her plans are officially DOA.

Being a spirit is bad enough. Discovering that Rafael Vela—the man who used to be her friend and is now her biggest rival—is the only person who can help her? It’s a special kind of purgatory. In no position to negotiate, she strikes a desperate deal: He gets the promotion if he helps reunite Evie’s spirit with her body.

As they begin to spend more time together, Evie discovers there’s more to Rafael than his bedroom eyes and his hey-there dimpled smile. With only a week until Evie’s body is transferred to long-term care and out of Rafael’s reach, Evie must choose between trusting the man who betrayed her years ago and figuring things out the way she’s always done it: alone.

This contemporary romance with a paranormal twist blends heated banter, old grudges, and unfinished business, perfect for anyone who believes in second chances.

Visit Lexi Alexander's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Lieutenants and Light"

New from the University of New Mexico Press: Lieutenants and Light: Mapping the US Army Heliograph Networks in Late Nineteenth-Century Arizona and New Mexico by Robert E.C. Davis.

About the book, from the publisher:

Lieutenants and Light provides an accurate, detailed historical study of the U.S. Army’s use of the heliograph as a tactical means of communication and command and control in the desert environment of Arizona and New Mexico in the late nineteenth century.

The heliograph network in the Southwest, which began development in 1882, used mirror-based signaling devices to facilitate communication across remote outposts, forts, and detachments. Heliographs enabled soldiers to send messages over long distances using Morse code transmitted through sunlight reflections. During and immediately following the campaign against Geronimo in 1886, General Nelson A. Miles implemented a heliograph network that connected key locations from Nogales, Arizona, to Fort Stanton, New Mexico, enhancing command and control. Additional tests and expansions solidified the heliograph’s role as an essential military communication tool.

Reports from the officers tasked with establishing these stations and modern geospatial analysis have identified almost ninety networked heliograph stations established between 1882 and 1893, culminating in the greatest heliograph network ever built.

Many of the officers who helmed these stations went on to distinguished careers in the military, business, or public service. Some had served in the Civil War, and most were veterans of the Indian Wars. Almost a third of these young officers would go on to become general officers, several serving in leadership roles during World War I. Thus, the heliograph not only connected points across the Southwest but also linked a group of officers whose experience and leadership spanned from the Civil War through World War I.

Visit Robert E.C. Davis's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Before I Forget"

New from St. Martin's Press: Before I Forget: A Novel by Tory Henwood Hoen.

About the book, from the publisher:

A funny, heartfelt, late coming-of-age story that examines the role of memory in holding us back—and in moving us forward—for fans of The Collected Regrets of Clover and Maame.

Call it inertia. Call it a quarter-life crisis. Whatever you call it, Cricket Campbell is stuck. Despite working at a zeitgeisty wellness company, the 26-year-old feels anything but well. Still adrift after a tragedy that upended her world a decade ago, she has entered early adulthood under the weight of a new burden: her father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

When Cricket’s older sister Nina announces it is time to move Arthur from his beloved Adirondack lake house into a memory-care facility, Cricket has a better idea. In returning home to become her father’s caretaker, she hopes to repair their strained relationship and shake herself out of her perma-funk. But even deeply familiar places can hold surprises.

As Cricket settles back into the family house at Catwood Pond—a place she once loved, but hasn’t visited since she was a teenager—she discovers that her father possesses a rare gift: as he loses his grasp of the past, he is increasingly able to predict the future. Before long, Arthur cements his reputation as an unlikely oracle, but for Cricket, believing in her father’s prophecies might also mean facing the most painful parts of her history. As she begins to remember who she once was, she uncovers a vital truth: the path forward often starts by going back.

With laugh-out-loud humor and profound grace, Before I Forget explores the nuances of family, the complexities of memory, and how sometimes, the people we know the best are the ones who surprise us the most.

Visit Tory Henwood Hoen's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Six Loves of James I"

New from Atria Books: The Six Loves of James I by Gareth Russell.

About the book, from the publisher:

A groundbreaking and insightful exploration of King James I, enigmatic successor to Queen Elizabeth I, from the “meticulous researcher” (The Wall Street Journal) and author of the “enjoyable and readable” (Philippa Gregory, #1 New York Times bestselling author) The Palace.

From the assassination of his father to the explosive political and personal intrigues of his reign, this fresh biography reveals as never before the passions that drove King James I.

Gareth Russell’s “rollicking, gossipy” (Dan Jones, author of The Plantagenets), and scholarly voice invites us into James’s world, revealing a monarch whose reign was defined by both his public power and personal vulnerabilities. For too long, historians have shied away from or condemned the exploration of his sexuality. Now, Russell offers a candid narrative that not only reveals James’s relationships with five prominent men but also challenges the historical standards applied to the examination of royal intimacies.

This biography stands as a significant contribution to the understanding of royal history, illuminating the personal experiences that shaped James’s political decisions and his philosophical views on masculinity and sexuality.

Visit Gareth Russell's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Ship of Dreams.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Huguette"

New from Soho Crime: Huguette by Cara Black.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the lawlessness of post–World War II France, a resilient young woman fights to survive and make a living, no matter the cost—from the New York Times bestselling author of Three Hours in Paris and the Aimée Leduc series

After Libération, spring 1945: Seventeen-year-old Huguette Faure is a survivor. The war has taken everything from her—both her parents and her sense of safety. Now, pregnant and on the lam, she cannot return to her childhood home in Paris. Forced to reinvent herself, she must outrun her father’s enemies, who want her dead. After narrowly avoiding jail time—thanks to the help of a kindhearted police officer named Claude Leduc—Huguette lands a job assisting a legendary film director. As her role develops from helping him with chores to cooking his books, she sees an opportunity to break free from the ghosts of her past once and for all.

In this big-hearted story of resilience, New York Times bestselling author Cara Black offers a wholly original depiction of postwar France as well as introduces Claude Leduc—the man who decades later inspired his granddaughter, Aimée, to become a private investigator.

Visit Cara Black's website and follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and Threads.

The Page 69 Test: Murder at the Lanterne Rouge.

My Book, the Movie: Murder at the Lanterne Rouge.

The Page 69 Test: Murder below Montparnasse.

The Page 69 Test: Murder in Pigalle.

My Book, The Movie: Murder in Pigalle.

My Book, The Movie: Murder on the Champ de Mars.

The Page 69 Test: Three Hours in Paris.

The Page 69 Test: Night Flight to Paris.

Writers Read: Cara Black (March 2023).

Writers Read: Cara Black (March 2024).

The Page 69 Test: Murder at la Villette.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Classroom and the Crowd"

New from Columbia University Press: The Classroom and the Crowd: Poetry and the Promise of Digital Community by Al Filreis.

About the book, from the publisher:

For more than a decade, Al Filreis has taught a free online course about experimental poetry, known as “ModPo,” that has drawn some 435,000 students from 179 countries. Online classes even a fraction of ModPo’s size have been criticized as impersonal and unengaging. But the citizens of ModPo have formed a generous and enduring intellectual community as together they read poems typically dismissed as difficult and inaccessible.

In The Classroom and the Crowd, Filreis reflects on his decades of experience as a founder of participatory literary communities and teacher of online courses, demonstrating that student-centered education offers new possibilities for humane social networking. Introducing readers to ModPo participants and their open-ended, round-the-clock conversations, he shows how online learning can not only be accessible and educational but also deepen our commitment to democracy. Filreis argues that the emphasis on collaborative learning, space for discussion, and the inherent openness of poetry allows for a sense of community, continuity, and even intimacy that often eludes other online educational endeavors. ModPo embodies principles underlying both modern poetics and cooperative education: Writers and readers, like teachers and learners, create meaning together; many voices are clearer than one; and democracy is a creative practice. Proposing an optimistic vision of mass learning, this book contends that asynchronous education has surprising advantages over the traditional classroom, that panics about a crisis of attention and the death of reading are overblown―and that instead of logging off, we should all start reading with a crowd.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Snow Lies Deep"

New from Minotaur Books: The Snow Lies Deep: A Mercy Carr Mystery by Paula Munier.

About the book, from the publisher:

The latest thrilling installment in the bestselling Mercy Carr mystery series

Mercy and Troy are looking forward to baby Felicity’s first holiday season, and they’re determined to make it a Christmas to remember. At Northshire’s annual Solstice Soirée, hosted by Northshire’s finest and funded by Mercy’s billionaire pal Feinberg, Amy’s little girl Helena is sitting on Santa Claus’s lap. She’s telling him she’d like a Bitty Baby doll just like little Felicity when the bearded man leaps up, thrusts the toddler at her mother Amy, and staggers away from the festivities. He disappears into the woods. By the time Elvis and Mercy find him, Santa Claus aka the town mayor, is lying on his back, dead. A yule log made of oak sits on his chest, burning bright, a beacon of light on the darkest day of the year.

This strange murder is the first of a series of similar Solstice-themed killings targeting the town’s most prominent citizens. Beloved family friend Lillian Jenkins, the grande dame of Northshire, could be next. Mercy and Troy and the dogs must team up with Thrasher and Harrington to capture The Yuletide Killer before he strikes again, this time far closer to home.

Visit Paula Munier's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Paula Munier & Bear.

My Book, The Movie: A Borrowing of Bones.

The Page 69 Test: A Borrowing of Bones.

Writers Read: Paula Munier (October 2019).

My Book, The Movie: Blind Search.

The Page 69 Test: Blind Search.

My Book, The Movie: The Hiding Place.

The Page 69 Test: The Hiding Place.

Q&A with Paula Munier.

My Book, The Movie: The Wedding Plot.

The Page 69 Test: The Wedding Plot.

Writers Read: Paula Munier (July 2022).

Writers Read: Paula Munier (October 2023).

My Book, The Movie: Home at Night.

The Page 69 Test: Home at Night.

My Book, The Movie: The Night Woods.

The Page 69 Test: The Night Woods.

Writers Read: Paula Munier (October 2024).

--Marshal Zeringue

"Facing Decay"

New from Penn State University Press: Facing Decay: Beauty, Aging, and Cosmetics in Early Modern Europe by Erin Griffey.

About the book, from the publisher:

The pursuit of youth and beauty transcends time periods. As now, women in the early modern period also sought to turn back the clock using cosmetic recipes promising beauty and clear, younger-looking skin.

Facing Decay systematically examines early modern visual art, anti-aging recipes, and a range of other writings to investigate the period’s obsession with youth and beauty―and the corollary anxiety about age and decay. It provides the first examination of not only why but how early modern women sought to fight the appearance of old age. Author Erin Griffey argues that youthful skin was not simply a cosmetic pursuit; it was regarded as a signal of health, and thus beauty regimens intersected with medical practice. She takes beauty and its decay seriously and links therapeutic cosmetics to not only medical knowledge but also scientific ingenuity, social benefit, and cultural agency.

This interdisciplinary book negotiates both the representations and the practical applications of beauty culture in early modern Europe through the history of art, society, medicine, and science. It is a fascinating and frequently surprising work that should appeal to anyone interested in the history of women, aging, medicine, beauty culture, and beauty recipes.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Probable Son"

New from Lake Union: The Probable Son: A Novel by Cindy Jiban.

About the book, from the publisher:

A mother secretly believes she’s raising the wrong son, mistakenly switched at birth. But secrets unravel in a gripping and affecting novel about parental love, impossible choices, and what it means to truly be there for someone.

For fourteen years, teacher Elsa Vargas has hidden her belief that she’s mothering the wrong child, accidentally switched at birth. Her beloved son Bird is not like the rest of the family. He’s the introvert among extroverts, the optimist among skeptics. But Elsa knows love is more important than truth, and the best way to keep Bird is to leave well enough alone.

Then the odds catch up with her. A student named Thomas in Elsa’s math class is suddenly uncannily familiar, an older version of Bird’s little brother. When she realizes Thomas shares a birthday with Bird, Elsa has a terrible realization: Thomas is probably her long-lost son.

Soon Elsa is on a clumsy journey to get to know Thomas―and to confirm the truth. Testing the bonds of family, friendship, and even community will surely all be worth it if she gains a son. But what if she loses Bird, the boy she has loved and mothered since his first days of life?

Visit Cindy Jiban's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Discovering the Okapi"

New from Johns Hopkins University Press: Discovering the Okapi: Western Science, Indigenous Knowledge, and the Search for a Rainforest Enigma by Simon Pooley.

About the book, from the publisher:

The captivating history of the okapi and its symbolic role in science, culture, and conservation.

In Discovering the Okapi, Simon Pooley offers a fascinating portrait of the okapi―an elusive short-necked giraffid with zebra stripes, surviving in the rainforests of central Africa's Congo basin―and unpacks the complicated layers of Western science and Indigenous knowledge that shaped the world's understanding of this unique creature. Pooley tells the story of the okapi's "discovery" in 1900 by British naturalist Sir Harry Johnston, as well as the overlooked contributions of the Indigenous African people whose expertise made this sighting and subsequent hunt for specimens possible. The book traces how colonial politics and scientific racism shaped early accounts of the animal's study and examines the enduring biases that continue to influence conservation efforts today. The okapi became a symbol of scientific curiosity, colonial power, and conservation challenges, revealing complex intersections among biodiversity, cultural heritage, and environmental stewardship. Its precarious existence in captivity and the wild exposes how Western and Indigenous approaches to conservation can―and must―find common ground for its survival.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Heiress of Nowhere"

Coming March 17 from Sarah Barley Books/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers: Heiress of Nowhere by Stacey Lee.

About the book, from the publisher:

An orphan races to uncover a killer—who may have come from the sea—when she and her beloved orcas fall under suspicion in this historical gothic mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of The Downstairs Girl, Stacey Lee.

1918. Orcas Island, Washington.

Lucy Nowhere has spent her life working on the vast estate of the eccentric shipbuilder who took her in after she washed ashore as a baby in a green canoe. Still, she has long wished for a life off the island, which holds no answers for her.

After a series of seal heads begin appearing on beaches, Lucy stumbles upon her employer’s severed head on the shoreline. Rumors swirl that a mischievous spirit has struck again, much like it commanded its minions, the sea wolves, to kill a nameless cannery worker years ago. But the science-minded Lucy believes a murderer, not the sea wolves, is at fault.

Then Lucy is named the heiress of the estate, displacing a dashing relation. The inheritance casts Lucy herself under suspicion. And worse, paints a large target on her back.

Though her friend, the watchful estate cowboy guard, urges her to leave the island with him, Lucy knows the only way she can discover who she is, and to free the island of its curse, is to find the real killer—before she becomes the next victim.

Visit Stacey Lee's website.

Writers Read: Stacey Lee.

My Book, The Movie: Under a Painted Sky.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Japan Reborn"

New from Columbia University Press: Japan Reborn: Race and Eugenics from Empire to Cold War by Kristin Roebuck.

About the book, from the publisher:

At the peak of imperial expansion in World War II, Japan touted itself as a multiracial paradise. The state, eugenicists, and media supported intermarriage and adoption as tools of empire, encouraging “blood mixing” to fuse diverse populations into one harmonious family. Yet after defeat in World War II, a chorus of Japanese policy makers, journalists, and activists railed against Japanese women who consorted with occupying American men and their mixed-race children. Why did Japan embrace “mixed blood” as an authoritarian empire yet turn to xenophobic racial nationalism as a postwar democracy?

Tracing changing views of the “mixed blood” child, Japan Reborn reveals how notions of racial mixture and purity reshaped Japanese identity. Kristin Roebuck unravels the politics of sex and reproduction in Japan from the invasion of Manchuria in the 1930s to the dawn of US-Japan alliance in the 1950s, uncovering eugenic ideas and policies that policed the boundaries of kinship and country. She shows how the trauma of defeat sparked an abhorrence of interracial sex and caused a profound devolution in the social status of “mixed” children and their Japanese mothers. She also unpacks how Japan’s postwar identity crisis put pressure on the United States to bring Japanese brides and “mixed blood” children into the Cold War American family. Shedding light on the sexual and racial tensions of empire, occupation, and the Cold War, this book offers new ways to understand the shifting terrain of Japanese nationalism and international relations.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Queen of the Dead"

New from Angry Robot: Queen of the Dead by Sarah Broadway.

About the book, from the publisher:

A fun and fast-paced paranormal urban fantasy with a touch of romance and supernatural hijinks galore, perfect for fans of The Whispering Dead by Darcy Coates.

Speaking with the dead is nothing new for Lou. It’s a curse she’s learned to hide from everyone – sometimes even herself. After running away from a past that took advantage of those abilities, Lou finally carves out a normal life for herself. That is, until she receives a mysterious message from a ghost – the Veil is thinning – and a cult of necromancers infiltrates her small town.

In a race to discover and defeat her foe, Lou learns she’s not alone in the fight. She grudgingly leans on her allies but wonders who to trust. What’s more impossible is suddenly finding herself the romantic interest of a man who somehow isn’t afraid of all the dark, creepy things about her... but even he has secrets for her to discover.

Time is running out, and reality seems to be slipping away. To save her new life and the people she loves, Lou must learn to accept who she is and embrace her true abilities, no matter where they might take her.

Visit Sarah Broadway's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Sense of Space"

New from the University of Chicago Press: A Sense of Space: A Local's Guide to a Flat Earth, the Edge of the Cosmos, and Other Curious Places by John Edward Huth.

About the book, from the publisher:

From global navigation to natal charts to memory palaces and beyond, a thrilling journey through humanity’s visualization of new spaces.

When you give directions, do you tell someone to go straight ahead and turn left? Or do you suggest that they head north before moving west? Your answer reveals more than you might think.

In A Sense of Space, writer and physicist John Edward Huth uses these two kinds of navigation—either centered on or independent of people—to help readers chart a path through evolving spatial models. In doing so, he offers an astonishing exploration of how changing scientific models of space alter our social perceptions, and vice versa. New visions of space can emanate from human considerations, he argues, and those new visions can in turn spawn new cultural phenomena. With accessible introductions to topics including mental maps, astrology, astronomy, particle physics, and Einstein’s relativity, Huth makes clear that, although our minds have evolved to comprehend space in terrestrial distances, we routinely extend this understanding to realms far removed from our everyday experiences, from cosmological to subatomic scales.

Taking us across the eons from the myth of a flat earth to the mysteries of the multiverse, A Sense of Space is an energetic, thoughtful guide to how we orient ourselves in our world—and beyond.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Grave Deception"

Coming soon from Crooked Lane Books: A Grave Deception: A Kate Hamilton Mystery by Connie Berry.

About the book, from the publisher:

Antiques expert Kate Hamilton dives into the past to solve a fourteenth-century mystery with disturbing similarities to a modern-day murder in the sixth installment of the Kate Hamilton mystery series.

Kate Hamilton and her husband, Detective Inspector Tom Mallory, have settled into married life in Long Barston. When archaeologists excavating the ruins of a nearby plague village discover the miraculously preserved body of a fourteenth-century woman, Kate and her colleague, Ivor Tweedy, are asked to appraise the grave goods, including a valuable pearl. When tests reveal the woman was pregnant and murdered, the owner of the estate on which the body was found, an amateur historian, asks Kate to identify her and, if possible, her killer. Surprised, Kate agrees to try.

Meanwhile, tensions within the archaeological team erupt when the body of the lead archaeologist turns up at the dig site with fake pearls in his mouth and stomach. Then a third body is found in the excavations. Meanwhile, Kate’s husband Tom is tracking the movements of a killer of his own.

With the help of 700-year-old documents and the unpublished research of a deceased historian, Kate must piece together the past before the grave count reaches four.

Visit Connie Berry's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Art of Betrayal.

My Book, The Movie: The Art of Betrayal.

Q&A with Connie Berry.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Digital Future of English"

New from Oxford University Press: The Digital Future of English: Literary Media Studies by Simone Murray.

About the book, from the publisher:

More than any other academic discipline, literary studies is the creation of print culture. How then can it thrive in the digital era? Early 1990s predictions of the book's imminent demise presented a simplistic either/or choice between the legacy of moribund print and triumphalist digital technology. Yet we have grown to experience the two media as complexly interdependent and even complementary. Clearly, digital does not kill print. But literary studies in the digital era cannot simply resume business as usual. It is urgently necessary to reconsider the discipline's founding assumptions in light of digital technology.

The digital era prompts a rethinking of literary studies' object of study, as well as its methods, theories, audiences and pedagogical practices. What counts as literature necessarily shifts in an age of proliferating born-digital texts and do-it-yourself (DIY) online publication. Where should literary studies sit institutionally, and how might it graft contextually-oriented social sciences methods onto its traditionally humanistic mode of textual analysis? Why should literary study continue to marginalize emotional responses to texts when online communities bond via readerly affect? Who is the audience for literary criticism in an age where expertise is routinely challenged yet communication with global book-loving publics has never been technologically easier? Finally, how can we utilize digital tools to rejuvenate literary studies pedagogy and help English staff better connect with millennial-age students?

Literary studies has been convulsed for decades by debates over electronic literature and, more recently, digitally-aided 'distant reading'. But these discussions still mostly confine themselves to demarcating our proper object of study. We need to think more expansively about digital technology's impact on the underpinning tenets of the discipline. Literary Media Studies is pitched at fellow literary scholars, book historians, media theorists, cultural sociologists, digital humanists and those working at the interface of these converging disciplines. It models constructive engagement with contemporary digital culture. Most importantly, it brings a burst of sorely needed optimism to the question of literary studies' digital future.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Ten Thousand Light Years from Okay"

New from Lake Union: Ten Thousand Light Years from Okay: A Novel by Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman.

About the book, from the publisher:

A widowed and grieving young novelist believes her words create realities―both tragic and charmed―in a hopeful and surprising novel about family, newfound love, and moving on.

Four years after her husband Sam’s tragic death mirrored a fatal plotline in her debut novel, Thea Packer hasn’t written another word, afraid that what she writes could come true again. Resigned to raising her young daughter in her in-laws’ guesthouse, Thea is on the verge of abandoning her literary career when inspiration strikes.

Her new book is a fairy-tale romance featuring a long-lost astronaut who miraculously returns home to his family, with the hero loosely drawn from Thea’s memories of Sam. Thea considers the fantasy a harmless way to process her grief.

That is, until a charismatic man walks into her life―and he’s an astronaut.

Thea can’t believe it’s happening again. Or is it? Her mother-in-law doesn’t think so―she sees only a woman increasingly detached from reality. Now, as coincidences between Thea’s writing and reality pile up, Thea must unravel the secrets of her past and tackle her grief head-on before she loses more than she ever imagined.

Visit Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Artisans and Designers"

New from The Kent State University Press: Artisans and Designers by Rebecca Jumper Matheson.

About the book, from the publisher:

One couple's bold vision for American fashion

Long before the fashion industry formally addressed questions of sustainability and advocated for “slow fashion,” William and Elizabeth Phelps, a husband-and-wife design duo, were already working to create hand-crafted leathergoods and functional women’s sportswear that could be worn for decades. Active from the 1940s to the late 1960s, Phelps Associates quickly won acclaim and found commercial success, attracting a broad clientele and becoming known for quality, utility, and craftsmanship.

Using vintage metal insignia and hardware, often military surplus, the Phelpses designed bags and belts that answered the need for American-made luxury goods during and after World War II. In the post-war period, the Phelpses experimented with new methods of production and branched into ready-to-wear fashion. Meanwhile, the pair worked to revive artisan workshops, emphasized fostering positive work environments for their employees, and offered employment opportunities for injured veterans.

Artisans and Designers is the first in-depth analysis of the Phelpses’ partnership, their often overlooked contributions to the fashion industry, and their forward-thinking business practices. Rebecca Jumper Matheson draws on their pieces to connect their work to larger conversations about sustainable fashion, consumerism, industrialization practices, and the intersection of art with American identity during and after World War II. The result is an engagingly written, richly illustrated account of a brand committed to creating classic pieces that have stood the test of time.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Queen Who Came in from the Cold"

New from Crooked Lane Books: The Queen Who Came in from the Cold: Her Majesty The Queen Investigates by S. J. Bennett.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Amateur sleuth Queen Elizabeth II is back on the case in 1960s England in the fifth installment of this historical mystery series The New York Times Book Review calls “sheer entertainment,” perfect for fans of Rhys Bowen and Richard Osman.

1961, England. The Queen is spending a night on board the royal train with her entourage and her sister, Princess Margaret. But before they reach their destination, an unreliable witness claims to have seen a brutal murder from one of the carriages.

The Queen and her assistant private secretary, Joan McGraw, get to work on their second joint investigation. No one else saw the crime. If there is a victim, could he be the missing photographer friend of Margaret’s new husband, Tony Armstrong Jones?

This time, the Cold War threatens to undermine the Queen’s upcoming visit to Italy. She and Joan must tackle dark forces that follow them all the way, in a tale of spies, lies, and treachery.

This charming mystery will be perfect for fans of The Crown and Miss Marple.

Visit S.J. Bennett's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Tolerance for Inequality"

New from the University of Chicago Press: A Tolerance for Inequality: American Public Opinion and Economic Policy by Andrew J. Taylor.

About the book, from the publisher:

A nuanced reassessment of US democratic responsiveness and public opinion on economic policy that explores the real reasons government does not do more to mitigate inequality.

Many believe that the United States’ growing economic inequality is the result of a political system that has been captured by wealthy elites. But is economic capture actually the problem? In A Tolerance for Inequality, Andrew J. Taylor examines this question from multiple angles, drawing on public opinion data and analyses of representation in Congress. Taylor finds that economic policy outcomes are more reflective of public opinion than the common wisdom suggests.

Broadly, less-affluent Americans’ policy preferences are not meaningfully different from the preferences of other Americans, and Washington is responsive to these preferences. Although politicians are more affluent, on average, than most Americans, this does not prevent them from representing the economic views of their poorer constituents. Today’s Democratic Party is more interested in regulation and supplying public goods than redistributing wealth downwards, and political reforms designed to provide more equal outcomes are largely misguided. In short, Americans get the kind of economy they at least say they want.

Visit Andrew J. Taylor's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Flightless Birds of New Hope"

Coming January 1 from Lake Union: The Flightless Birds of New Hope: A Novel by Farah Naz Rishi.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Three estranged siblings―and a high-maintenance cockatoo―reunite in a luminous novel about forgiveness, connection, and the complexities of family by the author of Sorry for the Inconvenience.

Upon the sudden deaths of their bird-obsessed parents, the three Shah siblings reunite.

Aliza has spent years holding their crumbling family together, caring for their younger brother, Sammy. And Aden, named executor of the estate, finds himself resentfully facing the one member of the family who always got their parents’ undivided love: their famous Bollywood-bopping cockatoo, Coco.

One reckless night, Aden opens Coco’s cage, letting her do what he did a decade ago―fly away from home.

In a panic, the siblings set off to recover her, armed with only Coco’s tracking chip and the fragile hope they might set things right. What they think will be a quick search and rescue becomes a two-week cross-country road trip, where old grudges resurface, relationships are tested, and long-buried dreams stir awake.

As Coco, meanwhile, forges her own path to the past, Aden, Aliza, and Sammy follow―not just the bird, but the possibility of something more: a way back to each other.

Visit Farah Naz Rishi's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Forgotten Debate"

New from the University Press of Kansas: The Forgotten Debate: The Korean War and the Roots of America's Ideological Divisions by Dane J. Cash.

About the book, from the publisher:

A deeply researched political history that finds a new origin story to today’s deeply entrenched partisanship. Cash reminds us that the “forgotten war” in Korea was also the occasion for the “forgotten debate” between liberals and conservatives.

When it comes to the origins of today’s sharp partisan divide, most have pointed to the usual suspects—Newt Gingrich’s Republican Revolution in 1994, Watergate, and the Vietnam War. In The Forgotten Debate, Dane J. Cash suggests that we need to look further back in history. He argues that we can trace the roots of the current ideological divide in America to the period of the Korean War.

The 1950s were hardly a time of “liberal consensus,” as Cash maintains that liberals themselves were quite divided about the proper course of action in Korea and in the Cold War more generally. Left liberals supported containment policy and its manifestation as a limited war in Korea, whereas hawkish liberals favored a much more aggressive strategy, particularly one vis-à-vis Communist China, which was largely indistinguishable from the position taken by avowed conservatives. The seeds of neoconservatism were thus sown much earlier than is typically appreciated. Furthermore, conservative voices were galvanized by what they perceived to be American timidity (and ultimately failure) in prosecuting the Korean War. Their frustrations about Korea and American weakness toward China led them to develop a unilateralist, “America First” foreign policy, which coalesced into a coherent movement several years prior to the founding of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s National Review in 1954—generally considered to be the genesis of modern conservatism.

Drawing on a range of opinion journals, The Forgotten Debate shows that conflict, rather than consensus, marked elite attitudes to the Korean War. Cash thus reminds us that the divisions in society today have a much longer history than we typically realize. The Korean War is often ignored and overshadowed by later developments, like the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, but many of our current ideological positions were forged in that forgotten period.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Lost Heiress"

New from Lake Union: The Lost Heiress: A Novel by Elizabeth Klehfoth.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the author of All These Beautiful Strangers comes a haunting and operatic tale of the love, regret, and family secrets that beat in the dark heart of a towering cliffside mansion.

Wealthy heiress Saoirse Towers vanished during her eighteenth birthday gala four decades ago. Now her remains have finally been found under Cliffhaven, the aristocratic family’s mansion high atop the windswept Central Coast of California. But the mystery only deepens…for her skeleton is not alone.

In vibrant 1982, Ana Rojas arrives to care for the supposedly frail Saoirse, who turns out to be a beautiful, spirited young woman straining against her family’s standards. But Ana bears secrets of her own. She’s come to Cliffhaven with a hidden agenda, one complicated by her growing feelings for Saoirse’s handsome brother.

But it’s formidable housekeeper Florence Talbot who truly holds the key to the past―a locked box teeming with secret betrayal, forbidden love, and hard-won redemption. Casting a long shadow, one tragedy binds the three women’s lives together. And as the truth about Saoirse’s fate and those it entangled comes to light, the legacy of Cliffhaven will be forever changed.

Visit Elizabeth Klehfoth's website.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Klehfoth (July 2018).

--Marshal Zeringue

"Dissenting Forces"

New from NYU Press: Dissenting Forces: A History of Abolition and Black Thought in Higher Learning by Michael E. Jirik.

About the book, from the publisher:

A history of enslaved people and abolitionists who fought racism on college campuses and reimagined higher learning

Since their inception in North America, universities have had symbiotic ties to racial slavery and settler colonialism and were incubators of racist thought. In Dissenting Forces, Michael E. Jirik offers a comprehensive study of an underrepresented history: the rise and development of Black thought and abolitionist resistance in American universities.

Jirik offers a rich scope of abolitionist protests at colleges, demonstrating how enslaved people, Black abolitionists, and student abolitionists resisted enslavement and racism within, and on the boundaries of, college campuses for centuries. Studying their history and experiences, Black people used intellectual work to advance their struggle for liberation. With the advent of a transformed abolition movement after 1830, Black and white student abolitionists intellectually fought colonizationists on campus to shape arguments for Black freedom and intellectuality that challenged dominant white-supremacist ideologies. In turn, they created a student movement for Black freedom and human equality, making demands for admissions into colleges, and creating the earliest Black colleges in the United States.

Demonstrating the ways Black people have resisted racism and forms of oppression in higher learning, Dissenting Forces sheds new light on the significance of Black self-determination and the continuity of Black knowledge traditions committed to creating a different world. Collectively, they developed an idea of Black education's liberatory potential.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Optimists"

Coming February 24 from Little, Brown and Company: The Optimists: A Novel by Brian Platzer.

About the book, from the publisher:

A beloved schoolteacher chronicles the meteoric rise of his most dazzling student in this ambitious, big-hearted work of literary fiction, perfect for fans of Nathan Hill, Susan Choi, and Tess Gunty.

Mr. Keating is an extraordinary teacher: brilliant, dedicated, and possibly a few pages ahead in a book no one else is reading. He’s a magician able to enchant fourteen-year-olds into a love of writing and literature. Yet no student has lived up to the promise of their potential more than Clara Hightower. Over the course of three decades, Clara is a kindergarten thief, a high school genius, a Silicon Valley celebrity, and an animal rights activist turned terrorist.

To tell Clara’s story, Mr. Keating must tell his own, including his courtship and marriage, his dreams of writing and comedy, his days in the classroom in lower Manhattan along with the rivalry and friendship with his Head of School, and his eventual stroke and the isolation that follows.

The Optimists is a love story, a joke book, and a meditation on the meaning of life and death. But mostly it’s a fiercely original novel for anyone who has ever had a teacher or student profoundly affect their life.

Visit Brian Platzer's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Remembering Jefferson"

New from the University Press of Kansas: Remembering Jefferson: Who He Was, Who We Are by Mary E. Stuckey.

About the book, from the publisher:

An expert on presidential history and national identity explores the complicated and conflicted ways Americans remember Thomas Jefferson and what these impressions reveal about the nation he helped to found.

Thomas Jefferson is everywhere. In Washington, DC, and on Mount Rushmore. In history textbooks and children’s picture books. On Broadway and HBO. Jefferson is even on our money—both the ubiquitous nickel and the rare $2 bill. The many different ways that Americans remember the third president of the United States tell us very little about Jefferson himself, but they tell us a lot about the American people.

In Remembering Jefferson, presidential scholar Mary E. Stuckey examines various sites where Jefferson appears—his home at Monticello, references by other presidents, monuments and memorials, popular culture, and children’s literature—as a way of interrogating national identity. She is less interested in the actual Jefferson than in how he is used across a variety of contexts to make claims about what it means to be American in the contemporary moment.

Stuckey finds that Jefferson is a remarkably useful and multipurpose symbol. He reminds people of the importance of the nation’s founding. He provides an opportunity to reflect on inclusion and exclusion, on race and racism. He gives people a way to ground national identity in the past, while keeping it open to change. Jefferson was so complicated and multilayered that he has been purposed to suit a variety of agendas throughout history and across the entire political spectrum.

In our fraught political moment, where debates over America’s founding have become cultural battlegrounds, Remembering Jefferson is a timely reminder that how we think about the past reflects who we are in the present.

The Page 99 Test: Deplorable.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The New Neighbors"

Coming February 17 from Harper Perennial: The New Neighbors: A Novel by Claire Douglas.

About the book, from the publisher:

Unassuming neighbors may not be what they seem in this twisty, spine—tingling thriller from the internationally bestselling author of The Couple at Number 9 and The Girls Who Disappeared.

Do you trust the couple living next door?

When Lena overhears a conversation between her next—door—neighbors she thinks she must have misheard.

The Morgans are a kind, retired couple who recently moved to their sleepy suburban street in Bristol where nothing ever happens. But to Lena it sounded very much like they were planning a crime.

Her family and friends tell her she must be mistaken. Yet Lena can’t stop thinking about that strange conversation. What if they really are about to do something terrible?

What if she can prevent it?

Especially when doing something might help ease her conscience about her own dark past . . .

Follow Claire Douglas on Facebook and Instagram.

Writers Read: Claire Douglas (December 2017).

--Marshal Zeringue

"The White Lady"

New from Yale University Press: The White Lady: The Story of Two Key British Secret Service Networks Behind German Lines by Helen Fry.

About the book, from the publisher:

A major new history of the two most important British secret service networks in the First and Second World Wars

Intelligence gathering was essential to both sides in the First and Second World Wars. At the heart of MI6’s efforts were two key networks in Belgium. Agents in The White Lady acted as couriers, radio operators and spies to facilitate the end of German control. And, when war broke out again two decades later, the leaders of the network regrouped and established a successor: The Clarence Service.

Helen Fry charts the history of these pivotal intelligence networks. Drawing on recently declassified information, Fry examines who the agents were, how they were recruited, and how the intelligence they gathered directly impacted the outcome of both wars. Operators in the field sent over eight hundred radio messages to London and delivered more than a thousand reports, including groundbreaking information on Hitler’s secret weapon the V-1. This is a compelling account of the agents who risked their lives and found ingenious ways to smuggle intelligence out of occupied Belgium.

Visit Helen Fry's website.

The Page 99 Test: The London Cage.

The Page 99 Test: The Walls Have Ears.

The Page 99 Test: MI9.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Night Watcher"

New from Thomas & Mercer: The Night Watcher (Callie Munro Thrillers) by Tariq Ashkanani.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this tense thriller from the winner of the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize, PI Callie Munro is hunting a serial killer on the streets of Edinburgh. But he’s already found her…

As private investigators go, Callie Munro is tougher than most. She’s had to be. Abandoned as a baby and raised by a succession of strangers, she knows a thing or two about surviving…

…but she never expected to find herself hunting a serial killer.

After uncovering a string of missing women―women no one seems to care about―Callie refuses to look away. With police ignoring the evidence, her only ally is an organised crime boss with his own agenda.

The deeper Callie digs, the more dangerous the hunt becomes. Every clue exposes another lie. Every step brings the killer closer.

She’s fighting for the forgotten. But if she’s not careful, she’ll be next.

Fast-paced and gripping from cover to cover, this first book in Tariq Ashkanani’s thrilling new series is perfect for fans of Ian Rankin, Val McDermid and Robert Galbraith.

Follow Tariq Ashkanani on Instagram.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Relief on the Hoof"

New from Northern Illinois University Press: Relief on the Hoof: The Seagoing Cowboys, the Heifer Project, and UNRRA in Poland by Eva Plach.

About the book, from the publisher:

Relief on the Hoof is about the thousands of horses and cattle that the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) shipped as humanitarian aid in the immediate aftermath of WWII and about the "seagoing cowboys" who cared for the animals during their trans-Atlantic journeys. UNRRA contracted the Church of the Brethren to recruit almost 7,000 men to do this work, and in exchange provided free passage on its ships to the cattle that were part of the Brethren's own humanitarian initiative, the Heifer Project. The Heifer Project emerged from a conviction that cows and their milk offered the best value as relief commodities.

As Eva Plach shows, both UNRRA's animal aid program and the Heifer Project were responding to a crisis in postwar Europe. Millions of livestock were lost during the war, and contemporary experts warned that postwar recovery, food security, and the prevention of social and political unrest would be compromised without replenishing the lost herds.

Poland received more Heifer Project cattle than any other country and was the major recipient of UNRRA cattle and horses as well. Relief on the Hoof shows that Poland's special status, based on assessments of wartime destruction and postwar need, reflected its unique geopolitical importance as Cold War tensions mounted.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Promised in Blood"

New from Entangled: Amara: Promised in Blood by Sadie Kincaid.

About the book, from the publisher:

But there is one who can save the fates of all.
For the child borne of fire and blood, shall be our ruin or our redemption.

An ancient prophecy. A betrayal so deep it will echo through eternity.

Ophelia Hart is no ordinary elementai. In fact, she is extraordinary in every single way there is. And now that she knows her true heritage and has bonded to the most powerful vampire who ever lived, and the three ruthless vampires he sired, she wonders if she might finally know some true happiness. It seems at last within her reach—so long as the truth of her identity remains a closely guarded secret.

But secrets can’t remain so forever. Ophelia must learn to harness the magical abilities she’s awakened before the rest of the world discovers who she really is. And although her four bonded mates will do all in their power to protect her, there are forces at work that even they cannot fathom.

Destiny beckons, but betrayal lurks just around the corner. And debts will be settled for oaths that are promised in blood.

Visit Sadie Kincaid's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Ornament, the Novel, and the Victorian Real"

New from Oxford University Press: Ornament, the Novel, and the Victorian Real by Irena Yamboliev.

About the book, from the publisher:

"All real art," wrote William Morris, "is ornamental." If Morris is right, then ornament is not, as some would have it, a triviality, a sign of "want," or a crime. Instead, Ornament, the Novel, and the Victorian Real argues for the many and varied ways in which the novel is indebted to ornament. Victorians and Victorianist scholars have compared the novel to "fine" arts such as Dutch genre painting or to photography, emphasizing these visual forms' investment in gritty particularity and exhaustive detailing of appearance. But this story loses sight of a key fact that this book recovers: ornament represents a distinct, describable Victorian method of realism, a method for boiling down essentials and making palpable the invisible, fundamental laws that govern form in nature. This book grounds itself historically in Victorian theories and practices of decoration developed in the middle of the nineteenth century, a moment when Victorian designers overhauled the reigning principles of decorative art, and shows the rise of the newly developed theory of ornament to have explanatory power for contemporary novelistic practice too. The compositional principles in ornament―far from trivial, extraneous, or deceptive―furnish a new theory of form, a new concept of the real, and a new method for reading novelistic prose.

Ornament is at work churning away at the heart of the Victorian novel. Wallpaper patterns, hinge-work, stained glass: these visual forms articulate principles of form such contrast, symmetry, flatness, and stylization. And novelists turn these design principles into literary principles, importing them into their narratives as syntax, word by word and phrase by phrase. This book proceeds by way of very close readings that focus on the scale of the sentence and analyzes the rhythm, meter, and repetition of prose. This method allows an appreciation of how, in the hands of George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, A. C. Swinburne, Oscar Wilde, and D. H. Lawrence, ornamental prose opens up representational possibilities not otherwise available. Ornament allows novelists to render the patterning of human minds, the dynamics of relationship, and the intense realities of the more-than-human world.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Simone in Pieces"

New from the University of Wisconsin Press: Simone in Pieces by Janet Burroway.

About the book, from the publisher:

Readers first meet Simone Lerrante, a Belgian war orphan, as a child refugee in Sussex, England, her memory damaged by trauma. This novel offers a kaleidoscopic vision of her fractured life and piecemeal understanding of self across multiple points of view. Following her from Cambridge to New York City and across the United States—through a disastrous marriage, thwarted desire, and the purgatory of academic backwaters—the novel charts Simone’s unexpected reconnection with her past, which provides both autonomy and inspiration for her future. Janet Burroway slowly reveals a multifaceted, fascinating protagonist, who observes her own life without always allowing herself to be immersed in it. Spanning seven decades, this story is both epic and contained, rewarding readers at every turn.

Visit Janet Burroway's website.

The Page 69 Test: Bridge of Sand.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Projecting America"

New from the University of Oklahoma Press: Projecting America: The Epic Western and National Mythmaking in 1920s Hollywood by Patrick Adamson.

About the book, from the pubisher:

In the mid-1920s, the heyday of silent film, the epic Western swept Hollywood and the nation. Movie moguls sought to add gravitas to their output with the productions—films they argued offered American audiences authentic history and lessons in citizenship at a time when Hollywood faced criticism for its movies’ morals and star scandals. Initially extremely popular, these now nearly forgotten Westerns were hailed by the movie industry’s proponents and critics alike for their “authentic” reconstruction of America’s nineteenth-century frontier period and the social benefits in portraying historical episodes foundational to American identity to the melting pot of moviegoers. In Projecting America, the first-ever book on these silent epic Westerns, Patrick Adamson demonstrates how these films indelibly impacted the genre, historical filmmaking, and Hollywood, inviting audiences to accept uncritical visions of Manifest Destiny as accurate history.

Drawing on a wealth of primary sources and punctuating his argument with film stills and intertitles, Adamson introduces readers to a variety of epic Westerns, with a particular emphasis on The Covered Wagon (1923), The Iron Horse (1924), and The Vanishing American (1925). These productions depict such key moments as pioneers on the Oregon Trail, the construction of the transcontinental railroad, and challenges faced by Indigenous peoples. Combining close analysis of these films’ historiography with exploration of their production and reception, Adamson investigates how the epic Western's emergence responded to and informed discourses far beyond those traditionally associated with the Western genre. He demonstrates that these movies not only represent an important chapter in film history but also collectively illustrate how American identity was formed and the motion picture medium was used as a vehicle for mass historical and cultural education.

In Projecting America, Adamson deftly shows how epic Westerns, at the heart of the 1920s’ pressing debates about cinema’s social influence, are integral to a broader understanding of the history of Western films and American identity.

--Marshal Zeringue