"Booked for Revenge"

New from Kensington: Booked for Revenge by Karen Rose Smith.

About the book, from the publisher:

Following in her mother Daisy’s footsteps, Jazzi Swanson has transformed her rural New York bookshop and tea bar, Tomes & Tea, into a must-stop destination in the lakeside resort town of Belltower Landing, New York, where, in addition to her talent for tea, Jazzi has shown a skill for sleuthing when trouble is brewing...

The Gentleman’s Bake-off is not only good for the town’s tourism, it’s bound to boost business at Tomes & Tea. The celebrity judges of the contest—chefs, bakers, restauranteurs—will all be signing their cookbooks at Jazzi’s shop. But with all the big personalities and inflated egos, she’s starting to wonder if there are—as the saying goes—too many cooks.

The competition is far from killer, with mostly residents and neighbors vying for bragging rights. But when local photographer Finn Yarrow takes first place, someone commits a most ungentlemanly act. Jazzi’s partner Dawn finds the man bludgeoned next to his prizewinning Black Forest Cake.

Between the judges and the contestants, the bookshop shop owner soon finds herself steeped in suspects as she tries to solve the crime. Was the murder connected to the bake-off—or did the shutterbug perhaps photograph something he shouldn’t have? Either way, Jazzi is determined to find a killer who’s trying to have their cake and eat it too...

Visit Karen Rose Smith's website, Facebook page, and Instagram page.

Coffee with a Canine: Karen Rose Smith & Hope and Riley.

The Page 69 Test: Staged to Death.

The Page 69 Test: Murder with Lemon Tea Cakes.

The Page 69 Test: Murder Marks the Page.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Promised Lands"

New from NYU Press: Promised Lands: Hadassah Kaplan and the Legacy of American Jewish Women in Early Twentieth-Century Palestine by Sharon Ann Musher.

About the book, from the publisher:

How adventurous Jewish women’s travels upended Jewish norms

In 1922, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, first initiated the bat mitzvah as a rite-of-passage for Jewish girls. Characterized as a lifelong supporter of women’s rights, Kaplan’s family, including his wife and four daughters, played a role in shaping his ideas about women, culture, and Zionism. This was especially true of his second daughter, Hadassah Kaplan, who joined a small but influential cohort of American Jewish women who studied, worked, and volunteered in British Mandate Palestine.

Promised Lands provides a window into the lives of American Jewish women in both New York City’s Upper West Side and Palestine during the interwar period. By tracing Hadassah’s journey, the volume offers a sense of what drew this generation of adventurous women to Palestine, and helps us to understand their impact on American Jewry. Drawing on a rich personal archive of diary entries, photographs, and letters, Sharon Ann Musher displays how unconventional women like Hadassah Kaplan were able to challenge cultural norms and experiment with ideological commitments while still remaining “good” daughters, wives, and mothers. Their knowledge and experience in volunteering, philanthropy, and education within the United States helped them to build Jewish institutions and communities abroad, and to center Zionism in American Jewish education, institutions, and identity. Crafting a compelling portrait of an influential Jewish woman, Promised Lands showcases the legacy of Hadassah Kaplan and her fellow travelers on American Jewish life.

Visit Sharon Ann Musher's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Bearer of Bad News"

New from Gallery Books: Bearer of Bad News: A Novel by Elisabeth Dini.

About the book, from the publisher:

A sharply funny and moving debut in which a young woman accepts a job that takes her though the Italian Dolomites and into an international mystery far greater—and more personal—than she could have ever expected.

For someone who hates secrets, Las Vegas hairdresser Lucy Rey is about to be faced with a whole bunch of them. After discovering that her fiancé has been cheating on her with someone from his improv class, she finds herself short on funds and desperate for a change of scenery. Enter a most unusual job opportunity: a Bearer of Bad News.

Sure, it’s a little weird—the job description has few details, and the bad news is more like a vaguely worded threat—but Lucy can’t say no to the perks: an all-expenses-paid trip to the Italian Dolomites, plus a generous bonus if she proves she’s delivered the message. Then she learns that her task is just the tip of the iceberg.

Launched into a world of betrayal and greed involving eighty-year-old secrets, stolen jewels, and a World War II–era mystery, Lucy is in over her head. And she’s connected to her mission in ways she never saw coming.

For fans of Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and Kirstin Chen’s Counterfeit, Bearer of Bad News is an exhilarating romp that deftly explores the weight of secrets, the power of friendship, and how, by healing the wounds of the past, we can build a brighter tomorrow.

Visit Elisabeth Dini's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Russia's World Order"

New from Northern Illinois University Press: Russia's World Order: How Civilizationism Explains the Conflict with the West by Paul Robinson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Russia's World Order explores the ideas underlying the undeclared New Cold War between Russia and the West. The first Cold War was a struggle between capitalism and communism; most Western politicians and policymakers imagine the new one to be a struggle between democracy and autocracy. Russia's World Order explains that in Russian eyes, the conflict is about something very different: it is a fight between two incompatible visions of where history is leading.

Russia's World Order describes the civilizational theory that has come to dominate Russian official discourse, and that has come to dominate Russian official discourse and that is being used by the Russian state to justify its clashes with the West. Whereas the West promotes a vision of history that drives all nations toward convergence on a single social, political, and economic model (that of modern Western liberalism), Russia's political leaders increasingly portray the world as consisting of numerous distinct civilizations, each diverging toward its own unique destination. The Russian state portrays itself as defending the right of all civilizations to chart their own independent path of development and is having some success in using this logic to win allies around the world.

Paul Robinson recounts how ideas of inevitable convergence once dominated Russian thought as well but were gradually pushed out by civilizational theories. He outlines where these theories came from, what they propose, and how they became popular. Russia's World Order thereby reveals the true nature of today's New Cold War and the challenge that Russian civilizationism poses to the West.

The Page 99 Test: Russian Liberalism.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Road to Tender Hearts"

New from Ballantine Books: The Road to Tender Hearts: A Novel by Annie Hartnett.

About the book, from the publisher:

A darkly comic and warm-hearted novel about an old man on a cross-country mission to reunite with his high school crush—bringing together his adult daughter, two orphaned kids, and a cat who can predict death—by the beloved author of Rabbit Cake and Unlikely Animals

At sixty-three years old, million-dollar lottery winner PJ Halliday would be the luckiest man in Pondville, Massachusetts, if it weren’t for the tragedies of his life: the sudden death of his eldest daughter and the way his marriage fell apart after that. Since then, PJ spends both his money and his time at the bar, and he probably doesn’t have much time left—he’s had three heart attacks already.

But when PJ reads the obituary of his old romantic rival, he realizes his high school sweetheart, Michelle Cobb, is finally single again. Filled with a new enthusiasm for life, PJ decides he’s going to drive across the country to the Tender Hearts Retirement Community in Arizona to win Michelle back.

Before PJ can hit the road, tragedy strikes Pondville, leaving PJ the sudden guardian of his estranged brother’s grandchildren. Anyone else would be deterred from the planned trip, but PJ figures the orphaned kids might benefit from getting out of town. PJ also thinks he can ask Sophie, his adult daughter who’s adrift in her twenties, to come along to babysit. And there’s one more surprise addition to the roster: Pancakes, a former nursing home therapy cat with a knack of predicting death, who recently turned up outside PJ’s home.

This could be the second chance PJ has long hoped for—a fresh shot at love and parenting—but does he have the strength to do both those things again? It’s very possible his heart can’t take it.

Visit Annie Hartnett's website.

The Page 69 Test: Rabbit Cake.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Sunk Cost"

New from the University of Chicago Press: Sunk Cost: Who’s to Blame for the Nation’s Broken Student Loan System and How to Fix It by Jillian Berman.

About the book, from the publisher:

Exposes the forgotten origins of the student loan system, how politicians have attempted to fix it, and the life-altering damage borrowers face.

Student-loan horror stories are a dime a dozen. But students today are faced with a seemingly insurmountable paradox: Research consistently shows that the clearest viable option to financial stability is a college degree. But if and when Americans decide to pursue diplomas, student loan payments quickly follow, and even after securing full-time employment, many borrowers struggle to make ends meet for years. In Sunk Cost, journalist Jillian Berman explores how the nation’s student loan program went from a well-intentioned initiative aimed at helping low- and middle-income students afford college to one that traps borrowers in long-term debt.

Berman interviewed dozens of borrowers and policymakers and dug into the archives to unearth the true causes of the student loan problem. A couple of generations ago, policy makers generously subsidized Americans’ college educations because they knew it would be advantageous for the entire country: a more educated population meant better quality of life for all. But today, higher education is viewed as an individual goal, so students and their families are expected to be on the hook for it themselves. Berman explains how this enormous shift happened, which industries benefit from it, and what it means for college-going Americans today. She shares real-life stories of college graduates who are being crushed under some of the harshest consequences of the student loan system. These borrowers pursued higher education in hopes of a better life and yet some have been trapped in debt for decades, making it difficult to put food on the table, much less imagine a life beyond debt.

By connecting personal accounts to the policy history of student loans, Berman makes clear that if American society continues to push students toward higher education, but fails to truly subsidize it, the financial strain will become unbearable for all but the most privileged. The current system is broken, but Berman proposes that significant changes are possible, and will require political will from state lawmakers and Congress, along with a philosophical shift, to tackle one of the largest consumer finance challenges of our time.

Visit Jillian Berman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Such a Good Mom"

New from Minotaur Books: Such a Good Mom: A Novel by Julia Spiro.

About the book, from the publisher:

Bestselling author Julia Spiro's Such a Good Mom is a brilliant standalone mystery that's the perfect beach read. In the heat of summer, a murder on Martha's Vineyard rocks one new mom to the core, leaving her to search for answers.

With a healthy newborn baby, a devoted husband, a successful career, and a busy life on Martha’s Vineyard, Brynn Nelson should be the happiest she’s ever been. But Brynn is struggling. Her husband, Ross, grows more distant by the day, and the challenges and exhaustion of postpartum make Brynn feel like she’s slowly losing pieces of herself to motherhood. Pieces that she might never get back.

But it’s summer on the Vineyard, a beacon for wealthy visitors, and a place so beautiful that it seems immune to tragedy and crime. Except for locals, like Brynn, who know all too well that tragedy can strike at any point. And this time, it hits close to home when a friend of the family is found washed ashore. Dead. And Brynn’s already hectic life is turned upside down when Ross is arrested for the crime.

Left reeling with more questions than answers, Brynn’s only path forward is to find out who really killed Cecelia Buckley, even if it means it was her husband. She’s not sure who she’s able to trust anymore. And with the dizzying, endless cycle of sleepless nights, diapers, and bottles, Brynn’s not even sure she can trust herself. She’s not sure of anything anymore, but she won’t stop until she finds the truth.

Bestselling author Julia Spiro is known for writing characters readers instantly connect to. With Such a Good Mom, Spiro brings the real and layered Martha’s Vineyard to life through the eyes of a new mom trying to get her family out of the eye of the storm that is a murder investigation.

Visit Julia Spiro's website.

The Page 69 Test: Someone Else's Secret.

Q&A with Julia Spiro (July 2020).

The Page 69 Test: Full.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Sisterhood of the Lost Cause"

New from LSU Press: Sisterhood of the Lost Cause: Confederate Widows in the New South by Jennifer Lynn Gross.

About the book, from the publisher:

Historians have thoroughly documented the vast devastation of the Civil War. In the attention they have paid to aspects of that destruction, however, one of the most obvious ramifications appears routinely overlooked―Confederate widowhood. Jennifer Lynn Gross’s Sisterhood of the Lost Cause helps rectify that historical omission by supplying a sweeping analysis of women whose husbands perished in the war.

--Marshal Zeringue

"In the Beautiful Dark"

New from Lake Union: In the Beautiful Dark: A Novel by Melissa Payne.

About the book, from the publisher:

A woman investigates a friend’s long-ago murder in a haunting and hopeful novel about the weight of secrets and regrets by the bestselling author of The Wild Road Home and A Light in the Forest.

At Sunny Pines Retirement Community, where the “Sixty-Two and Better!” share their golden years, secrets abound. Some scandalous, some haunting, and some dangerous. For Birdie Allen, a retired business owner and grandmother, her secret is the only thing she’s got left. Getting old isn’t the hardest part about life. It’s the memories from more than fifty years ago of the death of her unrequited love. And Birdie’s abandoned quest to root out the killer.

With retirement comes a lot of time to revisit old ghosts, so when Birdie ties together a string of recent murders, and a woman disappears, she’s drawn into the same chase she gave up decades earlier. But this time she has the help of an eccentric community of eager new friends. And they’re not alone. Restless souls are watching, including Birdie’s lost love, and they sense the danger that lies ahead. They’re not leaving Birdie’s side until she finishes what she set out to do. But will Birdie’s pursuit of a killer finally free her of regrets and allow her to embrace the beauty of the life she’s created?

Visit Melissa Payne's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Melissa Payne & Max.

My Book, The Movie: The Secrets of Lost Stones.

The Page 69 Test: The Secrets of Lost Stones.

Q&A with Melissa Payne.

The Page 69 Test: The Night of Many Endings.

My Book, The Movie: The Night of Many Endings.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Established Adulthood"

New from Oxford University Press: Established Adulthood: Navigating the Complex Years of the 30s and 40s by Clare M. Mehta.

About the book, from the publisher:

While psychological research and theory has outlined many periods of the adult lifespan, one period of adult development remains largely ignored, the period from ages 30 to 45. Clare M. Mehta focuses on this period, outlining the concept of established adulthood.

For many, the years of established adulthood are the most intense, demanding, and rewarding of adult life. During established adulthood, people must negotiate the intersecting demands of progressing in a chosen career, maintaining intimate relationships, and caring for children and/or aging parents. The successes and difficulties in meeting these simultaneous and sometimes conflicting demands have the potential to profoundly influence the direction of a person's adult life. As such, it is critical to better understand this period of development.

This book is the first to provide an in-depth conceptualization and exploration of established adulthood. With the voices of over 170 established adults at the heart of the book, Established Adulthood highlights the challenges and rewards of this period of the lifespan. It covers a wide range of topics including career development, physical health, romantic relationships, friendships, having or not having children, and parental relationships. This book is essential reading for those wanting to better understand adulthood in the modern world.

Visit Clare M. Mehta's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Fireweed"

New from Astra House: Fireweed: A Novel by Lauren Haddad.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the mowed-down industrial north of Prince George, Canada, “white trash” housewife Jenny Hayes shares a fence with the only First Nations woman in the neighborhood, Rachelle, and her two little girls. Jenny desperately wants a child and can’t understand why Rachelle, with her trash-pocked and overgrown yard, should have what Jenny wants most in the world. But Jenny tries to suppress her judgment as she has with her mother Fi, a cougar who chain smokes cigarettes instead of changing the full diapers of her boyfriend’s kids, and Missy, her best friend with Juicy Couture pulled tight over her baby bump and an unfurnished McMansion. Instead, she volunteers to babysit Rachelle’s girls— brushing hair, folding laundry, and ignoring the stilettos tucked under the bed in Rachelle’s disheveled home.

But when two young women—the strawberry blonde, blue-eyed Beth Tremblay and Jenny’s own neighbor, Rachelle—disappear along Highway 16, only Beth’s face and name are plastered on billboards and broadcasted over the air. Rachelle’s daughters are carted off by the state, and Jenny takes it upon herself to investigate. After all, Jenny thinks, who else is looking for her pariah of a neighbor? Jenny stutters through police encounters, asks the people living on the Rez all the wrong questions and ultimately faces—alongside the reader—the complicated motive behind her “investigation.”

With great awareness and care, Lauren Haddad’s portrait of Jenny brilliantly exposes first our impulse to seek the myths—as opposed to the realities—of race, class, and gender oppression in rural communities, and the consequences when our concern for others is clouded by self-preoccupation. Gripping, unflinching, and rebellious, Fireweed begs the question: just how good are our good intentions?

Visit Lauren Haddad's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"She's the Boss"

New from Rutgers University Press: She's the Boss: The Rise of Women’s Entrepreneurship since World War II by Debra Michals.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the years after World War II, as women were being pushed from wartime jobs for returning soldiers, government and business leaders—and women themselves—saw small business ownership as a viable economic solution. In just five years, US women owned nearly a million of the nation’s businesses. In the decades since, women have moved increasingly into business ownership, often outpacing male start-ups so that today, they own more than fourteen million businesses, 40 percent of all US companies.

She’s the Boss chronicles the forces that made entrepreneurship attractive to women. In rich detail, Debra Michals shares the stories of the countless women of all races, ethnicities, genders, and abilities who contributed to this important history. The book also explores the intersection of women’s personal choices within changing social, political, and economic factors, such as the rising divorce rates of the 1960s and 1970s, ongoing workplace and credit discrimination, civil and women’s rights activism and activist entrepreneurs, the 1970s recession and 1980s “Reagan Revolution,” and more recently, the internet, crowd-funding, and social entrepreneurship.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Julie Chan Is Dead"

New from Atria Books: Julie Chan Is Dead: A Novel by Liann Zhang.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this debut thriller perfect for fans of Bunny and Yellowface, a young woman steps into her deceased twin’s influencer life, only to discover dark secrets hidden behind her social media façade.

Julie Chan has nothing. Her twin sister has everything. Except a pulse.

Julie Chan, a supermarket cashier with nothing to lose, finds herself thrust into the glamorous yet perilous world of her late twin sister, Chloe VanHuusen, a popular influencer. Separated at a young age, the identical twins were polar opposites and rarely spoke, except for one viral video that Chloe initiated (Finding My Long-Lost Twin And Buying Her A House #EMOTIONAL). When Julie discovers Chloe’s lifeless body under mysterious circumstances, she seizes the chance to live the life she’s always envied.

Transforming into Chloe is easier than expected. Julie effortlessly adopts Chloe’s luxurious influencer life, complete with designer clothes, a meticulous skincare routine, and millions of adoring followers. However, Julie soon realizes that Chloe’s seemingly picture-perfect life was anything but.

Haunted by Chloe’s untimely death and struggling to fit into the privileged influencer circle, Julie faces mounting challenges during a weeklong island retreat with Chloe’s exclusive group of influencer friends. As events spiral out of control, Julie uncovers the sinister forces that may have led to her sister’s demise and realizes she might be the next target.

Visit Liann Zhang's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Political Theology and the Conflicts of Democracy"

New from Cambridge University Press: Political Theology and the Conflicts of Democracy by Nicholas Norman-Krause.

About the book, from the publisher:

Nicholas Norman-Krause argues, in this authoritative and sophisticated new treatment of conflict, that contestation is a basic - potentially regenerative - aspect of any flourishing democratic politics. In developing a distinctive 'agonistic theology,' and relating the political theory of agonism to social and democratic life, the author demonstrates that the conflicts of democracy may have a beneficial significance and depend at least in part on faith traditions and communities for their successful negotiation. In making his case, he deftly examines a rich range of religious and secular literatures, whether from the thought of Augustine, Aquinas, and Stanley Cavell or from less familiar voices such as early modern jurist and political thinker Johannes Althusius and twentieth-century Catholic social philosopher Yves Simon. Liberationists including Gustavo Gutiérrez and Martin Luther King, Jr. are similarly recruited for a theological account of conflict read not just as concomitant to, but also as constitutive of, democratic living.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Polybius"

New from Gallery Books: Polybius by Collin Armstrong.

About the book, from the publisher:

Stranger Things meets The Walking Dead in this chilling novel based on the terrifying urban legend about a video game created by the government for psychological warfare.

October, 1982. Forced to move to the quiet seaside town of Tasker Bay by her mother, the only thing on high schooler Andi’s mind is saving up enough money to return to her old stomping grounds in Silicon Valley. Her self-taught skills with all things electronic make her a perfect fit for a job at the dingy local arcade where she can tune out from life and bankroll her eventual escape.

Pining over the distant and aloof Andi is Ro, the son of Tasker Bay’s sheriff, who begins spending more time at the arcade. Despite promising herself she wouldn’t get attached to anyone in town, Andi finds herself opening up to the thoughtful, like-minded Ro.

When Polybius—a new bleeding-edge game of unknown origin arrives—the shop is suddenly overwhelmed with players fighting for time on the machine. Seemingly overnight, a virus-like epidemic grips Tasker Bay while a violent coastal storm rolls in, isolating it from the outside world. People begin experiencing fits of anger, paranoia, and hallucinations—no one can be trusted. After a grisly act of violence goes unsolved, the town descends into chaos. Is the arrival of this mysterious game and the disorder in Tasker Bay a coincidence? Convinced the dire situation is somehow linked to Polybius, Andi and Ro desperately search for clues that might stop the spread before they, too, begin experiencing side effects...

Visit Collin Armstrong's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Sounds of Survival"

New from the University of California Press: Sounds of Survival: Polish Music and the Holocaust by J. Mackenzie Pierce.

About the book, from the publisher:

Sounds of Survival tells a story of unexpected musical continuity across some of the twentieth century's most cataclysmic events. It examines an integrated Polish and Polish Jewish musical community as its members contended with antisemitism in the 1930s, attempted to survive the Nazi occupation, and established a renewed musical culture amid the ashes of World War II and the Holocaust. Reconstructing these musicians' lives from the 1920s into the 1950s, J. Mackenzie Pierce argues that despite nearly unimaginable violence, many Polish musicians treated the war as a time of reinvention and cultural preservation. Their faith that music was a source of cultural continuity, however, also marginalized experiences of wartime loss, especially those of Jewish victims and survivors of the Holocaust. Sounds of Survival not only reveals that the Holocaust was a central event within modern Polish musical culture; it also shows why its musical aftermath has been difficult to hear.

Visit J. Mackenzie Pierce's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Vice and Virtue"

New from Kensington: Vice and Virtue by Libby Klein.

About the book, from the publisher:

Layla Virtue, a blue-haired, 30-something recovering alcoholic and former cop is trying to reinvent herself as a musician—between AA meetings, dodging eccentric neighbors at her trailer park, and reconnecting with her mysterious dad—in this unforgettable new mystery brimming with hilarity and heart for readers of Margot Douaihy, Jane Pek, and Darynda Jones.

Layla is taking her new life one day at a time from the Lake Pinecrest Trailer Park she now calls home. Being alone is how she likes it. Simple. Uncomplicated. Though try telling that to the group of local ladies who are in relentless pursuit of Layla as their new BFF, determined to make her join them for coffee and donuts.

Meanwhile, since her first career ended in a literal explosion, Layla’s trying to eke out a living as a rock musician. It’s not easy competing against garage bands who work for tacos and create their music on a computer, while all she has is an electric guitar and leather-ish pants. But Layla isn’t in a position to turn down any gig. Which is why she’s at an 8-year-old’s birthday party, watching as Chuckles the Clown takes a bow under the balloon animals. No one expects it will be his last...

Who would want to kill a clown—and why? Layla and her unshakable posse are suddenly embroiled in the seedy underbelly of the upper-class world of second wives and trust fund kids, determined to uncover what magnetic hold a pudgy, balding clown had over women who seem to have everything they could ever want. Then again, Layla knows full well that people are rarely quite what they seem—herself included...

Visit Libby Klein's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Red Scare"

New from Scribner: Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America by Clay Risen.

About the book, from the publisher:

As relevant as it is comprehensive, Red Scare tells the story of McCarthyism and the Red Scare—based in part on newly declassified sources—by an award-winning writer of history and New York Times reporter.

The film Oppenheimer has awakened interest in this vital period of American history. Now, for the first time in a generation, Red Scare presents a narrative history of the anti-Communist witch hunt that gripped America in the decade following World War II. The cultural phenomenon, most often referred to as McCarthyism, was an outgrowth of the conflict between social conservatives and New Deal progressives, coupled with the terrifying onset of the Cold War. This defining moment in American history, unlike any that preceded it, was marked by an unprecedented degree of political hysteria. Drawing upon newly declassified documents, journalist Clay Risen recounts how politicians like Joseph McCarthy, with the help of an extended network of other government officials and organizations, systematically ruined thousands of lives in their deluded pursuit of alleged Communist conspiracies.

Beginning with the origins of the era after WWI through to its conclusion in 1957, Risen brings to life the politics, patriotism, opportunism, courage, and delirium of those years through the lives and experiences of a cast of towering historical figures, including President Eisenhower, Roy Cohn, Paul Robeson, Robert Oppenheimer, Helen Gahagan Douglas, Richard Nixon, and many more individuals known and unknown. Red Scare takes us beyond the familiar story of McCarthyism and the Hollywood blacklists to a fuller understanding of what the country went through at a time of moral questioning and perceived threat from the left, and what we were capable of doing to each other as a result.

An urgent, accessible, and important history, Red Scare reveals an all-too-familiar pattern of illiberal conspiracy-mongering and political and cultural backlash that speaks directly to the antagonism and divisiveness of our contemporary moment.

Visit Clay Risen's website.

The Page 99 Test: A Nation on Fire.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Best We Could Hope For"

New from Little A: The Best We Could Hope For: A Novel by Nicola Kraus.

About the book, from the publisher:

From a #1 New York Times bestselling author comes a powerful novel about family, the weight of secrets, the choices we make, and the repercussions of the decisions made for us.

When Bunny Linden abandons her three children with her older sister, Jayne, in 1972, she knows Jayne will be the perfect mother. The mother Bunny, a teen runaway, could never be.

As months turn into years without word, Jayne and her husband, Rodger, a rising journalism star, strive to give the children the opportunity to flourish and feel loved. When Jayne and Rodger finally have a child of their own, a seemingly stable home is built. But then, after nearly a decade, Bunny resurfaces and sets a chain of events in motion that detonates all their lives.

As adults, their children try to reassemble the pieces and solve the mystery that has always haunted them. Who were their parents? What really happened between them? And who is ultimately to blame for the destruction? But will the answers they seek set them free—or lead to something far more damaging than anyone imagined?

Visit Nicola Kraus's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Chitto Harjo"

New from Yale University Press: Chitto Harjo: Native Patriotism and the Medicine Way by Donald L. Fixico.

About the book, from the publisher:

How a Mvskoke traditionalist leader forged a movement to resist the division of tribal lands and keep his people on the everlasting Medicine Way

Chitto Harjo (“Crazy Snake”) had several names—Wilson Jones, Bill Jones, Bill Harjo, Bill Snake—and people called him many things: troublemaker, rebellion leader, uncivilized Indian, martyr, murderer. Many called him crazy for fighting against progress and for his commitment to traditions that they believed were outdated and dying out. Yet in the eyes of many Mvskokes and traditionalists of other nations, he was a hero, a defender of the old ways, a Native patriot, and a leader of the Medicine Way.

These traditionalists believed in the Mvskoke worldview, which has inspired the Mvskokes and other Southeastern peoples to carry on their traditions as they have done for hundreds of years. In this engaging account, historian Donald L. Fixico tells the story of the Mvskoke people and their fight for survival and unity amid enduring tensions between white “civilization” and traditional culture. A personal story that begins with Fixico attending a Green Corn Ceremony with his father and young son, this engrossing narrative integrates traditional knowledge with historical method to present an Indigenous perspective on Mvskoke and Native American history.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Correspondent"

New from Crown: The Correspondent: A Novel by Virginia Evans.

About the book, from the publisher:

“Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle, or, a better metaphor, if dated, the links of a long chain, and even if those links are never put back together, which they will certainly never be, even if they remain for the rest of time dispersed across the earth like the fragile blown seeds of a dying dandelion, isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?”

Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime. Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.

Visit Virginia Evans's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Double Black Box"

New from Oxford University Press: The Double Black Box: National Security, Artificial Intelligence, and the Struggle for Democratic Accountability by Ashley S. Deeks.

About the book, from the publisher:

National security decisions pose a paradox: they are among the most consequential a government can make, but are generally the least transparent to the democratic public. The "black box" nature of national security decision-making--driven by extensive classification and characterized by difficulty overseeing executive actions --has expanded in the United States as executive power continues to grow.

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) systems to enhance national security decision-making--or even to make autonomous decisions--deepens this challenge, because it is difficult to understand how AI algorithms, often described as "black boxes," reach their conclusions. The widespread use of AI inside the national security ecosystem renders U.S. national security choices even more opaque to the public, congressional overseers, U.S. allies, and even the executive officials making the decisions. How can we be confident that the U.S. government's use of these AI systems comports with our values, including rationality, lawfulness, and accountability?

The Double Black Box: National Security, Artificial Intelligence, and the Struggle for Democratic Accountability addresses these pressing challenges. Because China is committed to becoming the world leader in AI and faces fewer legal and values-based constraints on its pursuit of military AI, democracies' commitment to using AI in lawful and ethical ways will be tested. This book defines and explores the "double black box" phenomenon and then identifies ways that policymakers, military and intelligence officials, and lawyers in democratic states such as the United States can reap the advantages of advanced technologies without surrendering their public law values.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Lilac People"

New from Counterpoint Press: The Lilac People: A Novel by Milo Todd.

About the book, from the publisher:

A moving and deeply humane story about a trans man who must relinquish the freedoms of prewar Berlin to survive first the Nazis then the Allies while protecting the ones he loves, for readers of All the Light We Cannot See and In Memoriam

In 1932 Berlin, a trans man named Bertie and his friends spend carefree nights at the Eldorado Club, the epicenter of Berlin’s thriving queer community. An employee of the renowned Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at the Institute of Sexual Science, Bertie works to improve queer rights in Germany and beyond. But everything changes when Hitler rises to power. The Institute is raided, the Eldorado is shuttered, and queer people are rounded up. Bertie barely escapes with his girlfriend, Sofie, to a nearby farm. There they take on the identities of an elderly couple and live for more than a decade in isolation.

In the final days of the war, with their freedom in sight, Bertie and Sofie find a young trans man collapsed on their property, still dressed in Holocaust prison clothes. They vow to protect him—not from the Nazis, but from the Allied forces who are arresting queer prisoners while liberating the rest of the country. Ironically, as the Allies’ vise grip closes on Bertie and his family, their only salvation is to flee to the United States.

Brimming with hope, resilience, and the enduring power of community, The Lilac People tells an extraordinary story inspired by real events and recovers an unknown moment of World War II and trans history.

Visit Milo Todd's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Childhood, Pain and Emotion"

New from Cambridge University Press: Childhood, Pain and Emotion: A Modern British Medical History by Leticia Fernández-Fontecha.

About the book, from the publisher:

Situated between the history of pain, history of childhood and history of emotions, this innovative work explores cultural understandings of children's pain, from the 1870s to the end of the Second World War. Focusing on British medical discourse, Leticia Fernández-Fontecha examines the relationship between the experience of pain and its social and medical perception, looking at how pain is felt, seen and performed in contexts such as the hospital, the war nursery and the asylum. By means of a comparative study of views in different disciplines – physiology, paediatrics, psychiatry, psychology and psychoanalysis – this work demonstrates the various ways in which the child in pain came to be perceived. This context is vital to understanding current practices and beliefs surrounding childhood pain, and the role that children play in the construction of adult worlds.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Love, Camera, Action"

New from Crooked Lane Books: Love, Camera, Action: A Novel by Noel Stark.

About the book, from the publisher:

A scrappy TV director lands her big break only to go head-to-head with the surly yet sexy director of photography, in this page-turning romance perfect for fans of Ava Wilder and Tessa Bailey.

Up-and-coming TV director Cali Daniels knows sex. Well, okay, she knows how to shoot sex scenes, and she’s been hired to direct a highly anticipated steamy episode of the popular series The Demon. This job is her chance at a big-time career in the film and television industry—all she has to do is deliver an unparalleled show using her hard-knock know-how and ample creativity.

If only the director of photography—effortlessly sexy Jory Blair—would stop shutting her ideas down at every turn. Jory has spent years cultivating his career as an A-list director of photography, but a recent health scare has him rethinking his life and craving the director spot. Now this creative newbie, who he can’t get out of his mind, wants to change the look of his show. Even worse, the friction between them is sparking into blistering chemistry.

As collaborating takes on a whole new meaning, and the show’s producer not-so-subtly suggests that Jory sabotage Cali in order to achieve his own goals, they’ll have to decide if chasing their dream jobs is worth losing the dream of a future together.

Fans of How to Fake It in Hollywood and Plot Twist will devour this steamy, enemies to lovers, workplace, debut romance.

Visit Noël Stark’s website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Secrets of the Killing State"

New from NYU Press: Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection by Corinna Barrett Lain.

About the book, from the publisher:

Lethal injection is nothing like what people think. This is its untold story.

In the popular imagination, lethal injection is a slight pinch and a swift nodding off to forever-sleep. It is performed by well-qualified medical professionals. It is regulated and carefully conducted. And it usually provides a “humane” death. In reality, however, not one of those things is true.

Secrets of the Killing State pulls back the curtain on this clandestine punishment practice, presenting a view of lethal injection that states have worked hard to hide. Botched executions are a part of this story, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. For all the suffering that we see, there is also suffering that we don’t see. Indeed, the story told here is even bigger than the executions themselves, for behind the scenes is where it unfolds. Fake science, torturous drugs, inept executioners, prison problems, and decades of state secrecy have created an execution method hard-wired to go wrong in countless ways.

The story of lethal injection is a story of gross incompetence, law breaking, torturous deaths, and a stunning indifference to the way in which human beings die at the hands of the state. These are the secrets of the killing state—all that we know from litigation files, scientific studies, investigative journalism, autopsy reports, interviews, and scholarship across a number of fields. Death penalty expert Corinna Barrett Lain uses this groundbreaking journey into the dark reality of lethal injection to shine a light on the American death penalty more broadly and show that the state at its most powerful moment is also the state at its worst.

We are now over 45 years into the lethal injection era, and most Americans still have no idea what states are doing in their name. It’s time they found out.

Visit Corinna Lain's website.

--Marhsal Zeringue

"Eleven Percent"

New from St. Martin's Press: Eleven Percent: A Novel by Maren Uthaug.

About the book, from the publisher:

An inverse The Handmaid’s Tale that asks: What if women took over the world?

It is the New Time, a time not so different from our own except that the men are gone. All but eleven percent of them, that is, the minimum required to avoid inbreeding. But they are safely under lock and key in “spa” centers for women’s pleasure (trained by amazons to fulfill all desires) and procreation. A few women protest that the males should be treated better – more space, better food, but all agree that testosterone cannot be allowed to roam free. The old patriarchal cities are crumbling, becoming overgrown; people now live in “round communities.” But if you prefer the slum, that’s okay too. Religion has survived, sort of: women priestesses speak in tongues, inspired by snake venom, as apples are passed around to the congregation. But all social engineering has its costs...

Four different lives intersect: Medea, a tiny, long-haired witch and snake whisperer; Wicca, a young priestess who excelled at the “self-pleasuring” curriculum in school and has lost her pregnant lover; Eva, a doctor working in a spa center, and Silence, who lives in an almost abandoned convent. Each will discover the cracks in this women's paradise.

Provocative, irreverent, and completely riveting, Eleven Percent—a #1 bestseller in Denmark—is the first novel to appear in English by celebrated Danish author Maren Uthaug.

Visit Maren Uthaug's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Exceptionalism in Crisis"

New from The University of North Carolina Press: Exceptionalism in Crisis: Faction, Anarchy, and Mexico in the US Imagination during the Civil War Era by Alys D. Beverton.

About the book, from the publisher:

Before 1861, US Americans could confidently claim to belong to the New World’s “exceptional” republic, unlike other self-governing nations in the Western Hemisphere such as Mexico, which struggled with political violence and unrest. Americans used such comparisons to show themselves and the world that democracy in the United States was working as designed.

The outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 exploded this illusion by showing that the United States was in fact not immune to domestic political instability. Joining a growing community of historians who study the war in a global context, Alys D. Beverton examines Mexico’s place in the US imagination during the Civil War and postbellum period. Beverton reveals how pro- and antiwar Confederates and Unionists alike used Mexico’s long history of political strife to alternately justify and oppose the Civil War and, after 1865, various policies aimed at reuniting the states. Both sides used Mexico as a cautionary tale of how easily a nation, even the so-called exceptional United States, could slip into anarchy in the tumultuous nineteenth century.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Lethal Engagement"

New from Crooked Lane Books: A Lethal Engagement: A Novel by April J. Skelly.

About the book, from the publisher:

An airship bound for London is thrown off course by a murder on the first night of its transatlantic voyage in this locked-room historical mystery debut, perfect for fans of Deanna Raybourn and Katharine Schellman.

1890. American heiress, Cora Beaumont is celebrating her engagement to Terrance Tristan, the second son of a duke. Their union will solidify Cora's place in British society and put her in a rare position of power, but as they embark on the Lady Air’s maiden voyage to England, Cora soon finds that not everyone in society is accepting of her recent engagement, and tensions fly as high as the airship. When a body is discovered the first night on the ship, with a calling card for Cora on the victim, she’s determined to find the killer hidden among the passengers before they come for her next.

As Cora tries to solve the murder without attracting unsavory attention, her fiancé’s wandering eye may cause even more problems for her position in society. Gossip travels fast aboard the airship and bad news could sink the Lady Air, as well as Cora's own social status, before they reach their final destination. When more bodies are discovered, Cora teams up with her soon-to-be brother-in-law, Nicholas, as they scour the ship for clues. If she fails, it won’t only be her reputation visiting the undertaker.

No one is who they seem in this Gilded Age locked room historical mystery, perfect for fans of And Then There Were None and Alyssa Maxwell.

Visit April J. Skelly's website.

--Marshl Zeringue

"Turning the Power"

New from the University of Nebraska Press: Turning the Power: Indian Boarding Schools, Native American Anthropologists, and the Race to Preserve Indigenous Cultures by Nathan Sowry.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Turning the Power Nathan Sowry examines how some Native American students from the boarding school system, with its forced assimilationist education, became key cultural informants for anthropologists conducting fieldwork during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Salvage anthropologists of this era relied on Native informants to accomplish their mission of “saving” Native American cultures and ultimately turned many informants into anthropologists after years of fieldwork experience.

Sowry investigates ten relatively unknown Native American anthropologists and collaborators who, from 1878 to 1930, attended a religiously affiliated mission school, a federal Indian boarding school, or both. He tells the stories of Native anthropologists Tichkematse, William Jones, and James R. Murie, who were alumni of the Hampton Institute in Virginia. Richard Davis and Cleaver Warden were among the first and second classes to attend the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. Amos Oneroad graduated from the Haskell Indian Industrial Training School in Lawrence, Kansas, after attending mission and boarding schools in South Dakota. D. C. Duvall, John V. Satterlee, and Florence and Louis Shotridge attended smaller boarding and mission schools in Montana, Wisconsin, and Alaska Territory, respectively.

Turning the Power follows the forced indoctrination of Native American students and then details how each of them “turned the power,” using their English knowledge and work experience in the anthropological field to embrace, document, and preserve their Native cultures rather than abandoning their heritage.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Bright Years"

New from Simon & Schuster: The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff.

About the book, from the publisher:

One family. Four generations. A secret son. A devastating addiction. A Texas family is met with losses and surprises of inheritance, but they’re unable to shake the pull back toward each other in this big-hearted family saga perfect for readers of Mary Beth Keane and Claire Lombardo.

Ryan and Lillian Bright are deeply in love, recently married, and now parents to a baby girl, Georgette. But Lillian has a son she hasn’t told Ryan about, and Ryan has an alcohol addiction he hasn’t told Lillian about, so Georgette comes of age watching their marriage rise and fall.

When a shocking blow scatters their fragile trio, Georgette tries to distance herself from reminders of her parents. Years later, Lillian’s son comes searching for his birth family, so Georgette must return to her roots, unearth her family’s history, and decide whether she can open up to love for them—or herself—while there’s still time.

Told from three intimate points of view, The Bright Years is a tender, true-to-life novel that explores the impact of each generation in a family torn apart by tragedy but, over time, restored by the power of grace and love.

Visit Sarah Damoff's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Crossroads, Cutoffs, and Confluences"

New from LSU Press: Crossroads, Cutoffs, and Confluences: Origins of Louisiana Cities, Towns, and Villages by Richard Campanella.

About the book, from the publisher:

Richard Campanella’s Crossroads, Cutoffs, and Confluences tells the epic story of human settlement in Louisiana, unearthing the original geographical rationales for the formation of hundreds of cities, towns, and villages where most Louisianians live now. Campanella illuminates why these communities formed where they did, be they at river confluences, forks, crossroads, heads of navigation, ferry landings, shortcuts, portages, resource-extraction sites, or railroad stations, and explores other spatial factors that initially attracted settlers.

Many of these raisons d’être have faded into the past. People no longer settle in Alexandria, for example, on account of the Red River rapids; nor do they reside in Breaux Bridge because of Breaux’s footbridge over Bayou Teche, or in Cut Off because its canal cut off days of arduous travel. Nevertheless, residents of those communities can trace every movement of their lives to those forgotten reckonings, made at a time when history cast those geographies as critical to the comings and goings of their forebears.

Readers curious about the origins of Louisiana’s cities, towns, and villages can turn to Crossroads, Cutoffs, and Confluences for answers to that most fundamental question of human geography: Why are we here?

Visit Richard Campanella's website.

The Page 99 Test: Draining New Orleans.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Detective Aunty"

Coming May 6 from Harper Perennial: Detective Aunty: A Novel by Uzma Jalaluddin.

About the book, from the publisher:

When her grown daughter is suspected of murder, a charming and tenacious widow digs into the case to unmask the real killer in this twisty, page-turning whodunnit—the first book in a cozy new detective series from the acclaimed author of Ayesha at Last.

After her husband’s unexpected death eighteen months ago, Kausar Khan never thought she’d receive another phone call as heartbreaking—until her thirty-something daughter, Sana, phones to say that she's been arrested for killing the unpopular landlord of her clothing boutique. Determined to help her child, Kausar heads to Toronto for the first time in nearly twenty years.

Returning to the Golden Crescent suburb where she raised her children and where her daughter still lives, Kausar finds that the thriving neighborhood she remembered has changed. The murder of Sana’s landlord is only the latest in a wave of local crimes which have gone unsolved.

And the facts of the case are troubling: Sana found the man dead in her shop at a suspiciously early hour, with a dagger from her windowfront display plunged in his chest. And Kausar—a woman with a keen sense of observation and deep wisdom honed by her years—senses there’s more to the story than her daughter is telling.

With the help of some old friends and her plucky teenage granddaughter, Kausar digs into the investigation to uncover the truth. Because who better to pry answers from unwilling suspects than a meddlesome aunty? But even Kausar can’t predict the secrets, lies, and betrayals she finds along the way…

Visit Uzma Jalaluddin's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"On Muscle"

New from Algonquin Books: On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters by Bonnie Tsui.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the bestselling author of Why We Swim comes a mind-expanding exploration of muscle—from our ancient obsession with the ideal human form to the modern science of this amazing and adaptable tissue—that will change the way you think about what moves us through the world.

In On Muscle, Bonnie Tsui brings her signature blend of science, culture, immersive reporting, and personal narrative to examine not just what muscles are but what they mean to us. Cardiac, smooth, skeletal—these three different types of muscle in our bodies make our hearts beat; push food through our intestines, blood through our vessels, babies out the uterus; attach to our bones and allow for motion. Tsui also traces how muscles have defined beauty—and how they have distorted it—through the ages, and how they play an essential role in our physical and mental health.

Tsui introduces us to the first female weightlifter to pick up the famed Scottish Dinnie Stones, then takes us on a 50-mile run through the Nevada desert that follows the path of escape from a Native boarding school—and gives the concept of endurance new meaning. She travels to Oslo, where cutting-edge research reveals how muscles help us bounce back after injury and illness, an important aspect of longevity. She jumps into the action with a historic Double Dutch club in Washington, D.C., to explain anew what Charles Darwin meant by the brain-body connection. Woven throughout are stories of Tsui’s childhood with her Chinese immigrant artist dad—a black belt in karate—who schools her from a young age in a kind of quirky, in-house Muscle Academy.

On Muscle shows us the poetry in the physical, and the surprising ways muscle can reveal what we’re capable of.

Visit Bonnie Tsui's website.

The Page 99 Test: Why We Swim.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Every Sweet Thing Is Bitter"

New from Crooked Lane Books: Every Sweet Thing Is Bitter: A Novel by Samantha Crewson.

About the book, from the publisher:

A woman with a violent past gets a chance at redemption in this upmarket suspense debut, perfect for fans of Lisa Taddeo and Tiffany McDaniel.

Thirteen years ago, Providence Byrd threw the family car in reverse and ran over her mother. Even though her mother survived, that single instant of teenage madness made Providence a felon and irrevocably altered her life. When her mother disappears years later under suspicious circumstances, Providence tells herself that returning home is her chance to find closure after a prolonged estrangement from her family. Never mind that this is only half of the truth: she’s also returning to finally confront her abusive father, Tom Byrd. Nothing can stamp out Providence’s certainty that he is guilty of whatever terrible thing has happened to her mother.

As the search unfolds, Providence is haunted by the wounds of her past, none of which cut as deep as the distance between her and her younger sisters. Harmony and Grace are both uniquely scarred by her attempted matricide, and both have their own idea of what reconciliations might look like – if reconciling is even possible. Harmony urges Providence to make their father pay for his sins; Grace begs her to end the cycle of violence that has haunted their family for generations. As her thirst for vengeance collides with her desire to heal her relationships with her sisters, Providence must decide which she values more: revenge or redemption.

Sharp and poignant, Every Sweet Thing Is Bitter is a stunning novel that eschews picture-perfect endings and dares to tell a story about a resilient queer woman and her relentless determination to persevere.

Visit Samantha Crewson's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Jew Who Would Be King"

New from the University of California Press: The Jew Who Would Be King: A True Story of Shipwreck, Survival, and Scandal in Victorian Africa by Adam Laurence Rovner.

About the book, from the publisher:

This vivid reconstruction of one man’s life reveals the harsh realities and moral ambiguities of colonial power

The Jew Who Would Be King tells the story of Nathaniel Isaacs—a nineteenth-century British Jew who helped establish the Zulu kingdom only to become a ruthless warlord and slaveholder. Isaacs’ thrilling journey begins with his shipwreck on the shores of Zululand and proceeds to ports across West Africa, including Freetown, Sierra Leone. There, tasked by the colonial governor to end the local slave trade, Isaacs brokered deals that reinforced his own power.

Adam Rovner's meticulous archival research in England, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and St. Helena, coupled with his own travels to the remnants of Isaacs’ island stronghold in Guinea, brings this complex figure to life. Through Isaacs’ story, Rovner exposes the entangled forces of Jewish emancipation and antisemitism, slavery and abolition, the stark dichotomies of civilization and “savagery,” and the creation of whiteness versus Blackness.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Summer Light on Nantucket"

New from Ballantine Books: Summer Light on Nantucket: A Novel by Nancy Thayer.

About the book, from the publisher:

A touching novel about parenthood, first love, family bonds, and rekindled relationships from the New York Times bestselling author and beloved Nantucket storyteller Nancy Thayer.

Blythe Benedict is content. Her life didn’t end when her marriage did. In fact, she’s more than happy living in her comfortable house in Boston, working as a middle school teacher, and raising four wonderful children. With three of her kids in the throes of teenagerhood and one not too far behind them, Blythe has plenty of drama to keep her busy every single day.

But no amount of that drama could change the family’s beloved annual summer trip to Nantucket. Blythe has always treasured the months spent at her island home-away-from-home, and has fond memories of her children growing up there. But this summer’s getaway proves to be much more than she bargained for.

Yes, there are sunny days enjoyed at the beach. But Blythe must contend with teenage angst, her ex-mother-in-law’s declining health, and a troubling secret involving her ex-husband. Meanwhile, Blythe reconnects with her first love, her former high school sweetheart Aaden. But their second-time-around romance becomes complicated when another intriguing man enters the picture.

It’s all a bit out of Blythe’s comfort zone. This particular island summer may not be as relaxing as Blythe had hoped, but she’s never felt that life has given her more than she can handle—especially when she has the love and support of her family around her.

Visit Nancy Thayer's website.

The Page 69 Test: Summer House.

The Page 69 Test: Beachcombers.

My Book, The Movie: Beachcombers.

Writers Read: Nancy Thayer.

My Book, The Movie: The Guest Cottage.

The Page 69 Test: The Guest Cottage.

The Page 69 Test: Summer Love.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Worlds Apart"

New from Columbia University Press: Worlds Apart: Genre and the Ethics of Representing Camps, Ghettos, and Besieged Cities by Benjamin Paloff.

About the book, from the publisher:

A number of European authors who survived concentration camps, ghettos, and besieged cities in the middle of the twentieth century chose not to write straightforward memoirs or testimonials but instead to fictionalize their experiences. By manipulating narrative time and point of view and altering biographical facts, these writers produced literary texts that challenge common notions of what constitutes an appropriate representation of collective trauma. How might such works provide a deeper understanding of historical truth than the facts alone? What does the literature of the camps reveal about present-day spaces of confinement?

Worlds Apart explores the ethics of representation by reading the works of writers who use the techniques of literary fiction to depict survival in these precarious spaces. Benjamin Paloff traces the complex relationship between fact and truth in these texts, disentangling writers’ individual experiences from fictional elements that universalize that experience and, in so doing, show the camp to be an institution of the present. Touring the unusual genre conventions of these works, he weighs crucial questions about what constitutes “truth” in historical representation, literature, and the popular imagination. Reading across Czech, French, German, Polish, Russian, and Yiddish, including lesser-known and untranslated works, Paloff considers portrayals of the Shoah, the Gulag, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the blockade of Leningrad. Bold, nuanced, and rich in comparative insight, Worlds Apart argues forcefully for the moral urgency of recognizing that the camp is not simply a historical artifact but a basic institution of contemporary society.

--Marshal Zeringue