"Redface"

New from NYU Press: Redface: Race, Performance, and Indigeneity by Bethany Hughes.

About the book, from the publisher:

Considers the character of the “Stage Indian” in American theater and its racial and political impact

Redface unearths the history of the theatrical phenomenon of redface in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. Like blackface, redface was used to racialize Indigenous peoples and nations, and even more crucially, exclude them from full citizenship in the United States. Arguing that redface is more than just the costumes or makeup an actor wears, Bethany Hughes contends that it is a collaborative, curatorial process through which artists and audiences make certain bodies legible as “Indian.” By chronicling how performances and definitions of redface rely upon legibility and delineations of race that are culturally constructed and routinely shifting, this book offers an understanding of how redface works to naturalize a very particular version of history and, in doing so, mask its own performativity.

Tracing the “Stage Indian” from its early nineteenth-century roots to its proliferation across theatrical entertainment forms and turn of the twenty-first century attempts to address its racist legacy, Redface uses case studies in law and civic life to understand its offstage impact. Hughes connects extensive scholarship on the “Indian” in American culture to the theatrical history of racial impersonation and critiques of settler colonialism, demonstrating redface’s high stakes for Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike. Revealing the persistence of redface and the challenges of fixing it, Redface closes by offering readers an embodied rehearsal of what it would mean to read not for the “Indian” but for Indigenous theater and performance as it has always existed in the US.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Tunnel Vision"

Coming March 4 from Severn House: Tunnel Vision (Shadows of Chicago Mystery, 2) by Wendy Church.

About the book, from the publisher:

A Chicago PD analyst is thrust into the perilous underworld as she embarks on a desperate quest to find her missing brother in this intricately plotted thriller!

Gang-related murders cast a dark shadow over the city as a new player emerges in the deadly fentanyl trade. Maude Kaminski, technical analyst for the Chicago PD, takes her place on the task force created to end the bloody territory wars.

But Maude's world is upended when a child's backpack is discovered among the possessions of a dead homeless woman. The backpack belonged to Maude’s two-year-old brother, Michael, and is the first trace of him since he was taken — since Maude let someone take him — over twenty years ago.

As Maude desperately searches for other signs of Michael she turns for help to her best friend, chef Sags Pfister, who harbors a dark past of her own. Long-buried secrets begin to surface, forcing Maude from behind her computer into undercover work and underneath the dark streets of Chicago, where she has to confront her deepest fears. How far would she go to protect her family?

Visit Wendy Church's website.

The Page 69 Test: Murder on the Spanish Seas.

Q&A with Wendy Church.

My Book, The Movie: Murder on the Spanish Seas.

The Page 69 Test: Murder Beyond the Pale.

Writers Read: Wendy Church (March 2024).

The Page 69 Test: Knife Skills.

My Book, The Movie: Knife Skills.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The War People"

New from Cambridge University Press: The War People: A Social History of Common Soldiers during the Era of the Thirty Years War by Lucian Staiano-Daniels.

About the book, from the publisher:

This book uses the transnational story of a single regiment to examine how ordinary soldiers, military women, and officers negotiated their lives within the chaos and uncertainty of the seventeenth century. Raised in Saxony by Wolf von Mansfeld in spring 1625 in the service of the King of Spain, the Mansfeld Regiment fought for one and a half years in northern Italy before collapsing, leaving behind a trail of dead civilians, murder, internal lawsuits…and copious amounts of paperwork. Their story reveals the intricate social world of seventeenth-century mercenaries and how this influenced how they lived and fought. Through this rich microhistorical case study, Lucian Staiano-Daniels sheds new light on key seventeenth-century developments like the military revolution and the fiscal-military state, which is supported by statistical analysis drawn from hundreds of records from the Thirty Years War. This pathbreaking book unifies the study of war and conflict with social history.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Dying to Meet You"

Coming May 13 from Harper Paperbacks: Dying to Meet You: A Domestic Thriller by Sarina Bowen.

About the book, from the publisher:

The acclaimed USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author returns with a twisty thriller that probes how well we actually know the men in our lives.

Rowan Gallagher is a devoted single mother and a talented architect with a high-profile commission restoring an historic mansion for the most powerful family in Maine. But inside, she’s a mess. She knows that stalking her ex’s avatar all over Portland on her phone isn't the healthiest way to heal from their breakup. But she’s out of ice cream and she's sick of romcoms.

Watching his every move is both fascinating and infuriating. He's dining out while she's wallowing on the couch. The last straw comes when he parks in their favorite spot on the waterfront. In a weak moment, she leashes the dog and sets off to see who else is in his car.

Instead of catching her ex in a kiss, Rowan becomes the first witness to his murder—and the primary suspect.

But Rowan isn’t the only one keeping secrets. As she digs for the truth, she discovers the dead man was stalking her too, gathering intimate details about her job and her past.

Struggling to clear her name, Rowan finds herself spiraling into the shadowy plot that killed him.

Will she be the next to die?

Visit Sarina Bowen's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Buddhism: A Journey through History"

New from Yale University Press: Buddhism: A Journey through History by Donald S. Lopez Jr.

About the book, from the publisher:

One of the world’s leading scholars of Buddhism presents the story of its dramatic journey across the globe, from 2,500 years ago to the present day

Over the course of twenty-five centuries, Buddhism spread from its place of origin in northern India to become a global tradition of remarkable breadth, depth, and richness. In this ambitious book, Donald S. Lopez Jr. draws on the latest scholarship to construct a detailed and innovative history of Buddhism—not just as a chronology through the centuries or as geographic movement across a map, but as a dense matrix of interconnections.

Beginning with the life and teachings of the Buddha, Lopez shows how a set of evolving ideas and practices traveled north and east to China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and Tibet, south and southeast to Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Indonesia, and finally westward to Europe and the Americas. He provides insights on questions that Buddhism has asked and answered in different times and different places—about apocalypse, art, identity, immortality, law, nation, persecution, philosophy, science, sex, war, and writing.

Vast in its erudition and expansive in its vision, this is the most complete single‑volume history of Buddhism in its full historical and geographical range.

The Page 99 Test: Donald S. Lopez, Jr's Buddhism and Science.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Going Home"

New from Knopf: Going Home: A Novel by Tom Lamont.

About the book, from the publisher:

Going Home is a sparkling, funny, bighearted story of family and what happens when three men—all of whom are completely ill-suited for fatherhood—take charge of a toddler following an unexpected loss

Téo Erskine, now in his thirties, has moved on from childish things: He has a good job, a slick apartment in London, and when he heads back to the suburbs on the occasional weekend to visit his old friends, he makes sure everyone knows he can afford to pick up the tab. So what if he asks a few too many questions about Lia, the girl of their group, wondering if she will come out, if she’s seeing anyone, if she might give him another shot? Téo is hazily aware that something possibly happened between Lia and Ben Mossam, Téo’s closest friend and his greatest annoyance, but he can’t bring himself to ask. Lia, meanwhile, has no time to indulge their rivalry. She’s now the single mother of a toddler son, a kid named Joel that Téo occasionally (and halfheartedly) offers to babysit.

Téo is home for one such weekend when the unthinkable happens—a tragedy in the heart of their group—and he suddenly finds himself the unlikely guardian for little Joel. Together with his father, Vic, Ben Mossam, and Sybil, Lia’s beguiling rabbi, they bide time until they can find a proper home for Joel, teaching him to play video games, plying him with chicken nuggets and waffles, and learning to sing him lullabies at night. But when a juvenile mistake leads to a terrible betrayal, Téo must decide what kind of man he wants to be. Wise, relatable, and blissfully laugh-out-loud funny, Going Home is a captivating first novel that explores the mysterious ways children can force us to grow up fast while simultaneously keeping us young forever.

Visit Tom Lamont's website.

See Tom Lamont's five best books about fatherhood.

--Marshal Zeringue

"It's All in the Delivery"

New from the University of Texas Press: It's All in the Delivery: Pregnancy in American Film and Television Comedy by Victoria Sturtevant.

About the book, from the publisher:

How changing depictions of pregnancy in comedy from the start of the twentieth century to the present show an evolution in attitudes toward women’s reproductive roles and rights.

Some of the most groundbreaking moments in American film and TV comedy have centered on pregnancy, from Lucille Ball’s real-life pregnancy on I Love Lucy, to the abortion plot on Maude; Murphy Brown’s controversial single motherhood; Arnold Schwarzenegger’s pregnancy in Junior; or the third-trimester stand-up special Ali Wong: Baby Cobra.

In the first book-length study of pregnancy in popular comedy, Victoria Sturtevant examines the slow evolution of pregnancy tropes during the years of the Production Code; the sexual revolution and changing norms around nonmarital pregnancy in the 1960s and ‘70s; and the emphasis on biological clocks, infertility, adoption, and abortion from the 1980s to now.

Across this history, popular media have offered polite evasions and sentimentality instead of real candor about the physical and social complexities of pregnancy. But comedy has often led the way in puncturing these clichés, pointing an irreverent and satiric lens at the messy and sometimes absurd work of gestation. Ultimately, Sturtevant argues that comedy can reveal the distortions and lies that treat pregnancy as simple and natural “women’s work,” misrepresentations that rest at the heart of contemporary attacks on reproductive rights in the US.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Not Who We Expected"

Coming February 25 from Kensington: Not Who We Expected by Lisa Black.

About the book, from the publisher:

With a duo of complex female protagonists, breakneck plotting, and authenticity informed by her career as a crime scene analyst, New York Times bestselling author Lisa Black’s Locard Institute Thrillers land her in the same league as Tess Gerritsen, Patricia Cornwell, and Kathy Reichs.

Now forensic experts Ellie Carr and Rachael Davies are pulled into solving a deadly mystery unfolding in the shadow of a celebrated rock star.

The two crime experts are enlisted by legendary rock star Billy Diamond to find his missing daughter. A level-headed student at Yale, Devon left six months earlier with her boyfriend, Carlos, for a career development retreat in Nevada. Her calls and notes became less frequent until they stopped. Billy wanted to give his daughter space—but after learning Carlos’ body was found a few miles upstream from the ranch, he needs answers.

Rachael and Ellie hatch a plan—as Ellie goes undercover, Rachael will work with Billy to find out about Devon. But Rachael has a second agenda, to find out why Billy seems so familiar with her late sister Isis, whose little boy Rachael is raising. The music idol is hiding something, but what?

The southwest ranch is full of surprises. Devon is not only alive but thriving, and no one mentions Carlos. The attendees follow their leader, Galen, with slavish devotion, and their daily mind-body exercises stretch from brain-numbing to downright treacherous. If Galen is behind some nefarious scheme, how does it relate to the rock star and his daughter?

To answer those questions, Rachael will also have to ask: Who was her sister Isis, really? The answers will draw Ellie and Rachael deeper into danger. In Billy’s world and in Galen’s, the living, the missing, and the dead all have secrets.

Learn more about the book and author at Lisa Black's website.

The Page 69 Test: That Darkness.

My Book, The Movie: Unpunished.

The Page 69 Test: Unpunished.

My Book, The Movie: Perish.

The Page 69 Test: Perish.

The Page 69 Test: Suffer the Children.

Writers Read: Lisa Black (July 2020).

The Page 69 Test: Every Kind of Wicked.

Q&A with Lisa Black.

My Book, The Movie: What Harms You.

The Page 69 Test: What Harms You.

My Book, The Movie: The Deepest Kill.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Woman's Job"

New from Cambridge University Press: A Woman's Job: Making Middle Lives in New India by Asiya Islam.

About the book, from the publisher:

Against the backdrop of rapid socio-economic change in post-1990 India, scholars and policy makers have expressed surprise at the low rate of women's participation in the workforce, particularly in urban areas. A Woman's Job presents a unique urban ethnography of young lower middle class women's lives in Delhi as they weave in and out of service employment, education, and domestic contracts. Urban, educated, and skilled, these young women seek employment in cafes, malls, call centres, and offices in the globalising landscape of Delhi. Their participation in work enables access to 'things', such as, jeans, smartphones, English language, and the metro, that symbolise global modernity. However, caught in a web of gender, class, and caste inequalities, their identification as 'working' women also generates social anxieties. The book shows how women adopt 'middle-ness' as a strategy of life-making at the multiple sites of work, home, and leisure.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Bane Witch"

Coming March 18 from St. Martin's Griffin: The Bane Witch: A Novel by Ava Morgyn.

About the book, from the publisher:

Practical Magic meets Gone Girl in Ava Morgyn's next dark, spellbinding novel about a woman who is more than a witch―she's a hunter.

Piers Corbin has always had an affinity for poisonous things―plants and men. From the pokeweed berries she consumed at age five that led to the accidental death of a stranger, to the husband whose dark proclivities have become… concerning, poison has been at the heart of her story.

But when she fakes her own death in an attempt to escape her volatile marriage and goes to stay with her estranged great aunt in the mountains, she realizes her predilection is more than a hunger―it’s a birthright. Piers comes from a long line of poison eaters―Bane Witches―women who ingest deadly plants and use their magic to rid the world of evil men.

Piers sets out to earn her place in her family’s gritty but distinguished legacy, all while working at her Aunt Myrtle’s cafe and perpetuating a flirtation with the local, well-meaning sheriff to allay his suspicions on the body count she’s been leaving in her wake. But soon she catches the attention of someone else, a serial killer operating in the area. And that only means one thing―it’s time to feed.

In Ava Morgyn’s dark, thrilling novel, The Bane Witch, a very little poison can do a world of good.

Visit Ava Morgyn's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Land Power"

New from Basic Books: Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn't, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies by Michael Albertus.

About the book, from the publisher:

An award-winning political scientist shows that a society’s path to prosperity, sustainability, and equality depends on who owns the land

For millennia, land has been a symbol of wealth and privilege. But the true power of land ownership is even greater than we might think. In Land Power, political scientist Michael Albertus shows that who owns the land determines whether a society will be equal or unequal, whether it will develop or decline, and whether it will safeguard or sacrifice its environment.

Modern history has been defined by land reallocation on a massive scale. From the 1500s on, European colonial powers and new nation-states shifted indigenous lands into the hands of settlers. The 1900s brought new waves of land appropriation, from Soviet and Maoist collectivization to initiatives turning large estates over to family farmers. The shuffle continues today as governments vie for power and prosperity by choosing who should get land. Drawing on a career’s worth of original research and on-the-ground fieldwork, Albertus shows that choices about who owns the land have locked in poverty, sexism, racism, and climate crisis—and that what we do with the land today can change our collective fate.

Global in scope, Land Power argues that saving civilization must begin with the earth under our feet.

Visit Michael Albertus's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"As You Wish"

New from Aladdin: As You Wish by Nashae Jones.

About the book, from the publisher:

A girl learns the hard way to be careful what she wishes for in this sweet and funny middle grade rom-com featuring a chaos-loving West African trickster god.

Birdie has big plans for eighth grade. This is the year that she gets a boyfriend, and since she and her best friend, Deve, do everything together, it makes sense that Deve will get a girlfriend. This is the kind of math Birdie doesn’t find intimidating—it’s Eighth Grade 101. (Birdie + Boyfriend) + (Deve + Girlfriend) = Normal Eighth Grade Experience. And normal is something Birdie craves, especially with a mom as overprotective as hers.

She doesn’t expect Deve to be so against her plan, or for their fight to blow up in her face. So when the West African god Anansi appears to her, claiming to be able to make everything right again, Birdie pushes past her skepticism and makes a wish for the whole mess to go away. But with a trickster god, your wish is bound to come true in a way you never imagined.

Before long, Birdie regrets her rash words...especially when she realizes what’s really going on with her and Deve. With her reality upended, can Birdie figure out how to undo her wish?

Visit Nashae Jones's website.

Q&A with Nashae Jones.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Paul and Judaism at the End of History"

New from Cambridge University Press: Paul and Judaism at the End of History by Matthew V. Novenson.

About the book, from the publisher:

The apostle Paul was a Jew. He was born, lived, undertook his apostolic work, and died within the milieu of ancient Judaism. And yet, many readers have found, and continue to find, Paul's thought so radical, so Christian, even so anti-Jewish – despite the fact that it, too, is Jewish through and through. This paradox, and the question how we are to explain it, are the foci of Matthew Novenson's groundbreaking book. The solution, says the author, lies in Paul's particular understanding of time. This too is altogether Jewish, with the twist that Paul sees the end of history as present, not future. In the wake of Christ's resurrection, Jews are perfected in righteousness and – like the angels – enabled to live forever, in fulfilment of God's ancient promises to the patriarchs. What is more, gentiles are included in the same pneumatic existence promised to the Jews. This peculiar combination of ethnicity and eschatology yields something that looks not quite like Judaism or Christianity as we are used to thinking of them.

--Marshal Zeringue