"The Boy in the Wall"

New from Severn House: The Boy in the Wall by Jeffrey B. Burton.

About the book, from the publisher:

The discovery of a missing boy’s body uncovers cruel schemes in this twisty, fast—paced K—9 thriller series set in the Windy City of Chicago.

What if the past won’t let you go?

It was supposed to be a fun dog demo day for the students at Henry Horner Elementary School in Chicago—but when Cory Pratt’s cadaver dogs sniff out the body of a missing teenage boy wedged into the wall of the cafeteria, his family’s life is shattered.

It seems like tragedy follows the Shortridges. With the eldest son having taken his life a few years earlier, Patrick being found mutilated and murdered devastates the whole clan further. Now everyone is fearing for seven—year—old sister Charlotte.

When a kidnapping attempt on the young girl fails, Cory and his detective sister Crystal are sure someone is targeting the Shortridges. But who is behind these savage attacks and why would someone want to kill off such a seemingly unassuming family?

“A mighty impressive thriller” (Booklist on The Dead Years), perfect for fans of action—packed K—9 mystery series, such as Margaret Mizushima’s Timber Creek K—9 Mysteries, Paula Munier’s Mercy Carr Mysteries and Susan Furlong’s Bone Gap Travellers Mysteries.

Visit Jeffrey B. Burton's website.

Q&A with Jeffrey B. Burton.

The Page 69 Test: The Keepers.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Homebodies"

New from the University of Michigan Press: Homebodies: Performance and Intimacy in the Age of New Media by L. Archer Porter.

About the book, from the publisher:

Homebodies: Performance and Intimacy in the Age of New Media sheds light on a fascinating yet often overlooked phenomenon: how ordinary people transform their private lives into captivating performances for the digital stage. Focusing on home dance videos shared on Instagram from 2010 to 2020, the book explores the delicate art of "intimaesthetics"—the aestheticization of intimacy through the interplay of body, space, and media—and the paradox of the homebody. These seemingly spontaneous performances reveal how users craft images of closeness and authenticity, drawing audiences into a curated version of their domestic lives. Yet, Porter argues, these intimate portrayals exist within a larger system of platform control, algorithmic surveillance, and the commodification of personal expression.

Porter utilizes hand-drawn illustrations in place of screenshots, which reflects their commitment to critiquing the exploitative dynamics of digital visibility while respecting the personal nature of the media studied. By examining the intersection of personal agency, algorithmic control, and the commodification of authenticity, Homebodies provides a nuanced understanding of how technology redefines intimacy, identity, and creativity in the twenty-first century.

Visit Archer Porter's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Body Builders"

New from Bloomsbury USA: The Body Builders: A Novel by Albertine Clarke.

About the book, from the publisher:

For readers of Megan Nolan and Sheila Heti, a mesmerizing Borgesian literary debut about the frayed borders between our bodies and minds.

Ada lives a solitary life. She spends her days in her London apartment building's swimming pool, occasionally visiting with her cousin Francesca and meeting her friends, each of them chatting, drinking, posing invitations Ada ignores. Ada's parents are recently divorced after her father became a bodybuilder: he spends his days at the gym, which is crowded and bright, warm with human proximity, infrequently calling to express minor concerns around his daughter's well-being.

When she meets a man named Atticus by the pool, Ada immediately feels an intimate connection between them: they share a life, in a way she can't explain. Little by little, Ada's estrangement from her familiar surroundings and from reality widens, as though seeing her reflection through a mirror, pieces of it falling away. After her mother entreats Ada to join her on a remote Greek holiday, Ada is jolted out of the physical world and into a new, artificial environment, one that a mysterious and potentially otherworldly force has created and designed for her. As this brilliant first novel pivots with masterful effect into the surreal and speculative, we move through Ada's experiences of life like spokes on a wheel, profoundly surprised by the enduring mystery of our existence, and of our relationships with ourselves and others. When a person's life, in the odd space between mind and body, is inherently one of isolation, are our connections with those around us merely projections of ourselves? And if not, where do they come from?

Albertine Clarke transforms the speculative into an entirely singular experience of deep interiority. The precision, subtlety, and confidence of her writing is nothing short of astonishing. THE BODY BUILDERS is new classic of the speculative fiction genre, landing like a blow, widening a crack that allows us to perceive the world wholly differently than we ever imagined.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Paper Heroines"

New from the University of South Carolina Press: Paper Heroines: Women Writers in Conversation and Community Across the Sea Islands, 1838–1902 by Mollie Barnes.

About the book, from the publisher:

The lyrical and political power of nineteenth-century women reformers' life writing

Paper Heroines, Mollie Barnes studies the ways women represented their own and one another's lives in their personal diaries and their biographies of their contemporaries. By reading these women writers―Black and white, obscure and well-known―in conversation, Barnes presents entirely new portraits of these freedom fighters of the nineteenth-century South Carolina Lowcountry. Like feminist and anti-racist leaders in our own moment, the women in Paper Heroines were often flawed. White women reformers sometimes created tensions, silences, revisions, and erasures within their print-culture networks, obscuring the lives and contributions of Black women. Black women developed counternarratives and counternetworks as they sought to reclaim their own life histories. What emerges from Barnes's exploration of these textual conversations is a story of complicated relationships that reveal the dynamism of women's lives in a place and time that was equally tumultuous and consequential.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Aubrey Wants to Die"

New from Hanover Square Press: Aubrey Wants to Die by Pip Knight.

About the book, from the publisher:

Being a vampire is no big deal; it’s being in love that’s the hard part. But Aubrey begins to question her undead future in this soul-sucking story.

Love is hard. Being undead is harder ... Dolly Alderton meets True Blood in this dark, funny hell of a story

Aubrey is not what she seems. She's young, beautiful, romantic, obsessive and ... a vampire. All she wants is to be human again, and failing that, she wants to die. But the problem is, she can't. Not by stake through the heart or holy water or crucifix or garlic or fire. And she'd know, she's tried every method ... Twice.

So she's stuck here on this earth, all alone. Even the vampire who made her this way — an aristocratic douchebag called Oscar — has abandoned her.

But everything changes when one fateful night, she meets Jonathan. He's everything Aubrey's ever dreamed of, and what's more, he's her soulmate. Her Bella—Edward story. For the first time in 150 years, she has a reason to hope — eternal life might be bearable after all. So when Jonathan unexpectedly breaks up with her, she'll do anything to get him back.

But that's the exact moment Oscar swoops back into her life. And he has other plans for her. Soon, she's thrown into a world of glamour, glitter, blood and hedonism, a world that has her questioning everything she knows to be true—about life, but also about herself. A world where nothing is simple ... And no—one is safe, either.

Visit Pip Knight's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Living Diaper to Diaper"

New from the University of California Press: Living Diaper to Diaper: The Hidden Crisis of Poverty and Motherhood by Jennifer Randles.

About the book, from the publisher:

A revealing account of parenting in a country that neglects the needs of poor families—through the humble diaper.

Many of us take diapers for granted. Yet diaper insecurity is a common, often hidden consequence of poverty in the US, where nearly half of American families with young children struggle to get enough diapers.

Drawing on interviews with mothers dealing with this overlooked issue, Jennifer Randles shows how diapers have unique practical and symbolic significance for the well-being of families. Tracing the social history of diapering, Randles unravels a complex story of caregiving inequalities, the environmental impacts of child-rearing, and responsibility for meeting children’s basic needs. Yet it is also a hopeful story: the book chronicles the work of people who manage diaper banks as well as the growing diaper distribution movement.

A hard-nosed yet nuanced tale of parenting, Living Diaper to Diaper is an eye-opening examination of inequality and poverty in America.

Writers Read: Jennifer Randles (April 2017).

The Page 99 Test: Proposing Prosperity?.

--Marshal Zeringue

"If A Face Could Kill"

New from Severn House: If A Face Could Kill by Becky Masterman.

About the book, from the publisher:

The hunt for a neighbor’s killer . . . reveals chilling secrets close to home.

Former FBI agent Brigid Quinn hasn’t forgiven herself for the testimony that led to young mother Nicole Gleason being convicted for the manslaughter of her abusive husband.

Now out of jail early on parole, Nicole is living in a group home for felons in Brigid’s Arizona neighborhood. But while Brigid hopes to make amends with Nicole, not everyone in the community is happy to have criminals on their doorstep.

When outspoken local resident Dorita Gordino is grotesquely murdered, suspicion soon falls on Nicole. Brigid is determined to catch Dorita’s killer and prove Nicole’s innocence—even if it means one of her own darkest secrets comes to light...

This addictively dark thriller featuring Brigid Quinn, “one of the most memorable FBI agents since Clarice Starling” (Publishers Weekly), is perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn, Lisa Gardner, Lisa Jewell, and Tess Gerritsen.

Visit Becky Masterman's website.

My Book, The Movie: Rage Against the Dying.

The Page 69 Test: Rage Against the Dying.

My Book, The Movie: Fear the Darkness.

The Page 69 Test: Fear the Darkness.

My Book, The Movie: A Twist of the Knife.

My Book, The Movie: We Were Killers Once.

The Page 69 Test: We Were Killers Once.

The Page 69 Test: Her Prodigal Husband.

--Marshal Zeringue

"K-Pop Fandom"

New from the University of Michigan Press: K-Pop Fandom: Performing Deokhu from the 1990s to Today by Areum Jeong.

About the book, from the publisher:

An autoethnography of the K-pop fandom and its evolution

K-Pop Fandom insists that K-pop fan practices and activities constitute a central productive force, shaping not only K-pop's explosive global popularity, but also K-pop's cultural impacts, politics, and horizons of possibility. Over the past three decades, the K-pop fandom and its activities have expanded, intensified, and diversified along myriad dimensions, assuming novel social, technological, and economic forms, some of which are unique to K-pop, and some of which reflect broader cultural and industrial logics of globalized mass entertainment culture. Areum Jeong argues that K-pop fans, in performing deokhu—a Korean term connoting an "avid fan"—perform a materialization of affective labor that also seeks to produce good relationships between asymmetrically positioned actors in the K-pop ecosystem.

Through an autoethnography of becoming a K-pop deokhu, Jeong connects their experiences to generations of K-pop fans, showing simultaneously how fandom practices have shifted over time and the intricacies of fan labor participation. This personal connection paved the way for participant-observation and co-performer witnessing methodologies in the study, which crucially allowed for collaborating with fans whose communal pursuits have been stigmatized by dominant discourses that denigrate their activities as solely addictive, uncritical, and wasteful. Jeong's genre-spanning corpus of fan activities and analyzing its contexts and contents represents an important contribution to the making of a fan archive that is also an archive of affective labor.

Visit Areum Jeong's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Island of Ghosts and Dreams"

New from Pegasus Books: Island of Ghosts and Dreams: A Novel by Christopher Cosmos.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A woman from a small Greek village finds herself swept up in the long and storied history of her island—and its far-reaching impact—in this unforgettable story of love, passion, and resistance.

Chania, Crete; 1941.

When mainland Greece falls to the Germans after incredible and heroic resistance, the Greek government flees south to Crete: an ancient island of Gods and Kings, and Myths and Minotaurs.

Maria is a villager whose husband has been away fighting with the Greek army, and after she finds a British soldier that washes up on a secluded beach near her home, and helps nurse him back to health, the Germans then turn south and invade Crete, too.

Occupation, tragedy, and betrayal follow. The lives of Maria and her family change in an instant and she finds herself in a role she never thought she'd have to play—and one that generations of Cretans have had to assume before her.

Steeped in history and filled with unforgettable characters, Island of Ghosts and Dreams is a profoundly moving and decades-spanning tale of passion, honor, family, the great and enduring sacrifices all generations must make for freedom, and our sacred and immortal obligation to follow the strength and power of our heart, no matter where it might lead us.

Visit Christopher Cosmos's website.

The Page 69 Test: Once We Were Here.

Q&A with Christopher Cosmos.

The Page 69 Test: Young Conquerors.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Laboring in the Shadows"

New from Stanford University Press: Laboring in the Shadows: Precarity and Promise in Black Youth Work by Bianca J. Baldridge.

About the book, from the publisher:

Youth workers are essential to the fabric of society. Schools, families, and many of our social institutions rely heavily on their work, yet their contributions often go unrecognized. Laboring in the Shadows explores the critical role of Black youth workers, especially in the lives of vulnerable youth, and the challenges they face in their unstable, underappreciated position.

Bianca J. Baldridge situates the experiences of Black youth workers within the broader context of anti—Blackness and historical inequities. Drawing on rich interview data from across the United States, Baldridge offers a nuanced analysis of how the precarity of this work—marked by high turnover rates, low wages, and housing insecurity—compounds the challenges these workers face. She highlights how Black youth workers resist these structural harms by adopting and implementing innovative pedagogical practices alongside practices of "freedom dreaming" and joy as forms of resistance and pathways to agency for youth despite their precarious roles.

Positioning Black youth workers within a broader network of informal care workers in the United States, Baldridge underscores the significance, fragility, precarity, and power of these dedicated professionals, their essential work, and the possibilities they create for youth.

Visit Bianca J. Baldridge's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Only Spell Deep"

Coming soon from St. Martin's Griffin: Only Spell Deep: A Novel by Ava Morgyn.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Rebecca meets The Craft in this dark, atmospheric novel of one witch rediscovering her power while on the run from another willing to kill her for it.

From the USA Today bestselling author of The Bane Witch!

Judeth Cole has always had certain uncanny abilities. But when she arrived at Solidago, her grandfather’s estate by the sea, she was forced to keep them secret. There she lived a harsh life under his rule and the haunting legacy of her late grandmother, Aurelia. Until the fateful day she ignited a fire with her magic. It was the last time she saw her family alive.

Seventeen years later, she’s living in Seattle as Jude Clark, and failing at life, when she makes a last detour through her favorite bookstore, selecting a book to read as she waits to die. But when she pulls it from the shelf, an invitation to her for a clandestine midnight meeting slips out.

Jude is quickly swept up into a world of secrets and magic, discovering a circle of powerful new companions led by the mysterious, enigmatic Arla. The source of their magic, Arla tells her, is an entity, trapped and bound, that they call The Fathom. But Jude swiftly realizes Arla wants this power all to herself, and that she’s willing to kill for it.

Terrified, Jude turns to Levi, the handsome bookseller who’s seen her at her worst. With his help, she begins a research journey that leads her all the way back to Solidago, the house she swore to never return to. Now, the Fathom threatening to break free and Arla on the hunt, Jude must finally face her past to save her future.

Ava Morgyn's Only Spell Deep is a novel that takes readers on a journey into a dark, glittering world of magic, a place where power should never be caged and misplaced trust can have deadly consequences.

Visit Ava Morgyn's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Bane Witch.

Q&A with Ava Morgyn.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Making Amends for Historic Wrongs"

New from Oxford University Press: Making Amends for Historic Wrongs: Reparative Justice and the Problem of the Past by Mayo Moran.

About the book, from the publisher:

Once considered implausible, the demand to make amends for old wrongs has become a pressing contemporary problem. Legal expert Professor Mayo Moran utilizes landmark cases to demonstrate how innovative private law claims have begun to employ reparative justice to frame claims to redress grievous historical wrongs, tracing the evolution from early Holocaust litigation and transitional justice to contemporary claims involving colonial violence, slavery, and institutional abuse.

Drawing on ground-breaking cases involving looted art, institutional child abuse, and involuntary sterilization, the book highlights the shifting understanding of the past. It examines the pivotal role of private law in the effort to rectify historical injustices. Post-Holocaust legal developments, the rise of transitional justice, and the strategic use of domestic civil law by human rights advocates helped to shape these novel redress claims. Moved by survivor narratives and in the face of evolving legal norms, courts, governments, and institutions all began to consider how to respond to grievous old wrongs.

Moran analyzes the design of redress mechanisms and the key role of legal practitioners, showing how jurisdictions have responded through settlements and compensation programs. Using a wide array of examples, Moran outlines the pitfalls and opportunities of law as a tool for addressing past wrongs.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Concert Black"

Coming soon from Blackstone: Concert Black by Michael O'Donnell.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the acclaimed author of Above the Fire comes Concert Black, a hauntingly elegant novel that unspools a tale of music, obsession, and the fragile architecture of legacy.

Ellen Wroe, a celebrated biographer known for her piercing insight, sets her sights on Cecil Woodbridge, the legendary conductor whose name reverberates through concert halls and conservatories. But Woodbridge, imperious and elusive, rebuffs her approach and conspires to thwart her efforts. Undeterred, Wroe embarks on a relentless pursuit, trailing the maestro across continents—through the archives of his correspondence, into the confidences of his colleagues, and deeper still into the long shadow of his past.

Maestro, cellist, king of the baton—Woodbridge is a man enshrined in myth and bristling with contradictions. Beneath the grandeur lies a hidden lattice of ambition, betrayal, and sorrow. As Wroe attempts to chart his ascent, she uncovers not only the cost of genius but the wreckage it often leaves behind.

With lyrical precision and atmospheric sweep, Concert Black echoes the psychological depth of Ian McEwan’s Atonement and the philosophical resonance of Julian Barnes’s The Noise of Time. From the frostbitten avenues of postwar London to the symphonic stages of Boston and Chicago, biographer and subject circle each other in an elegiac dance—until they collide in a reckoning neither can escape.

A novel of ambition and artistry, Concert Black is a symphony of human complexity: piercing, poised, and unforgettable.

Visit Michael O'Donnell's website.

Q&A with Michael O'Donnell.

The Page 69 Test: Above the Fire.

Writers Read: Michael O'Donnell (December 2023).

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Predicament of Privilege"

New from the University of Washington Press: The Predicament of Privilege: Inequality and Ambivalence in Contemporary Scandinavian Culture by Devika Sharma.

About the book, from the publisher:

Is privilege a problem? Scandinavians ask, Is this okay?―and wrestle with the answer

A twenty-first century paradox has emerged in contemporary Scandinavian societies: the region’s deeply ingrained egalitarian ideals exist uneasily alongside its undeniable global privilege. In The Predicament of Privilege, Devika Sharma examines this tension, exploring how a well-intentioned desire to “do good” collides with an unsettling realization: the very structures that enable ethical consumption, charitable donations, and humanitarian action are themselves embedded in a system of exploitation.

Through an incisive analysis of contemporary Scandinavian cultural texts, The Predicament of Privilege introduces the concept of skeptimentality―a pervasive moral ambivalence about virtuous emotions like compassion and generosity. As Sharma demonstrates, this sentiment does not necessarily lead to action but creates a vacuum, leaving privilege-sensitive publics with a crisis of conscience but no clear path forward. Sharma’s book challenges both the self-image of Nordic societies and the broader assumptions of humanitarian ethics. A necessary read for scholars, cultural critics, and anyone engaging with the politics of privilege, this book offers a bold new perspective on the unfinished business of equality.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Slow Burn"

New from Candlewick Press: Slow Burn by Bethany Rutter.

About the book, from the publisher:

A sporty, feel-good, body-positive rom-com pits a plus-size teen against her bullies to prove what she already knows—that she has exactly the right stuff.

Sixteen-year-old Ruby has worked hard to be happy in her body, even when other people—including her brother and her PE teacher—insist there's something wrong with her for being fat. All Ruby cares about is hanging out at the skate park this summer with friends. But her brother’s bullying words get under her skin, and in order to prove to him (and her impressionable little sister) that fat girls can do anything, Ruby finds herself signed up for the annual 5K Dawson Dash. There’s just one problem: She can’t run. The cute new boy next door can, however, and when Ollie offers to help her train, Ruby takes him up on it, even if it means he'll see her at her sweatiest and most vulnerable. Young athletes of all stripes, especially those marginalized in sports due to body differences, will find a hero in good-humored Ruby. With its all-audience appeal, her joyful story delivers upbeat romance and affirmation that our bodies are just right, just the way they are.

Visit Bethany Rutter's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Becoming Martian"

New from The MIT Press: Becoming Martian: How Living in Space Will Change Our Bodies and Minds by Scott Solomon.

About the book, from the publisher:

How living in space will affect future generations—and what the potential unintended consequences of space settlements are.

We are on the cusp of a golden age of space travel in which, for the first time, it will be possible for large numbers of people to venture into space. Some intend to stay. But what happens—and will happen—to us in the extreme conditions of space? What should space tourists expect to happen to them during a journey to an orbiting space station, the Moon, or Mars? What would happen to children born on another planet? Would they evolve into a new species? In Becoming Martian, Scott Solomon explores the many ways in which humanity’s migration into space will change our bodies and our minds.

This book focuses on the latest science, taking readers to the front lines of research. We hear from astronauts, including Scott Kelly who writes the foreword, and we join a team of scientists guiding a rover across the surface of Mars. We visit a high-security lab where engineers are simulating space radiation to measure its effects on the body. We travel to isolated islands where field biologists are gleaning insights into evolutionary processes applicable to people isolated on faraway planets. We meet synthetic biologists developing gene-editing tools to equip future humans to thrive in alien environments. We watch a rocket designed to carry humanity to Mars make its first successful launch. And then we ask, knowing what we know: Should we go?

Visit Scott Solomon's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Lady Tremaine"

New from St. Martin's Press: Lady Tremaine: A Novel by Rachel Hochhauser.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Twice-widowed, Lady Etheldreda Verity Isolde Tremaine Bramley is solely responsible for her two children, a priggish stepdaughter, a razor-taloned peregrine falcon, and a crumbling manor. Fierce and determined, Ethel clings to the respectability her deceased husband’s title affords her, hoping it will secure her daughters’ future through marriage.

When a royal ball offers the chance to change everything, Ethel risks her pride in pursuit of an invitation for all three of her daughters—only to see her hopes fulfilled by the wrong one. As an engagement to the future king unfolds, Ethel discovers a sordid secret hidden in the depths of the royal family, forcing her to choose between the security she craves and the wellbeing of the stepdaughter who has rebuffed her at every turn.

As if Bridgerton met Circe, and exhilarating to its core, Lady Tremaine reimagines the myth of the evil stepmother at the heart of the world’s most famous fairy tale. It is a battle cry for a mother’s love for her daughters, and a celebration of women everywhere who make their own fortunes.

Visit Rachel Hochhauser's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Tiny Gardens Everywhere"

New from W.W. Norton: Tiny Gardens Everywhere: The Past, Present, and Future of the Self-Provisioning City by Kate Brown.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the eighteenth century to the twenty–first, the surprising history and inspiring contemporary panorama of urban gardening: nurturing health, hope, and community.

Nurturing health, hope, and community, gardeners in cities and suburbs are reclaiming lost commons, transforming vacant lots into vibrant plots, turning waste into compost, and recreating what was once the most productive agriculture in recorded human history.

In a history that has been hidden in plain sight, working-class gardeners have consistently played an outsized role. In London, they devised ways to feed themselves when wage labor fell short. In Paris, a superabundance of horse manure in the streets nourished urban gardens that fed two million residents. In Berlin, gardeners built social safety nets for those marginalized by the state. In Washington, DC, African American migrants brought rural traditions of self-provisioning that were later disrupted by “urban renewal.” In rustbelt Mansfield, Ohio, farming ex-cons grow hope for the city’s future. In post-Soviet Estonia, shared gardens became lifelines for survival amid economic upheaval. And in Amsterdam, activists are reclaiming sustainable farming practices in a sinking landscape oversaturated with fertilizers.

Tilled into this rich history of urban agriculture is an inspiring layer of contemporary activism. Each chapter includes contemporary stories of people from all walks of life who, in their gardens, are continuing a great tradition of mutual aid, political resistance, and bold experiments in sustainability.

A manifesto for the next food revolution, Tiny Gardens Everywhere blends past and present, archive and experience, to offer a truly inspiring vision of the transformative potential of gardening and urban life.

Visit Kate Brown's website.

The Page 99 Test: Plutopia.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Spellbound by Murder"

New from Crooked Lane Books: Spellbound by Murder: A Mystic Hollow Bookshop Mystery by Stacie Ramey.

About the novel from the publisher:

Gilmore Girls meets Charmed in this spellbinding cozy mystery featuring a magical bookshop run by three generations of women.

When her grandmother suffers a nasty fall and asks for help managing the family business, coffee-addicted single mother Veronica Blackthorne moves her sixteen-year-old rom-com-obsessed daughter to Mystic Hollow, Connecticut. Veronica is ecstatic to return to New England, but when she arrives, she quickly finds out that Mystic Hollow Books, her grandmother’s pride and joy, needs more than a little TLC.

Hoping to save the bookstore from a big-box rival, Veronica enlists her sometimes mentor and sometimes crush, Adam Whitford, a controversial but popular author, as the keynote speaker to kick off a literary festival that will hopefully bring in a new wave of customers. But when Adam turns up dead, all that romantic potential turns into a nightmare as Veronica becomes the prime suspect in his murder.

As the local sheriff investigates his murder, Veronica decides to take matters into her own hands to solve the case and clear her name. With the bookstore’s future on the line, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Until her gran reveals the biggest secret of all—the bookstore is magical, and it was a botched love spell that led to this entire mess.

Witty and heartfelt, this mystery explores the price of magic and how it might be more hefty than one can hope, perfect for fans of Amanda Flower and Nina Simon.

Visit Stacie Ramey's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Acts of Love"

New from the University of California Press: Acts of Love: Black Performance and the Kiss That Changed Film History by Allyson Nadia Field.

About the book, from the publisher:

The rediscovery of the first film to depict African American affection revises the history of American cinema.

In 1898, vaudeville actors Saint Suttle and Gertie Brown joyously embraced in a short silent film titled Something Good—Negro Kiss. The first known film to portray African American affection, it was lost for over a century until its rediscovery inspired contemporary audiences with a powerful and enduring depiction of Black love. More than a missing piece in an untold history of Black cinematic performance, Something Good—and the magnetism of Suttle and Brown—attests to the power of Black performance on stage and screen from the nineteenth century to today.

In Acts of Love, Allyson Nadia Field tells the story of Something Good and recovers the forgotten yet fascinating lives of its performers and their world. Drawing a vivid picture from sparse historical records, Acts of Love examines popular culture's negotiation of blackness to reconsider the intersections of minstrelsy, vaudeville, and cinema in ragtime America. This book not only presents the story of Something Good, its performers, and the drama of its rediscovery; it shows how the rediscovery of this short early film changes our understanding of American film history.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Primrose Murder Society"

New from William Morrow: The Primrose Murder Society: A Novel by Stacy Hackney.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Witty, endearing, and wildly entertaining, this Southern cozy mystery is a little bit Gilmore Girls, a little bit Finlay Donovan, with a big helping of Only Murders in the Building.

Lila Shaw stopped trusting anyone the minute her husband went to jail for white-collar crime, taking their country club lifestyle with him. Now Lila is broke, friendless, and losing her house—and to make things worse, her true-crime-obsessed daughter, Bea, was just expelled from fourth grade. Desperate for a fresh start, Lila agrees to temporarily move in and clean out an abandoned junk-filled apartment in Richmond’s palatial Primrose building. The luxurious Virginia landmark is filled with retirees who start their days early drinking bourbon and gossiping, in that order.

Soon after Lila’s arrival, the Primrose is thrown into chaos. The owner of the building’s splendid penthouse has died and in his final days he set up a two-million-dollar reward for any resident who helps to solve the 21-year-old murder of his granddaughter at the Primrose. A fan of all detective stories and true-crime podcasts, Bea is inspired to investigate. They really could use the reward money, so Lila reluctantly agrees, in a questionable attempt at family bonding. She’s certain the killer is long-gone after all these years anyway. That is, until another resident is murdered… and Lila becomes the prime suspect.

Now Lila needs to solve both murders to avoid jail, and even worse, losing her daughter to her snobby in-laws. To catch a killer and clear Lila's name, she and Bea must rely on their elderly neighbors—Jasper, a shy former detective, and Evelyn, an opinionated socialite—along with Nate, a good-looking reporter who keeps appearing at the most inconvenient moments. As the amateur sleuths expose the truth about the Primrose, Lila hopes she can also unravel the trickiest parts of her own life and start fresh.

Visit Stacy Hackney's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Mediated Dominicanidad"

New from Indiana University Press: Mediated Dominicanidad: Dominicans and US Media by Keara K. Goin.

About the book, from the publisher:

Dominicans are the fastest growing Latino/a group in the United States and have long been ignored by scholars and popular culture. Using US media as a lens to interpret the identity negotiation practices among Dominican Americans and Dominicans living in the US, Mediated Dominicanidad repositions Dominicans from the margins of American society and culture to its center, exploring the relationships between Dominican Americans and American media.

Dominicanidad, or "Dominican-ness," in television and film and on the internet is negotiated through its usage within and production of these media, but our understanding of it remains in flux. Part ethnography and part critical cultural analysis, Mediated Dominicanidad gives voice to those who experience a fluctuating identity. Author Keara K. Goin discusses celebrities like Zoe Saldaña and Alex Rodriguez, television shows like Orange is the New Black, movies like In the Heights, and filmmakers like Tabaré Blanchard. In doing so, she centers US media as integral to the negotiation of dominicanidad, intervenes in Latina/o media studies with a critical exploration of the representation and discourses contributing to intense negotiations of identification about Dominicans and Dominican Americans, and reveals an intimate and contested relationship between Blackness and latinidad based on how they are entrenched with dominicanidad.

Addressing a population often disregarded and marginalized, Mediated Dominicanidad is a thoughtful study that can be used to unpack identity negotiation processes within the US more broadly.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Recipe for Joy"

Coming soon from Lake Union: Recipe for Joy: A Novel by Monica Comas.

About the book, from the publisher:

A grieving woman finds healing and purpose through her late grandmother’s cherished recipes in a poignant and hopeful novel about rediscovering the comfort of family in the most trying of times.

Belle Sutton is a little lost these days.

She has a stalled career, a New York apartment she can’t afford, and her sister, Lexie, is more estranged with each passing year. Belle’s one true consolation is her beloved grandmother, who’s powered through her own broken family ties with a tenacious zest for life and a passion for cooking. But when her grandmother suddenly passes away, a grieving Belle feels her only connection to the past is gone forever.

That’s when Belle receives a series of letters, along with a cookbook, photographs of Belle and Lexie when they were young and happy, and her grandmother’s last wish that the sisters mend severed ties before it’s too late. For the love of Gran, a challenge is met that sets Belle and Lexie on a journey of hope, reconciliation, surprising discoveries, and the nourishing power of family, forgiveness, and tradition. All they have to do is follow the directions.

Visit Monica Comas's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Karen Blixen's Search for Self"

New from LSU Press: Karen Blixen's Search for Self: The Making of "Out of Africa" by Patti M. Marxsen.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Karen Blixen’s Search for Self, Patti M. Marxsen presents a twenty-first-century reconsideration of Blixen’s iconic memoir Out of Africa, originally published in 1937 and now regarded as a classic of twentieth-century literature. The methodology of this “book about a book” draws on seasoned historical perspectives of European colonial activities in early twentieth-century Africa as it engages Blixen’s letters, tales, speeches, interviews, the photographic record of her various personas, memoir literature of others who knew her, and three generations of scholarship, including pointed postcolonial critiques. Mixing scholarly research with personal reflection, Marxsen recounts an inspiring tale of a writer’s evolution, along with thoughtful analysis of the art and craft of memoir.

As a modern woman both trapped and liberated by privilege, Karen Christentze Dinesen Blixen experienced considerable personal and financial challenges during her years living in colonial Kenya (1914–1931), a period that Marxsen approaches as a belated coming-of-age journey rather than a romantic tale. Blixen returned to Denmark at age forty-six, bankrupt and in a state of physical and mental fragility with no idea about what she would do or how she would live in a bourgeois society that she viewed as “incarceration.” Only when Blixen set out to reinvent herself with the “liberating mask” of the pseudonym Isak Dinesen did she begin to realize her potential as a storyteller and find the strength to develop her uniquely poetic narrative voice by writing about her African years.

Blixen’s process of loss and recovery through writing constitutes the frame of Marxsen’s book, just as it constitutes the frame of Out of Africa. Marxsen traces Blixen’s inner life through letters and writings to probe the origins of her imaginative power, her instinctive multiculturalism (considered “eccentric” in colonial Kenya), and the feminism of a creative woman in a new century. Marxsen continues the story through the contested legacies of the book, including its serving as the basis for the acclaimed, Academy Award–winning film released in 1985.

This new study of Blixen’s widely read memoir, which has remained consistently in print for almost ninety years, broadens understandings of the author’s complex self-realization, the skill of her literary art, and the book’s evolving afterlife.

Visit Patti M. Marxsen's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Beast Becomes Her"

New from Margaret K. McElderry Books: Beast Becomes Her by Crystal Seitz.

About the book, from the publisher:

Netflix’s Wednesday meets Norse mythology in this gorgeous dark contemporary fantasy following a teen berserkr sent to a secret magical academy where she must unmask the real killer behind the gruesome campus murders or risk becoming the next victim.

Edith has always been a good girl—she has to be, or her foster family might think she’s like her violent father. No matter how much anger simmers inside her, she keeps it buried, hidden…

Until the day she’s pushed a step too far, and that anger comes bursting out in the form of literal claws.

It’s then that Edith learns she’s a berserkr, a descendant of ancient Norse warriors with the ability to turn into animals. To avoid jail for attacking a student, Edith is shipped off to the mysterious Skallagrim Academy. The ancient school is supposedly a haven for people like her, a place where she can learn to control her powers and then push them down so deep that they’ll never come out again.

But someone—or sometalking the dark halls of Skallagrim.

On her second night, Edith stumbles upon a gruesome murder and is caught at the scene of the crime by Amund, who is tasked with hunting down wayward berserkir. Now, with Amund suspecting Edith as the killer, she’ll have to catch the real culprit to prove her innocence before she ends up in the hunter’s crosshairs—or becomes the killer’s next victim.

Visit Crystal Seitz's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Ottoman World of Sports"

New from the University of Texas Press: The Ottoman World of Sports: Refashioning Bodies, Men, and Communities in Late Imperial Istanbul by Murat C. Yildiz.

About the book, from the publisher:

A revision of the history of modern sports in late Ottoman Istanbul, showing how Muslims, Christians, and Jews created a shared sports culture that was simultaneously global, imperial, and local.

The history of sports in Turkey is deeply contested. Over the decades, journalists, pundits, non-professional historians, sports scholars, and everyday people have offered competing narratives about the origins of modern sports in the late Ottoman Empire.

The Ottoman World of Sports tells the story of how Istanbul’s Muslims, Christians, and Jews—gymnastics teachers, football coaches, weightlifters, journalists, athletes, and fans—created a gendered and class-stratified civic project that promoted athletics as a source of fun, beauty, and moral education. Influenced by the emerging global vogue for organized sports, all boys from the expanding middle class of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century imperial capital were expected to exercise and compete on the playing field in order to develop into moral men. Yet even as the embrace of modern athletics transcended ethnoreligious divisions, it did not erase them. Drawing on a wide range of archival research in multiple languages, historian Murat Cihan Yıldız shows that sportsmen created new communal boundaries in team affiliations, fandom, and sports media. Adeptly reconstructing Istanbul’s imperial culture as it was experienced more than a century ago, The Ottoman World of Sports recovers a lived imperial culture whose defining features were shaped by its multiethnic, multireligious, and multilingual sportsmen.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Where the Girls Were"

New from The Dial Press: Where the Girls Were: A Novel by Kate Schatz.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this electrifying historical novel about coming of age in tumultuous 1960s San Francisco, a pregnant teenager reckons with womanhood and agency after being sent to a home for unwed mothers.

They were sent away to be forgotten. This is their story.

It’s 1968, and the future is bright for seventeen-year-old Elizabeth “Baker” Phillips: She’s the valedictorian of her high school, with a place at Stanford in the fall and big dreams of becoming a journalist. But the seductive free-spirited San Francisco atmosphere seeps into her carefully planned, strait-laced life in the form of a hippie named Wiley. At first, letting loose and letting herself fall in love for the first time feels incredible. But then, everything changes.

Pregnancy hits Baker with the force of whiplash—in the blink of an eye, she goes from good

girl to fallen woman, from her family’s shining star to their embarrassing secret. Without any other options, Baker is sent to a home for unwed mothers, and finds herself trapped in an old Victorian house packed with pregnant girls who share her shame and fear. As she grapples with her changing body, lack of choice, and uncertain future, Baker finds unexpected community and empowerment among the “girls who went away.”

Where the Girls Were is a timely unearthing of a little-known moment in American history, wh

en the sexual revolution and feminist movement collided with the limits of reproductive rights—and society's expectations of women. As Baker finds her strength and her voice, she shows us how to step into your power, even when the world is determined to keep you silent.

Visit Kate Schatz's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Politics of Domination"

New from Oxford University Press: The Politics of Domination: Taking, Keeping, and Losing Control over other Peoples by John McGarry.

About the book, from the publisher:

This book examines the political subordination and repression of one or more peoples by another people and its elites within the same polity. This sort of domination is surprisingly more common than we may think, given the value we are said to place on multiculturalism, equality, and human freedom. If we use one plausible proxy for domination - the intentional, targeted, and active exclusion by state authorities of an ethnic community from political power - then forty-two of the world's countries in 2021, some 23 per cent, practised domination, and a total of seventy-two communities were dominated.

Domination is seen here as an intentional strategy, not simply an unintended consequence of a dominant people's numbers or power. Correspondingly, the book identifies domination regimes by the “stratagems” they use to dominate. It explains how such regimes are established, maintained, and end.

The book proposes two core theses. First, little can be understood about the rise and fall of domination regimes unless their domestic and external (international) environments, including the interaction between them, are considered. In particular, it is argued that dominated peoples are unlikely to be able to escape from domination by themselves but are likely to need help from outside. Second, domination should not be considered, as some have claimed, a preferred “alternative” to even worse strategies, such as genocide or expulsions, but, rather, as something that facilitates these alternatives.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Tree of Light and Flowers"

New from The Mysterious Press: The Tree of Light and Flowers by Thomas Perry.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Jane Whitefield is used to protecting vulnerable people, but after she gives birth, the fugitives she must rescue are her own family.

A violent car crash brings on the premature birth of the baby that Jane Whitefield and her husband have hoped for, but it also shatters the period of calm in their lives like an earthquake triggering a tectonic shift.

Within weeks, Jane’s peaceful time as a new mother in a safe, harmonious home starts to revert to her harrowing previous life. She had spent over a decade rescuing and sheltering people from dangerous foes, taking them to new locations, and teaching them to live under new identities. It was something that she’d hoped to never have to do again.

Nearly simultaneously, as though the events were connected, people who are thousands of miles apart in vastly different circumstances start to move. Some of them are in terrible need of help finding a route to safety. Some are dedicated to serving justice. Others are determined to capture the woman who makes people disappear so they can force her to reveal where their potential victims are now. All of these travelers are soon on their way to the old house in western New York.

Suddenly the people requiring Jane’s special skills include not only multiple fugitives, but also Jane herself, her husband, and their newborn, as the danger she faces comes from people who know how to find her. She’ll need to use everything she’s ever learned in order to survive.

Visit Thomas Perry's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Silence.

The Page 99 Test: Nightlife.

The Page 69/99 Test: Fidelity.

The Page 69/99 Test: Runner.

The Page 69 Test: Strip.

The Page 69 Test: The Informant.

The Page 69 Test: The Boyfriend.

The Page 69 Test: A String of Beads.

The Page 69 Test: Forty Thieves.

The Page 69 Test: The Old Man.

The Page 69 Test: The Bomb Maker.

The Page 69 Test: The Burglar.

The Page 69 Test: A Small Town.

Writers Read: Thomas Perry (December 2019).

Q&A with Thomas Perry.

The Page 69 Test: Eddie's Boy.

The Page 69 Test: The Left-Handed Twin.

The Page 69 Test: Murder Book.

The Page 69 Test: Hero.

The Page 69 Test: Pro Bono.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Welfare Assembly Line"

New from the University of California Press: The Welfare Assembly Line: Public Servants in the Suffering City by Josh Seim.

About the book, from the publisher:

Despite claims that we live in a "post-welfare society," welfare offices remain vital not only for those who depend on them for benefits but also for those who depend on them for a paycheck. This book, a theory-driven case study of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services, examines how welfare work has transformed to allow a department of just 14,000 to serve more than a third of the county.

Josh Seim argues that frontline workers at this agency—who are mostly Black and Brown women—have become increasingly proletarianized. Their work is defined less by their discretion and more by a lack of control over the productive process. This is enabled by a "welfare assembly line," where a high division of labor and heavy use of machinery resemble production regimes in factories and fast-food restaurants. With implications beyond the welfare office, The Welfare Assembly Line is a crucial addition to the broader national conversation about work, social policy, and poverty governance.

Visit Josh Seim's website.

The Page 99 Test: Bandage, Sort, and Hustle.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Best Little Motel in Texas"

New from Harper Perennial: The Best Little Motel in Texas: A Novel by Lyla Lane.

About the book, from the publisher:

A charming, edgy mystery about a young woman who unexpectedly inherits the best little motel in Texas – replete with a feisty set of golden working girls, a poisoned priest, and a sleepy hometown thrown into chaos.

After a childhood spent combing the dive bars of Sarsaparilla Falls to collect her fun-loving momma, Cordelia West now enjoys a simple, respectable life in Dallas. Then one phone call from the hometown she’s spent years trying to forget throws it into chaos.

Cordelia's great-aunt Penelope has passed away, naming Cordelia the sole heir to the Chickadee Motel. She has no memory of a great-aunt and no interest in hospitality, but the will stipulates that the motel can’t be sold until its residents leave or pass away – so she reluctantly heads back down to Sarsaparilla Falls to figure out who's living in the Chickadee, and how to get them out.

But upon her arrival, Cordelia discovers the Chickadee isn’t a motel—it’s a brothel, housing three women in their sixties known as the Chicks. For decades, Daisy, Arline, and Belinda Sue have entertained the men of Sarsaparilla Falls (with their wives’ blessings)—including the upright Pastor Reed-Smythe, who thunders against the town’s favorite sins when he’s not indulging. Cordelia doesn’t want to be a hotel manager or a madam, but she can’t just sell the only home the Chicks have known—especially not after the pastor is found poisoned in Daisy’s bed.

With the Chicks—and the town—on the verge of a breakdown, Cordelia steps up to mop up the mess. For a small town, there are plenty of suspects: could it be the obsessed nurse with access to arsenic? Developers eager to gobble up the land? The righteously angry town librarian? Things are heating up in Sarsaparilla Falls, and with the Pastor’s obnoxiously attractive son Archer—Cordelia’s childhood nemesis—investigating the Chicks and getting close, straightlaced Cordelia may just have to get a little dirty to make a killer come clean.

Visit Lyla Lane's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"An Enchanted World"

New from Princeton University Press: An Enchanted World: The Shared Religious Landscape of Late Antiquity by Michael L. Satlow.

About the book, from the publisher:

Uncovering the vibrant spiritual life of Late Antiquity

In Late Antiquity (ca. 200–600 CE), the world was alive with unseen forces—divine agents who influenced every aspect of daily life. For most ordinary people, religion was not found in temples, synagogues, and churches, but in lived experience as they interacted with the supernatural in a world of uncertainty and danger. In An Enchanted World, Michael Satlow uncovers a shared spiritual landscape that stretched beyond the confines of Judaism, Christianity, and the pantheon of Greek and Roman deities. From healing rituals to protective amulets, spiritual practices were a matter of necessity, transcending religious labels. To get by in the world required being on good terms with the right supernatural beings and being able to ward off the bad ones.

Rejecting traditional narratives that focus on institutional religion and theological divisions, Satlow presents a compelling case for viewing the period through the lens of “lived religion.” This was not a religion of abstractions formulated by rabbis and priests, but an enchanted world populated by divine beings who had as much—if not more—agency as any person. Drawing on archaeological evidence, historical documents, and a rich trove of magical texts, Satlow vividly reconstructs how ordinary people lived in a world that crackled with the energy of the supernatural. His account reimagines the spiritual history of Late Antiquity, centering shared human fears and aspirations and challenging preconceived notions about religious boundaries. With An Enchanted World, Satlow offers a fresh perspective on a transformative period—one that has much to teach us even today about the role that spirituality can play in the secular world.

Visit Michael L. Satlow's website.

The Page 99 Test: How the Bible Became Holy.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Strangers in the Villa"

New from Grand Central Publishing: Strangers in the Villa by Robyn Harding.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the international bestselling author of The Drowning Woman, a psychological thriller about a couple rocked by infidelity who moves to a villa in Spain’s Costa Brava to rebuild their relationship, only to welcome a pair of visitors who have no intention of leaving.

Sydney Lowe’s life in New York is shattered when her husband, Curtis, admits to a meaningless affair with a client. Begging for forgiveness and vowing to prove his devotion, Curtis suggests the couple retreat to a remote hilltop house in Spain to repair their marriage.

High above the Mediterranean, Sydney and Curtis are working on the isolated property and their relationship when a pair of Australian travelers turns up at their door in dire need of help. Lonely for companionship and desperate for free labor, Sydney and Curtis invite the attractive young couple to stay. But as the days pass, dark secrets come to light, the Lowes’ bond is tested, and not everyone will leave the villa alive.

Visit Robyn Harding's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Robyn Harding & Ozzie.

The Page 69 Test: The Arrangement.

My Book, The Movie: The Swap.

The Page 69 Test: The Perfect Family.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Cold War Comrades"

New from Cambridge University Press: Cold War Comrades: An Emotional History of the Sino-North Korean Alliance by Gregg A. Brazinsky.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this major new interpretation of Sino-North Korean relations, Gregg A. Brazinsky argues that neither the PRC nor the DPRK would have survived as socialist states without the ideal of Sino-North Korean friendship. Chinese and North Korean leaders encouraged mutual empathy and sentimental attachments between their citizens and then used these emotions to strengthen popular commitment to socialist state building. Drawing on an array of previously unexamined Chinese and North Korean sources, Brazinsky shows how mutual empathy helped to shape political, military, and cultural interactions between the two socialist allies. He explains why the unique relationship that Beijing and Pyongyang forged during the Korean War remained important throughout the Cold War and how it continues to influence the international relations of East Asia today.

The Page 99 Test: Winning the Third World.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Then He Was Gone"

New from Crooked Lane Books: Then He Was Gone: A Novel by Isabel Booth.

About the book, from the publisher:

Desperate parents search for their missing son in this tense thriller, perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell and Jennifer Hillier.

When attorney Elizabeth English and her husband, Paul, catch up to their energetic sons at the end of their hike, they expect to find the two boys waiting by their car. It’s been only minutes since Henry and Nick bolted ahead. But when Elizabeth and Paul emerge from the trail, Henry is gone, and all Nick says is that he saw a lone truck leaving the lot shortly after Henry went to the bathroom.

Gritty park ranger Hollis Monroe launches a massive search and teams up with a local detective to investigate the possibility that Henry was kidnapped. Elizabeth and Paul aren’t sure which is worse: their six-year-old lost in Rocky Mountain National Park or scared and bound in the back of a stranger’s pickup.

The search drives the couple to their breaking point, and secrets they have been keeping from each other are revealed for Henry’s sake. With every hour that passes, finding Henry becomes less likely, and Elizabeth becomes ferocious in her determination to make the impossible come true and find her son.

This nail-biting and unsettling thriller will leave readers breathlessly turning the page. Fans of Mary Kubica and Harlan Coben will love this new master of suspense.

Visit Isabel Booth's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Mother's Work"

New from the University of North Carolina Press: A Mother's Work: Mary Bickerdyke, Civil War–Era Nurse by Megan VanGorder.

About the book, from the publisher:

Mary Ann Bickerdyke led a remarkable life. A widowed mother from Illinois, she became an influential traveling nurse and Sanitary Commission agent during the American Civil War. She followed the Union army through four years and nineteen battles, established hundreds of hospitals, assisted surgeons with amputations, treated fevers, and fed the soldiers in her care. Known affectionately as “Mother” to thousands of soldiers, Bickerdyke bridged the private world of home caregiving and the public demands of wartime and institutional medicine.

Drawing on a rich archive of personal letters, military records, and newspapers, Megan VanGorder explores how Bickerdyke used her maternal identity to challenge norms, advocate for soldiers, and pioneer compassionate care practices before, during, and after the Civil War. A Mother’s Work uses key episodes from Bickerdyke’s life to reveal broader truths about motherhood, medicine, and women’s roles in the nineteenth century, and offers an intimate and historically grounded portrait of one woman’s evolving identity and the moniker that made her famous. In reassessing Bickerdyke’s work and legacy, this book also serves as a new perspective on how white working-class women contributed to the transitional period of the Civil War era and reshaped public health, social care, and national memory.

Visit Megan VanGorder's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Sight Unseen"

New from 47North: Sight Unseen by Alexis Marie.

About the novel, from the publisher:

From viral online writing sensation Alexis Marie comes a lush contemporary fantasy debut that blends a slow-burn romance with mystery and magical intrigue when the lives of a fatally cursed woman and a single father with a complicated past collide―just as their quaint small town becomes a power-hungry serial killer’s hunting ground.

Veda Thorne is living on borrowed time. After exhausting every magical cure for the fatal curse trapped inside her, she’s accepted her fate. But Veda’s self-imposed isolation begins to crack when she’s asked to tutor Antaris, a child whose pain calls to her own.

Hiram Ellis left his wealthy, prejudiced family years ago. Now unexpectedly thrust into single fatherhood, he returns to his hometown, determined to build a life far from the cold privilege that stifled his own childhood. The last thing he expects is to be drawn to the fiercely protective, sharp-tongued woman helping his son.

When a trail of enchanted spider lilies leads Hiram and Veda to discover their deadly tie to a prolific serial killer, they’re forced to set aside their differences to unearth long-buried secrets. But the truth is as deadly as Veda’s curse, and both come at a devastating cost. As victims mount and motives emerge, their greatest challenge is choosing to trust and love each other.

Visit Alexis Marie's website.

--Marshal Zeringue