"Making Creole"

New from LSU Press: Making Creole: Women and the Creole Community in Early Jim Crow New Orleans by Natasha L. McPherson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Between 1880 and 1910, as Jim Crow’s legal apparatus transformed Louisiana’s complex racial landscape into a stark binary, Creole women fought to preserve their community’s distinctive identity through the most ordinary acts of daily life. In their households, they cultivated kinship arrangements that prioritized mutual care over conventional family structures. In workshops and factories, they navigated the degradation of traditional occupations while strategically avoiding associations with Black women’s labor. In churches, they deployed Catholic sacraments to formalize social bonds and secure legal protections. In courtrooms, they exploited Louisiana’s racial ambiguities to defend their families and assert their claims to elevated status. Through these seemingly mundane spheres of daily existence, Creole women resisted the racial order that sought to collapse all people of African descent into a single category of Blackness.

Making Creole: Women and the Creole Community in Early Jim Crow New Orleans examines how Creole women took action against the systematic erosion of their privileges. As Louisiana moved from recognizing the legal status of free people of color to enforcing rigid Jim Crow segregation, Creole women became the primary architects of sociocultural preservation. Before the Civil War, Louisiana law had distinguished all free persons of African descent as legally separate from both enslaved persons and white people, granting them specific rights and privileges based on their “free” status rather than their complexion alone. The end of slavery eliminated this legal distinction. By the early twentieth century, Jim Crow legislation systematically forced all people of African descent into a single racialized category of Blackness, erasing the complex racial hierarchies that had previously structured Louisiana society. In this context, Creole women’s labor in managing complex kinship networks, preserving Franco-Catholic traditions, policing community boundaries, and strategically navigating legal institutions constituted essential political work that sustained not just families but an entire ethnic community under siege.

Using an innovative “speculative demography” methodology, Natasha L. McPherson analyzes more than nine thousand transcribed records from census data, court documents, and Catholic church registers, including materials from the Sisters of the Holy Family, to reconstruct patterns of Creole women’s resistance between 1880 and 1910. Making Creole moves beyond traditional narratives of political organizing to illuminate how women’s everyday practices became mechanisms of ethnic identity formation and cultural survival, revealing resistance from the intimate spaces where it actually occurred.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Blood Is Thicker"

New from Crooked Lane Books: Blood Is Thicker by Iris Voss.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A sinister psychological thriller where three women bound by blood must take their secrets to the grave or risk shattering the illusion of a perfect life.

Blood Is Thicker is a fast-paced and twisty novel that will appeal to fans of Liane Moriarty and Sally Hepworth.

Claire Walters has curated an enviable life. On camera, she is the face of Silverton’s morning news. Off camera, she seemingly has it all: a handsome husband, a promising teenage daughter, an adorable young son. After a trying childhood and her sister’s endless run-ins with the law, Claire’s life is finally stable.

Until one fateful night changes everything.

It was an accident! It was dark…Claire shouldn’t have taken a sedative before bed, shouldn’t have been driving with her inebriated sister, Viola, and daughter, Molly, in the car. If only she’d backed into her driveway more slowly. If only that poor person wasn’t dead, under her car…

Come daylight, the scandal would destroy them. So the trio hatches a plan to cover up the crime—literally—and bury the body deep in the woods. It’s a decision that will forever bind them in secrecy and guilt.

But all three women are hiding things from each other and must decide how far they’ll go when someone threatens to reveal what happened. Strangled in blackmail’s grip, their fragile alliance begins to splinter as a devastating revelation transforms the accident into something much darker. Will the truth bring this family closer—or ruin their lives forever?

With high stakes and clever plotting, this thriller will hook its claws into readers everywhere.

Follow Iris Voss on Facebook and Instagram.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Wagner: Philosophy and Revolution"

New from Princeton University Press: Wagner: Philosophy and Revolution by Brian O'Connor.

About the book, from the publisher:

Wagner as revolutionary philosopher: a new reading of a trilogy of texts written by the composer in the aftermath of the failed Dresden Uprising

Forced into exile to avoid arrest after taking part in the failed Dresden Uprising in 1849, Richard Wagner turned to philosophical writing, producing in rapid succession three theoretical works. In this compelling study, Brian O’Connor traces Wagner’s emergence in these texts as a radical political thinker with a distinctive revolutionary vision. O’Connor describes Wagner’s transformation from publicly engaged commentator to active insurrectionist, showing how revolution’s failure redirected Wagner’s energies toward systematic philosophical reflection. For a crucial period, this theoretical work took precedence over musical composition.

At the heart of O’Connor’s account is Wagner’s philosophical imagination. He explores Wagner’s conception of aesthetic spontaneity as a model of individual freedom and his belief in collective artistic creation as the foundation of a liberated society. By situating Wagner’s philosophy within the turbulent political and intellectual context of the time, O’Connor challenges its marginalization in previous accounts, restoring it to its proper place in nineteenth-century political thought. He shows how Wagner reworked ideas drawn from the German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach into an original and provocative form of aesthetic materialism, and examines the interplay between these ideas and Wagner’s dramatic works. O’Connor also offers a straightforward treatment of the unavoidable subject of Wagner’s antisemitism, as expressed in an essay from 1850 about “Jewishness” in music.

O’Connor argues that Wagner’s philosophical writing is not only significant in its own right, but it also offers unique and invaluable insights into his music dramas—particularly the composer’s most celebrated work, the Ring cycle—illuminating their themes, characters, and revolutionary affinities.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Eternity's Tomb"

New from Angry Robot: Eternity's Tomb by Dan Moren.

About the book, from the publisher:

The score of a lifetime is out there, just waiting to be claimed… An irreverent sci-fi novel, perfect for fans of Guardians of the Galaxy.

“I WOULD LIKE YOU TO HELP ME RECOVER THE BIGGEST UNDISCOVERED TREASURE TROVE IN THE HISTORY OF THE GALAXY: THE TOMB OF IKANTO…”

It’s a wild offer. Especially when made by a floating brain in a jar. But Z’s an ex-con who’s short on money and options—and happens to know just the crew who could pull the job off.

Meet Graham, Z’s ursine partner in past crimes; Trix, an expert pilot and Z’s ex (it didn’t end well); and Whistler, a genetically engineered murder bird. Together with Ayex, the floating brain, they’re half dream team, half fever dream.

If they can overcome their differences and learn to trust each other, find a tomb hurtling through space towards a black hole, survive the tomb’s no doubt lethal defences, and escape, then maybe, just maybe, they can come away with riches to exceed even their wildest imagination.

Visit Dan Moren's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Generation Denied"

New from the University of Texas Press: Generation Denied: The Broken Promise of Education in Iran by Reza Khanzadeh.

About the book, from the publisher:

An examination of the struggles of Iran’s youth when education promises success only through loyalty to the regime, and how that loyalty manifests through ideological capital within regime-imposed parameters.

Education is highly prized in Iranian society, touted as the key to success and influence. After all, the state’s top leaders are themselves scholars and experts in Islamic thought, history, and law, and graduates of elite institutions like Sharif University enjoy better job prospects than their peers. Yet the promise of a return on investment from education is a ruse: What unlocks opportunity is not academic development but loyalty to the regime. Generation Denied shows how the education system, from middle school through university, relies on standardized tests to funnel students into politically quiescent STEM fields, limiting their potential and quashing intellectual opposition to the regime. Students then graduate into a job market dominated by regime-affiliated entities, who hire applicants on the basis not of skills but of political agendas. Those who resist discover that the future they want in Iran does not exist, resulting in compelled migration. Closely following five young men who chose to be outsiders by pursuing education while rejecting political conformity, Reza Khanzadeh situates Iran within a broader global context, offering groundbreaking insight into the roles of education and employment in non-democratic governments.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Loba"

New from Angry Robot: Loba by Valentina Cano Repetto.

About the novel, from the publisher:

The Hacienda meets The Haunting of Alejandra in this split timeline gothic horror novel set in a remote lighthouse on the edge of Uruguay, following one woman's escape from an abusive marriage... and into a haunting.

She’s not the first lighthouse keeper to lose her mind on the shores of Cabo Polonio, but she’s determined to be the first to survive it.

Delmira Torres knows fleeing to Brazil is the only way she’ll be free of her abusive husband. But to get there she’ll need money; it’s why she takes a posting at a lighthouse in Cabo Polonio, Uruguay, a small town where time doesn’t seem to move quite right.

There, she has only a month until her husband and her secrets catch up to her. But the position comes marred by the legend of La Loba, who stalks the lighthouse and the nearby fishing village, and by the spiraling visions that begin to plague Delmira.

A century earlier, Amalia arrives at the same lighthouse. Held captive and desperate to escape her dire situation, her story may hold the answers to Delmira’s torment.

Both of them, desperate for freedom and determined to survive, must find a way to outlive the horrors of Cabo Polonio.

Visit Valentina Cano Repetto's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Crime and Class in Print"

New from Syracuse University Press: Crime and Class in Print: Visual Culture in Nineteenth-Century New York by Wendy Jean Katz.

About the book, from the publisher:

As newspapers and periodicals proliferated in the United States in the nineteenth century, editors seeking to carve out a large and loyal audience hired artists to pair vivid imagery with sensational fiction ripped from the headlines. In Crime and Class in Print, Wendy Jean Katz examines the emergence of a modern visual culture in pre-Civil War New York City around these illustrated stories of crime, swashbuckling, and ordinary and extraordinary characters both rich and poor. Katz documents the life and career of Tompkins H. Matteson (1813–1884), whose drawings were printed alongside these tales, to understand the mass production, reception, and circulation of serialized illustrations. By closely analyzing the images within both their historical and fictional contexts, she interrogates how these cheap, ephemeral periodicals dramatized urban crime but also framed it within class-based concerns. The serial nature of Matteson’s illustrations, which made the coupled stories accessible to a larger swath of readers, represented an investment in industrial progress necessary to reach “mass” audiences. As Katz explores, while the images of city life conveyed nuance regarding ethnicity, temperance, police powers, privacy, sex, labor, aesthetics, reading practices, and masculinity, their paired narrative texts frequently mutated within and across different periodicals and languages to suit their audiences. In the English-language press, Matteson’s illustrations highlighted class struggle yet entwined them within the jingoist politics that advocated against immigration and upheld the white working class in opposition to ethnic diversity. As meaning shifted from one story, newspaper, or language to the next, what was a visual demonstration of progressive values championing proletariat interests became a platform to enforce a petit bourgeois and nativist perspective.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Horny"

Coming December 1 from St. Martin's Griffin: Horny: A Novel (Pan Helsing, 2) by Lucy Lehane.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Paranormal roommates discover that there's a thin line between love and hate in this steamy opposites-attract romantic comedy by Lucy Lehane.

Rachel's death is going about as well as her life. Welcoming a poltergeist to share her body had its challenges, but Rachel has mostly figured those out: She's got good friends, a room in a gorgeous apartment, and she's well on her way to regaining the career her death derailed. What she doesn't need is a strange, inhumanly beautiful new roommate―a unicorn―with a million odd questions about the human world. Especially one who can peer into Rachel's soul and see each of her dark, dirty secrets.

Isolde has been tempted by the human world for longer than she can remember. The land of the unicorns was beautiful, pristine... and as boring as watching moss grow. But taking on human form comes with more complications than she expected. Like a roommate who’s possessed, opinionated, argumentative... and distractingly alluring.

Getting into a magical grudge match with your roommate is a bad idea. Hooking up with your roommate when they're a virgin from another dimension is an even worse one. But since when did the voluntarily haunted make good choices?

Visit Lucy Lehane's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Louise de Keralio, Enlightenment Intellectual"

New from Oxford University Press: Louise de Keralio, Enlightenment Intellectual by Vicki Mistacco.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this first book-length study of prolific polymath Louise de Keralio (1756-1822), Vicki Mistacco offers a comprehensive reading of her entire body of writing and a new understanding of Keralio as an Enlightenment intellectual and a modern feminist thinker. Mistacco adopts a fresh approach to Keralio's published and unpublished writing, undertaking close textual analysis informed by feminist literary criticism and French feminist theory, and carefully reconstructing the historical and cultural context, in order to challenge the critical commonplace that Keralio is a puzzling "sexist republican." She cautions against a piecemeal approach focused almost exclusively on Keralio's writings during the French Revolution. Reading literarily rather than literally, she argues against imposing modern definitions of feminist activism on Keralio and for considering instead the anti-patriarchal, anti-hierarchical, and anti-exclusionary paradigm at the core of her thinking, a both/and rather than either/or paradigm, which Keralio comes to envisage as a maternal one, reflected in the recurring motif of crossing boundaries. Through sustained analysis of works that have hitherto received only scant attention, Keralio's translations of John Carr's travelogues and her late novels (1808-1810), Mistacco sheds light on Keralio's use of "double-voiced discourse" to uphold her feminist ideals while ostensibly endorsing gender norms. The three parts of the book, "Women's Writing: Negotiating a Space," "Philosophizing in the Margins," and "The Missing Mother," trace the evolution in Keralio's thinking about the importance of including a matrimoine or maternal legacy in cultural patrimony, whether it be the contributions of French women writers to national identity and French genius (Collection des meilleurs ouvrages français composés par des femmes), or those of Queen Elizabeth to the history of European sovereignty (Histoire d'Élisabeth, reine d'Angleterre), or her own annotations to her translations, or in her late novels the testimony of women to arrive at historical truth. Mistacco shows how the idea of maternal legacy evolves into that of maternal Enlightenment, arguing that Keralio elevates the maternal to the level of philosophy and theorizes a new social contract based on an ethics of care. Including unpublished and archival texts, this book offers an important contribution to the history of women intellectuals of the Enlightenment.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Rowan and Gemma"

New from Quill Tree Books: Rowan and Gemma by Sally J. Pla.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this new middle grade novel by Schneider Award-winning author Sally J. Pla, two neurodivergent tweens, one of whom is nonverbal, forge a friendship against the backdrop of their feuding families.

Rowan Monahan has lived in the town of Friendship Prairie forever. He knows everyone, and they know him. Some folks judge him, too, for being a slow learner. But Rowan knows in his heart that he's capable of more than people think.

Gemma Caplan is new in town. Back in the city, people understood she used her assistive device (AAC) to speak. But here in tiny Friendship Prairie, she's afraid she won't fit in.

When Rowan and Gemma meet, they form an instant, magic bond. But just as the two are growing close, their mothers start a feud: they're running terribly nasty campaigns against each other for school board.

Since their moms detest each other, Gemma and Rowan feel they must keep their connection a secret.

When they’re discovered and punished, Rowan and Gemma decide it’s time to take a stand -- and show their families what a place called Friendship Prairie is supposed to be about.

Visit Sally J. Pla's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Sally J. Pla & Leo.

The Page 69 Test: The Fire, the Water, and Maudie McGinn.

Q&A with Sally J. Pla.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Border Land"

New from Yale University Press: Border Land: Frontiers of Early England by Ryan Lavelle.

About the book, from the publisher:

An innovative and thought-provoking exploration of the edges of England from their earliest days to the Norman Conquest

The earliest written record of a political boundary in England dates from around 880, when King Alfred and Danish warlord Guthrum formalised a legal treaty to divide lands between them. How did Alfred and his descendants think about the borders of “English” territory? And what can these markers tell us about the English kingdom itself?

Ryan Lavelle takes readers on a journey around the borders and edges of early medieval England. From an oak tree used as a marker by St Augustine, through Alfred’s famous treaty, to 1066 and beyond, Lavelle explores how land was divided and the ways in which boundaries were perceived. He argues that there was no one unified “England” until after the Norman Conquest―and in fact the lands were divided several times between the death of Æthelstan and the invasion of William the Conqueror. This is a fascinating account that reshapes our thinking about the origins of the “lands of the English.”

--Marshal Zeringue

"All the Beastly Things"

New from Atria Books: All the Beastly Things: A Novel by Eilish Quin.

About the novel, from the publisher:

In a post-apocalyptic matriarchy that has erased men, a young novitiate faces a crisis of faith when her best friend begins receiving mysterious visions of an archangel—and must choose between the faith that shaped her and the forbidden longings that could destroy it.

The year is 2171, and the Earth is not what it once was. After climate collapse, plague, fascism, artificial intelligence, and nuclear fallout reduced civilization to ash, nature has reclaimed the Earth. Small monastic communities have emerged from the carnage—self-sufficient, female-only religious utopias governed by a strict codex and surrounded by walls to keep the wilds at bay. The new world is harmonious, and blissfully free from structures of oppression such as hierarchy, capitalism, and time.

Seventeen-year-old Igraine has never known life beyond the cloistered walls of the Field or seen a human male. Brilliant and devout, she spends her days in the gardens and scriptorium beside her closest companion, Ophelia. Their studies will culminate in twin posts at the Lunar Abbey—a gothic cathedral on the Moon reserved for the most venerated Sisters.

Their futures fracture when Ophelia begins receiving visions of a mysterious, alluring, and damningly masculine archangel. As the girls contend with cryptic fragments of revelation and devastating rumors about the Order’s darker origins, their bond becomes precarious and Igraine must confront her unraveling faith in a system that demands her complete surrender.

Visit Eilish Quin's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Endurance of the Mare"

New from Cornell University Press: The Endurance of the Mare: Tales of Violence and Resilience from the Eastern Borderlands of Gender and Europe by Alyosxa Tudor.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Endurance of the Mare unravels the complex and layered histories of belonging and nonbelonging that emerge from family archives shaped by classed, sexual, state, and border violence. It asks: How might retelling the past enable a radical transformation of the present? How do we grapple with the enduring legacies of systemic violence and intergenerational trauma without reenacting wounded attachments that justify nationalisms and further violence?

Alyoxsa Tudor follows Pena, born in 1911 in the Budjak (then the Russian Empire, now Ukraine), who in the 1930s traveled as a seasonal migrant worker to the Dobruja (Romania) and was forced to stay. Tudor traces Pena's life to examine how the traumas of migration, hunger, sexual violence, and heterosexual kinship travel across generations and national space. Mobilizing autotheory, speculative fiction, and historical materialist analysis, Tudor proposes a paradigmatic intervention into transnational histories, memory discourse, and political responsibility.

The Endurance of the Mare connects struggles from Eastern Europe to Palestine across feminist, queer, trans, and antiracist movements. Tudor rejects claims to epistemic innocence rooted in experiences of past violence and instead envisions different ways to politicize the present.

--Marshal Zeringue

"This Knight Topples Empires"

New from The Dial Press: This Knight Topples Empires: A Minor Character on a Major Quest: A Novel (The Minor Character Chronicles) by Ry Herman.

About the book, from the publisher:

In this raucous, tongue-in-cheek spin on the Eastern European fairy tale “The Girl Who Pretended to Be a Boy,” a knight attempts to thwart an invasion, save the most beautiful woman in the world, and finally get away from their sisters.

Jules is tired of running low-stakes errands with their five magically mismatched sisters, whose skills include killing plants, inducing sneezing, and making smaller windows . . . slightly larger. Blessed with a poorly controlled ability to make flowers bloom, Jules longs for a mission where they can actually prove themself. And when the siblings stumble upon a rival kingdom’s plot to overthrow their royal family, Jules sees an opportunity.

What follows is a whirlwind of botched disguises, accidental heroics, talking animals with surprisingly strong opinions, and one very inconvenient crush on the most sought-after princess in the land. And through all this, Jules learns that happy endings are indeed possible, even if you’re not quite Prince Charming. A cozy yet epic retelling of a Romanian fairy-tale, This Knight Topples Empires proves that the greatest victories of all are love and self-acceptance.

Visit Ry Herman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"This Came to You from Chicago"

New from Syracuse University Press: This Came to You from Chicago: Local Television in the Twentieth Century by Jason J. Nebergall.

About the book, from the publisher:

This Came to You from Chicago explores the unique traits, style, and practices of “Chicago Television” from World War II to the 1990s. Jason J. Nebergall traces how, unlike mainstream stations, city-based broadcasters, who often worked day jobs, provided a platform for underrepresented groups to share their perspectives and allowed citizens to experiment with storytelling, representation, and engagement. In analyzing the idea and follow-through of “to and from Chicagoans,” Nebergall also illuminates how Chicago Television promoted civic engagement, fostered a sense of belonging and solidarity among residents, and contributed to the evolution of technological advances through the artistic risks of local and independent producers. This Came to You from Chicago presents an ideological framework that analyzes Chicago Television as being deeply rooted in the political beliefs of its creators. Issues involving labor rights, women’s liberation, the civil rights struggle, LGBTQ+ communities, and anti-capitalist activism appeared throughout the history of television in the Windy City. By bringing attention to the locality and widespread function of this programming system, Nebergall reveals how independent television developed with the vibrancy and diversity of Chicago’s cultural landscape and local advocacy for social justice.

Visit Jason J. Nebergall's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Murder Unabridged"

Coming December 1 from Minotaur Books: Murder Unabridged: An Old Juniper Bookshop Mystery by P. J. Nelson.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Old Juniper Bookstore is the scene for an unexpected mystery when a late night visitor confesses to a long-ago unsolved murder, then turns up dead by morning.

Madeline Brimley is still getting used to running The Old Juniper Bookstore in Enigma, Georgia. When she inherited it from her aunt, it came at an opportune time. Madeline's acting career had slowed down to the point that it was exhibiting no signs of life so returning home to the small Georgia college town of Enigma actually sounded like a good idea. And, except for a murder, arson, and a long-dead body found in the front garden, it's actually turned out well. But when an old man, claiming to be a distant relative named Trilby, shows up in the middle of the night, then confesses to an unremembered murder that happened in the Victorian house that is now The Old Juniper Bookstore, Madeline is...to put it mildly...poleaxed. Given the inclement weather and time of night, Madeline puts him up for the night, hoping to turn him over to the local police in the morning. A plan that goes wrong when, next morning, Trilby is found to have died overnight. And not of natural causes - he was poisoned. Now the bookstore is a crime scene and Madeline a possible suspect.

Now Madeline has both an old and a new mystery to solve if she is to clear her own name before she finds herself taking the fall for this unusual and unexpected death.

My Book, The Movie: All My Bones.

The Page 69 Test: All My Bones.

Q&A with P. J. Nelson.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Imitation Is Suicide"

New from Princeton University Press: Imitation Is Suicide - Teachers & Students from the Romantic by Marc Gotlieb.

About the book, from the publisher:

A groundbreaking cultural history of calamitous teacher-student relationships at the heart of nineteenth-century French painting and efforts to fix them

The suicides of painters Léopold Robert and Antoine-Jean Gros in 1835 left a deep imprint on the European imagination. Imitation Is Suicide examines a rash of notorious artist suicides that saw wide publicity in the Romantic era, showing how observers of the period—from visual artists to novelists, art critics, biographers, and numerous others—at once commemorated those deaths and traced their origins to teacher-student relationships gone catastrophically wrong.

Marc Gotlieb also sheds light on figures like Eugène Delacroix—who controversially argued against the authority of tradition in art education and sought to dismantle the prestige of the teacher. And he also explores the pioneering instruction of Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran, an influential art teacher who viewed education as recuperative, designed to protect students from external forces that hindered their natural development. Gotlieb traces how the relationship between teacher and student emerged as newly charged and frequently contested terrain, not simply in the teaching studio but also long after instruction had ended. Against the classic scenario that saw masters instruct pupils in their own manner, it now fell to teachers to discourage such imitations. Gotlieb looks at real and fictionalized quarrels between teachers and students, including idealizing imagery around art education that made the case the teacher should stand aside. And he pairs such imagery with accounts of last paintings—works completed prior to an artist’s suicide and thought to betray clues as to the pedagogical character of the crisis that brought an artist’s career to a violent terminus.

With new findings on familiar and lesser-known artists, Imitation Is Suicide demonstrates how the circumstances of an artist’s death, no less than their artistic education, could profoundly shape how their lives and works were interpreted and imbued with meaning.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Squatters"

New from The Dial Press: The Squatters: A Novel by Saba Brelvi.

About the book, from the publisher:

Two families collide in this provocative debut about motherhood, migration, and the distance between who we are and who we want to be.

How far are you willing to go to help someone in need?

Surrey is a quiet, affluent area just outside of London, replete with tree-lined streets, great schools, and friendly neighbors. Though she and her husband embody second-generation immigrant success, Dalia Waheed has never quite felt like she belongs.

While volunteering at a local nonprofit called Refugee Resettlement, Dalia meets the very pregnant Hajira and her husband, who are seeking asylum in the UK. In Hajira, Dalia feels a kinship she can’t quite explain. So, when Hajira asks for help finding an alternative to their grim government housing, Dalia knows she will not ignore her plea. Helping another mother secure a safer place to live seems less like charity than duty.

But what begins as a simple act of compassion quickly spirals into something far more treacherous. Soon, Dalia finds herself engulfed in a political firestorm that forces her to confront what she's truly willing to risk—for her ideals, her family, and for a woman who has already lost everything.

Visit Saba Brelvi's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Holding On to Home"

New from the University of California Press: Holding On to Home: Immigrant Women and the Promise of Sanctuary by Sarah Bruhn.

About the book, from the publisher:

Over twenty million Americans live in cities that have passed sanctuary policies to protect the rights of immigrants and their families. However, contentious public conversations surrounding sanctuary obscure what these policies actually mean to the immigrants they purport to serve, making it hard to see what strengthens the power of sanctuary and what undermines its protections.

Holding On to Home, based on five years of fieldwork and over one hundred in-depth interviews, illuminates how immigrant women’s care work―in their families, schools, and communities―makes real the promise of sanctuary. Through their resistive care work, immigrant women weave together an enduring fabric of protection that transforms inclusive policies into meaningful practices that support immigrant mothers as they nurture their children and loved ones. Holding On to Home reveals how these women confront both overt threats to sanctuary―anti-immigrant policies and increasingly violent and arbitrary immigration enforcement―alongside a less obvious threat to sanctuary, but one that widens inequality in our urban landscapes: gentrification. Tracing the meaning of sanctuary across shifting political contexts, Sarah Bruhn powerfully demonstrates how immigrant women resist these forces of exclusion to lay claim to their right to create a home and to belong in our shared cities.

Visit Sarah Bruhn's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Bear Brawl"

New from Blackstone: Bear Brawl: A Novel by Jon Finkel.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Fight Club meets The Revenant in Bear Brawl, a heartfelt revenge-and-redemption story that asks, Could a man really take on a bear?

Brick Bridger is a two-time NCAA heavyweight wrestling champion and the winner of eight UFC fights before retiring. One summer night, running late to his mom’s barbecue, disaster strikes. A rogue black bear goes on a rampage, breaks into the cabin, kills his mom, and puts his brother in a wheelchair. Devastated, Brick knows that had he been there, he could have stopped the bear. With the help of a top zoologist, his old wrestling coach, and his training partner, Brick vows to get revenge.

Bear Brawl takes readers on a blockbuster adventure from the first page, with a cast of unforgettable characters you’ll root for like you’re watching your favorite action movie.

Visit Jon Finkel's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Mary Kay"

New from Columbia Unversity Press: Mary Kay: How a Cosmetics Empire Transformed Women’s Work in America by Cassandra L. Yacovazzi.

About the book, from the publisher:

When Mary Kay Ash founded her company, Beauty by Mary Kay, in 1963, women had limited options in a male-dominated business world. By the 1970s, the cosmetics and skincare company had a salesforce of tens of thousands and became the first woman-founded firm listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Mary Kay and the pink Cadillac turned into cultural icons, and the company remains a billion-dollar global business. Often dismissed as a lipstick-selling side hustle or labeled a predatory multilevel marketing scheme, Mary Kay drove a major and surprising shift in women’s economic opportunities outside the office.

This book tells the story of Mary Kay Ash and the cosmetics firm that bears her name, from its founding and growth to the distinctive gendered corporate culture she cultivated. Ash combined direct sales and multilevel marketing strategies with workplace flexibility, a rhetoric of “be your own boss,” and a sense of community and recognition for American women as they entered the workplace. She monetized women’s social networks and fostered a lifestyle brand built on values of faith, family, and free enterprise. Cassandra L. Yacovazzi explores how women in Mary Kay have navigated opportunity, structural constraints, and shifting gender norms, showing how they are sometimes empowered and sometimes exploited. She also considers Mary Kay Ash’s complex personal life and carefully constructed public image, simultaneously a maternal icon and a driven executive. In this nuanced view of Mary Kay that elevates the voices of the women who participated, we find new insights into the history of the beauty industry, female entrepreneurship, and women’s work in the United States.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Meaning of Daughter"

New from the University of Iowa Press: The Meaning of Daughter by Alexia Nader.

About the novel, from the publisher:

After immigrating from Lebanon to Haiti as a young girl, Merjan comes of age in an insular, conservative community, where it seems as though her sole escape is marriage. Striking a bargain with a young art dealer, she marries and dreams of becoming a painter, only to discover her husband’s support tethered with expectations.

In the late 1970s, Merjan’s daughter Yvonne is a young woman on the cusp of a marriage of convenience. Though resentful of her mother, Yvonne dreams of establishing a Haitian art gallery in New York with the help of a well-connected older man—but her time there ends disastrously, creating a deep rift between her and her family.

In the present day, Yvonne’s daughter Eva is a student whose art draws inspiration from her grandmother Merjan’s largely undiscovered work. When Eva becomes unexpectedly pregnant, she moves back to her childhood home in Miami to sort out her ambivalent feelings, where she finds her family upended by feuds. An intimate family saga, The Meaning of Daughter explores questions about maternal ambivalence, ambition, artmaking, and how desire resists gendered expectations.

Visit Alexia Nader's website.

See Alexia Nader's seven books that weigh the choice of motherhood.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Forces of Creolization"

New from the University of Virginia Press: Forces of Creolization: Glissant and a Decolonial Feminist Aperture by Ruthanne Soohee Kim.

About the book, from the publisher:

A groundbreaking feminist and decolonial reading of Édouard Glissant

Forces of Creolization reads Édouard Glissant’s poetic and philosophical work through a feminist, decolonial lens, foregrounding creolization as a force of resistance, relationality, and submerged becoming. Drawing on Caribbean poststructuralism, Black feminist thought, and Global South epistemologies, Ruthanne Soohee Kim unveils a method of reading Glissant that centers diffraction, opacity, and errantry―not merely as metaphors but as political and poetic strategies.

Reading Glissant alongside Luce Irigaray, Sylvia Wynter, Saidiya Hartman, and Kamau Brathwaite, Kim shows how creolization resists colonial genealogies, racial essentialism, and patriarchal closure. With her close readings of Glissant’s novels, essays, and theoretical writings, Kim theorizes the abyss, the open boat, and the Medusing shoreline as sites where historical trauma becomes creative insurgency. Here, chaos, revolt, and carnival emerge as generative forces of world-making. Forces of Creolization offers an interdisciplinary framework for rethinking kinship, identity, and futurity, and contributes a necessary feminist aperture to Caribbean thought.

Follow Ruthanne Soohee Kim on Instagram.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Call of Crowns"

New from Harper Voyager: The Call of Crowns: Book Two of Birth of a Dynasty by Chinaza Bado.

About the book, from the publisher:

It’s a game of palace intrigue, survival, and plotting as Khalil and Zikora continue to grow up under the thumb of a tyrannical family in this electrifying second book in the Birth of a Dynasty trilogy.

The kingdom of Ahkelbulin is on the brink of war. Following a shocking death, the royal court is a viper’s nest of ambition and betrayal. The princes, once united, now eye the throne with hungry gazes, forging dangerous alliances that could tear their dynasty apart.

In the heart of the palace, Zikora navigates the treacherous political currents. Far from home and concealing a powerful secret, she is drawn into a high-stakes game where one wrong move could mean her end. Elsewhere, a new commander, Khalil, finds his loyalty tested as he is caught between warring factions, forced to choose between duty and morality.

As power shifts and loyalties are questioned, unlikely alliances will form and ancient powers will awaken. In a world where blood oaths hold immense power and the line between friend and foe is blurred, the struggle for the crown will demand unimaginable sacrifices. The very future of Ahkelbulin hangs in the balance, and not everyone will survive the call of crowns...

Visit Chinaza Bado's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Virtually Latinx"

New from the University of Texas Press: Virtually Latinx: Identities in the Age of Social Media by Urayoán Noel.

About the book, from the publisher:

Examining how Latinx identity reimagines and connects communities through social media.

The very idea of Latinidad flattens identities, subsuming diverse peoples under a single racialized framework useful for corporate and political marketing. But it is not only ethnic identity that Latinidad tends to erase. In the first-ever study of Latinx social media, Urayoán Noel shows how historically marginalized Latinxs―including Black, Trans, undocumented, and disabled people―have used digital platforms to challenge hegemonic Latinidad and to build alternatives communities.

Incorporating elements of history, ethnography, and performance studies, Virtually Latinx traces the evolution of Latinx social media and blogging since the early 1990s, focusing on creative movements and vocabularies emerging and consolidating online. From Chicano/LatinoNet, Latina Lista, and Remezcla, to activists and performers on TikTok, online creators and platforms have spurred modes of art and activism that counter both Latinidad’s essentialized body politics and Big Tech’s domination of the information sphere. In dialogue with scholars of media, virtuality, and identity, Noel theorizes how hashtags like #Afrolatina, #Latinx, and #Latine have not only facilitated online exchange but also nurtured new knowledge formations surrounding Black, feminist, undocuqueer, Trans, and disability poetics and politics.

Visit Urayoán Noel's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Best Revenge"

New from MIRA: The Best Revenge by Amy Carol Reeves.

About the book, from the publisher:

Bridget Jones’s Diary meets Beach Read in this wickedly funny romantic comedy with a delicious jilted-lover-gives-just-deserts twist.

Librarian Hannah is furious when her freeloading boyfriend, Chad, steals her book idea, leaves her for his agent, and becomes wildly successful. She teams up with other women Chad has wronged (and there are a lot of them!) to get revenge—just a little comeuppance.

The fabulous news is Hannah has a new boyfriend. Unfortunately, Hannah has to hide her schemes from her hunky Scottish love, James, who claims to hate revenge plots of any kind. But it gets harder to hide her increasingly elaborate plans—even as he hides his own messy past…

And everything goes hilariously wrong.

Visit from Amy Carol Reeves's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Zoo Lady"

New from the University of Nebraska Press: The Zoo Lady: How Belle Benchley Built the San Diego Zoo by Sandra E. Bonura.

About the book, From the publisher:

The struggling San Diego Zoo received a miracle in 1927: Belle Jennings Benchley, a middle-aged, newly divorced mother, reluctantly accepted a temporary job she openly “dreaded.” Small in stature and matronly in appearance, she charmed everyone she met―but beneath that gentle demeanor lay a leader of steel.

Benchley was just as likely to be found nurturing a vulnerable infant animal or calming fighting primates as she was wrestling a rattlesnake. Through these hands-on encounters, she won the deep affection of staff and visitors alike. Despite her lack of scientific credentials, the “Zoo Lady,” as she was fondly called, relied on curiosity and common sense to help build what would become a world-class institution. Drawing insights from the animals themselves rather than the era’s rigid authorities, she pioneered conservation practices guided by her “animal instinct,” a term she coined.

Benchley authored four best-selling books that humorously illustrated that animals are not so different from people. Even as she faced relentless pressure to “stay in her place,” she met every challenge with unshakable courage. Over nearly three decades, Benchley transformed the San Diego Zoo into a global landmark, inventing groundbreaking educational programs that mentored generations of conservation leaders.

A true trailblazer, Benchley paved the way for future icons like Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, becoming the world’s first woman director of a major zoo and the first woman elected president of the national association now known as the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The Zoo Lady tells the extraordinary story of a woman whose courage and compassion forever changed zoology and reshaped the way we see―and care for―the animal world.

Visit Sandra E. Bonura's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Sugar King of California.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Are You Staying, Mandy Boyle?"

New from Blackstone: Are You Staying, Mandy Boyle? by Melanie Moore.

About the book, from the publisher:

A brilliant debut from Melanie Moore, Are You Staying, Mandy Boyle? will have you laughing, crying, and aching with the frustrations and joys of taking huge risks and falling in love big time.

Mandy Boyle is thirty-five, still living with her stepfather in his rent-stabilized apartment, and still stuck as a copy editor at The New York Times, awaiting the next big layoff. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, but ten years ago, she put her journalism career on hold and moved back to the city to care for her dying mother. Of course, she can’t be salty about that.

Then everything changes when Mandy wins a one-hundred-plus-year-old newspaper in Vermont and the apartment over it—a New Yorker’s dream! The only catch? She must run The Liberty Eagle for one year and can’t sell it to a conglomerate until that year is up. Sounds great, until Mandy discovers the Eagle is definitely old school, definitely not profitable, and that she is definitely in way over her head.

Suddenly she’s a city girl thrust into a quaint Vermont town at Christmastime, where everyone knows everything about each other. One plus? The mechanic in the next building, Greg Stewart, who keeps trying to sell her snow tires, is very easy on the eyes. Mandy would like to know more about him, but he’s plenty guarded. As she struggles to right the sinking newspaper, she bonds with people in the town, including a young woman who is losing her own mother to cancer, an emotional connection that cracks open Mandy’s own guarded heart.

Through it all, Mandy is drawn to Greg. He just may be her best friend. Maybe the love of her life. But how can two such guarded hearts ever fully fall for each other—especially when Mandy is sure she’ll be leaving by the time next Christmas rolls around?

Visit Melanie Moore's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Justice Was Her Calling"

New from the University of California Press: Justice Was Her Calling: The Fierce and Fascinating Life of Dorothy Kenyon by Jennifer L. Brinkley.

About the book, From the publisher:

Before Ruth Bader Ginsburg persuaded the Supreme Court to strike down sex discrimination, Dorothy Kenyon drew the legal blueprint.

Justice Was Her Calling is the first full-length biography of the New York judge, lawyer, and civil liberties champion whose litigation strategies helped transform the Equal Protection Clause into a powerful tool for women’s rights. Across decades, from the Progressive Era through the New Deal and into the rise of second-wave feminism, Dorothy Kenyon stood at the forefront of reform.

A longtime ACLU national board member, the only woman appointed by the League of Nations to study women’s legal status worldwide, and a US delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, Kenyon pushed equality onto the global stage long before it was widely embraced. Her career was nearly undone when Senator Joseph McCarthy named her first on his list of alleged communists, a spurious accusation that cast a lasting shadow.

Drawing on letters, speeches, and fresh archival research, Jennifer L. Brinkley restores Kenyon to her rightful status as a legal pioneer and reminds us that civil liberties endure only when defended.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Prairie Oyster"

New from the University of Iowa Press: Prairie Oyster by Sophie Robinson.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Pearl is a thirty-something filmmaker balanced precariously on the edge of an addiction-fueled breakdown. But when she is invited to interview her idol and crush, lesbian cult filmmaker Mitch Meyer, her stilted life restarts.

Buoyed and seduced by Mitch’s interest in her and her work, Pearl swaps alcoholism for romantic obsession and London for a summer in New York with Mitch. All the while she is haunted by a project she has been toying with for years: a film about Veronica Lake, a 1940s film star who drank herself into obscurity.

Follow Sophie Robinson on Instagram and Threads.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Interrogating Nazism"

New from Cambridge University Press: Interrogating Nazism: Spies, Soldiers and War Criminals in Second World War Britain by Artemis Photiadou.

About the book, from the publisher:

Behind the front lines of the Second World War raged a different kind of battle. In secret camps across Britain, thousands of enemy spies, soldiers, and war criminals were interrogated in the effort to defeat Nazi Germany and the ideology that drove it. Drawing on extensive British archival sources, Artemis Photiadou uncovers the methods, motives, and moral tensions behind this vast machinery of questioning. Within it, officers, scientists, and linguists sought to extract military intelligence, as well as to grasp why individuals fought Hitler's war and, eventually, to assess their complicity in the regime's crimes. The resulting interactions expose the complexity of those who were questioned, the assumptions of their interrogators, and the ethical contradictions of a liberal state at war. This is a vivid account of how Britain attempted to comprehend the enemy it was fighting.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Vanishing Beauties"

Coming December 1 from S&S Books for Young Readers: Vanishing Beauties by Becca Fitzpatrick.

About the book, from the publisher:

A teen investigates the history of disappearances on her island home and uncovers a dark, magical secret in this “wickedly alluring” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) romantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of the Hush, Hush saga, Becca Fitzpatrick.

A teen beauty queen has vanished from idyllic Tea Kettle Island, and all evidence points to the girl’s ex-boyfriend, Sascha Sinner. When a local vigilante group posts a hefty reward for his capture, seventeen-year-old Bunny decides to go after it—and him—hoping the prize money will help her save her grandmother’s failing farm.

Sascha, however, insists he didn’t do it. And he wants Bunny to help him prove his innocence. Bunny’s less sure, but when yet another disappearance reveals a hidden history of missing girls—a history that includes her own mother—she has to admit something is at play.

Her search for the truth takes her to the very edges of town, into its darkly magical past, and dredges up secrets the other townsfolk would rather not surface. All the while, there are devilish creatures stalking the woods, devilishly handsome young men with more than their fair share of darkness, and the very devil to pay if Bunny can’t figure out what, exactly, is taking the girls of Tea Kettle Island…

Follow Becca Fitzpatrick on Facebook and Instagram.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The UPS Man"

New from NYU Press: The UPS Man: James E. Casey and the Creation of Modern Logistics by Marc Levinson.

About the book, from the publisher:

How a little-known executive revolutionized the delivery business

James E. Casey was a most improbable revolutionary. Shy and soft-spoken, in his day he was all but unknown to the public at large. Drawing little attention to himself, he laid the foundation of an industry that is fundamental to the modern world economy―the industry that manages businesses’ long-distance supply chains and allows consumers to obtain almost anything from anywhere with just a credit card and a couple of days’ patience.

In The UPS Man, Marc Levinson provides the first-ever biography of the self-taught executive who started a bicycle messenger service in 1907 and built it into a giant of modern logistics. Casey was associated with United Parcel Service for seventy-six years, introducing innovation after innovation into the stodgiest of industries as UPS conquered the retail delivery market, then reshaped itself into the first company able to collect packages from hundreds of thousands of senders and deliver them when promised to recipients far away, and then changed itself yet again to move parcels around the globe. That more than three hundred thousand packages are delivered somewhere in the world every minute of every day is a monument to Casey’s accomplishments.

While Casey was an inspiring leader, he was also a ferocious competitor and a demanding boss. Under his leadership, UPS frequently acted in ways that it prefers not to include in its corporate mythology. Some of these actions were dubious. Others were flat-out illegal. Certainly some of these actions might not make current employees proud, yet were indispensable to UPS’s emergence as a powerful force in freight transportation. Drawing on previously neglected sources, The UPS Man offers a nuanced portrait of an entrepreneur and executive whose obsession with small parcels still affects our lives today.

Visit Marc Levinson's website.

-Marshal Zeringue

"Salt Water Blood"

New from Sarah Barley Books / Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers: Salt Water Blood by Manuia Heinrich.

About the novel, from the publisher:

An Indigenous teen who hears the sea’s prophetic thoughts must rely on the gift she’s always feared to save her brother, and her island home, in this “gripping Polynesian mystery laced with Indigenous cultural knowledge, for fans of Angeline Boulley and Ari Tison” (School Library Journal, starred review).

Eighteen-year-old Moe hears the sea’s prophetic thoughts—not just hears them…she feels them. That’s how she experienced her father’s death before he did and how she felt her mother’s relief when she abandoned Moe and her younger brother, Tao, months after.

So when the sea warns Moe that Tao will drown, she’s determined to get in fate’s way and secures them passage off their island home. But those plans are ruined when Tao’s girlfriend goes missing and Tao is found where she was last seen, with blood on his hands—and no memory of what happened.

Moe will do anything she can to clear her brother’s name, even if it means swallowing her pride and teaming up with her annoyingly clever school rival, Temanea. And even if it means relying on the sea’s prophecies. Because her dreaded gift may be the only way to save her brother—and uncover the truth behind the sickness poisoning her community.

Visit Manuia Heinrich's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Mother Tongue and English"

Coming November 30 from Cambridge University Press: Mother Tongue and English: The Politics of Language in Indian Higher Education by Christina P. Davis and Chaise LaDousa.

About the book, from the publisher:

The first of its kind, this book ethnographically examines mother tongue, a pervasive concept in South Asian social life, yet one that is rarely questioned in policy and educational institutions. In recent education policy, the Indian government advocates for mother tongue education but makes little mention of English despite its centrality at all levels of education. Through interviews with students at three Indian higher educational institutions, the authors analyze how the recent policy recommendations resonate with students' understandings and usage of language. Presenting the notion of language ideology in an engaging and accessible manner, this book highlights the changing views and attitudes toward mother tongue in light of the increased desire to learn English. It also stresses the importance of students' voices in the critique of language and education policy. It is essential reading for scholars and students of language policy, multilingual education, linguistic and cultural anthropology, and South Asian studies.

Visit Christina P. Davis's website and Chaise LaDousa's faculty webpage.

The Page 99 Test: The Struggle for a Multilingual Future.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Don't Stop Snowing"

New from Algonquin Books: Don't Stop Snowing by Gabriel Bump.

About the book, from the publisher:

A deeply personal and funny novel from the winner of the Ernest J. Gaines Award, about embracing one's own troubled self, demons and all. Perfect for readers of Percival Everett, Kevin Wilson, and Brandon Taylor's The Late Americans.

Fresh out of grad school in Michigan, on the brink of despair, directionless, David worries his parents. They don't know how to heal him. His doctor suggests that he needs to gain some perspective, and possibly a relocation would help. Maybe there is such a thing as a geographical cure?

Snowy, grey Buffalo is not the first place that comes to mind when you think of a curative place, but maybe time with his cousin Flip will help David to forget his own troubled past. But as it turns out, Flip's life and state of mind is even unsteadier than his own. Suddenly enlisted to take care of his cousin and to even fill in for him at his job, David falls into a new life and a new way of seeing the world. A world where, come to think of it, he doesn't mind the snow.

Don't Stop Snowing is a fresh and honest―and funny―story of the struggles we all face as we realize that we don't just inherit eye, hair, and skin color, but also the complicated psyches of our parents.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Soviet Trickster"

New from Cornell University Press: The Soviet Trickster: Cynicism and Its Subversions by Mark Lipovetsky.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Soviet Trickster explores narratives in Soviet and post-Soviet culture featuring rogues, swindlers, and improbable adventurers who enjoyed widespread popularity across Russia. These figures simultaneously mocked and justified the pervasive culture of Soviet cynicism, facilitating subversive counter-narratives that challenged the power and incompetence of the state. Mark Lipovetsky thoroughly analyzes the most remarkable and popular Soviet tricksters in literature, film, visual art, and performance, discussing different facets of the trickster: their nihilistic revolutionary messianism, problematic ethics, role within the Soviet empire, and connections to underground culture and gender politics.

Through the combination of seemingly incompatible features thanks to its ambivalent and transgressive nature, the trickster becomes a parody and deconstruction of the Soviet "messiah"―the new Soviet man envisioned by communist propaganda. The Soviet Trickster reveals how after the collapse of the USSR, the trickster loses its critical potential and aligns with authoritarian power, serving as its populist avatar. Nonetheless, tricksters remain inexhaustible: they constantly reinvent themselves to sabotage new forms of political cynicism and authoritarianism.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Doomscroller's Companion"

New from the University of Wisconsin Press: The Doomscroller's Companion by Wendy Wimmer.

About the book, from the publisher:

Jane, aka @erejane, a thirtysomething professional web influencer, lives in her aunt’s spare bedroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Her only confidant is Brian, a potter who is thrilled that the internet allows him to connect without having to leave his nearby home and studio. With limited options and a dwindling bank account, Jane lands a high-paying gig that requires her to travel to a wildlife refuge on a remote island near San Francisco to publicize a marine biologist’s shark study.

However, when a global pandemic strikes with astonishing speed, the scientists surrounding Jane succumb one by one; meanwhile, Brian grapples with neighbors living out their apocalyptic movie fantasies. When real-world events force them to set aside their online personas, Jane and Brian are forced to decide what—or whom—they care for the most.

Told through traditional narrative and imagined social media posts—which often appear, as they do in life, out of chronological order—The Doomscroller’s Companion is as engaging as it is unexpected.

Visit Wendy Wimmer's website.

-Marshal Zeringue

"The Internet Is Real Life"

New from University of Wisconsin Press: The Internet Is Real Life: Performing Folklore Online and Off by Anthony Bak Buccitelli.

About the book, from the publisher:

We often speak of a divide between online and offline cultures, despite growing recognition that the two are intertwined. Here, folklorist Anthony Bak Buccitelli challenges the idea of any divide at all in contemporary American culture. He argues that digital communications and behaviors are already deeply embedded in everyday expressive life and therefore are also already implicated in a variety of ways in the embodied performance and transmission of folklore. In other words, in contemporary American society, the internet truly is “real life.”

By treating the digital interface as a site at which embodied performance can take shape rather than just a point of contact with the online, Buccitelli argues for a critical renewal of core folkloristic concepts to meet the challenges of understanding modern networked life. The result is a folklore book for the current age.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Glacier's Guide to Dying"

New from Algonquin Books: A Glacier's Guide to Dying: A Novel by Michelle Porter.

About the book, from the publisher:

A young Métis man searching for his missing father finds himself arguing with a dying glacier in this compelling and hopeful novel about the burdens and blessings of inheritance, from the award-winning author of A Grandmother Begins the Story.

Robbie has spent most of life wondering about his real father, Mike, who long since left their family due to his struggles with visions and mistrust of the modern world. Robbie can't forget how much he felt connected to him from his few visits, and not just because they share two differently colored eyes. But now, as he rescues his mother from encroaching wildfires, he's determined to also find his father. Robbie takes off to find answers, and when his uncle confesses that he last dropped Mike off at a glacier, he and his uncle head climb up the mountain of ice to see if Mike might still be there, and whether he's still alive.

On the slopes of a huge glacier, Robbie, starts hearing the ancient voice of the glacier itself giving him guidance. Has he accessed a deep connection to the land, or is he succumbing to the same illness that had wreaked havoc on his father's life?

Michelle Porter brings her profoundly moving sensibility and disarmingly funny voice to a powerful contemporary story of identity and belonging, loss and healing, within families and with the immortal land itself.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Data Centre Entanglements"

New from Oxford University Press: Data Centre Entanglements: Geopolitics, Vulnerabilities, Sustainability, Activisms by Pradip Ninan Thomas.

About the book, from the publisher:

Data centres are involved in the sorting, sifting, storage, aggregation, and monetization of transactional data critical to data capitalism. Tucked away in high-rise buildings or peri-urban areas, data centres are largely invisible and fundamentally resource-intensive, and deploy extractive, energy-intensive technologies. In the context of artificial intelligence, data centre energy consumption has skyrocketed. Data Centre Entanglements addresses external challenges, specifically, contemporary geopolitical struggles between China and the USA to become the world's data hegemon and supply chain issues related to critical minerals and semiconductors, as well as internal issues such as data centre sustainability, which is particularly acute in countries facing significant water and power stresses. Given their essential infrastructure status in many countries, data centres are immune to public scrutiny, leading to transparency and accountability issues. The special relationship that data centres--in particular, hyperscale data centres owned by Big Tech--have with the State is reflected in the migration of public data to privately-owned data centres. Thomas focuses on this relationship in the context of data localization, data sovereignty, risk, the politics of greening and renewable energy, and incentives such as access to subsidized land, tax breaks, and unrestricted labour supply. The book concludes with a discussion on the democratization of data centres and makes a case for diversity in data centre ownership, including community-based ownership.

The Page 99 Test: Empire and Post-Empire Telecommunications in India.

--Marshal Zeringue